Readings! Green Philosophy! Revolution!
With all of the readings for today, the overwhelming commonality seems to be concept of Fundamental Societal Change. Okay - change is essential - I can get on board with that. I have thought for some time now that the Capitalist/Free market mentality has gone crazy and that to expect the economy to continue to grow forever - at an "acceptable" (read CRAZY FAST!!) rate - is completely unrealistic. I can get on board with working towards a less hierarchical society that no longer worships luxury commodities or marginalizes people based on race, sexual orientation, sex, or occupation.
HOWEVER - I find some of the assumptions made by Green organizations short-sighted. In Pepper's Defining Environmentalism, Green philosophy apparently assumes that "Social hierarchies are unnatural, undesirable, and avoidable." So, I can agree with the second two: undesirable - absolutely, avoidable - maybe....
BUT unnatural? - Hardly. Being an Anthropology major, I have just taken Primate Studies in Fall 2012. Trust me - social hierarchies are very probably the reason we have such large brains. Brain size in non-human primates is closely correlated with social complexity - and in turn - it seems that by evolving the capacity to handle complex social rules and structure, primate species are generally more reproductively fit........So what am I trying to say?
Humans are quite possibly genetically disposed to create, recognize and exploit social systems. In order to effect the change we want to see as "Greenies" - we need to recognize the fundamental nature of Humans as primates.
I am also currently taking "The New Republic" - a history course about the first 40 years or so of the United States. The arguments pondered and made during this time in our history are actually quite similar to the considerations of Green Philosophy. The Founders were overwhelmingly concerned with the direction of their New Republic - should it stay a primarily agricultural/rural loose confederation of states? - Or should the federal government be strengthened and the "pedal be put to the metal" on domestic industry???
Anyway - interesting stuff - I can email anyone some of the readings from the history class...
Interesting history course. I was thinking something similar the other day about hierarchy and nature- and that yes, in deed, other species have levels of hierachy through out their situational group living structures. Wonder what the authors might say to that
ReplyDelete