The Myth of Human Supremacy

by Derrick Jensen

In this impassioned polemic, radical environmental philosopher Derrick Jensen debunks the near-universal belief in a hierarchy of nature and the superiority of humans. Vast and underappreciated complexities of nonhuman life are explored in detail—from the cultures of pigs and prairie dogs, to the creative use of tools by elephants and fish, to the acumen of caterpillars and fungi. The paralysis of the scientific establishment on moral and ethical issues is confronted and a radical new framework for assessing the intelligence and sentience of nonhuman life is put forth. Jensen attacks mainstream environmental journalism, which too often limits discussions to how ecological changes affect humans or the economy—with little or no regard for nonhuman life. With his signature compassionate logic, he argues that when we separate ourselves from the rest of nature, we in fact orient ourselves against nature, taking an unjust and, in the long run, impossible position.Jensen expresses profound disdain for the human industrial complex and its ecological excesses, contending that it is based on the systematic exploitation of the earth. Page by page, Jensen, who has been called the philosopher-poet of the environmental movement, demonstrates his deep appreciation of the natural world in all its intimacy, and sounds an urgent call for its liberation from human domination.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Environment, Sociology, Psychology, Nature, Ecology

305 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 12, 2016

About the author

Derrick Jensen is an American author and environmental activist living in Crescent City, California. He has published several books questioning and critiquing contemporary society and its values, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame. He holds a B.S. in Mineral Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University. He has also taught creative writing at Pelican Bay State Prison and Eastern Washington University.

Reviews

[Richard Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

When an unlucky person has been swept away by the brainwashing of a wacko cult, concerned friends or family members sometimes seek the assistance of a skilled deprogrammer to exorcize the demons. It’s a painful process. The scrambled soul is blasted with a fire-hose of strong rational arguments, hour after hour, hammering away at the many contradictions in the cult’s beliefs. Ideally, the shining power of truth blasts away the illusions, and opens the door to healing.

I was reminded of this while reading Derrick Jensen’s book, The Myth of Human Supremacy. In his story, the wacko cult consists of human supremacists, zombies who have been indoctrinated to believe that humans are the miraculous conclusion of the long evolutionary journey. Humans are the one and only species that is sentient, self-aware, intelligent, and able to make tools and communicate.

The cult of human supremacy has grown rapidly, and now includes a large portion of humankind. The zombie mobs are mindlessly destroying the living planet that everything depends on for survival. Jensen puts a spotlight on the demon: “Unquestioned beliefs are the real authorities of any culture.” We are bombarded with supremacist ideas from early childhood. They define our understanding of normality, and encourage us to live like there’s no tomorrow. Only humans matter, a living planet does not.

By definition, human supremacy is about hierarchy: the white male God, white kings, white men, white women, minorities, mammals, birds, plants, insects, bacteria, etc. Most of the community of life is inferior to you, resources for you to exploit or destroy. The supremacist worldview has no concern for ecological health. Civilization is a space station where all of our needs are magically met.

Jensen devotes many pages to revealing the cult’s creepy narcissism. Research is discovering that plants and nonhuman animals are sentient, self-aware, intelligent, and able to make tools and communicate. Slime mold can learn and remember, displaying more intelligence than a number of world leaders. Plants do react when damaged, disproving the cult’s belief that organisms without brains can feel no pain. The cult believes that communication means making funny noises with human lips, but trees communicate using chemicals.

Humans spray neurotoxins on their food, while boasting that we are the only ones who possess intelligence. “Intelligence” is a slippery word. From the supremacist perspective, it’s intelligent to create an industrial society that blindsides the planet’s climate. Thanks to this intelligence, 98% of old growth forests are gone, 99% of prairies, 99% of wetlands, 90% of large oceanic fish. “When others besides human supremacists look at us, they see the worst thing that has ever happened to this planet,” says Jensen. “If animals could conceive of the devil, his image would be man’s.”

For thousands of years, agriculture has had a well-documented history of transforming healthy ecosystems into wastelands via deforestation, soil mining, wetland destruction, and water mining — a process that still continues. Agriculture can never be sustainable. “Plows are probably the single most destructive human invention ever, and agriculture was the single biggest — and least intelligent — mistake any creature has ever made.” Humankind is in extreme overshoot right now, as the population skyrocket keeps zooming upward.

There are two flavors of technology: authoritarian and democratic. Authoritarian technology is produced by complex, hierarchical civilizations. This technology tends to control the society. We must have electricity, electronics, sequestered carbon, and transportation devices to participate in modernity. Consumers are hardcore electricity addicts. Jensen screams! Lack of imagination is a primary cause of the Earth Crisis. We can’t imagine living without electricity, but we can imagine a world without rhinos or tigers. Oy!

