An Article from Chris Hedges: Evoking the Wrath of Nature
If I had to name the 10 thinkers on this planet whom I most admired, journalist and activist Chris Hedges would most certainly be among them. He’s been expressing his observations about the environmental and social threats facing humankind in beautifully lucid prose since the 1980s, and, best of all, they normally come along with terrific insights as to what we must do to survive them.
Sometimes, however, as in the case with this breath-taking piece on Western culture vs. the natural world, we’re left wondering where to go. (I know where I went when I got finished reading…outside for a little walk to let it sink in.)
I don’t want to leave the impression that Hedges isn’t committed to fighting the evil, greed and stupidity in the world; indeed, he’s ferocious. As I wrote elsewhere:
There is always reason for hope, not because good is bound to prevail over evil, but simply because there will always be people who never give up fighting for what’s right. If you’re looking for a pithy way to express that, here’s a line from Hedges: “I don’t fight fascists because I think I will win. I fight fascists because they are fascists.” He’s not going away anytime soon, and trust me, if you’re on the wrong side of a humanitarian issue, he’s somebody you really don’t want to mess with.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes and let yourself be as blown away by the article as I was.
Sounds like the world and capitalism I’ve come to know over 70 years of life. Back to the original native American understanding…
Thanks a million for sharing this. It’s beautifully written and exactly along the lines I’ve been thinking for a few years now. I think of this time as a threshold between cultural stories. The modern, Western story we were raised on is the story of separation from and superiority over those “lesser than” (whether people, animals, soil, trees, “resources”). Emerging stories are aligned with Life and have ancient roots in indigenous ways of relating – belonging, connection and kinship with the natural world. For me, any change is all about the stories we tell ourselves. And being honest about the consequences of those stories in the systems we create – cities, economies, infrastructures of all kinds are all manifestations of this story that we are separate from the rest of the natural world. It’s time, as Thomas Berry (top of my own list of 10 great thinkers) taught, for a new story. Thanks again for all you are doing to help write it.
Many people will decry Hedges for his socialist outlook. Here’s the thing… Our ideology and leadership are quite irrelevant to Mother Nature and Father Time. They’re both perfectly happy to grow over our remains and chew them to dust, however fierce and damaging we might prove on the way down into the grave.
The question is whether we will choose life and learn to organize our civilization to move into sustainable resources, infrastructure, product streams and economics. Our collective behavior will determine whether the web of nature that we inhabit, ingest and imbibe will continue to sustain us.
The natural world will endure, however severely wounded. It is our progress as a human civilization, and our evolution, that are at stake. In this, we are dependent upon each other, and we always will be.
If we organize society to allow hoarding and the resulting scarcity, to allow hatred and the resulting strife, to allow ignorance and the resulting suffering, then our dismal fate is clear and inexorable. If we organize to wisely construct society for the enduring benefit of the whole people, and prevent the control of powerful interests that will remain mired in the status quo, then our future brightens and lengthens immeasurably.
The fork in the road isn’t beyond on the horizon, it’s at our feet, and lingering won’t preserve us. We must choose our path and move forward. This is not merely about our children anymore, it’s about our parents’ children.
“…The Native Americans got this right.” Is the thematic core of this article you so highly recommend. The lifestyle attempts to take clues from the natural environment, make few changes. In contrast with much of western civilization, there is a higher value on impermanence and the non-material.
It is a beautiful piece but it may be rightly placed in a storybook. Others have pointed out that what we idealize about such a life might be rather sophomoric. It can seem fine until we have to live there. Energy use is at a much lower state. Much of human activity is needed for subsistence. Living with nature often means that there is little protection from the onslaughts of nature and life is much more fragile.
