The Monkey Wrench Gang

"I’m an Edward Abbey fan, and so considering the topic there had to be one from him in here. It was a toss-up between this and his other classic, Desert Solitaire —a lyrical, eloquent and sometimes controversial paean to a place he loved, a place he himself fought to save from the mechanical jaws of rapacious industrialism. It recounts his retreat to the desert over a couple of seasons, working as a ranger but spending most of his time reflecting on the human condition, the wilderness around him, what it teaches us, and what we’re doing to it in pursuit of the dollar. It affected me profoundly. Published seven years later, The Monkey Wrench Gang was the logical follow-up. It’s a novel about the antics of an eclectic bunch of wilderness enthusiasts who set out to save a part of the wilderness that Abbey knew like the calluses on his hands. The book itself is hilarious, and brilliant in its own right. Its importance, however, in part stems from the wider impact it had in the years following its publication. It posed big questions about the morality of using violence, as a last resort, against the lifeless machines that inflict violence upon the living, breathing wilderness (this had been the subject of his Master’s thesis as a student), and it’s widely understood that the book gave rise to radical environmental groups across the world from the 1980s onwards. Arguably, not since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring has a book had such an impact. They tried to make a Hollywood movie out of the novel a couple of times, but in hindsight it was never going to happen; the idea of destroying private human property to protect non-human life proved too heretical for the big production companies to touch in the end. Thank goodness. Each way of life brings with it its own beauty and challenge. Most of the time, yes, I am happier, and I have mostly circumvented the stresses of modern life. That said, I’ve acquired a couple of the struggles of ancient life. But I think contentment is something healthier to aim for than happiness . The difference is subtle. Happiness is always something to be sought, something you can have a little bit more of, whereas contentment is happy just being itself. I’ve found that you can be content even amidst struggles and sadness. Contentment enjoys the moment and the feelings for what they are. Contentment doesn’t need anything more, or for things to be perfect. And I have found contentment, more or less."