Cartesian Eco-Femdarkanism: she comes from the earth, therefore we are.

• Author: Payne, Troy L.
• Position: Relationship with the environment

1. INTRODUCTION: MEET YOURSELF II. OUR malCoNCEPTION OF NATURE: "[WE] MUST UNLEARN WHAT [WE] HAVE LEARNED". A. CULTURAL disCONNECTIONS: Religion, Science, and Philosophy Have Set Us Apart B. ECONOMIC huMANIFESTATIONS: Disproving Ghosts and Measuring Apparitions C. LAW: The misJUS Reflection III. THE POETIC SYLLOGISM: Will Logic Let Us Down? A. HUMILITY: Defined B. HUMBLE: Defended IV. THE HOPE V. CHOOSE YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS: OR CHOOSE ONE OF MINE "There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other is that heat comes from the furnace." (1)

1. INTRODUCTION: MEET YOURSELF

   The danger lies in the forgotten. Aldous Huxley, in his work The Doors of Perception, describes the brain as a reducing valve. (2) Its primary function is to maintain survival. To accomplish this, the brain acts as a filter, reducing the vastness of information it receives to the small trickle which best helps to provide for the body's immediate needs. (3) The bulk of what constitutes reality (infrared waves, sounds of ultra low or high pitch, smells of every variety, voices from the grave) is discarded as unnecessary or even counterproductive. Over time, our filter adjusts--as certain information gains importance in promoting survival, we grow more receptive; as some becomes less important, the valve tightens down. (4)

   Not long ago, all humankind lived off the land. Our connection with the Earth was quite apparent--we pulled our sustenance from the ground, made our homes in forests and valleys, and responded of necessity to discrete shifts in natural patterns. To survive, we learned to listen to the language of nature, softer than a whisper. Nature communicates with us all. Some hear as they always have. Some hear on special occasions: a single sunset remembered of thousands gone by, (5) the smell of one morning on the mountain. Others have certainly forgotten this unused language--wither the ability to see in the dark (6) or hear the quiet step of a predator's approach. Thereby, we forget the importance, the fragility, and the value (7) of our home.

   Aldo Leopold's point becomes clear: as we live in a culture which increasingly separates us (both physically and spiritually) from nature, we risk the very understanding that underlies a powerful appreciation for mid connection to the Earth. Might the instincts we depended on just a few short centuries ago fade away as we no longer use them? How might the loss of these instincts affect out lives?

   Instead of viewing the Earth and all of nature as an interconnected and interdependent community, we increasingly view ourselves as separate from the natural world. We have made vast changes to the environment to support rapid development and to control nature's outputs without thought of the effects on the biotic community's Science breaks the world down into its smallest component parts. Economics places a dollar value (or no value) on each of those parts. The legal system defines which of the parts are worth protecting for our use. Our consciousness provides us with the power to learn about and manipulate natural processes. We take our limited understanding of the processes and try to impose order--managing component parts like employees in a factory--instead of facilitating the natural balance. What we lack in this interaction with the natural world is another powerful aspect of human consciousness: an intuitive sense of right and wrong which would guide our use of knowledge.

   All is not lost. Remembrance of the forgotten requires very little honest effort: a morning in the forest by a fire, an afternoon on the river, a night under the stars. Leopold suggests working some earth for a garden or splitting a downed oak for winter heat to rekindle the connection. (9) These simple interactions with the world help us to transcend the over-sized, isolating ego Descartes and Freud built for us and move beyond the singular vision of self, toward a realization that we are a part of something more. These interactions will carry a different meaning for each individual, but there is unity in finding meaning in our relationship with nature.

   This piece is an effort to challenge readers to do just that: to step beyond the shackles of culture, law, science, and self to re-form a connection with nature, essential to health and life on this planet. I hope to connect in a more holistic way with the reader, to reach the part of her intuition that knows we need to relate to the world in a better way, rather than appeal to reason alone.

