THE BIG THREE
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IIN D S E Y
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N O T IO N S OF NATURE
"The e n viro n m e n t." said Billy Holts,
"This issue w ill focus on environm ental
co n c e rn s ."
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"T h a t’ s w here I’ ve spent my whole
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life ," I th o u g h t. "I hope I can dredge up
so m e th in g ."
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A fte r considering possibilities. I've
decided to render a broad historical sketch
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of those forces and vie w p o in ts that have led
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us to our notions of "th e environm ent" as
and Cookies
we perceive it today
For roughly 1 0 ,00 0 years. Paleolithic
239 N H E M L O C K
man lived inseparable from his environm ent.
Ph. 436 2832
The hunter gatherers of the green world
made no d istin ctio n s betw een themselves
and the natural w orld. They thought of
nature as alive and sacred. They dw elt in
the eternal present. Time was cyclical and
recurrent, not m eted out in linear fashion
w ith a past, present and brighter future.
Man o f prehistory existed quite satisfactorily
and harm oniously w ith the external world.
His rich spiritual and m yth ic life invested all
nature w ith d iv in ity . Home, for a band or
tribe, w as w hore one found himself He
kn o w no w ilderness. Closo relations existed
aetw oen anim als, natural forces and man.
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Human and animal form s easily interchanged
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in m yth and ritual.
N eolithic man altered this w orld of
Eden for all tim e. W ith the advent of
agriculture, hunters and gatherers gradually
'orsook w andering and m igration and
settled. S ettlem ent and site clearing for
agriculture made possible the rudim ents of
the "civilize d " w orld we kn o w today Tribes
became sedentary, possessions and w ealth
were accum ulated, biological products
became available for trade and barter, and
Internecine wars occurred to acquire
desirable agricultural territory or sites of
habitation. A psychological line, a fence,
had been draw n betw een Civilized m an’ s
places of cultiva tion and habitation and the
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natural environs the wildernoss.
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W hat had existed as source the
p O toe 634
132
m other earth, unified and sacred became
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resource, that w hich could be tamed,
humanized and civilized. A schism
developed betw een man and the rest of
nature.
The Levantine H ebrew 's notions of
God and Man widened the rift between man
and nature. Man was made in God’ s image,
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d istin ct from the rest of G od's handiwork
He held dom inion over all creation. The
lu e n ahí«* In liivi
ram ifications and im plications of these
Iin- phnuv
beliefs should be obvious. The w orld and all
i i i i i i i I h - i ui l i v
in it w as his garden to tinker w ith as ho
w ou ld .
During the M iddle Ages, the Catholic
C hurch view ed w ild areas as inherently evil
Dark forcos d w e lt in glades, w oodland and
marsh. W itches and sorcery forces of the
A nti C hrist lurked in tarns and deep woods
Gawam, the Green Knight, Lancelot and
Others fo u g h t dark forces in the nether.
M onks cut do w n groves of oak in Europe as
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a reaction against earlier cult w orship Man
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•is G od's agent tamed and bent nature to
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furthe r G od's w o rk.
u n h li u l r l im
The Renaissance introduced
hi»uk lm i * i s ui
sig n ifica n t changes in the manner man
Iin - hui Id ,
view ed the w orld . Galileo, N ew ton and
others found the natural w orld to be a place
governed by scientific principles. The spirit,
the em otions, and the m ythic qualities were
bleached aw ay by scientific principles.
Trees, earth, w ater, sky and man were
w eighable, quantifiable m atter and little else
W ith the advent of the Industrial Revolution,
civilized man e ffectively had com pleted the
separation betw een him self and the natural
environs. Nature existed to be harvested,
reform ed and ultim ately sold. Our modern
w orld facilitated harvest and exploitation
w ith additional technology and an insatiable
appetite for consum ption.
Perhaps a new consciousness w ill
forestall the path w e ’ ve travelled One must
hope. The ancient rhythm s and cycles still
speak to modern man. He's a notoriously
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ooor listener.
John M uir has said: "Going to the
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m ountains is going hom e... wilderness is a
necessity... m ountain parks and reservations
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are useful not only as fountains of timber
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and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of
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som ew hat d iffe ren t direction. It is easy for
anyone to point out a problem such as this
Geojge Bush referred to the United
and be critica l of it but to chart a course for
States as "th e last great hope for m ankind".
its correctio n is quite another thing.
H ow ever w ell accepted it seemed to be at
Education is again the key and a beginning.
the time, some of us had great d iffic u lty in
U ntil w e are serious about stabilizing or
believing his c o n te n tio n w hole heartedly
The popularity of Mr. B ush’ s statem ent w as reducing w orld population, there is little
point m dealing w ith any other long term
due to the fact that our political and
considerations
econom ic environm ent, and the methods
In the historical w in d o w of
used for judging them , are largely, if not
hum
ankind,
w e have, in the blink of an eye,
entirely, based on short term considerations
w
aged
serious
and profound e ffe c ts on our
If hum ankind has only a couple of hundred
p
la
net's
natural
environm ent. It has
years left (and it m ay), then it w ould be
suffered
since
the
agricultural and industrial
hard to com plete ly disagree w ith Mr Bush.
ages
As
soon
as
people become
If we are to leave a continuin g and heathy
"de
velop
ed",
they
center all of life on
legacy, how ever, it appears clear that
them
selves
having
a good tim e, a good
George was just plain w rong.
life,
short
term
benefits,
short term pleasure
The past 1 50 years in our country
-
to
such
an
exte
nt
that
w
e com e to the
have been marked by very short sighted and
idiotic
conclusion
that
the
only yardstick we
am bitious policies and governing Only
have
to
evaluate
anything
is m oney. Its
recently have we begun to focus our
nonsense W hy do we w an t to q u antify
attention on the real problem s that face us
e v e ry th in g ’ There are things that cannot be
as a nation, as a people, and as a planet
and w ill never be quantified Prim itive
There is no p ro fit in dealing w ith these
cultures
are m balance w ith their natural
problems, they rub against our deeply
environm
ent partly because they have not
entrenched grams. They make us uneasy.
generally
reached this conclusion. Their
They fester over tim e and become
rites
and
religions
are based on beliefs, not
overw helm ing They are sim ply just easier
on
reasoning.
