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| "Earth Spirit" by Janine Donnellan |
Currently, I don't think there is anyone who better expresses how I feel about the world and the predicaments facing us than Paul Kingsnorth.
I read this essay of his today, entitled Dark Ecology, and I think it is quite profound. In it, Paul expresses the sense of hopelessness he feels with an environmental momement that has gone awry - decrying the 'neo environmentalists' who cheerlead a cornucopian dream of a brave new world that is measuarble, quantifiable and profitable for business. Where, he asks, has the sense of the intrinsic value of nature disappeared to?
He talks about the technological traps of our own making that we fall into - with each new solution creating a new, larger and deadlier trap. And he talks about humankind's inability to do anything but accelerate towards destruction, and the machine we have made for doing just that.
It's not easy reading, but neither is it a doomer essay. Paul Kingsnorth doesn't offer 'hopium', which is one reason the things he says make most sense right now. More importantly, towards the end (and it's quite a long piece) Paul offers his some practical advice for the burned out.
At the very least, it may make you want to get hold of a scythe and start mowing a meadow.
