Robert Jensen Quotes

#1. We do not have the luxury of despair right now. There is too much at stake, for too many people.

Robert Jensen

#2. History matters. It matters whether we tell the truth about what happened centuries ago, and it matters whether we tell the truth about more recent history. It matters because if we can't we will never be able to face the present, guaranteeing that our future will be doomed.

Robert Jensen

#3. Toxic masculinity hurts men, but there's a big difference between women dealing with the constant threat of being raped, beaten, and killed by the men in their lives, and men not being able to cry.

Robert Jensen

#4. Feminism remains a crucial element of any program for social justice today, which is why patriarchal forces attempt to eliminate or marginalize feminist ideas.

Robert Jensen

#5. Being rational - along with being clear and honest - are important if we are to create the needed shift in fundamental thinking necessary to make it possible to pull this world back from the brink of multiple disasters on ecological, cultural, political, and economic fronts.

Robert Jensen

#6. I am against nationalism, and I am against patriotism. They are both the dark side. It is time not simply to redefine a kinder-and-gentler patriotism, but to sweep away the notion and acknowledge it as morally, politically, and intellectually bankrupt. It is time to scrap patriotism.

Robert Jensen

#7. The world does not need white people to civilize others. The real White People's Burden is to civilize ourselves.

Robert Jensen

#8. Our goal should not be to reshape masculinity but to eliminate it. The goal is liberation from the masculinity trap.

Robert Jensen

#9. We live in an industrial world with a globalized capitalist economy organized politically around nation-states. Finding a willing audience for even a mild critique of any of these foundational systems is not easy; suggesting that all three systems should be rethought in fundamental ways seems crazy.

Robert Jensen

#10. Our goal should be not to redefine masculinity, but to abolish it.

Robert Jensen

#11. A sensible way to begin a discussion of that greater good is to focus on the current conditions within the human family and on the state of the larger living world.

Robert Jensen

#12. I could settle for being a man, or I could struggle to become a human being.

Robert Jensen

#13. The way we are educated and entertained keep us from knowing about or understanding the pain of others.

Robert Jensen

#14. What made Jim truly mystical was his ability to live fully conscious of how, every day, a bit more of the sacred becomes desecrated. Still, Jim's awareness of how much had been lost didn't stop him from appreciating what remained.

Robert Jensen

#15. People are people, and grief that is limited to those within a specific political boundary denies the humanity of others.

Robert Jensen