Components of Culture 1: Earth

In my previous post, I wrote about culture happening in the overlap and intersections between four main arenas: 

• natural/environmental, 
• spiritual/value-oriented, 
• social/organizational, 
• and aesthetic/expressive. 

In this post, I want to begin with a look at the natural/environmental arena, or the Earth, to put it simply. I put it this way because the earth is foundational to our existence. We are creatures of the earth, along with every other living and non-living thing. There is no escaping this basic fact. Whatever happens to the earth happens to us. 

Perhaps the greatest crisis facing the whole of humankind is environmental.  Ever since the publishing of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, in the early 1960’s, public attention across the world has been drawn to the dangers of pesticides, pollution, hazardous and nuclear waste, the degradation of ecosystems and the accelerated rate of species extinction.  The scientific community is virtually unanimous in declaring that global warming is occurring, and that the cause lies at the feet of the industrialized nations.  The consequences for global climate change are not known for certain, but what is certain is that the poorer nations will be the most hurt by whatever changes may occur.  At this juncture, the connection between environmental concerns and social justice concerns becomes transparent.

The environmental crisis can be understood to be a deeply cultural crisis.  Human alienation and disconnection from the natural world has resulted in the exploitation and destruction of large sections of the natural world, and the extinction of many species of plants and animals.  Much of this alienation has occurred as a direct result of the rise of industrial cultures, and the concurrent development of such cultural systems as education, politics, scientific exploration, and psychology.  These systems work together to form the social infrastructure of industrialism.  

Industrialism reconfigures and replaces the natural world as the accepted basis for all life.  It does this by defining human subjectivity as being separate and distinct from the natural world—in fact, making “human” and “nature” separate, even opposing categories.  Industrialism reduces the individual into an entity divorced from the “outside world” and reduces the world to a pile of “raw materials” to be consumed and manipulated by the autonomous individual.

In his book, Nature and Psyche: Radical Environmentalism and the Politics of Subjectivity,[1] David Kidner critiques the culture of industrialism and argues for a reconfiguration of selfhood as integrated within nature.  What is needed is an integrative structure.  That integrative structure is culture.  Kidner proposes the development of a culture that structurally re-integrates human beings back into the natural world. This environmentally re-integrative culture would take heed of the interplay between consciousness and unconsciousness, and would recognize the symbolic resonance between the natural world and the forms and feelings which make up the unconscious.

But how is such an environmentally integrated culture to be created?  Various environmental movements such as Deep Ecology, Ecopsychology, Social Ecology and Ecofeminism all approach the issue from various angles, and each supplies clues and tentative solutions.  In addition, gatherings of concerned scientists, religious leaders and other professionals have voiced concern about the environment and human society.  The recent conferences and publication series concerning the religions of the world and ecology is one example of how scholars and religious practitioners are addressing the relationship between spirituality, religious practice and living as part of a natural world.

One way to begin this re-integration into the environment is to get out in it. This may seem rather obvious, but with more and more people migrating to the cities, there are many people who never have any sort of meaningful interaction with the vast more-than-human world. My soul and psyche have been nurtured, nourished, and enriched deeply by the times I have spent at church camp, boy scout camp (when I was younger), and camping on my own and with family. And it is important to keep this in mind: in order to meaningfully connect with the natural world, we must take it on its own terms. If we engage the natural world strictly in terms of what we can get out of it, as a resource for us to exploit, or as a source of personal recreation, then we are treating it as a commodity.

The natural world, the earth, has its own subjectivity as much as we do. Every living being has its own subjectivity, and must be engaged appropriately, and respectfully. We are all fellow creatures. This recognition and everything we do based upon this recognition lays the foundation for reintegrating ourselves, and offers first steps towards an environmentally-reintegrated culture.

In my next post, I will lyrically reflect upon how the land has unscripted itself upon me, and me upon it.
  

[1] David W. Kidner, Nature and Psyche: Radical Environmentalism and the Politics of Subjectivity, (Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 2001).