It takes imagination to challenge the unquestioned beliefs that inspire insane behavior. Jensen’s doctor says that there can be no cure without a proper diagnosis. Unquestioned beliefs often make an accurate diagnosis impossible. They tell us that renewable energy, nuclear power, and geoengineering are brilliant solutions. So, every unquestioned belief must be mercilessly questioned, and the dodgy ones sent to the shredder.

Democratic technology, on the other hand, is stuff that anyone can make, like a basket or bow and arrow. Chimps use sticks to fish for yummy termites. Vultures throw stones to crack ostrich eggs. This is sustainable. It doesn’t rock the boat. But authoritarian technology is big juju. Too often, even green activists have vivid fantasies of a sustainable future, whilst keeping many of the unsustainable goodies of civilization. The line between naughty and nice can be blurry.

Lately, I’ve been reading about the Aztecs. In 1492, Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) was one of the biggest cities in the world, with a population of about 200,000, five times larger than London. They had no horses, oxen, plows, or metals. The fields were tilled with digging sticks, and fertilized with human poop. It was a highly sophisticated and authoritarian Stone Age civilization famous for cutting the beating hearts out of thousands of prisoners at a time.

Words can be slippery. Throughout the book, Jensen frequently uses “stupid” when discussing the quirks of civilized humans. Stupid means unintelligent, having a limited ability to learn and understand, an incurable handicap. Maybe "ignorant" would have been more precise. It means a lack of knowledge — a somewhat curable shortcoming. Methinks that ignorance plays a major role in the bad choices we make. In many ways our education system remains lost in a dream world of yesteryear.

Anyway, Jensen tackles and paddles many unquestioned beliefs. We all suffer from them, to some degree, he says. It’s hard not to, living in this culture. Questioning is a powerful medicine that should be used daily. When it comes to innovation, we are terribly clever. At the same time, we are tropical primates, engaged in a phenomenally ignorant adventure in violating as many of the laws of nature as humanly possible, for no good reason.

The myth of human supremacy asserts that we are rational, moral, and ethical. Wild animals have no interest in reason, morals, or ethics because they have no need for them. They live sustainably by simply remaining in balance with the community of life. They have no need for powerful 20-20 foresight, because they stay on a stable time-proven path. Supremacists are ravaging Earth, but they look awesome in their smiling selfies.

Jensen's book reminds me of a defibrillator, the gizmo used when someone's heart stops beating. Its two paddles are placed on the chest, and then a powerful electric shock is blasted into the victim, in an effort to restart the heart. He doubts that his book will convince many of the living dead supremacists to question their beliefs. Its main purpose is to encourage the pilgrims who understand that civilization is killing the planet. We need to save as many species as we can.

The book is also something like a hearing aid. It heightens readers’ ability to hear the supremacist voices that barrage us every day. It’s helpful to better recognize the tireless jabber from the lunatic asylum. And so, Jensen waves and rides off into the sunset. “The more I learn about the real world, the more wonderful I think it is, and the more honored I am to be here.”

[Kevin Hester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derrick challenges his readers like no other author can. His breadth and depth of understanding of the natural world is amazing. I'm in debt to D.J. like I am to no other author.
I had to read a few pages, perhaps a chapter and often go back to clarify my understanding. Truly groundbreaking.

[Jim Kidd · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have ever wondered why philosophers say things like, "It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question." Well, this book fires off reality changing questions like a machine gun, and provides a new perspective on questioning everything.

Really enjoyed the book, I would say this is a must read.

[Randall Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Civilization Game of overshoot and conquest, is “running the entire earth”, the game rules are: one player game, “take from everyone else and avoid the consequences”, repeat as needed. “Subtract Life and Add Toxins Forever” is this culture’s bumper sticker. “It takes world-class stupidity to foul an entire planet.” Jared Diamond wrote that agriculture was “the worst mistake in the history of the human race. With Agriculture came gross social and sexual inequality and the ecological destruction and militarism that curse our existence.” Agriculture causes erosion. It destroys non-human habitat more than any other human activity. Learn to see everywhere the inherent destructiveness of agriculture. Capitalism dies if production doesn’t increase 2 to 3% per year by converting the living into the dead. Re: extinction: When this insane culture sees the wall, it keeps its foot firmly on the gas, instead of applying the brakes in order to survive.

