Impressions and Thoughts
I had to read most of this chapter twice. The plethora of big pseudo-scientific words really hindered the flow of my reading and comprehension. Once I got the hang of it, however, I found that I actually disliked most of what was being said.
This chapter talks about our connections and understandings of the world around us and the attempt at change we have, as a people, forced upon the Earth. It speaks of changing our perceptions of how to change things in a positive way, connecting ourselves to the history, myths and magic of the land, and learning to listen and speak with the land as well. Unfortunately, a lot of this message gets lost in the negative attack on modern science and societal putdowns. The author seems determined to make a point that modern science is outdated and approaches such as bio-engineering and genetic modifications are evil and an attempt to play god made by western man. Although I agree with what she is trying to say, that certain bio-changes have inadvertently impacted our world for the negative, I feel that Starhawk is almost yelling at me and only focusing on the horrific instead of any good advancement in these fields. I’m not educated enough to really state any positive experiments or advancements myself, but I feel that the quotes she gives and the evidence she portrays are a bit biased. I understand her warnings that anything we do chemically or changing it on a cellular level, changes everything around it for better or for worse and we need to be aware of that. When we make unnatural changes, the outcomes are often more than we anticipated and many are negative side effects.
Everything is connected, and I truly believe this. Certain communities of plants may help each other and an understanding of this concept is important. One change may not work the way we want it to. For example, when planting an herb garden, knowing which herbs help each other and hinder others may make for a more thriving and contained garden. Just like the seed balls were communities unto themselves that supported the other seeds within that community for a better more efficient growing outcome.
Understanding how something thrives, however, doesn’t always allow us to make the correct assumptions on how to fix it when it’s broken. Like the author says, “If bugs are devouring your plants, it’s a sign that something is out of balance in the overall community. Some predator that could eat the bugs is missing, or something is putting the plants under stress and making them more vulnerable.” But how can we fix this problem even if we know what is causing it? Sometimes, it is not personally our fault and personally changing doesn’t help the entire community change, just like changing one thing may not have the desired effect on a cellular level. The author is often hypocritical in other broad statements as well. She often portrays an, “I’m right and they’re wrong” attitude throughout most of this chapter. This leads me to my biggest question: If what “they” are doing is so bad and so detrimental to the well being of the natural world and there is also so much evidence to prove this, why does it continue? Her answer is that they just don’t understand. They get so caught up in looking at the problem in one specific way (looking for weapons) that they are unable to see it from any other point of view. But Starhawk often falls into this same trap of only looking at it in one dimension. Maybe it’s my own university education that has clouded my opinions, but I always want to see both sides and draw my own conclusions. I feel the need to be educated enough to understand the whole. Just getting her side of the issues is a bit frustrating to me. I also feel that her attack on progress leading to the witch trials is completely unfair. I agree that the burnings were perpetrated by men against women and things they could not understand, but I do not agree that it was caused by a worldview change that happened many years before and very gradually.
All that being said, there were things in this chapter that I completely agreed with, I just felt they were presented in such a negative way that the reader may have the trouble of seeing them for the gems they are. I really liked the concept of unknown unknowns. I agreed that everything is alive and conscious and changes need to be small, observed and reacted to. I agree that magic is science that cannot be explained. And I agree that more testing needs to be done in areas of supposed positive environmental advancement.
Questions
If scientific testing for environmental advancements is not thorough enough, how can we create standards?
What are natural changes I can make, when I know the problem to be fixed, which is bigger than just me?
How can I involve or even create a community to make small natural changes to positively effect our land?
Activities
None for this chapter
2 comments:
I have the background for this chapter, and even I don't really know what we could do to reverse the changes that the government and the big agriculture companies like Monsanto, have done to the world and the agricultural practices of both the developed and developing countries. I think there's so much wrong with the way things are being done these days that it's almost like I'm waiting for it to all blow up in their faces and then we can start over with the organics and the bio-diversity that we should've stuck to all along.
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