FJS: How does the notion of an industrial collapse impact your strategies regarding the defense of the wild?
JM: Actually, I hadn't really considered industrial collapse as I've waged this prolonged and intense battle to protect the deer in Shawnee Mission Park (which is well-chronicled at Bite Club of KC http://biteclubkc.wordpress.com/). My line of thinking is that as long as industrial civilization is extant in its present form, I want to do what I can to defend as much of the wild and as many nonhuman animals as I can from its metastatic toxicity.
FJS: What do you believe the future holds for dissidents and direct-activists confronting the corporatist-statist union?
JM: I suspect the future for dissidents and direct-activists will become increasingly challenging as we confront the corporatist-state complex. As the existing socioeconomic paradigm (unsustainable, unjust and unstable as it is) continues to wobble and deteriorate, governments will become increasingly repressive, even in so-called liberal democracies like the US and the UK. Applying tools like the Patriot Act, the AETA, the FBI, grand juries, and massive deployments of well-armed law enforcement personnel (i.e. at the G-20 in Pittsburgh), the corporate-state complex has put serious constraints on dissent. The Green Scare has paralyzed many activists with fear. Nevertheless, we need to persist.
Frank Joseph Smecker, TPC's Editor of Radical Earth Defense, is a social-worker and writer from Vermont who has an ardent and committed passion to work in defense of everything wild. Mostly an autodidact, he is also currently in school matriculating toward a degree in psychology. He is an accomplished writer; his essays, interviews and articles, decrying the atrocities of industrial civilization and capitalism, have appeared in many publications. He is also a blog writer for the Vermont Commons Journal (for Independence from Empire).
Thomas Paine's Corner wants to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to receive them, type TPC subscription in the subject line and send your email to
For the latest updates on the animal liberation movement, visit NAALPO at http://www.animalliberationpressoffice.org/
If you have a Facebook account, don't forget to look up Thomas Paine's Corner's Facebook page via the search feature and become a fan.
And if you have a MySpace account, don't forget to friend Thomas Paine's Corner at www.myspace.com/anarchovegan
Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjanhKqVC4 and go vegan. Do it for your health, for nonhuman animals and for the Earth!
To support or undertake animal rights and liberation activism in the Kansas City area, visit Bite Club of KC at http://biteclubkc.wordpress.com/.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).