Civilization tells us, “the real tragedy of the murder of the planet is that if the planet is dead, it will no longer support our way of life.” This is a culture that pours molten aluminum down anthills to study ant tunnels, and pushes pins through living insects to say, “Look what I’ve found!” This is a culture of human supremacism and it is killing the planet. Read the definition of sociopathy. What is the connection between sociopathy and human supremacism? “Nobody matters except you. Nobody deserves respect. This is a description of human supremacism”. Francis Bacon explained it well when he wrote, “I am come in very truth leading you to Nature with all her children to bind her to your service and make her your slave.” Scientists long argued against nonhuman sentience; our culture depends on you believing it. Our culture hardens you to see pain and death as necessary. Our inner child knows better, it does not see nature held on the other side of a fence, as separate from us. As Picasso said, “All children are born artists, it’s just beaten out of them.” All children are also born nature lovers, it’s just…

Study the Milgram experiment again. 60% of the test subjects obeyed authority figures and “tortured” others on command. The DNC should hire directly from that 60% to better torture us progressives about their corporate warmonger du jour. Around this world this culture enjoys killing empathy for profit. Whalers hurt one whale, the others come to help, and all are killed. Carolina parakeets went extinct when hunters discovered when you shot one others would come to help. Extinct. The famous Collateral Murder video shows empathic people in a van coming to help wound photographers in Iraq and then US forces w/o confirming weapons or danger, kills their empathy by killing them. The Nature Conservancy’s chief scientist believes in conservation that benefits the greatest number of people. What? It’s insane “believing that you know better than the real world what is good for the real world.”

If you want grants working with animals and plants, get ready to torture them. Few grants go to those showing how plants communicate or learn. People don’t talk about human superiority without coming back to technology. Rare is the technology that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels. A temporary increase in human potential caused by a finite amount of fossil fuels that will soon disappear when the cheap stuff is gone. Derrick wants the culture to stop murdering the planet. It’s happening first because of the Culture of Human Supremacy. Without respect for the planet and for nature one is a full-blooded wetiko, a pawn, welcome to the walking dead. Underlying assumption: “The only true functionality is industrial functionality”. “This is what happens when you allocate 100 percent of a river to ‘beneficial uses’: there is no water left for the real world.” Use your magic bullshit decoder ring: Managing forests, oceans, wildlife, and the entire planet means killing forests, oceans, wildlife, and the entire planet. My heart sank when I read Derrick recount a $2.6 million 2009 study at NYU torturing rats in unspeakable ways. Getting ahead through sadist acts and by denying choices to others; it’s easy when you have no respect for the victim and for nature. Human supremacists may regret the planet being murdered to the point that extinction could happen this century, but not enough to begin to recognize their own involvement and change course. More people died in the Civil War from dysentery than by bullets. See Dawkin’s “The Selfish Gene” book as popular first for it being “libertarianism and capitalism projected onto the natural world.” Pesticides – Whose idea was it to put such neurotoxins on our food? Let alone “bathing the world in neurotoxins?” We’ve invented all this stuff, but forgot we once invented ways to live sustainably. If it doesn’t help your land base, it won’t be part of the solution.

Before civilization, common sense ruled. You picked your food when ready to eat it and meat stayed “freshest in the river” until you were ready. Then came agriculture and putting food under lock and key so hunter-gatherers would work for you. This required hierarchy: you peons must now work for us but don’t feel bad, remember, you can treat nature just as badly as we treat you. Christianity and Western Civilization have long relied on the pecking order with nature at the bottom getting only whatever is left over. The only way to avoid extinction is to reverse the movie, and say, see, there, when we separated ourselves from nature, to avoid extinction, we have to go back before that separation in our collective minds and start remembering our lost tribal selves. Most of the pet owners I know talk freely to their pets, and interpret their “responses”, so why does the dominant culture believe animals and plants don’t feel? So, we collectively and individually won’t feel the moral injury of our constant collaboration with the wetiko death culture? Of valuing a tree or pig only by its death? Hurry up and die so I can make some money. Stop squirming or I’ll miss my quota.

Derrick tells stories of lizards and frogs thought to be extinct which were captured and pickled by scientists - It’s a culture of human supremacy.

Distinguish between Lewis Mumford’s Authoritarian and Democratic Technics: If anyone can do a technic (like passive solar) then it is a Democratic technic - plows and solar photovoltaics are Authoritarian technic. A plow represses one group of living organisms to favor another group of living organisms. “Agriculture is biotic cleansing”. “You clear every living thing off it and then plant it to human use.” In 1800, three quarters of people in agricultural societies did grunt work – that was replaced by fossil fuels. Now you can park your ass on a tractor all day and control every aspect of nature – but there’s a price to pay - I read a study saying every year more than one American dies having sex with his tractor. Evidently not all of today’s farmers can resist the allure of a John Deere 1520 model 145 tractor’s hydraulic front scoop. According to the Journal of Forensic Sciences, it’s called Autoerotic Deaths Involving the Use of Machinery”. And I’ll bet an early Coroner report somewhere says, “Death by Authoritarian Technic, signed, Lewis Mumford”.

