[Greenbuilding] Martha Stewart
Tim Vireo Keating
t.keating at rainforestrelief.org
Fri Feb 18 23:04:42 CST 2011
Sorry for the long post butŠ I find myself struck
by so many aspects of this conversation that I
simply cannot keep silent.
When I see references to Star Trek, I am reminded
of my assessment of the Star Trek mythology. The
philosophy seemed to change a bit with the
various shows, but only a little. It suggested
that, in the future, humans had been able to
solve all the problems plaguing their tenure on
Earth and then, using new technology, venture out
into space (presumably wiser than other species
of life intelligent enough to either have taken
over their own planets and/or to also have
developed the means of space travel).
A number of things come to mind when I think of
the Star Trek philosophy (voiced, to some degree,
by Gennaro). One is that, in order for it to
truly work, the amount of resources poured into
getting some humans to other planets will have
assured the loss of many more species of life on
Earth (after all, where will the steel, aluminum,
plastic and energy come from?).
The second thing is this (and forgive me for the twists and turns here):
In an episode of Star Trek Enterprise (for
non-watchers, this was the most recent TV
iteration, the prequel to the original, taking
place just after the development of the warp
drive), I observed Captain Archer, talking among
a small group that included a Vulcan, say
something to this effect: "on Vulcan you've been
able to control your emotions. But on the earth,
we don't do things that way." That is, when he
referred to someone else's planet, he named that
planet using its proper name, without an article
(as we still do with Mars, Venus, Jupiter, etc.).
But, when referring to Earth, his own planet, he
stated "it" as "the earth".
I believe this to be an incredibly important
difference and, I have noticed, it has now become
the convention. Civilized humans have come to
refer to the planet on (in) which we live as "the
earth", in effect, expiring 'her'. It seems that
our culture now considers our planet to be
nothing more than a lump of dirt, even though we
continue to refer to other planets with their
proper - and capitalized - names. Indeed, in
Gennaro's post below, he refers to "earth" (small
"e").
Why? It seems we have cut out the personal,
spiritual sense we once had of our Mother as a
living being. In my opinion, this was done
intentionally, for expedience. After all, if
Earth is a living being (like Io, Mercury or
Vulcan), how could we mine her and remove her
vital skin (forests)? Only by objectifying her
can we do these things and feel okay - much as
men objectified women and were thus able to 'own'
them as wives (whereby they could not, by law, be
raped). We did the same with animals. Thousand of
years ago - and still today, among foraging
peoples - we considered other animals to be part
of autonomous nations. But at some point, we came
to see them as property. Only then were were able
to capture them and corral them and hobble them,
whip them and cut off their genitals, so we could
keep them around as our future food.
I have come to understand that the notion of
'humans' leaving Earth for other planets is not
only the epitome of the truly tragic (for all
life) mythology of civilized humans, but also a
grand delusion. If, when one looks around, one is
not seeing a planet in crisis, where humans are
about to succumb to the wave of extinction that
we have, ourselves created, I believe one is
deluded. If one is seeing this as okay, thinking
that other planets are the relief valve, then, I
believe, one is also part of the problem.
The other thing that comes up for me around this
is that civilized humans forget that
non-civilized humans existed and, indeed, worked
quite well, thank you very much, on this planet
for a million years before the 'invention' of
Civilization just a short 12,000 years ago. It is
only Civilization that has led us to the
precipice of Mass Extinction and the extinction
of humans along with it.
For me, the notion of colonizing other planets is
very, very scary because, if Civilized humans do
that, I believe it is simply INEVITABLE that we
will destroy any planet on which we land. This, I
believe, is simply the nature of Civilization.
Civilized humans are the last thing I would wish
upon our Milky Way.
Ethiopian proverb: "no matter how far you've
traveled down the wrong roadŠ turn back".
I believe what is needed is for civilized humans
to re-embrace a way of seeing ourselves that is
humble and abides Earth as the ultimate governor.
