Jim Devine wrote: > > Carl Dassbach wrote: > > Van Gelder's proposals are, in my opinion, the beginnings of what socialism > > should look like. Nature and humanity must not be seen as "others", they > > must be seen as identical. Class based societies establish and maintain an > > exploitative relationship between humans and nature (primarily for for the > > benefit of the capitalist class) and an integral part of the "rational" > > reconstruction of a society under Socialism is to establishing a harmonious > > or a non-exploitative relationship between humans and nature. Van Gelder > > "theses" are ways to begin thinking about doing this. > > that makes sense to me (though I might disagree with details). > However, it's hard to imagine implementing socialist policies in a > capitalist society, especially given the general disorganization of > antiestablishmentarian forces.
Maybe. Alarm bells go off for me with the phrase "non-exploitative relationship between humans and nature." That is serious nonsense. "Exploitation" in a _negative_ sense refers strictly to human social relations. One can speak of _sensibly_ exploiting nature (including one's own natural powers: I'm _exploiting_ my nervous system as I write this). And "harmony" is an ethical term which is absurd in this context. The whole thing, because of this phrase reeks of the sort of vicious nonsense one finds in "deep ecology." Perhaps the phrase is merely careless. I hope so. Carrol _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
