Part 2: A certain fascination with the end of the World
Western civilization seems to find the thought of its own fall entertaining, perhaps even comforting. Is this a result of a civilizational "self-hate"?
For the average action movie-goer, I think this fascination is simply due to a surfeit of comfort on the part of modern Westerners. For many people, excessive levels of personal wealth and comfort have taken away many (or all) of the challenges that make life meaningful. We long for times with trouble and challenge. Our civilization is correctly seen as a mothering cocoon, protecting us from want, fear, and change. As our densities mount on the Earth and society grows more disconnected and digital, pressures mount on the individual. Each person secretly longs to strike out on their own, to make a life pregnant with meaning in uncertain times. So, we release our frustation with our happy, stable lives by envisioning the destruction of our society. When the movie ends, the sane go home and enjoy their happy, stable lives.
For many environmentalists, however, there is a much higher level of frustration with our stable, happily polluting, ecological destructive civilization. They can't WAIT for change. Judging from recent books, I think a certain amount of civilizational "self-hate" has crept into the hearts of foolish and uncharitable environmentalists. A violent end to civilization would be a terrible thing for humanity and for nature, but that doesn't stop many environmentalists from predicting it with a good measure of dark glee. This immature and unconstructive attitude is pervasive in popular literature, and limits the growth of the environmental movement as a political force.
People will only do so much from fear. They love fear--they will watch it in the movies and then go home to forget it. To lead people to a brighter environmental future, we need hope.
For the average action movie-goer, I think this fascination is simply due to a surfeit of comfort on the part of modern Westerners. For many people, excessive levels of personal wealth and comfort have taken away many (or all) of the challenges that make life meaningful. We long for times with trouble and challenge. Our civilization is correctly seen as a mothering cocoon, protecting us from want, fear, and change. As our densities mount on the Earth and society grows more disconnected and digital, pressures mount on the individual. Each person secretly longs to strike out on their own, to make a life pregnant with meaning in uncertain times. So, we release our frustation with our happy, stable lives by envisioning the destruction of our society. When the movie ends, the sane go home and enjoy their happy, stable lives.
For many environmentalists, however, there is a much higher level of frustration with our stable, happily polluting, ecological destructive civilization. They can't WAIT for change. Judging from recent books, I think a certain amount of civilizational "self-hate" has crept into the hearts of foolish and uncharitable environmentalists. A violent end to civilization would be a terrible thing for humanity and for nature, but that doesn't stop many environmentalists from predicting it with a good measure of dark glee. This immature and unconstructive attitude is pervasive in popular literature, and limits the growth of the environmental movement as a political force.
People will only do so much from fear. They love fear--they will watch it in the movies and then go home to forget it. To lead people to a brighter environmental future, we need hope.
posted by Tree Texan at 7:24 PM
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