Christoph Reuss wrote:
Hi Brad, glad you're back on FW!
Brad McCormick wrote:
I do not think one needs to view "the earth" in any kind of benevolent
and quasi-personal sense
to "take good care of it". To take good care of the earth can also be
enlightened (not the guru kind) selfishness. Analogy: As the
Rockefellers say: you have to treat the workers well today to be
able to make profits from them 50 years from now.
Well, my "Rockefeller reminiscence" does go back to the late 60s....
These days, predators use a different motto... workers as throwaway items...
thanks to globalization, there are enough slaves waiting in line to replace
the worn-out slave as he falls down...
Remember, Darwinean evolution
don't give a sh-t about anybody or anything -- it's the natural analog of
what persons create in the form of "free enterprise"
Ah, but evolution is about long-term sustainability whereas
"free enterprise" is pretty much about the opposite...
I don't think this is correct. Evolution *looks to us* like it is about
long-term sustainability when the environment is relatively constant.
But clearly, 66 million years ago, the dinosaurs would have evolved
toward better long-term sustainability had they adapted to the
meteor that was a million years ahead. They had enough time to
do it! (Well, maybe some of them did, since we still have birds
flitting about....)
It has been pointed out that evolution optimizes for the local
niche -- what in algebra we call "local maxima" (or minima as the
case may be). All sorts of otherwise dysfunctional creatures
prove "fittest" in their niches (peacock's and their plumes, etc.).
Just look at those fittest to survive in the New Global Economy....
Evolution is all about -- "sound and fury signifying nothing", at
least unless one believes in "Intelligent Design" or some such....
May I repeat that the philosophical notion most in tune
with Evolution is Heidegger's concept of "Es gibt" -- "there is".
Whatever-is just is what it is, "without why". One day
a big meteor hits the Yucatan, and the next day one does not....
Which, when I think about it, is not entirely discouraging, since
it implies that maybe tomorrow a big meteor will hit the White House,
knocking out myself, alas, but also the reign of the neo-conservatives,
too -- which is, at least in objectifying reflection, some compensation.
Oh, yes, it would also knock out evolution for as long as it would
take the survivors [mostly grasses and cockroaches...]
to re-evolve into science-doing beings, *if*
ever they would do so --- for evolution is a scientific theory,
i.e., thoughts entertained in reflective self-consciousness[es?].
To paraphrase Heraclitus:
So vast is the extent of thought
that it can never encounter anything outside itself.
(Sort of like trying to find a pebble in photographs of pebbles, only
moreso....)
Do you disagree?
\brad mccormick
We need to take good care of the earth
because we are at its mercy. We are under extortion from the
mindless bringer of oncogenes and orgasms and everything else.
Sort of like, if we were taken hostage by
terrorists, we might find it wise to look out for their well being to
try to minimize the damage they do to us.
"Environmental Stockholm Syndrome", huh...
The problem is that "we" aren't "we"... i.e. the worst polluters are not
nearly exactly those who have to bear the worst results of climate change.
As to the other part about civilization being energy intensive, that's
just not true. It's large populations, wasteful social arrangements,
the craving for ever more trinkets, etc. that are the energy hogs.
Exactly. If the USA reduces its energy consumption _by_ 65% (6 times Kyoto)
it arrives at the civilization level of....... Switzerland!
Btw, Lovelock is a hopeless quack, at the latest since he demanded nuclear
powerplants...
----
M.Blackmore wrote:
Perhaps its time for the Gaians to start building up databases of the major
earth-killers and commencing to do some Gaia-enhancing assasinations?
Wasn't this the Unabomber's approach? Didn't get very far. Anyway, if Gaia
is a living being, why can't she get rid of those guys herself?? Acts like
Katrina aren't well-targeted by far, but perhaps she could "develop" some
viruses that target SUV drivers or something? Instead of allowing the
_reversion_ of the "causality principle" -- that cyclists get gassed by
SUVs but not the other way around...
Cheers,
Chris
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that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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