The modern project has been many different things, but perhaps foremost it has been a movement to forget our ecological identity. The psychological reasons for this are understandable. The wild is scary and dangerous. Our ancestors can be forgiven for believing their purpose was to tame it. But now that we have largely—by appearances—tamed nature, it is unforgivable that we continue to pave it… Even more unforgivable is that we continue to pave and to repress the nature in our selves.
Theodore Richards, Creatively Maladjusted: The Wisdom Education Movement Manifesto
Joy: California Redwoods, 2011
We speak condescendingly of children who are “at-risk”;
but what of our at-risk-civilization, -species, and -planet?
– Theodore Richards, Creatively Maladjusted: The Wisdom Education Movement Manifesto
I would say the main movement within modernity is toward individualism and the primacy of rationality. There’s a way in which that necessarily involves a withdrawal from the whole. There was a time when we were motivated by subduing nature. Now I think we’ve just forgotten about it.
By: souldoula on February 27, 2013
at 1:46 pm
I agree with your comments and thanks for them. More on this in Cosmosophia.
By: theodorecosmosophia on February 27, 2013
at 1:57 pm