How shall we shape ourselves?
Up until now most of this course has dealt with the various ways that humans have fashioned our world around us, often to less than desirable results. As M. Woods puts it in Nature’s Trust, there is much “collapse scholarship” out there that deals specifically with those alterations and their potential effects. However, there is very little discussion about how these alterations have already affected us, how the cycle we perpetuate actually perpetuates us. As Wood states it, “[P]art of the problem [is that] industrialization has estranged people from their own survival… [so that] they remain oblivious to the basic connection between ecological health and human need.” Culturally we have been removed from the land, and this cultural shift has sparked political and ethical emigrations from nature as well. As Richard Lazarus wrote, “Ecological catastrophes occur when human laws fictionalize or otherwise ignore the laws of nature.” Not only have we removed our souls from the land but also our common sense, or, our former ecological sense that before was held commonly.
As Wood points out, the main failings of current regulation bodies is that they are just that, regulators. Established in a time when environmental science was less extensive than now, the general “environmental culture” was to “fix” problems. Bad air- Clean Air Act, and so on with all the other victories of the 70s. However, our more holistic understanding now not only demands that we act upon issues that currently a problem but that we also actively prevent those that are predictable. It is this culture of reaction, not action, that allows debates such as climate change to persist. Instead of “permitting harm,” as Wood puts it, agencies should active seek to prevent and even reverse when possible.
So if the issue is culture, then what aspects of culture need to change? I think everyone would almost immediately agree that the consumerism fetish needs to go, but that is far too broad a stroke and simple a solution to ever actually work. Although many scholars, such as James Speth, feel that what is needed is a public up-welling, a grassroots rising collation of educated and motivated populace taking to the street, I feel this would only be effective if large enough and organized well, and I also feel that there is an easier way to do it. As Woods points out, the prime assumption of Environmental agencies is that they work in the ethical best interest if the common populace without personal or political gain. Because of this, Woods claims that they receive very little judicial oversight, and as such function improperly. Beyond that is the large amount of agencies out there all with overlapping functions and directives, slowing the processes, truly begging the question how is any of this efficient, and if it is not efficient, why has it not been changed?
It is the political culture, not necessarily mainstream culture, that must change. We now live in a nation controlled by big interest and the like. As Woods puts it, we need a public trust, one in which people are treated as “citizens rather than serfs.” As Speth says, what is need a “culture war- a war over core values and a vision for the future.” However, I would disagree, in that Europe has almost our same consumer-based materialist driven mindset as us and yet they are far better than us in most environmental issues. The difference is their government, and political culture. Having had multiple revolutions that bettered their people, Europeans constantly challenge their government. Yet in America the Constitution is practically more sacred than the bible, instead of being understood for what it really is-a well intention and mostly dysfunctional and ancient piece of legislation- it is held up like a cross to ward away Communist or other such “non-Patriots.” I’m not advocating a war with guns, but rather with ballets. A grassroots movement to remove big money on campaign funding, to put term limits on senators that have been their for dozens of years and have lost touch with the contemporary nation that they live in, an abolishment of career politicians, and most importantly, debates that are moderated with someone with a backbone- someone who will call you out for something that doesn’t make sense or dodging a question, someone with their own numbers right in front of them. The nation and our culture are both ready for a green revolution, we just need to have a political one first. In order to reshape ourselves, we must reshape our nation.