Friday, April 30, 2010

Evolution Croak

John Cole, who this bird mostly thinks well of, writes:
It is a shame that most Americans can’t make the connection that if this is happening to the animals, think about what the effects on humans will be.
So, what are humans, robots? But it put me in mind of a Gregory Bateson quote:
If you put God outside and set him vis-a-vis his creation and if you have the idea that your are created in his image, you will logically and naturally see yourself as outside and against the things around you. And as you arrogate all mind to yourself, you will see the world as mindless and therefore not entitled to moral or ethical consideration. The environment will seem to be yours to exploit. Your survival unit will be your and your folks or conspecifics [members of your species] against the environment of other social units, other races, and the brutes and vegetables.

If this is your estimate of your relation to nature and you have an advanced technology, your likelihood of survival will be that of a snowball in hell. You will die either of the toxic by-products of your own hate, or, simply, of overpopulation and overgrazing. The raw materials of the world are finite.—Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind

I want to start writing more about religion and philosophy. There are issues coming up that I want to address & this is one of them.

1 comment:

Ted K said...

Hey Raven,
Nice post on Gregory Bateson, especially after the British Petroleum F-up/crime in the Gulf of Mexico.