Forest Poetry

With the collapse of tradition, two different worldviews have taken its place: scientific materialism, and religious superstition. Both of these positions are equally modern, although it is the adherents of the former that explicitly claim to be so, while those of the latter claim to uphold traditional ideas, although their ideas lack proper metaphysical understanding.

A good example of these two worldviews can be found in the reaction to the earthquake in Haiti, particularly the controversy surrounding the claim made by some adherents of the superstitious worldview that the earthquake was divine retribution for sinful conduct (Pat Robertson has been the most prominent to make this claim). The adherents of scientific materialism naturally reject this idea, although their explanation of the phenomenon is also unsatisfactory.

The situation in Haiti is worth examining because throughout history natural disasters and other environmental factors have often played a significant role in human events. The materialists seize on this fact and claim that environmental determinism is the key factor in the rise and fall of civilizations (Jared Diamond is one of the more prominent proponents of this view). This is a standard anti-traditional approach, an approach that assumes that the greater comes from the lesser, in this case, that the material world is responsible for human civilization, rather than divine creation. Leaving aside the metaphysical difficulties of this materialist approach, we would like to offer a more sophisticated way of looking at natural disaster and its effect on civilizations.

The important point is that the result of a natural disaster is dependent on two things: the direct effects of the disaster (in the case of an earthquake, these would be the actual shaking of the earth and the following destruction of buildings, etc), and the level of the health of the individuals and civilization. In other words, disasters of the same magnitude will have different results for civilizations that are at different levels of internal health, depending on how well the individuals in those civilizations can deal with the difficulties. The earthquake in Haiti resulted in much more chaos than in would have in another country (for example, in western Europe), because the people in Haiti were already more chaotic in their psychic existence. The people who turned to savage violence following the disaster did so because they lack spiritual and mental order. The poor infrastructure of the country is also a result of a poor inner state. When the disaster struck, some of the external factors that held back this inner chaos were removed, and the latent chaos manifested itself. Everything in the material world has its source in the Divine, and earthquakes sometimes strike Haiti, and sometimes strike elsewhere. They can be a factor in the success or failure of a civilization, but not the only factor, barring a disaster of extreme proportions that physically destroys every member of a civilization.

Turning now to the problem with the superstitious account, while its proponents are correct to claim that this destructive phenomenon has a divine origin, they do not properly illustrate that punishment for wrongdoing begins long before external manifestations of retribution, and even seem to think that sinful acts are disadvantageous only after the punishment itself. If the Haitians were indeed turning away from the Divine, their punishment was found in the very act of turning away, just as order and wisdom are more fundamentally their own reward than any material benefit that might result from them. When turning away, one loses the ability to instill the world with order and becomes an inevitable vehicle for destruction. When natural disasters occur, the outer and inner destructiveness work as allies.

Up to this point we have looked at the situation from a very narrow perspective. In examining the question of how different societies react to natural disasters, we have judged the health or sickness of a society by the level of technical infrastructure and cooperation among the societies members. But we want to make it clear that in so doing we are not holding up modern, western societies as paragons, for these societies, while technically proficient, are equally lacking in spiritual values. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the spiritual life of western man is as destructive and chaotic as the current external situation in Haiti. Even if our technical infrastructure is perpetuated and perhaps improves, our inner life verges ever closer to annihilation, towards being enveloped in formlessness. Some westerners deride the Haitians for their inability to bring order to their external environment, but only because they see only outer appearances and are unaware of how they themselves have neglected the eternal part within us, the part that truly matters.

Mezclar modernidad y ecología produce un movimiento ambientalista que no desea sacrificar su “progreso” y confort modernos. Añadirle medios masivos de comunicación produce una ecología superficial que no tiene la intención de cuestionar nuestra visión del mundo, como lo hace la ecología profunda, sino que nos divierte dentro de nuestros marcos mentales consumistas explotando un aspecto puramente emocional.

Un ejemplo son las celebridades desnudándose por los derechos de los animales. “Preferible andar desnuda que utilizar pieles” dicen, aparentemente prestando su estatus, solo para incrementarlo. Estas estrellas y sus patrocinadores solo buscan fama y consumidores ingenuos, vendiendo un producto que parece crítico a la sociedad moderna, pero que solo produce chismorreo televisivo. Del otro lado de la pantalla, hay un grupo de espectadores distraídos y sentimentalistas que no pueden ver el problema ecológico en su entera dimensión.

Vanidad y sensiblería en un producto de comunicación masiva. ¿Qué resultado podemos esperar una vez que la moda se va?