The first walls in the first cities didn’t surround cities but the grain itself, in order to keep it from the indigenous, a.k.a. the barbarian hordes. Through history you will see this: “Technology helps the (human) supremacist.” All done to “facilitate the exploitation of others.” “If you control someone’s food, you control their lives, which means you control their labor.” It has been said that passenger pigeons often roosted in chestnut trees and when they were rendered extinct the chestnut trees were devastated by “changing soil composition”. Derrick’s books are filled with fun facts like how grey squirrels need twenty pounds of nuts to make it through winter. Apparently, that comes to 2,300 nuts each squirrel would have to store each year. A very impressive figure. Given the speed at which Scrat from Ice Age gets one acorn, that’s a lot of work. At least, Rocket “Rocky” J. Squirrel could fly to decrease his collection time. Picture 4,000 Nagasaki bombs going off – that’s the same amount of energy used each year in Iowa agriculture. When anesthetics were finally invented in 1846, indigenous cultures long had coca, poppy, and marijuana. How excited would a slave have been to learn of the invention of the cotton gin? Authoritarian technics lead to centralized power. No peace for the people or justice for the victims, in a culture of human supremacy since the plow. Armies were needed to protect grain, and everything taken from the earth by force. Before the plow you had a world of available food but it wasn’t under control. You get tons of praise and reward if you create a new Authoritarian technic because it increases control. But as Derrick says, “Authoritarian technics are lethal constructs.” Derrick mentions Ernst Mayr and Noam Chomsky calling human intelligence a “lethal mutation”. The average species lasts 100,000 years, which apparently is the age of our species. Mmm…

Two billion humans live unattached to fossil fuels and consumerism and they are surviving. It is Civilization which has banished both nature and the real world and which now will have to walk backwards to make the paradigm shift back to Tribalism. A Hawaiian told Derrick, they were “biding” their time waiting to go back to the old ways. Try to picture with Jetsons without power. Elroy will have to pick up his own socks after Rosie goes limp. And good luck getting down from those glass homes high on stands, back down to the real world without any stairs. Daughter Judy sees her first stream, of industrial sewage beneath her sky house. Remember when Atlantic Magazine praised the gun because it “outsourced killing to a machine”? Once you outsource killing to machines, you can have today’s bipartisan warfare easily because everyone’s hands are clean. “This culture is enslaved to authoritarian technics.” Timber giveaways cost the US government over one billion dollars. Destructive activities get “priority in receiving handouts”. A Forest Service Ranger talks of keeping the mills alive, but not of keeping nature alive. Controlling nature. “Human supremacism is the biggest problem facing the world today.”

The problem with the word Anthropocene is that it isn’t mankind that’s making the planet unlivable, it is Civilization. 6,000 years of Civilization destroying thousands of sustainable tribal cultures – each one, as Noam says, the threat of a good example. If we are all going down together, Derrick wants this to be known as “The Sociopocene”, The Age of the Sociopath. The joys of propaganda; After Tamerlane the Great killed 17,000,000 people, he said he had never been the aggressor. The Nazis didn’t say they were committing genocide, they said they were purifying the human race. Nationally, every war you plead honor, revenge or safety and the people buy into it through ignoring their inner tribal selves.

Ask yourself, how would I live here if we must live here for 500 years. If you commit to that timeframe you will make entirely different decisions, all based on nourishing your land base. Derrick watched Iraq video with tanks and said to himself, this is where cedars were so thick that sunlight never touched the ground. Derrick made the historical war on nature connection that the rest of us all must make. “if animals could conceive of the devil, its image would be man’s.” Dominion = the planet being murdered in the name of God. “Unquestioned beliefs are the real authorities of any culture.” “A self-perceived superiority”. If you start questioning this dominant culture you will make Derrick, and the plants and animals, very happy to have one more tribal soldier ready to return to the embrace of the natural world to defend it together. Every Derrick book is a gem, written from the deepest feeling, every book of his, I feel honored to read.

[Jonathan Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad I'm not alone in this. Thanks for putting my thoughts and fears into very nicely formed words, Derrick Jensen. Now to get the rest of the world to read and act on them...

[David Buccola · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is an honest intensity to Derrick Jensen's writing that you'll either love or loathe. I find myself in the love category. "The Myth of Human Supremacy" may be my favorite book of the year. Jensen provides a myriad of examples of non-human intelligence from flatworms, trees, and even prairie dogs. He astutely points out the very self-serving limitations of todays mechanistic science that conveniently holds industrial humans up as the pinnacle of evolution.

