>betty
>
>i don't mean to be rude, but ....
>
>the statement reason should be valued over emotion (a paraphrase) is a major
>myth that ecofeminists, especially spiritual ecofeminists are trying to
>transform. reason has traditionally been associated with masculinist
>thinking, while emotional thinking has been traditionally demeaned as female.
Sure, I know about that one. I simply look at thinking (reason, logic) as a
human attribute and not assigning a sex specific quality to it. Most of us
know women think better than men anyway. It follows that if reason is our
means of survival we should be guided by thinking, not emotional feelings
and moods. No sex has a monopoly on reason. (Well, maybe women do.)
>
>secondly, the statement that humans are the dominant species is another major
>myth that ecofeminists, as well as deep ecologists are trying to transform.
They may be trying to transform it, but a fact is a fact. They are trying
to avoid or twist the reality. There is much proof that humans are the
dominant species on planet earth at this point in time. Humans are the most
versatile. I can't think of any other species that can survive at both
poles and everywhere in between, go to the moon and back, and cruise around
a mile or so below the surface of the sea. Very few if any lifeforms can
outsmart or escape a curious human. There are a whole bunch of other
attributes uniquley human that established us over time as the dominant
life form. We are not as specialized as other life forms and that's a help.
All this doesnt make us moral or better, kinder or anything. Just dominant.
> Just because we have more stuff, or because we kill more of our own species,
>and others, does this make us dominant?
Yes, in part. As I said there are other human things that combine to make
us the dominant species. Collective memory in the form of books, libraries
and vast stores of recorded knowledge that we have assembled is but one
other apsect of this dominance. Its our ability to think, to reason that is
the key to the dominance. This fact is morally neutral. I mean what we do
with our intelligence is another issue completely.
>I live in an apartment, does this
>make me inferior to a person who lives in a mansion? Is a women who gets
>beaten or killed by her husband inferior because she is not as strong?
Of course not. The above inter-human comparisons have no relevance whatever
to the fact we can dominate other living species, while they cannot
dominate us. Not even viruses can dominate us as a species. They can make
our individual lives miserable or kill us, but nothing for eons has gotten
the better of humanity as a species. So were dominant. A simple biological
fact.
>Instead of spending so much time on the computer, please spend some time
>reading Reweaving the World, Healing the Wounds, both ecofeminist
>anthologies, then maybe our discussion can progress beyond the "I like meat,
>and therefore should eat it" arguements.
Well maybe. But I enjoy the computer (something else humans dominate in).
>
>kelley
