Greetings to you all,
I now take it as a given that we are marching towards an environmental catastrophe. The exact time of an irreversible tipping point is not certain. It could be sooner than we think. In the meantime, a viable therapy in the face of such a situation is to do what we can to make this world a better place. Let us at least try to mitigate a coming environmental crisis.
We have a choice to make. Involved in this choice there are two possible world views.
The first world view is that in the past, life was short and brutish. It was marked by hunger, diseases, wars and extreme hardship. This has been the view of Malthus, Hobbes and Darwin and many others. In this view we have escaped from a horrible past. With our modern civilization we are advancing to a better future. Steven Pinker in his writings popularizes this world view.
An opposing world view is that ancient forager cultures by cooperation and nature-based living actually had a more satisfying existence than we have. At first glance this seems hard to accept, so blinded are we by our modern conveniences. However recent writers who have studied ancient cultures reveal a much different picture. An awareness of the trashing of the planet makes us open to see our modernism in a new way. This different view of the world is being espoused by Christopher Ryan (Civilized to Death) and Paul Hawken (Blessed Unrest).
Here is our dilemma. We have evolved from a very different past. Some of us privileged ones do enjoy benefits of a “modern” culture. However, in the process we are destroying the only planetary home that we have. We love this planet and all life in it. At the same time we grieve its loss. Can we experience joy and pain in the same song?
Let us all carry on as best we can,
Rebellious Seeker
February 15, 2021
