Desert

091um.14ndf411.71Ocu reviewed Desert by Anonymous

Bleak, but honest.

5 stars

I can honestly understand why this book is not rated more highly. It's not a feel good account of the possibilities and opportunities to fix the planet for the future we want. It starts as an acceptance that we are not going to fix things and that for the vast majority of humans things will get worse. I read this several years ago and it tracks with surprising accuracy. That's not what anybody wants to hear. I get that. But just because you don't want to hear something or you don't prefer the way it was articulated for some aesthetic reason, doesn't mean you don't need to hear it (most of us could benefit from understanding the point of this book in my opinion). This book is honest about a future with shrinking resources and shrinking opportunities. I think that honesty is refreshing. It validates the existential horror I feel …

I can honestly understand why this book is not rated more highly. It's not a feel good account of the possibilities and opportunities to fix the planet for the future we want. It starts as an acceptance that we are not going to fix things and that for the vast majority of humans things will get worse. I read this several years ago and it tracks with surprising accuracy. That's not what anybody wants to hear. I get that. But just because you don't want to hear something or you don't prefer the way it was articulated for some aesthetic reason, doesn't mean you don't need to hear it (most of us could benefit from understanding the point of this book in my opinion). This book is honest about a future with shrinking resources and shrinking opportunities. I think that honesty is refreshing. It validates the existential horror I feel when I read the news about the rise of right-wing politics and the rapid advance of a climate crises we as a species, frankly have no interest in getting serious about solving. If having those feelings validated is not something you feel comfortable with, you should probably read some solarpunk fiction that aspires to a better world (There is absolutely a place for that as well, afterall, one should not aspire to dystopia). One, which frankly, we aren't going to have. If you want to glimpse the world you should prepare yourself for, read this. It's not pleasant, but it's probably pretty accurate.

Rosenrot reviewed Desert by Anonymous

We are doomed.

2 stars

How to sum up the book? Everything is pointless and we are doomed. The collapse will come and war, starvation, ... all kind of shit will hit the fan. So don't even try to change the world and start building a shelter for you and a few other people.

On the other hand: It at least discusses a lot of problems in a vehemence other anarchists don't.

It's strange to describe but in some way I have the feeling the book makes you feel comfortable looking into the abyss... You are fucked anyway so why start making the life for you and yourself better? It inhibits you completely...

Alija 📚🏴 reviewed Desert by Anonymous

Existential crisis, but like, in a good way?

No rating

So, this one has been on my list for a while, and I finally got around to it when I realized I could browse The Anarchist Library on the cash-register screen at work.

In combination with a subsequent drug-aided empathic interaction with a tick, this threw me for quite a spin, not quite knowing how to value or relate to life, death, and all that juicy metaphysical stuff.

Now, a couple weeks later, and having interspersed these chapters with some somewhat more cheerfull - or at least less gloomy - green anarchist theory, I've come out the other end closer to myself and my immediate surroundigs.

tl;dr: I can't put this into stars, but I spend way more time watching insects and listening to birds now.

Nebuchi reviewed Desert by Anonymous

Review of 'Desert' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Maybe this book will be remembered by generations to come, but in the realist spirit of the book itself I must assume it will be forgotten and lost in just a few years. This is a crying shame: Desert is possibly the first truly sober text I read on climate change. It glances, not pessimistically nor optimistically but realistically, over the turning globe which we inhabit. It sees new hot deserts forming rapidly, cold ancient deserts retreating, and new ethnic wars merging with the old, all while the elites go on robbing and pillaging the wilderness. In the new world there are no ulimate apocalypses and no total revolutions. And for this world, which could manifest as soon as 2050, Anonymous poses hard questions about life. In the future, how could we live a life of liberty and struggle? While the questions are not pretty, they do instill in the …

Maybe this book will be remembered by generations to come, but in the realist spirit of the book itself I must assume it will be forgotten and lost in just a few years. This is a crying shame: Desert is possibly the first truly sober text I read on climate change. It glances, not pessimistically nor optimistically but realistically, over the turning globe which we inhabit. It sees new hot deserts forming rapidly, cold ancient deserts retreating, and new ethnic wars merging with the old, all while the elites go on robbing and pillaging the wilderness. In the new world there are no ulimate apocalypses and no total revolutions. And for this world, which could manifest as soon as 2050, Anonymous poses hard questions about life. In the future, how could we live a life of liberty and struggle? While the questions are not pretty, they do instill in the reader a sense of purpose, and are, in my opinion, something to be grateful for.

Andy reviewed Desert by Anonymous

Review of 'Desert' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Well written but poorly edited; well researched but poorly argued. This will only convince people who are already convinced. This is a book for anarchists and anarchists only. It will make you want to keep moving forward, away from the desert.