“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”
- Edward O. Wilson, Research Professor in Entomology for the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University
Environmental misanthropy is a very dangerous pattern of thought. Human beings can limit, even mitigate our negative impact on the planet by altering the way we do a few things. Any and all arguments for the discontinuity of human existence could form the basis of an argument for genocide on an unprecedented scale.
In short, thinking like this is wrong. Utterly wrong.
True story that is why I didn’t reblog this the first time round.
I’m not misanthropic, not all human societies destroy the ecological fabric of the planet like ours does, but they have been systematically wiped out throughout history by colonizers who seek to conquer their land. That discontinuation you are looking for is not going to happen - the dominant culture will not undergo a voluntary shift to a sustainable way of living, it is against the primary urge of those in power: to facilitate resource extraction, or as we call it, “make money”.
Also…
while “…human beings can limit, even mitigate our negative impact…”, the problem is, while humans can, a very small percentage of humans do. There is a loud statement coming across in that fact. And while “Environmental misanthropy is a very dangerous pattern of thought” could be construed as a true statement in some contexts, human behavior is actually dangerous, and it is damaging. Thought is not.
Avoiding talking and thinking about these topics is “wrong”. Nothing will improve by putting our heads in the sand, and using doomsday scare tactics like saying “Any and all arguments for the discontinuity of human existence could form the basis of an argument for genocide on an unprecedented scale” is pretty melodramatic. But maybe the discussion was theory rather than practical reality. Personally, the tone and those statements brought to mind the thought and behavioral control tactics of dictators and the Catholic church - some of the most destructive leaders of humanity of all humanity’s history. Kind of ironic….
Advocating the shutting down of thought and dialogue with such apocalyptic wordsmithery validates my misanthropy. (But I don’t mean that in a bad way.) ~whyinthehell
