The Green Ghost by Weidner Chad;

Author:Weidner, Chad;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press

We will endeavor to halt the Industrial Revolution before it is too late, to regulate populations at a reasonable point . . . to decentralize, to conserve resources. The Industrial Revolution is primarily a virus revolution, dedicated to controlled proliferation of identical objects and persons. (98)

Certainly, the attempt “to halt the Industrial Revolution before it is too late” (98) parallels the primary goal of the Deep Green Resistance movement. Significant is that the forms of resistance exhibited in Dead Roads are more organized than the brazen rebellion detailed in Cities. The objective of the Johnson Family is world revolution against centralized government, organized religion, and industrial institutions intent on controlling the earth and its natural resources. The ecological significance of the presence of the Johnson Family in the narrative lies in the awareness of the role that forms of Deep Green Resistance can play in the violent overthrow of industrial culture. Also significant are the ways in which communes can assist in generating social conditions that are more conducive to issues of sustainability and population control than urban existence. While Dead Roads does not fully deal with lasting questions of social organization, it certainly poses the question and forces us to think about alternative paths to the future. But there are problems with Kim Carsons’ plan for global insurrection.

The attempted takeover of the US government and the industrial infrastructure would ultimately be ineffective and incredibly damaging. War against the technological, economic, and military capacities of the American government and the most powerful corporations, even in the context of the nineteenth century, is an utterly unachievable goal. This issue is relevant not only to Dead Roads but also to the beliefs of the Deep Green Resistance movement. More important, the scale of carnage that would be involved in the rebellion against existing society is so great as to make the suggestion moot. The eco-guerrilla war against civilization proposed in Dead Roads is therefore futile. Even if the insurgency chronicled in the book were even moderately successful, the social upheaval caused by the guerrilla campaign would negatively affect the most vulnerable members of human society and raises serious questions of environmental justice. Therefore, the suggestion that true freedom can be found in casting off civilization for simple commune life is not what it first appears to be. Since the leader of the guerrilla insurgency is killed in the first pages of the book, it can be said that here the eco-insurgency has failed and may even be a sardonic play on the very idea of revolution. While Cities stresses problems of our own making, Dead Roads too highlights the problems of living in the modern world.

Another problem in the Dead Roads narrative involves a contradiction within the movement. In Cities, it is suggested that as long as one follows the code of the Articles, one can lead a life of liberty and true freedom. An important consideration when thinking about the communes as they exist in Dead Roads is, just how free are they? Kim Carsons is clearly the self-appointed leader of the movement.

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