   I envision a new (old) relationship with the environment--a relationship which will re-(un-)focus the environmental movement generally and environmental law specifically--a relationship that interweaves feeling, intuition, and experience into our legal and social mechanisms. To do this, I do not draw a straight line from question to conclusion. This piece wanders a winding path, first asking the reader to reconsider some of the basic cultural, economic, and legal assumptions underlying the modern conception of the environment, then to reconsider the definitions of proof and value as a means to recognize the interconnection of all life. Finally, I argue that to re-forge a meaningful connection with nature we must adopt a much broader sense of humility: qualifying our individual perspective, appreciating the limits of reason, and respecting connection. Our vast knowledge has provided us with tremendous perspective, and I suggest we put it to use.

   I come to this topic not as an authority, but--as Leopold approached his work--as a humble pilgrim endeavoring to add my own intuition, knowledge, experience, and sense of what is good to a discussion much larger than myself. (10) For on the issues of what is beautiful and what is right, "the intuitive conclusion of the non-expert is perhaps as likely to be correct as that of the professional," (11) and in that capacity, all humans are equal. "Our science, so called, is always more barren and mixed up with error than our sympathies are." (12)

2. OUR malCONCEPTION OF NATURE: "[WE] MUST UNLEARN WHAT [WE] HAVE LEARNED" (13)

   There is no adequate word for the life spirit. There is no equation or formula to represent it. And if there were, those symbols would only be as deep as the paper that holds the print. There are things that we know, sense, and feel which defy explanation by symbol--the root of human logic. If we elevate a purely scientific understanding of our relationship with the environment above all else, we exclude the unquantifiable specters of emotion and intuition, without which we can only have a controlling and ultimately destructive relationship with nature. Reason is based on separation and classification--a useful means of recording and understanding mechanical processes. Though an amazing faculty of the human intellect, reason alone cannot govern or repair our relations with each other or with the natural world.

   In his study of the history of ecological understanding, Donald Worster demonstrates that behind the minds that have shaped our own ecological understanding lie cultural influences and individual experiences. (14) Those influences, both subtle and strong, reflect the authors' views of humanity's relationship with nature, which often rest on assumptions about the natural world that have proven incomplete, inaccurate, and dangerous. (15) To understand and form our own connection to the environment, we must review the assumptions on which we rely.

   1. CULTURAL disCONNECTIONS: Religion, Science, and Philosophy Have Set Us Apart

      Cultural ideas have a profound impact on the way we view our own relationship with nature. Over the past couple of millennia, teachings from religion, science, and philosophy have counseled a separation of human beings from the rest of the natural world by classifying and valuing human beings independent of and superior to nature.

      The very way we think demonstrates this disconnection. Classification is a part of human cognition; we learn by classifying new information into existing categories: history, science, math, and so on. We remember and communicate by reference to stock understandings, squeezing what we see into the boxes of what we have seen before. We order our world by distinction: we isolate differences and similarities as a means of identification--a chair is different from a dog; capitalism is different from socialism.

      Yet, in applying classification and difference to relationships--the immeasurable and unquantifiable connections between living things--our culture, our science, and our philosophy have done violence to life by threatening our connection with nature. (16) For instance, consider the cultural separation of people into two classes--primitive or civilized--one of humanity's initial social classifications. (17) Or maybe consider the traditional classification by judeo-religions of those who find spirituality in trees, rivers, or celestial bodies or who believe in magic and mysticism into one of their largest classes: the damned. (18) These divisions take root from the idea that living off the Earth or relating to it spiritually demonstrates a pre-historical baseness. (19) Modern classifications like "third-world" and "developing nation" display this same condescension toward those who have not yet conquered nature and mechanized their society. Somehow, the human story now "lies in our triumph over a hostile nature." (20) Christianity's central theme is illustrative: the good shepherd protects his flock against the horrors of nature--wolves and lions that live in the untamed wild--and leads his followers to greener pastures out of this lowly world. (21) Over time, separateness from wilderness became a mark of individual success and intelligence--the heart of autonomy--and a measure of cultural dominance. (22) Humanity became the sole repository of the divine on Earth. At the heart of these...