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Earth warrior: Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace, is a pugnacious environmentalist who heads the Sea Shepherd Conversation Society. He's never shield away from unpopular opinions or controversy. John F Schumaker caught up with Watson aboard the Farley Mowat in Christchurch harbour - formerly the Ocean Warrior - Essay - Interview
New Internationalist, Sept, 2003 by John F Schumaker
JS: Your worst critics claim that you are crazy.
Watson: The film Trashing The Planet implied I was insane because when I was 12 I shot another boy in the ass with a BB gun who was about to shoot a bird. I thought this amusing because in my neighborhood in New Brunswick, in eastern Canada, every 12-years-old boy shot at other boys with their BB guns for fun. The different between them and myself was that I actually had a practical reason for shooting the kid. He received a bruised posterior and the bird lived. I was happy with that.
JS: Why are you so pessimistic about the prospect of governments making a different?
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Watson: To me government is an organization body that overseas the mass destruction of human and non-human life. governments sell the licences to over-fish, to clear-cut, to hunt, to drain swamps and to destroy wetlands. Politicians seem to be incapable of action unless they are reacting to situations that force them to take action. Even then their actions are unimaginative and indiscriminate.
For example, the US acted in reaction to the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Government's motivations ever since has been fear, primary the fear of appearing impotent. Their actions have for the most part focused on curtailing the freedoms of their own citizens and imposing more restrictive immigration policies againts innocent peoples wanting to enter the United States. The US Government has also reacted by waging war against Afghanistan and then Iraq to cover up the failure to destroy al-Qaeda.
War is always good for making it appear that something is being done. However, none of this will end terrorism. Terrorism won't end until the root causes are removed. The removal of the root causes--poverty, totalitarian regimes supported by the US, environmental destruction--requires an imagination and an applied intelligence that government bureaucracy is simply incapable of providing.
JS: Will any of our current world leaders make 'a good ancestors', to use one of your terms?
Watson: I have struggled over the years to identify a world leader who has made a difference with regard to conversion and the environment and I haven't found one. There are many who pay lip service but none who have taken action. Gro Harlen Brundtland of Norway spoke strongly about sustainability and the need to take action yet her country is involved with illegal whaling, ruthless over-fishing, destructive salmon farming, over-exploitation of its forest and the eradication of the wolf. Norway has talked the talk, especially when lecturing to Third World nations. But the reality is they dictate solutions they do not support in practice in their own country.
JS: You once commented that the 'average Joe' lives in a world of illusion and fantasy and prefers it that way.
Watson: The great majority of people live in a reality defined by the mass media. Modern media defines morality, political and spiritual views, as well as our heroes and our ideals. The industry, of illusion is one of the most lucrative on Earth and it is certainly the industry that has the most profound impact on our daily lives. Media entertains us and in return we sign our soul over to the media moguls and worship at their house of commerce.
JS: Whatever happened to freedom?
Watson: In the US we are slaves to a perverse definition of freedom. We are free, by god, and if you don't agree that we are free we might have to throw you into jail until you agree with us. We have freedom of speech until we speak. We have freedom of assembly until we assemble and then we are dispersed by riot police. We have the freedom to express ourselves until we actually express ourselves. Freedom in the United States is a concept not an actuality. You agree with us or you agree with terrorism. The US has the best damn government money can buy. The Parliament of Whores in Washington is more loyal to the idea of commerce with the People's Republic of China than it is to the freedom of its own citizens. Unfortunately most human beings believe that the oppressor is their saviour.
JS: Since the 'average Joe' inevitably votes out of self-interest, isn't democracy, a curse firm an environmental standpoint?
Watson: Democracy may or may not be a good idea. It really has never been tried. The real problem is that people call be controlled. The citizen is a crop In be cultivated and harvested for the money required to support the bureaucracy. All the citizen sheep require is a shepherd (leader) to provide bread and circuses and to whisper electronic promises of security into their ears at night. And it is so easy to do in a media culture with television and sophisticated technologies to supply a diverse smorgasbord of entertainment.
JS: Speaking of circuses, you describe celebrities as the aristocrats of today's 'cultural circus'. Yet you rely heavily on them for support. Aren't they some of the biggest ecological hypocrites on the planet?
Watson: In out" culture people who make a living pretending to be other people have the most credibility. I don't look on our celebrity spokespeople as hypocrites, I see them as having the wisdom and courage to harness their celebrity status for causes they believe in.
