THE BLOG OF DISQUIET :Qweir Notions,an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since2008.
Saturday, 22 June 2019
I don't think
that it is possible
to love 'Nature'
and also to
like humans.
9 comments:
Karl
said...
I think many people, myself included, like "Nature" only insofar as it provides an escape from humans and society. "Nature" in and of itself in the animal sphere is a brutal process of predation, "one big restaurant" and so on. I am not so sure what there is to celebrate in that. Most humans who move to the countryside relish the peace of being away from people, landscapes, sunsets etc. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want a hungry bear in their living-room.
Probably not. But that is an extreme and somewhat frivolous example. Americans lived with a multitude of bears before the whiteys came along to desolate the land and forest.
I guess my main point is that there will always be a fundamental ontological divide between us and "nature" due to our excess consciousness, language, ideation, concept-addiction etc. But I'd still rather live in the countryside than a contemporary megalopolis any day.
Actually, after having spent a lovely day in the Kent countryside yesterday, I retract my comments. I think it is possible to love Nature in and of itself. The "Nature" I was referring to is an intellectual product of jaded intellectuals and city-slickers.
I was just thinking early this morning how impoverished the Irish landscape is, compared even with that of Britain. Two reasons : compulsive cattle-farming and tree-clearingfor a thousand years; huge disastrous drainage-schemes in the 1930s and 1940s. Now what bogland remains is drying out and ready to be mowed, strimmed or planted with spruce.
Well exactly! Most of the rest of Ireland has been drained, and in any case, being an island off an island (no moles, no snakes, no shrews, etc.) it has a poor flora and fauna in any case. Especially since the last wolf was shot... Someone should put up a memorial.
9 comments:
I think many people, myself included, like "Nature" only insofar as it provides an escape from humans and society. "Nature" in and of itself in the animal sphere is a brutal process of predation, "one big restaurant" and so on. I am not so sure what there is to celebrate in that. Most humans who move to the countryside relish the peace of being away from people, landscapes, sunsets etc. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want a hungry bear in their living-room.
Probably not. But that is an extreme and somewhat frivolous example. Americans lived with a multitude of bears before the whiteys came along to desolate the land and forest.
I guess my main point is that there will always be a fundamental ontological divide between us and "nature" due to our excess consciousness, language, ideation, concept-addiction etc. But I'd still rather live in the countryside than a contemporary megalopolis any day.
Actually, after having spent a lovely day in the Kent countryside yesterday, I retract my comments. I think it is possible to love Nature in and of itself. The "Nature" I was referring to is an intellectual product of jaded intellectuals and city-slickers.
That's what the French call "La Nature" - parkland mown and strimmed and walked over until it is as much desert as the average English garden.
Alas most English countryside is like that. Manicured to death. A reflection of the national mentality? The Irish landscape is much freer and wilder.
I was just thinking early this morning how impoverished the Irish landscape is, compared even with that of Britain. Two reasons : compulsive cattle-farming and tree-clearingfor a thousand years; huge disastrous drainage-schemes in the 1930s and 1940s. Now what bogland remains is drying out and ready to be mowed, strimmed or planted with spruce.
I only really know West Cork and Kerry, which are still spectacular. Connemara is the jewel in the crown, being unbuildable-upon.
Well exactly! Most of the rest of Ireland has been drained, and in any case, being an island off an island (no moles, no snakes, no shrews, etc.) it has a poor flora and fauna in any case. Especially since the last wolf was shot... Someone should put up a memorial.
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