A University of Texas journalism professor told a crowd at the University of Wisconsin Friday the world is a fundamentally unjust and unsustainable place for humans.

Professor Robert Jensen gave his keynote speech as a part of the “Our Campus, Our World: Collectively Creating a Better and More Just Society” conference held Friday and Saturday across campus.

Jensen started his talk with a unique description of hope.

“I think hope and any successful politics has to start with an honest description of where we are in the world,” Jensen said.

Jensen examined what he believes to be three major revolutions in our history: the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution and the delusional revolution.

According to Jensen, the problems of the world began when humans started to move from the agricultural revolution to the industrial revolution. Problems furthered when the world moved into the “delusional revolution” and with the development of sophisticated propaganda began in the 20th century.

Jensen said people must step back and see the world’s issues are far worse than acknowledged by the majority.

“Until we recognize the terrain on which we are working, I don’t think we can plan much in the way of solutions,” Jensen said.

Jensen said the fundamentally unjust and fundamentally unsustainable nature of the world leaves humans to live in a world of grief.

“6.7 billion people are on this planet, and [are] functionally the same as you and me, yet not all of us live with the same level of comfort in this world,” Jensen said.

Jensen said he thinks grief and joy are a package deal, adding if you work too hard to avoid grief, you will essentially be deprived of joy.

Liza Meredith, an employee in the Letters & Sciences office, said she was surprised at Jensen’s approach to talking about hope.

In comparison to President Barack Obama’s style of approaching the idea of hope, Meredith said she thinks Jensen has a completely different tone.

“I thought it was going to be more about science and hope for the future, I didn’t expect it to be critical of where we are,” Meredith said. “I found it to be thought provoking. It’s inspiring to think that there are a lot of problems, and we need to fundamentally change.”

Letters & Science Honor Students have been working to develop this conference since the summer of 2008. UW junior Katrina Brown came up with the idea for the conference after taking an experiential learning class that discussed issues regarding diversity and justice.

“The class was an emotionally disrupting to experience, we had all these ideas we were talking about, and I left thinking ‘What’s next?'” Brown said. “As undergrads, we need space to talk about our opinions in a safe place.”