Indigenous leader and activist Ailton Krenak reminds us that we must awaken from the comatose senselessness we have been immersed in since the beginning of the modern colonial project, where order, progress, development, consumerism, and capitalism have taken over our entire existence, leaving us only very partially alive, and, in fact, almost dead. To awaken from the coma of modernity is, for Krenak, to awaken to the possibility of becoming attuned to "the cosmic sense of life." He points out that the COVID-19 pandemic affects all so-called "human" lives and that the time is ripe for us all to reflect on and undo the exclusivity and distinction that have characterized the concept of humanity throughout Western modernity.

About the Author

Ailton Krenak was born in the Doce River valley region (a territory of the Krenak people) in Brazil, and is an educational and environmental activist. He is a prominent leader in the movement for Indigenous rights.

Reviews

Selected by Mongabay as one of 10 notable books on conservation and the environment published in 2023

"As Krenak contemplates the COVID-19 pandemic in the pithy Life Is Not Useful, he advocates powerfully for a shift away from the way life was before. As he sees it, humans' detachment from nature and our obsession with extracting profits from the Earth have led to the crises we are facing today. Instead, he puts forth a vision that embraces the interconnected reliance on all life that shares this planet."
Mongabay

"Ailton Krenak is a unique voice in contemporary thought and the only one who manages to turn the current crisis into a huge opportunity to rethink the life of humanity. He demonstrates that our political identity is not based on the separate ownership of land, but on the fact that we all share one and the same flesh, which is the same flesh from which planet Earth lives. Earth is not the space where languages and cultures differ and wage war against each other, but the institution that allows us to share dreams with all that lives."
Emanuele Coccia, author of Metamorphoses

"A stinging critique of Western thought."
Earthbound Report

"Krenak makes a potent anarchist statement, often with simple, sardonic humour ... and his solutions are no less radical."
Latin American Review of Books

"[A] thought-provoking critique of the individual and the prevailing global political-economic-social system. With his humorous sensitivity, Krenak invites us to reflect on the essence of life, which goes beyond the limited definition assigned to it."
International Journal of Environmental Studies




Book Information
ISBN 9781509554058
Author Ailton Krenak
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Polity Press
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 136g
Dimensions(mm) 213mm * 137mm * 10mm