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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.
It’s been hard to concentrate on this blog since I returned
from Utah. Really hard. While the trip, like
any trip with a 9 year old, was not without its aggravations, being immersed in
such powerful, beautiful and peaceful land was a kind of spiritual balm. I set aside thinking about politics and
keeping up with the daily news, in favor of immersing myself in the energies of
sky and stone, river and rain, juniper and pine, rain and snow. Washington, DC, seemed on another planet,
as energetically it is. Even Pagan
personalities, politics, and philosophy seemed far off compared to hiking
across slick rock benches to gaze at soaring arches or looking down and up and
out from atop sheer canyon walls or watching clouds and snow flurries caress the La Salles.
Letting the energy of the land sweep through me, healing and nourishing. The high Southwest has always caused my
soul to soar.
Returning was a kind of culture shock. It was wonderful to see my friends and
not so wonderful to be back in what passes for civilization.
I’d like to become a hermit, but I care about people too
much. I’d miss my friends and get lonely. If I could take my friends with me I’d never come back.
But for some reason they have lives of their own.
So here I am. But I’m sure sympathetic to Ed Abbey.
I have all these notes I made mostly immediately upon
returning, notes on Las Vegas, America, and the canyon country, notes on
friendly Mormons and how time changes on the trail and then energy of the
land. Eventually more of them will
get into this blog. But oddly while I’ve been writing as much or more than
ever, it has not been about current events, Pagan or otherwise. It’s been on bigger themes, ones that
provide the context through which we look at daily events.
I needed to step back from things to find the time to get a
breath, separate myself from the mix of misery, pain, and despair that so often
seems the only sane response to current events. My trip certainly helped me do that, but A Pagan’s Blog has
not been the beneficiary so far.
posted December 4, 2010 at 6:16 am
Gus, thanks for the insights into the culture and vibes of various places. Once your new travel experiences begin to permeate your being I am certain you will glean many new insights. Then your blog will benefit and so will your readers.Ac
posted December 4, 2010 at 1:33 pm
It pays to take a step away from the bench and get the big picture now and then. The daily news cycle can give you and ulcer and skew your perspective. The big picture reminds us that our problems are important to us, but they are not the sum of all that exists. On the bigger scale, they are laughably insignificant. Still, since we can’t hide out in the mountains or canyons, I suppose we’ll have to have another crack at them. Monday.
posted December 5, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Sometimes taking a time out in nature by yourself everyday is something that would help you out. There’s the crazy human world that doesnt make much sense and then there’s the real world. The natural world is healing and we can learn so much just by listening.