That would, I think, mean that we have moved back
towards seeing ourselves as a strand in the web,
rather than the owners of this 'property' that's
been "given" to us.
I'll end with this: Bill states below the chances
of other "life forms" crossing our path during
our short existence as being "extremely low". My
experience is quite different. From the time I
was a child, I have grown to at first find
fascinating, then admire, and then love the
thousands upon thousands of other life forms that
have crossed my path during my short (but
fluorescent) time I have spent walking upon,
swimming in and eating Mother Earth. I find
"myself" surrounded by, and indeed, made up of,
other life forms. So, perhaps, herein lies the
problem. Most of us walk around never seeing
them, never touching them, never really eating
them - never (or so we think) depending on them.
And thus, I often hear people express that 'we're
alone here'. Wow.
We are not alone. We are one species among what
may be more than a billion unique life forms,
surrounded by trillions of autonomous individual
beings, all part of something grand. We call her
Earth.
The "final frontier" is the space between our ears.
tim keating
At 3:32 AM +0000 2/12/11, bill.allen at verizon.net wrote:
>I too find it hard to believe that earth hosts
>the only life in the vast universe. However,
>considering the infinity of time involved, the
>chances of other life forms crossing our path
>during our short existence are extremely low.
>
>So, I believe we are stuck with just us, on
>earth, so we better take the best care of it we
>can.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Gennaro Brooks-Church <info at ecobrooklyn.com>
>Sender: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
>Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:29:10
>To: Green Building<greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
>Reply-to: Green Building <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
>Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Martha Stewart
>
>Ron I'm not sure how vital us humans are to earth.
>Maybe somebody can remind me but from what I remember us humans have
>been on the earth for about 1% of it's life. And who knows how long we
>last.
>
>In time the human infestation of earth may be remembered as a short
>lived irritant in earths long life.
>
>And just to mix things up a little, I think it is the epitome of
>arrogance to think humans are the only space travelers in this vast
>universe.
>My bets are that we are a designated nature preserve very much like
>certain cavemen tribes are in places like the Andaman islands or
>Borneo. The aliens are keeping us isolated so we are not tainted by
>the issues of modern society (their modern society).
>
>Gennaro Brooks-Church
>
>Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
>www.EcoBrooklyn.com
>22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231
>
>
>
>
>On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 8:13 PM, Ron Cascio <roncascio at verizon.net> wrote:
>> Greenwashing taken to the limits of space.
>>
>> Dream on.
>>
>> We already have a home, and we have evolved as a vital part of it.
>>
>> Ron
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lynelle Hamilton"
>> <lynelle at lahamilton.com>
>> To: "Green Building" <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
>> Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 6:38 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Martha Stewart
>>
>>
>> With polished silver tea service on board, I'm certain....
>>
>> Lynelle
>>
>> On 11/02/2011 5:59 PM, Jason Holstine wrote:
>>>
>>> Everyone on this thread is more prescient than I imagined...given
>>> today's announcement that Martha Stewart is teaming with Sir Richard
>>> Branson on a new Space Rocket/Housing Pod-sounds like an RV for space
>>> travel.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2/11/11 1:53 PM, "Benjamin Pratt" <benjamin.g.pratt at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
>>> I don't have an issue with dreaming optimistically about the future. I
>>> do have a problem with spending incredible amounts of resources and
>>> money exploring the universe when it could be put to much better
>>> use--toward research on the environment solutions to save our planet,
>>> for example.
>>> Ben
>>>
>>>
>>> b e n j a m i n p r a t t
>>>
>>> professor art+design
>>> the university of wisconsin stout
>>>
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>>
>> --
>> Effective immediately, please use the following e-mail address to reach
>> me: lynelle at lahamilton.com
>>
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>
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--
"The Earth and myself are of one mind. The measure of the land and the
measure of our bodies are the same..."
- Hinmaton Yalatkit, Nez Perce chief
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