And
beliefs and feelings and
to ignore in a short term , co st/b e n e fit, get
enthusiasm
and
joy
and so rro w and terror
re elected at all cost system such as ours
are
all
human
em
otions
that cannot be
Even though w e n o w hear of a heightened
quantified
In
a
w
orld
w
here our prim ary
awareness in societal concerns, an
goal
is
to
make
more
money,
w e are not
awareness that was not generally present
preparing
com
ing
generations
for the
10 years ago, these concerns still tend to
peaceful
m
anagem
ent
of
our
planet
or the
focus on our generation. They are still
once
vast
natural
legacy
that
we
inherited.
ladened w ith self servedness,
W here our natural environm ent is
shortsightedness and com prom ise We no
concerned,
we m ust instill a great sense of
longer have the luxury of com prom ise. We
continuance
and m aintain our options
have spent most of our options If we think
indefinitely.
beyond ourselves and beyond our life time,
To begin to instill a lasting
it is clear that there are certain things we
consciousness
o f these concerns in the
should be paying very close attentio n to
minds
and
c
re
a
tiv ity of our children, we are
today. There are at least three m ounting
charged
w
ith
the
task of educating The
problem s that we can neglect no longer
current
system
of
prim ary education does
Education, the environm ent and w orld
not
w
o
rk.
Anyone
w ho can broadly claim
population are long term time bombs.
that
it
does
has
not
taken a good hard look
Education, obviously, is the key issue, as its
at
the
human
co
n
dition
and our social fabric.
existence, in the proper phases, w ill negate
They
are
unw
oven.
And
education at home,
the other problems.
or
the
lack
there
of,
is
as
m uch to blame.
Please do not confuse education, in
The
average
Am
erican
child
spends 4 to 5
this sense, w ith instruction. Education has
hours per day w a tch in g television, and does
nothing to do w ith learning ho w to
so at the expense of w hatever type to good
com press acetylene w ith o u t an explosion or
m ig h t o th e r w is e e v o lv e fro m th is tim e at
ho w to make an atom bomb. T h a t’ s
home Toys and television establish in the
instruction . A person is well educated w hen
minds of children that w ar and violence are
he know s ho w to act or to behave in
inevitable. They are produced to flatter the
d iffic u lt situations. W hen we discuss w hat
prim itive side of us, they make no e ffo rt to
long range consequences could be and w hat
educate
or im prove human nature.
w ould serve hum ankind in the long run, we
Education
has failed because it has
are truly participa ting in education. Today,
taught us that "n o rm a l" behavior is
fe w people think about future generations,
acceptable. It is norm al to drain and dry a
and this is a consequence of a lack of
coastal
marsh to build a C ostco. We like
education. Even "p rim itiv e " cultures have
C
ostco.
Very fe w people are educated to
no need for the technology that instruction
understand
that w e are also suppressing life
brings to develop collective ly their ow n
in
this
area
--
nurseries for all sorts of
culture and their o w n cre a tivity
creatures
that
may not exist again. It is also
Instructional teaching tends to make people
apparently
norm
al to maim, steal, rape, kill,
reason more like machines than as human
vandalize,
or
go
to jail. We see this on
beings. W hen a child is stuffed w ith things
television
or
in
m
otion pictures. It is
to remember, or things to be interrogated
presented in a form tha t is meant to
about on an exam, there is no tim e and no
entertain,
not educate. M any of us do not
incentive to think about anything but
have
the
fra
m ew o rk to interpret such things
proving w hat he has learned. And
any
other
w
ay
than to be impressed by
unfortuna tely, w hat he learns has nothing to
them
and
convinced
that they are normal
do w ith real life and real problems We are
and
acceptable.
social beings, and to live ir. society w ith the
There is a future shining in a ba by's
high degree of mind that we have requires
eyes
We can ensure it by agreeing that
education.
there
are
m ounting problem s that must be
In spite of the fact that nearly any
dealt
w
ith
. And by agreeing that they m ust
ailm ent you m ight w ish to consider can be
be
dealt
w
ith n o w , not w hen they are
directly related to our sheer numbers, there
critical,
as
is our nature. And by
are very fe w governm ents or organization
recognizing
that there are certain sacrifices
that are seriously doing anything about
that
m
ust
be
made in order to properly deal
w orld population. On the flip side, there are
w
ith
them
.
The
con dition s for establishing
many groups, particularly religions, w hich
new
w
ays
of
th
in
k in g w JI not likely be any
are doing som ething about w orld population.
better
than
they
are
now . The vast m ajority
U nfortunately, they are w orking in a
of us w ill m arch along blindly, w orkin g
tow a rds some typ ica l end. Others,
hopefully s u ffic ie n t in num bers to be
effe ctive , w ill look beyond, w ay beyond,
and teach the rest of us h o w it's done.
By Ron Logan
U R SU LA U LR IC H
RELIEF T1LES
IN T E R J O R /E X T E R J O R D E C O R A T IO N
O P H O M E A N D B U S IN E S S
By Peter Lindsey
V
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relebrate my SiMtb Rnmoertary.
Saturday, Moy 1st 1993 6 30 6 30 pm
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