Berry, James F.

The Trumpeter - Journal of Ecosophy (Athabasca University)

Trumpeter (1991)ISSN: 0832-6193CORE CONCEPTS FOR TALKING TO STUDENTSJames F. BerryTrumpeterCORE CONCEPTS FOR TALKING TO STUDENTS 2You are members of a generation which inherits a diminished earth; degradedair and water and soil and sunshine. Wind, water, earth and fire, the basicsupports for life, are all badly damaged. If you carry on with the life style andthe philosophy of your parents and grandparents your children will inherit anuninhabitable earth. You must live lives radically different from the lives theylived. Your principal problem is to defend the earth from further damage and toinaugurate the great healing of the earth that is so essential. For the earth is nowin a state of extreme distress from which it is doubtful that complete recoverycan be made. But if recovery is possible the contribution of your generation iscritical to it. You must form a new understanding of how the human speciesrelates to the rest of creation.The proof that we, your parents, have wrongfully perceived the meaning ofour presence in the world is in the fact that our lives are considerably withoutmeaning and that the earth is being turned into a wasteland. If nothing elseconvinces you of this, look at our behavior. The majority, while we are notinvolved in the drug culture or in crime, are committed to consumerism, thesupreme pathology of our time; the pathology that is wrecking the earth.What we aimed at in the past few hundred years we were successful at achievingand now we find that principal parts of that achievement and the basic goalswere based on exploitation; exploitation of native peoples and minority races,exploitation of women, and above all, exploitation of the natural world. The Eu-ropeans came to the new world with plunder on their minds and that has neverchanged. Plunder is still a ruling motivation in our culture, which, combinedwith a shortsighted disregard for those who succeed us, results in what we seetoday, a society with little meaning and without meaningful goals. We treasurefreedom of the individual and individual goals are possible, thus we have a smallpopulation of noble persons who spend their lives in the search for knowledge,the pursuit of justice and the relief of suffering; otherwise wealth and power,if not just survival, are the goals for individuals. But noble community goalsare nearly non-existent and nobody has ever heard of species goals. No wonderyouth is soured, alienated, and has turned to empty-headed consumerism, thrillseeking, sports and drugs. We thought that science and technology would bringon an earthly paradise and now that science and technology have done theirbest we are flooded with labor saving appliances, and amusements and trashpiles so huge we are going to drown in them, and we are immersed in a deepsense of malaise. We have fifty thousand nuclear bombs. Just a few will bringon nuclear winter but greedy and power-mad people can persuade us that weneed more. And w&#224; can sit and be entertained continually, while ourminds atrophy and turn rancid.The culture is brainsick as well as soulsick. The culture made it OK to destroythe source of life, to lay waste that which the human can not do without. Aculture which allows its topsoil to be washed away and blown away and pavedover can only be called sick. Thomas Berr&#249; says the culture is autisticCopyright 1999 TrumpeterCORE CONCEPTS FOR TALKING TO STUDENTS 3which is certainly true, but I say it is brainsick, that its thinking apparatus isdiseased.The noble people in the society today are those who work for justice for theoppressed and relief for those who suffer. But who is thinking of what therescued ought to aim their lives toward. After you are made whole, then what?;after you are saved, then what? Do you join the meaningless yuppies in suburbialeading empty suburban lives? Those are the questions that Thomas asks andthe answer our society gives is a blank stare. The truth is that you are notbeing urged toward more meaningful goals by the teaching establishment, byyour parents or by the culture, beyond the sub-goals of social justice and a goodconscience. If you want to spend your life in service to a higher good nobodyhas any guidance to give you.Almost nobody, that is. There is Thomas. It is Thomas and a group of thosewho understand him who now strive to define the goals of the reinvented human:species goals, goals derived from pondering on the meaning of the human speciesas members of the earth community and having responsibilities pertinent to thesuccess of the earth and the earth community.Heretofore the culture has never defined for itself, or even thought about, pro-grams for contributing to the success of the life system of planet earth. Hereto-fore there has never even been awareness of such a responsibility. Heretofore theculture has been autistic, unable to include any but the human in its pursuitof well-being. As a result, when you graduate and set out to make your waythrough life there will be very little prospect for getting work which will befulfilling as well as rewarding. That must be changed.The changes that are necessary are as earth shaking as the changes that havecharacterized any great shift in perceptions. One could liken the change to thatwhich began when the fifteenth and sixteenth century philosophers reinterpretedthe meaning of the earth and inspired the birth and flourishing of the mechanicalage and industrialism. But unlike that entry into a new age this one cannotbe done gradually. The earth is in such extremity that its rescue has to beginimmediately on a broad front.”Well now”, you say to me, ”how do I go about it?” And I answer that theoutlines of how to go about it are emerging, but they are very faint. In thefuture, decisions must be made in the understanding that the well-being of thenatural world takes on a co-equal status with the well-being of the human.The economic system is particularly critical. Current economics is based ongrowth and maximum production and consumption. The earth cannot endurethat approach. We must take up an economics based on conservation of thenatural wealth, the capital of the biosphere, and on minimum production andconsumption. It is certain, I believe, that there is enough, and more, of what isneeded for human well-being and earth well-being as well. What we do not haveCopyright 1999 Trumpeteris a system for seeing to it that every creature has access to what is needed. Alsothere is surely enough brainpower to invent an adequate distribution system. Ifthe economic problem can be solved, the rest can be also.Your future is to be found in working toward a situation where the humanspecies is devoted not only to its own welfare but to the welfare and the successof the whole life community. This is not a matter for dismay but for joy andcelebration.Citation FormatBerry, James F. (1991) CORE CONCEPTS FOR TALKING TO STUDENTS Trumpeter: 8,3. http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?6.8.3.7Document generated from IXML by ICAAP conversion macros.See the ICAAP web site or software repository for details

Core Concepts for Talking to Students

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Core Concepts for Talking to Students

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The Trumpeter - Journal of Ecosophy (Athabasca University)