Jensens spends plenty of time railing against the destructive tendencies of human supremacists, but I think what I enjoyed most was reading about the amazing ways in which other non-human animals and plants communicate, plan, and love each other. As someone who loves nature, this information has made a profound impact on my appreciation for the world around me. One example that really stands out is the ways in which mycelium coordinate the transfer of nutrients from trees of one species to others who need it. A vast network...no, a vast community of living beings caring for one another; making sure that each has what it needs to survive. It's the stories of Mother Trees taking care of their communities right up to their very death.

As Jensen writes, "Unquestioned beliefs are the real authorities of any culture." This book examines many of those unquestioned beliefs and the results of those beliefs on our planet. If you are looking for a book that is going to challenge you and really make you think, this is a great book. I highly recommend it.

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jensen is not a scientist nor a philosopher but tries to be both. Really wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t get behind the writing style. It was too much like he was just talking out loud (maybe it’s snobby I want other than that, because of this it was an easy read and very accessible), and it felt like a book that should have been an essay. Some of his analogies were elongated to ridiculous lengths to prove his point. We get it.

However, I did learn a lot of interesting things and this book did change my perspective a lot. Didn’t know that mice sing to their children, songbirds have to be taught their songs, some mushrooms redistribute nutrients to maintain biodiversity in their ecosystem (the original communists!), fish wait in lines to get their gills cleaned, etc. Even plants are more sentient and intelligent than we give them credit for, some plants making decisions on where to grow based on expected future return of food resources rather than present conditions. Most of the book was focused on examples like this, a resource full of interesting studies summarized.

This book primarily just made me realize I want to read more works by Indigenous peoples. Jensen is aware he is a white guy explaining something Native peoples have known for years but that doesn’t prevent him from being one.

[Jeremy Citazen Serwer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great and Terrible reading as is often the case with Derrick Jensen, he has a real ability to give you the straight dope which causes disgust, anger and hopefully action. This book is a personal favorite as it's very much in line with my own thinking but was able to delve into the philosophical aspects of Human supremacy in a way that gives the meaning much further depth.
I hope this book is a breakthrough to a much larger audience as we're now under a Trump regime and we need this message to inspire as many activists as will get the hard and necessary work done. Please read and then pass the book along to those you think could benefit most from the message. This book is meant to create action beyond online petitions and peaceful protest. Let us act now!

[Rob Seimetz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an instant classic and a must read. It perfectly demonstrates the biggest reason we are killing the planet.

[Javell Pereka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just read it ... it will widen your perspective and you'll learn a few things that you wouldn't otherwise be exposed to. Worth reading a couple times as well which I will do

[Arzoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derrick Jensen's passion is truly inspiring as he opens up the readers' eyes to the atrocities we all take part in on our day-to-day basis. This is a book, I feel, everyone must absolutely read if we want to live on our beautiful planet any longer.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jensen is a writer I’ve long been intrigued by and wanted to read, but this is the first time I’ve actually done so. He’s a powerful writer, making a powerful argument for the planet, as a multitude of abundant, intelligent, creative Life, which Humans do not understand except in extremely imperialistic terms. Human beings insist that we are the highest life form, believe that we have the wisdom and the right to shape and use all the earth and all other life forms to our benefit [our self-perceived benefit, since much of what we imagine to be beneficial to ourselves is in fact fundamentally life-destroying even to our own lives (Facebook, for instance, as a supposed community-creator that is replacing actual personal interaction), not to mention the extreme impoverishment to our own lives from the simple fact of reduced diversity of life on the planet (sad in itself, and more tragic still because driven by human sense of lack and separation, and therefore by fear and hatred (see Donald Trump)), and when I say we are impoverished by the reduction of diversity of life on the planet, I don’t mean simply because we’ve lost a potential miracle medicine, but more fundamentally, as all life is connected, one intertwined vast and beautiful manifestation of the One Spirit, when I hurt another, I am literally harming myself] and from this Myth of Human Superiority, we devalue all other life forms, insisting that any being who does not display human modes of being and thinking must not be intelligent, and generally even, except for animals, must not even perceive pain, or have a basic life instinct, so it doesn’t matter what we do to these others, which have basically been put on earth by a great man in the sky, whom we call God, for us to use and abuse as we please. Jensen effectively demonstrates how this argument about Human superiority over the rest of the earth is no different from every other hierarchy human beings have asserted, and continue to assert – white humans superior to other races (and of course race itself, and especially the distinction between races, is a human-imagined distinction that is also simply not true), men superior to women, etc. etc. ad nauseam. Really, it’s all the sense of separation. Jensen argues for Community as the fundamental nature of Life, and the highest pursuit. He shines a powerful, well-argued light on this culture, and our myths. He is also, understandably, very angry about our culture, our unquestioned beliefs, and this anger is the one element that weakens his case. For I don’t believe anger drives change; I believe only Love, and the understanding that All is One underneath, that All is Connected, only this drives Change that moves toward more connection, more livingness, more love, more beauty, more joy.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is 85% amazing. The first chapter is amazing in the sense you get to see a grown, sentient adult engage in philosophical and moral contortion to avoid the implications of his lifestyle. In it, he claims that there can be no moral hierarchy - that bacteria, humans, trees, viruses, etc. should all be given the same ethical consideration. Obviously Jensen's writing contradicts this disingenuous stance. Why would you spend time documenting ethnic/racial atrocities when you could write an entire book against washing your hands? The rest of the book is just a complete gem-coated, magical dagger that can be plunged into the heart of our culture's pathological worldview.

