A Language Older Than Words

A Language Older Than course Response Paper In the novel A Language Older Than Words, Derrick Jensen covers many different themes in the many chapters that he has divided his book into. The ii chapters that real arouseed me were Breaking Out and Economics. The dickens themes that Jensen discusses is the kind with the self and other as soundly as the monetary symbol in our inn respectively. I was satisfactory to relate to both of these effects in different ways. In the chapter Breaking Out Jensen focuses on the image of the self and the relativeship we have with apiece other.Jensen writes more or less how we ar press to our give preoccupancy camping site in our society. It is not an actual parsimony camp yet it is a absorption camp in our way of thinking and constructing the image of ourselves and our relationship as human beings. In a parsimoniousness camp, it is better (in terms of maintaining physical life weird life is an entirely different question) to be the sea wolf than the killed, better to be a collaborator than a resister, a guard than a collaborator, a supervisor than a guard, and better still to be the party boss (125). He states that having everyone act in his or her birth best interest may not be the best interest for society in general. divide of the reason weve been able to convince ourselves that by exploiting others were acting in our own best interest is that weve accepted a severely constricted com workforcet of self (125). Jensen speaks about how the image of our self is not the image that we should accept. We must bomb out of that concentration camp that society has constructed and create our own gain of what type of individual we want to be without the jockstrap of society or the fear of society resolve ones self.The quote that Jensen wrote about the concentration camp rightfully strokes a chord in my head. My own summary of this is that we ar stuck as a society by always wanting to be the best and not l ooking out for others. The mentality of both men for themselves has spread in our society. I was thinking we argon always competing in life. Whether it is for a job or a spot in a class, we atomic number 18 always competing. This competition creates this mentality that it is better to be the killer than the killed.The constricted definition of the self that Jensen speaks about relates to the workbook from class. When it speaks about sexuality and how there isnt effective male or female when there are many different colors of the rainbow. As a society we shouldnt have to be constricted to what they want us to identify with. We need to break out of our concentration camp and create our own identity without the help of society judging us. In the chapter Economics, Jensen writes about the fact that property rules all.He speaks about how everything in life turns into a gold exchange. Id deal three books, two packages of chicken McNuggets, and a blow to go, please. That which it is possible to reduce to a good and sell, is. That which cant, is either (by definition) de treasured, ignored, or simply sunk (139). Jensen is trying to show the reader that everything has a relation to notes. We need cash in order to do the many things in life such as travel yet there are things that we codt need money for. Heres the problem in this tidy populace of economical categories, theres no room for have sex, joy, mystery, for the sometimes confused and confusing, sometimes clear and clarifying, sometimes beautiful, sometimes magical suction of body on body, beat on skin soulfulness on soul (139). How I see this quote is that Jensen is saying we are so consumed in getting more money that we dont have time for the things that really matter in our life like love and happiness. I can see where Jensen is coming from. I think our society is stuck into thinking that money is a priority.I think it is important because we do need money to survive yet we shouldnt let money ru n our lives. The first quote shows how we see money as a constraint to happiness, love, and mystery. This reminds me of the discussion that we had in class on how we would like to travel the world when we graduate yet we are not able to because of the constraint of money and getting left arse in this rat race. We have all these obligations one after another that we are not able to pursue the things we really want to.Jensen brings a lot of good questions to mind while class period his novel. He is not afraid to say what he believes is happening to our society even though it seems like our society is corrupt. His thought on relationships opens up my windowpane to knowing how easily people can savvy each other in the back in order to be the killer not the killed. His topic of money in our society shows how we are sincerely materialistic. We must give everything a dollar economic value and if it doesnt have a dollar value then it is not valued. How much is happiness?