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.
During the tumult of my move, now finally subsiding, a piece I wrote on the future of Paganism appeared on the Patheo site. It has a number of very though provoking pieces on this subject by prominant members of our community. That includes Erynn Rowan Laurie who frequently comments here.
posted September 4, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Hey Gus
I didn’t think I commented enough here to qualify as “frequent,” but thanks for the shout-out. I thought the articles over at Patheos were a mixed bag, but there were certainly some good ones in that mix. It was good to see you contributing to the dialogue as well.
posted September 5, 2010 at 2:54 pm
I see the future of Paganism as being bright. There are many things we, as Pagans, can offer the world. Granted, the wall of dogma is going to become stronger because of fear and reaction but that doesn’t change our message. For example: we are all connected. It’s hard to rape and ravage something that is a part of you which is why many religions teach the Earth is a dead thing. No connection, no responsibility as an example.
Personally, I still do not care for the christopagan movement. I still want to say, make up your mind, are you Christian or Pagan.
posted September 5, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Gus,
Thank You for the post, and the article you posted at patheos. I found the article very informative and interresting. I have 2 roommates who are christian, my daughter is buddhist, and I am pagan, yet we all have some really great discussions on faith (not religion), the more we talk the more we have in common, and the less differences their are between us.
I had a discussion with a friend who told me “I have met satan twice, and even he doesn’t want me.” As we talked, it turns out, he was feeling as though he really didn’t ‘belong’ anywhere. He and I could agree that spirituality is really where we all belong and it dosen’t really matter our personal beliefs, we are all on the same journey.
Blessings.