The book, in short, says that humans in our culture are not the top of the biological hierarchy - by basically any standards. He gives countless examples of the freaking AMAZING stuff non-human animals, plants, and other species can do. Even if you weren't interested in critiquing our culture's disgusting (and ironic and racist and etc) human chauvinism, the facts in this book are just staggering: like how long do lobsters live? Where can tardigraves live? That mushroom networks in forests can serve literally the same function as neural networks?!?!

The book is a little repetitive and I would almost assume he was pulling a straw-man against human chauvinism if I didn't personally see the idiocy he's railing against in places they shouldn't be: like scientific articles saying that the human brain is the most magnificent thing in the universe. Gross. Scientists, who have at least PhDs, shouldn't be making asinine statements like that. Our cultural stupidity and bias permeates every aspect of our being and this book helps us diagnose the problem.

I would rank this as among Jensen's most important books (with Endgame as the pinnacle). It would be flawless if it wasn't for the shameful and embarrassing first chapter. Overall I highly recommend it.

[Brian Beatty · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 criticisms and 2 bits of praise:
1) The conversational style of the writing here just irked me. I’m usually ok with it, but this topic is near and dear to me and I honestly was hoping for a clear argument. This style doesn’t come off as clear, but more like a discussion I’d have with an aggressive vegan in a coffee shop.
2) Even though I get many of the arguments here and can be open to plant consciousness and such, despite very poor evidence in support of it, the one bit of information he seems to fail to be aware of in the argument against vegans and vegetarians is that the animals one is eating instead of eating plants are eating even more plants to provide the same amount of nutrition via meat. I did this math when I was 12 and became a vegetarian, why is the author unable to figure this out? If you want to kill the fewest plants AND animals, don’t eat meat.

1) I especially liked the arguments about plant sentience and community ecology. I think that more scientists are coming around to acknowledging community ecology and communication within them, and he opens the door to push people to consider it.
2) The authors understanding of the scientific method, epistemology, and logic is really weak and he seems to confuse open mindedness with being able to make claims about supported scientific ideas. I just can’t stand reading that.

So, this book was filled with arguments that I partially agree with despite many flaws of reason and a writing style that made me squirm. I would recommend this to anyone not married to rational thought, as they will be driven to some good ideas. I do not recommend it if you’ll be turned off by rants from someone disillusioned by science because of his own ignorance and hubris.

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Derrick Jensen has a signature style for questioning assumptions and he uses it here to great effect, to dig deep into the ways we assume humans are superior, and articulate the resulting benefits we allocate to ourselves at the expense of the rest of life on the planet.

His simplistic and overly sentimental portrayal of indigenous cultures bothered me; while it is certainly true that humans knew how to live more lightly on the Earth before agriculture and industrial civilization began, Jensen seems to believe indigenous cultures did and can do no wrong.

While certain specifics in the book might be questionable, the overall sentiment is an incredibly important perspective on humanity and our outsized impacts on the planet we call home, the way we treat other beings, and how we live in the world. And learning to question assumptions is always a good thing.

[Alex Rauket · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jensen initially provides some thought-provoking ideas that challenge you to consider a different perspective when considering our [human] role in the universe. He provides some interesting examples that are the basis for fruitful discussions and engaging dinner conversations.

However, the vast majority of the book reduces to a rant without providing any suggestions for change. It's fine to consider the damage that human-focused thinking has caused, however, without suggestions for improvement, it becomes tiring after 300 pages. I finally gave up.

[Connor Stack · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's got a good message, but the style is not very professional. The book is very repetitive and consists mostly of quoting online articles (and their comments sections) then responding with snide remarks.

There was also one section about non-reproducible studies involving plant telepathy that made the book lose a lot of credibility in my eyes. If you're trying to prove something so unaccepted, you had better be able to reproduce it!

[Dmitriy Yepishin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very provocative, opinionated and "in your face" dissection of the self-absorption, apathy and disregard that seem to plague much of our society, especially with regard to the natural world. I am not yet sure how much I agree with accusation and conclusions in this book, but I am grateful for the way it has shaken up my view of some of the common ideologies that I constantly, and often subconsciously, buy into and take for granted.

