Democratic Forest Trusts (PDF)in Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2006. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress Symposium; 2005 September 30-October 6; Anchorage, AK.Democratic trusts with leadership elected by citizen-members promise to solve many of the problems afflicting both traditional government and corporate ownership of forestlands. This article explores these issues in some depth.Complexity and the Dream of Human Control of Eco-Systems (PDF)in Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2006. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress Symposium; 2005 September 30-October 6; Anchorage, AK.The title captures it. I then explore the kinds of institutions compatible with both nature and the modern world that are implied from this analysis.Rethinking the Obvious: Modernity and Living Respectfully With Nature (PDF)The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, Winter, 1997.Modernity is usually considered a wrong turn in terms of respect for and sustaining the environment. I argue the reality is more complex, for modernity has freed us from personal dependence on agriculture, ended the economic value of children, radically reduced the likelihood of large scale wat, and shifted much production to intellectual rather than material capital. This partially decouples society from nature, which gives us important opportunities as well as problems.Towards an Ecocentric Political Economy (PDF)The Trumpeter, Fall, 1996.This paper begins my effort at showing how liberal modernity can be harmonized with an ecocentric perspective on our relationship with the natural world. It is a corrective to much “free market environmental” literature that sacrifices Nature to money as well as to anti-liberal attacks by well-meaning but economically naïve environmentalists.Unexpected Harmonies: Self-Organization in Liberal Modernity and Ecology (PDF)The Trumpeter, Journal of Ecosophy, 10:1, Winter 1993This is my initial paper exploring how what I term ‘evolutionary liberal’ thought can be an important means by which society and nature can be brought into greater harmony. The other Trumpeter papers build on it.Deep Ecology and Liberalism: The Greener Implications of Evolutionary Liberalism (PDF)Review of Politics, Fall, 1996.Liberal thought and deep ecology are usually regarded as mutually exclusive. But the “evolutionary” tradition offers a way to integrate the two through commonalties in the work of David Hume, Michael Polanyi, Arne Naess, and Aldo Leopold, providing a stronger foundation for liberalism while strengthening the case for an ecocentric ethic.(Related subjects: Ecology)Saving Western Towns: A Jeffersonian Green Proposal (PDF)in Writers on the Range, Karl Hess and John Baden, eds., University Press of Colorado, 1998.Developmental pressures in the rural and small town West involve three groups: long term residents, new arrivals, and environmentalists. Today their interests often conflict. This conflict is in part the outcome of institutions which prevent harmonizing competing interests. The concept of developmental trusts, both for rural regions and for small communities offers a means whereby these interests can be harmonized for the benefit of all concerned.(Related subjects: Politics)Social Ecology, Deep Ecology, and Liberalism (PDF)Critical Review, 6: 2-3, 1992.Murray Bookchin is considered a leading radical environmental theorist. However, his analysis is incapable of leading humankind towards a more respectful and sustainable relationship with the natural world. Criticisms of Bookchin from both the deep ecology and evolutionary liberal perspective complement one another, pointing the way towards a better understanding of how modernity relates to the environment.The paper as a whole offers an early discussion of issues that are more clearly addressed in later papers, particularly Deep Ecology and Liberalism (1996) and the three Trumpeter articles in 1997, 1996, and 1993. However, there are other ideas in the article which have not been developed more thoroughly elsewhere.
The rapid appearance of books by atheists in the United States is a predictable result of the rise of intolerant religion. Nothing turns people off to religion faster than self-righteous fanatics and power junkies intent on telling you how to live, and claiming to do it in God’s name.
If Andrew Sullivan is right, it now appears that the same thing is happening in Iran.
Years ago I predicted that Iran might become the first stable democracy in the Arab/Persian part of the Islamic world, because they were getting a taste of democratic politics and a toxic dose of what happens when religion and politics mix too intimately. I based my prediction on the rise of the Enlightenment in the West after decades of bloody religious war and state churches.
My prediction has not come true yet, but it’s looking better.
posted July 3, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I’m a believer that actually supports atheists. As the 20th Century Lutheran theologian, Paul Tillich, pointed out: doubt is an essential component of faith; otherwise you know something or you’re deluded. The two latter categories do not equal faith. Gods bless the atheists.
posted July 3, 2009 at 2:15 pm
We’re hoping for the same thing here, Gus! You arguably have more respect for religion than I do. Nonetheless, I strongly dislike one sided right-wing portrayals of “Muslim nations”. This is why I will never get a job at the Ayn Rand Institute.
( : ( :
posted July 3, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Gus
From your keyboard to the Goddess’ monitor.
posted July 3, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I agree. Conservative Christianity and the RR as definitely colored my opinion of Christianity. While I realize that not all Christians or their sects are the same, conservative Christians have really got me to the point of looking at them with distain.
posted July 4, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Modern hysterical atheism grows from hubris and hastens its own demise
posted July 5, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Sounds like Kendall is just what everyone else has been referring too. It’s so nice to see that fanatics can learn from others.
posted July 6, 2009 at 8:34 am
An important difference between Arabs and Iranians is that Iranians had a glorious civilisation before Islam, and Islam was initiall imposed upon them against their wishes. The Arabs, on the other hand, therefore had little before Islam, and it is in fact arguable that the Arabs as a people are a creation of Muhammad. Patriotism / ethnic pride therefore oppose Islam in the case of Iran, but support it in the case of the Arabs. I therefore suspect that, once secularisiation starts, Iran will rapidly become non-Islamic, but I find that more difficult to imagine in the case of the Arabs.
posted July 11, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Rombald,
What an interesting post! You share such important information. I look forward to hearing much more from you.