In such an environment people must be much more robust or they will die. Mortality is a far more common occurrence. Women are busy producing and raising children who often die before majority. And while much can be said about “human invaders” attitudes toward indigenous people, it is the “natural” microscopic invaders like smallpox that caused far more damage. http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Columbus/dp/1400032059/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1440218256&sr=1-1&keywords=1491+book
While living within nature may seem like fertile ground upon which to build personal happiness, the very slowness of the society can be its downfall and a lack of inspiration to the inhabitants. I don’t deny that nature can be inspirational. I have been to Mt. Washington on more than 3 occasions. The first time I was hiking through. The second time I almost died in a sudden storm on a mid winter day trip. Once I went up in a car. But I would suggest it is often the challenges we face rather than the beauty that we enjoy that builds individual character and propels a society forward. One small example of this may be that more social trends come from the ghetto than from the 1%.
If increasing our collective consciousness and awareness is a valid personal or social goal then I am not convinced that being saturated in a natural environment is sufficient without a proactive effort. Motivation is often provided by attempts to change or understand our environment… something not necessarily part of a subsistence lifestyle.
In medicine we speak of diagnosis and treatment too often in one breath. Personally and socially native (aboriginal) societies have a good chance of a paced and careful observation. But it is Western society that may be better at action and changes. We need both with little time for overplaying one or the other.
Personally, I’d not ever suggest that humanity simply walk out of modern life into the wilderness hoping for an idyllic existence.
Rather, I observe the indisputable necessity that we must transform our social, architectural and industrial constructs. We must move into wiser and more efficient methods and processes that are compatible with long-term sustainability and with the preservation of the natural world upon which we’ll always depend.
The natural services so bountifully rendered to us by the undisrupted climate and the unspoiled wilds are immeasurable – though for decades we’ve been gaining a far greater understanding of their crucial value, and of the dangers to us inherent in our present impacts. We’ve already passed the point where we need an earth and a half to support our present consumption and wastefulness, and the trend lines show an exponential path to oblivion.
We’ve identified thousands of alternative techniques that can allow us to live well in modernity and concert with the biosphere – from far less carbon intensive farming methods (such as those developed by Cubans after the blockade and cessation of Soviet oil), to the significant advances in solar and wind, to architecture that harnesses natural heating and cooling.
However, the total cost of transition is growing, just as our circumstances grow more desperate. The longer we wait, the higher the cost, the deeper the damage done, and the more remote our opportunity for success.
We can’t depend solely on decentralized individual efforts, though they have value. We must also organize to demand that our leadership develop and enforce a framework and strategy for the necessary changes. We’ve also got to demand sufficient fiscal support for the process of transition through significant compulsory investment and regulation. The shift has to be planned, guided, funded and pushed, or it will never happen in time.
For that journey to have a hope in hell, we’ve got to have wise, honorable and independent leadership. The only way we’ll have that is to firmly prevent all forms of bribery, from revolving door to campaign contribution.
So… Step One – Stop the bribery.
Exactly right. We have technologies coming out our ears that will make a huge difference in the outcome for humankind on this planet, none of which require us to step back into the Dark Ages. I just happened to be remarking on one here: http://2greenenergy.com/2015/08/22/aquaponics-such-a-beautiful-subject/
Excellent stuff!
I have been on this mountain. I took my 6 months old son there may years ago. Well I remember the awe that the sight inspired! Even he, seemed to be impacted. I’m also proud of my heritage as a Unitarian Universalist. This quote by Thomas Starr King:
The world, as the almighty has made it, is not such a world as a monk, a mystic, a broker or a Calvinist would have made. They would have left out the pomp of sunsets and the glory of dawns, the delicious tints and harmonic hues of flowers and meadows, the grace of movements, the witcheries which moonlight works, the spiritual fascination which the gleam of stars produces. The broker would say it is a useless waste of Heavenly chemistry; and would have gone for the cheapest furnishings; the Calvinist that it injures the religious faculty of man and would have robed the earth and hung the heavens in black and grey. But God thinks differently. His universe is not only an algebra for mathematicians, and a sermon for theologians, but also and equally, a poem for the taste and heart of man. And I cannot interpret beauty in any other way than as one evidence, and a splendid revelation, of God’s love.
Is wonderful. We have lost love and even, I fear, a respect for love. We are killing ourself in a frenzy of despair and anger, wallowing in a self imposed punishment that may well prove fatal!
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Craig!
What an awe-inspiring comment. You are more than welcome.