[Ian Feigle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paradigm shifting. The slow-perception of the plant world's cognizance is undeniable. Jensen writes in a provocative way that is difficult to denounce.

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Derrick Jensen is the author of some twenty books that have evolved from critiques of power, technology and oppression to an appeal for arresting the destruction of the natural world. In an ‘Open Letter to Reclaim Environmentalism’, Jensen argues: “Contrast this to what some activists are calling the conservation-industrial complex – ¬big green organizations, huge “environmental” foundations, neo-environmentalists, some academics –¬ which has co-opted too much of the movement into ‘sustainability,’ with that word being devalued to mean ‘keeping this culture going as long as possible.’ Instead of fighting to protect our one and only home, they are trying to ‘sustain’ the very culture that is killing the planet. And they are often quite explicit about their priorities.”

Addressing this contradiction – environmentalism as preserving Nature against environmentalism as sustaining current civilization – represents the core of this book, The Myth of Human Supremacy. Jensen argues that our civilization is premised on dominance and the notion of human superiority. He presents a number of arguments deconstructing the notion of our superiority, showing that other species of animals and even plants have many of the characteristics we use to demonstrate our supremacy. He also shows how many of the indicators we use to argue for our superiority are tautological – as they use things we are good at compared to other species to show that we are better at those things. In the end, however, Jensen shows that the greatest indicator of our intelligence would be living within the capacity of the biosphere, which would include allowing other species (that we rely on for our existence) to live to their capacities – maybe we aren’t so smart after all, Jensen says.

His main argument, after taking Homo sapiens down a notch or two, is that while we fiddle with notions of ‘sustainability’ we are really just trying to preserve a system that is not sustainable, and to save a species that is the root of the problem with their ideas of dominance and superiority (that’s us): “… and environmentalism was transformed along the way from an attempt to save the real, physical world from biocidal industrial civilization toward attempts to ‘sustain’ precisely the civilization that is destroying the world that the new ‘environmentalists’ pretend they want to save (i.e., environmentalism has gone from being about saving wild places and beings toward promoting, for example, wind energy; …)” (p.112).

Jensen rounds off the book with a discussion on technology, power and imperialism. His perspective is that our civilization is based on extraction, exploitation, and dominance even when we are saying we are trying to do better: “But you can’t have high speed rail and groovy solar panels without mining and transportation and energy infrastructures, and you can’t have those infrastructures without the military and police to control them. And in terms of the planet, you can’t have any of those infrastructures without the harm those infrastructures and their related activities cause” (p.274). In other words, there is no free lunch, and there is no status quo for a species that has already exceed the carrying capacity of the planet.

The Myth of Human Supremacy makes some interesting arguments – that plants are as sentient as animals; that there are no personal solutions to social problems; and that we should perceive the world as consisting of other beings with whom they can and should enter into respectful relationships, rather than perceiving the world as consisting of resources to be exploited. His criticisms of human superiority and attitudes of human dominance over Nature, and his critiques of science, technology and capitalist society are not new but presented well.

Probably the biggest detractor to The Myth of Human Supremacy, however, is his writing style (in this book, specifically). Much of the book is comprised of short, sarcastic comments better suited to the inside-voice. A few remarks would likely be amusing – a shared eye-roll or a wink-wink-nod with the reader – but there are too many, making it feel like Jensen is spending too much time alone. The world is no worse off with this book, but it might have been better had he stayed focused on the goal – arguing for a livable world for all living things. Jensen says in his Open Letter: “… attempts to rationalize increasingly desperate means to fuel this destructive culture are frankly insane. The fundamental problem we face as environmentalists and as human beings isn’t to try to find a way to power the destruction just a little bit longer: it’s to stop the destruction.” I like that - and his call is convincing.

[Kazimirko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a powerful assault on the Myth of Human Supremacy, something much needed in our age. While I find it to be at times repetitive, and think that there are many more arguments to be made against human supremacy, I think it's a great entry point to anti-speciecist thought as well as Deep Ecology. It's also fresh to see anti-speciesist thinking from someone who's not just a vegan, but extends his compassion to the rest of the living world... here you'll find almost an animist approach.

It lists many interesting facts about the individual creatures as well as ecosystems aka biotic communities that really cause one to see the beautiful complexity of life. He successfully argues against the idea that in the wild life is a war of all against all, as some (very ignorant people have proposed). He, in his typical fashion, also draws parallels between abuser psycho(path)logy and analyses the behaviour of civilised culture from that point of view; how it justifies its behaviour; why it feels the way if does about the natural world. Jensen also takes a lot from Lewis Mumford's critique of authoritarian technics to explain why it's so hard for us to even conceive giving up industrial technology - there's a lot of Mumford in this book.

