Human exceptionalism is under bitter attack on many fronts, one of which is radical environmentalists. One such fellow writes in the Guardian that human exceptionalism is leading to apocalypse, the only response to which is a “negotiated” surrender to poverty and dislocation. “Is There Any Point in Fighting Industrial Collapse,” is a revealing dialogue between two environmentalists. From the first entry by the anti human exceptionalist Paul Kingsnorth:
The writing is on the wall for industrial society, and no amount of ethical shopping or determined protesting is going to change that now. Take a civilisation built on the myth of human exceptionalism and a deeply embedded cultural attitude to “nature”; add a blind belief in technological and material progress; then fuel the whole thing with a power source that is discovered to be disastrously destructive only after we have used it to inflate our numbers and appetites beyond the point of no return. What do you get? We are starting to find out…
Some people…believe that these things should not be said, even if true, because saying them will deprive people of “hope”, and without hope there will be no chance of “saving the planet”. But false hope is worse than no hope at all. As for saving the planet – what we are really trying to save, as we scrabble around planting turbines on mountains and shouting at ministers, is not the planet but our attachment to the western material culture, which we cannot imagine living without. The challenge is not how to shore up a crumbling empire with wave machines and global summits, but to start thinking about how we are going to live through its fall, and what we can learn from its collapse.
In his first counterpoint, George Monbiot makes an important point about such advocacy:
I detect in your writings, and in the conversations we have had, an attraction towards – almost a yearning for – this apocalypse, a sense that you see it as a cleansing fire that will rid the world of a diseased society.
Exactly. Radical environmentalism has become a new earth religion, yearning for Eden, and seeing humanity as the impediment. Reject human exceptionalism, and pretty soon, you find yourself in one form of nihilism or another–including, in some cases, the hope for an apocalyptic collapse such as a pandemic or other catastrophe that will punish us and restore the world to its pre human glory.
Kingsnorth so much as admits the truth of Monbiot’s observation by never denying it. Indeed, he writes:
Civilisations live and die by their founding myths. Our myths tell us that humanity is separate from something called “nature”, which is a “resource” for our use. They tell us there are no limits to human abilities, and that technology, science and our ineffable wisdom can fix everything. Above all, they tell us that we are in control…
I think our task is to negotiate the coming descent as best we can, while creating new myths that put humanity in its proper place. Recently I co-founded a new initiative, the Dark Mountain Project, which aims to help do that. It won’t save the world, but it might help us think about how to live through a hard century. You’d be welcome to join us.
How disappointed do y’all think Kingsnorth will be when the apocalypse doesn’t come? Very, I suspect. (If we collapse, it won’t be global warming, it will be nuclear war.) In any event, I don’t know anything about the Dark Mountain Project. But I intend to find out.
August 18th, 2009 | 6:26 pm
I don’t see this as Nihilism. Nihilists are just depressed or at most apathetic since nothing matters.
There’s more at work.
Pascal observed that Man is both the most glorious animal and the most vile animal. To create the internet or to go to the moon requires Man. But to create Auschwitz or the Killing Fields also requires Man.
Radical environmentalists and the Voluntary Human Extinction movement, see half Pascals observation…the half that the Transhumanists and Human Triumphalist are blind to. The opposite is true too. As long as both sides are about balanced, I’m not worried. They ultimately thwart each other’s plans.
But the moment one side gets too strong, watch out. In the mean time, IMO, Christians need to ignore then and focus on keeping the average Joe or Jane away from these fringes. The Elites on all sides tend to look down on the average Joe or Jane as being uninformed, but IMO there’s more sense in the mistaken part of the common sense of Joe or Jane than in the “true” part of Wittgenstein. But Wittgenstein sounds more learned, so Joe or Jane downplay what they know (however imperfect) in favour of what they don’t understand but have faith in.
August 18th, 2009 | 8:05 pm
>>Above all, they tell us that we are in control…<S almost three years so let’s use “IT” wisely!
They say that all the brains of the world thought that “IT” would all end in the year “2000″ which only goes to show how much “Thought” really knows.
