The Monkey Wrench Gang

Environmental activists of a certain sort point to Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang, published in 1975, as an inspiration. Indeed, the Earth Liberation front has a monkey wrench in its logo; that’s no accident. The book was thought to be an inspiration for Earth First’s formation, as well. The idea that activists should fight for the environment by sabotaging industrial interests in the wild has an allure.

Today, I finished The Monkey Wrench Gang. And you know what: it’s a great read. To be clear, I don’t advocate the vandalism that the book makes heroic. I doubt I will ever reach that point. But I get where it’s coming from. And hat tip to a friend for telling me about it. He’s probably a step closer to this kind of activism, so I won’t name him.

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