Overall the book is also good at not just soullessly explaining/critiquing the hows and whys of human supremacist thought, but also evokes plenty of feelings. I've laughed, I've been intrigued, made to feel love, and made to feel grief and rage. I have some problems with Derrick, his organisation DGR and his associates' other beliefs, but I have to give credit where it's due: this book is pretty darn good.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Derrick makes such impassioned points about the unquestioned biases of our culture it is always a joy to read his work. It is inspirational and reminds me that the natural world around us is something to live with and be in awe of. It also leaves me deeply broken by the depth of the problem of vision that our culture has in what it values, and leaves me feeling helpless to be able to make meaningful impact to this larger force of human supremacism that has a stranglehold on the culture as a whole. Perhaps acting as a spark for discussion in a broader sense to reimagine what it means to be an interdependent being vs the reason for the existence of all other life is a starting point to perspective shift. The idea that we are all on the front line of this fight is an interesting way to end a book like this. It will take me a lifetime to figure out how to best apply the perspective that Derrick has given me over the years, but that is a blessing to me more and more as I age into adulthood. Thanks Derrick for your time and energy, you remain a favorite author for me to return to from time to time, and I hope to be able to find more ways to apply your perspective more broadly in my own life and ethos as I continue on my own life path in this crazy human-centric worldview holding time we live in.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you know who Derrick Jensen is, then I don't have to tell you what this book is about. If you haven't heard of him, maybe you should look into his writing. (I started by chance with The Culture of Make Believe, and that's a good place to start, and it totally changed my view of things). He's an environmental activist, but his main critique deals with human civilization in general. I've read most of his work, but I do have to warn you that he isn't for everyone. Most people will either dismiss him as a radical nut case, or they'll soon be asking their doctor for antidepressants after they finish reading. A more recent book is Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It, which may be more relevant to the Green New Deal movement.

[Ray Schar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew increasingly angry at the human 'race' the closer I got to the end of this great book. MAN has tried to destroy Mother Nature from the inception of the BuyBull when the psychotic mass murdering MAN-made 'god' commanded MAN to go forth & multiply out-of-control while desecrating the Earth, stripping Nature of Her natural resources, and trying to eradicate all other species of fauna & flora besides himself, hence the title HUMAN SUPREMACY. Everything in this book is true, made me ashamed of being a human the same way I was ashamed of being of European descent after reading Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. But I was also angry at Derrick Jensen for he was one of the founding members of Deep Green Resistance, which I belonged to before I was ousted as a non-believer in anthropogenic global warming, but NOT a climate "denier" as I'm convinced that what is happening today HAS happened numerous times in Earth's history, and I'm more concerned with human'kind's incessant pollution of this world and making extinct the Nature that I love.

[Vincent Boone-Banko · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some good points and analyses made in regards to supremacism, environmentalism, and capitalism. But it was hard to get through because the author's voice is that of a pretentious and elitist prick. In some of his attempts to evoke certain emotions towards environmental catastrophes, he ignorantly compared them to atrocities like the Holocaust or the African Diaspora and seems to try and gloss over this "colorblind" approach to human history as if the reader's similar concern for the state of the environment will excuse his treatment of non-white bodies in his manifesto.

[ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book made excellent points but sometimes it just seemed like he was repeating the exact same things every 10 pages or so. Some points he made I could easily disprove and sometimes he sounded (rightfully) petty. I just felt like this material might not be fully convincing for someone who’s not already inclined to the perspective.
That being said, this book revolutionized my worldview. I had multiple epiphanies while reading it and I recommended it to everyone.

[H · Rating 3 out of 5]

The short version?
Are the smartest - and most important - being on the planet. (or the universe, lets not stop at earth).
No.

I've read quite a few of these kind of books. I agree with them.
But this, I have to say, got boring.
He bangs on, human supremacy, human supremacy, literally.

And?

Never mind, we won't be here for long (in geological terms). Life meanwhile is too short for boring books.

[Bekatine · Rating 4 out of 5]

3/4 stars, I went back an forth a lot.

This book was a great tool to exacerbate my guilt and anxiety over existing as a person on a dying planet.

The author often made his points well, but often seemed to be arguing with imaginary people. He also referred to Stephen Fry as just ‘the host of QI’, I’m still mad about it.

[Bailey Reese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not uplifting, but raw and genuine. Some parts were dripping with sarcasm, tongue in cheek. But overall, I agree with the premise and it’s mind-boggling that some of the facts in this book go blatantly ignored. I’ll see you on the battlefield.

[Harris Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

passionate. anecdotal. i still dont understand how such a fiery environmentalist doesnt advocate veganism, if only for the water and energy conservation.