I don’t believe “IT” neither but they are saying that a group called “The DMP” is studying an assteroid which is 100% larger than our earth and “IT” will hit our world when I reach 66 years of age and “IT” can’t be stopped by humans science. To make a long story short, we are on our way to creating the beginning of this universe one more time unless…]
I hear ya Wesley! Nice try Victor but just forget bout “IT” cause there won’t be another spiritual group hug this time.
Peace:)
August 19th, 2009 | 8:51 am
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August 19th, 2009 | 9:42 am
Does anyone else think it’s a little ironic that a man almost yearning for a second great flood walks around in nice suits, eating food that isn’t spoiled, knows enough about technology to craft a website and relies on an industrial printer to produce his tree-murdering manifesto? Why doesn’t he just become Amish and get over the crisis early? (I suspect the recognition though that their could be a power higher than the ball of iron we live on would be just too much for him).
I looked at the website, and their manifesto is well written and they seem intelligent, and I even agree with a few of their points, but they come off sounding like the crazy sidewalk philosophers in Monty Python’s the Life of Brian. Good point Ralph, but I would say this is half-baked nihilism that hasn’t reached it’s natural conclusion yet.
August 19th, 2009 | 10:53 am
The anthrocentric view of the world that has been held for much of the last four centuries, essentially since the “enlightenment” is rightly claimed as corrosive. It places man in a situation where he takes his instruction from God in Genisis to have dominion over the earth and its animals to mean that man can take whatever he wants and subjegate the world for his own desires.
Before the enlightenment, however, the world was largly viewed in a Theocentric way. God was the center, Mankind was part of creation given a share in God’s own life, so just as God cared for all creation so should we, that meant a reasonable use of nature but never an abuse. Mankind was the greatest in power next to all the animals but equally great in responsibilty. People did not universally follow this standard just as today people have a wide veriaty of opinions but this was the basic worldview that affect the beliefs of that day and age.
St. Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures is an excellent example of this idea. As are many of the prayers in the Rituale Romanum.
St. Francis’ Caticle of the Creatures:
Most High, all-powerful, good Lord,
all praise is yours, all glory, all honor,
and all blessing.
To you, alone, Most High, do they belong.
No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce your name.
All praise be yours, my Lord,
through all you have made,
and first my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day;
and through whom you give us light.
How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor;
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
All Praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon
and the stars; in the heavens you have made them,
bright, and precious, and fair.
All praise be yours, my Lord,
through Brothers wind and air, and fair and stormy,
all the weather’s moods,
by which you cherish all that you have made.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,
so useful, humble, precious and pure.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you brighten up the night.
How beautiful is he, how cheerful!
Full of power and strength.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through our Sister
Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us,
and produces various fruits with colored flowers
and herbs.
All praise be yours, my Lord,
through those who grant pardon for love of you;
through those who endure sickness and trial.
Happy are those who endure in peace,
By You, Most High, they will be crowned.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,
From whose embrace no mortal can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those she finds doing your will!
The second death can do them no harm.
Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks
And serve him with great humility.
August 19th, 2009 | 10:58 pm
I don’t know about Mr. Kingsnorth, but I know a lot of people (self-described “humanists”) who agree with his basic anti-human premises -and oddly enough, everyone of them also support Obamacare, in the naive belief that our beneficent government will thereby afford everyone healthier happier lives at no cost. But if we follow the “Dark Mountain” ideology to its logical conclusion, then we must strenuously oppose the last two centuries’ advances in medical technology
http://cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00056796.htm
- that enable us human vermin to live longer, healthier lives. In our very ten-digit numbers, we are a far greater threat to “The Planet” than any mere nuclear expolsion or petroleum pollution. If we are serious about saving The Planet, we should ban the application of any medical discovery made after 1800. No penicillin! No washing hands before delivering newborns! No painkillers! No anti-depressants or anti-psychotics! No vaccines! But leeches galore! Reducing life expectancy back to 35 years or so would result in a gratifying population collapse, giving over large swathes of currently “human-infested” territory back to the pure unblemished wilderness. And instead of wondering whether America will be overtaken by China or India, we can go back to more fundamental questions, such as whether humans will be overtaken by rats, lice or typhoid.
August 26th, 2009 | 12:58 am
[...] Radical Environmentalist’s Attack on Human Exceptionalism and Economic Collapse Go Hand-in-Hand By leviticus20 http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2009/08/18/radical-environmentalists-attack-on-huma… [...]
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