“Las pieles jamás habían sido tan populares” dice el portavoz de Origin Assured, una iniciativa desarrollada por la International Fur Trade Federation que dice hacer un uso “ético” de las pieles. “De 1998 al 2008 hubo un incremento año con año en las ventas de pieles en todo el mundo. La gente se siente ahora más cómoda al mostrar su amor por las pieles”

-Link

Debemos cuestionarnos a nosotros mismos para ser capaces de enfrentar la verdad, la responsabilidad y las acciones necesarias para corregir nuestros males. Debemos ser más inteligentes y menos sagaces, más compasivos y menos sentimentalistas. Un entendimiento más profundo de la espiritualidad puede provocar estos cambios.

Estar en contacto con la gracia divina nos hace compasivos, satisfechos, y voluntariosos a elegir el bienestar a largo plazo en vez del confort instantáneo y el entretenimiento. Este esplendor de gracia va a lo profundo de nuestra sensibilidad, logrando que la compasión por todos los seres vivos sea un sentimiento absolutamente honesto, disponiéndonos a hacer los necesario para preservar la diversidad ecológica. Una revaloración fundamental de nuestro rol en este planeta y una visión crítica de nuestro poder como especie, demanda una cantidad heroica de valor que no puede ser encontrada en la cultura pop, sino solo en las formas más elevadas de la Cultura. Una vez que este excelso amor se asienta en nosotros, estamos listos para actuar y suficientemente lúcidos para hacerlo de modo sensato; solo entonces estamos listos para abrazar a la ecología como una ciencia y enfrentar los verdaderos problemas: sobrepoblación y consumismo sin Cultura.

Como podemos ver, la ecología pop es una desviación de la compasión verdadera, manifestándose en una especie de amor que evade el juicio, deshabilitándose a sí misma para crecer y convertirse en una piedad enérgica.

La ecología pop, no tiene raíces para ser permanente y no tiene convicción para ser efectiva y trascendente.. Existe una fascinación intrínseca por la vanidad en estas campañas de desnudismo que de ningún modo son capaces de elevar nuestros pensamientos más nobles y heroicos con el fin de proteger la biodiversidad.

Organizaciones como PETA, ahora abandonan el oportunismo de la piel para montarse al oportunismo del cambio climático. Vemos ahora otra moda de la ecología pop, y podemos pronosticar otro fracaso por igual.

In English

Mixing modernism and ecology results in an environmental movement that does not wish to sacrifice its “progress” and modern comforts. Adding mass media to this combination produces a superficial ecology that has no intent of questioning our world-view as deep-ecology does, but instead entertains us within our consumerist mental frames exploiting a purely emotional approach. .

An example of this is celebrities getting naked for animals. “I’d rather go naked than wear fur”, they say, appearing to deliberately lessen their social status through humility, but ironically only to increase it. These stars and their endorsers seek only fame and naive consumers, selling a product that appears to be critical of modern society, but that only produces televised gossip. And on the other side of the screen, there exists a distracted and sentimentalist audience that cannot see the bigger picture of the ecological problem.

Vanity and mawkishness in a mass media product. What results can we expect after the trend is gone?

“Fur has never been more popular,” says a spokesman for Origin Assured, an initiative developed by the International Fur Trade Federation that states that it sources “ethical” fur. “From 1998 to 2008 there has been year-on-year growth in global sales for fur. People now are more comfortable showing their love of fur.”

-link

We must question ourselves in order to face the truth. We must also have the sense of responsibility to take the necessary actions to correct this wrongdoing. We must be smarter and less sly, more compassionate and less naively sentimental. A deep understanding of spirituality can provoke these changes.

To be in contact with holy grace turns us into compassionate, satisfied beings, willing to choose long term well being in lieu of instantaneous comfort and entertainment. This radiance of grace goes deep into our sensitivity, turning compassion in all living beings into an absolutely honest sentiment, making us eager to do what is necessary to preserve biological diversity. A fundamental revaluation of our role on this planet and a critical vision of our empowering as a species demands a heroic amount of love that can’t be found in pop culture, but only in the higher forms of Culture. Once this higher love is settled in ourselves, we are ready to act and aware enough to do it sensibly; only then are we ready to embrace ecology as a science and to face the real problems: overpopulation and culture-less consumerism.

As we can see, pop ecology is a misdirection of real compassion, which manifests itself in a fashion of love that bypasses judgment, handicapping itself so that it cannot grow up to become a strong piety. Pop ecology has no roots in order to become permanent and no conviction to be effective and transcendental. There’s an intrinsic fascination with vanity in these “naking” campaigns that in no way is able to raise our noblest and heroic thinking in order to protect biodiversity.

Organizations like PETA have now abandoned the bandwagon of fur to ride on the bandwagon of climatic change. We are now seeing another fashion of pop ecology, and we can foretell another failure as well.

En Español