Earth to Icarus
Originally printed April 2006 in "The Humble Deacon", a North Park Theological Seminary student publication.
theme - 'sankofa: looking back to move forward'
- - - -
A tragic figure in Greek mythology, Icarus escapes prison on cleverly invented wings of feather and wax, only to plummet to his demise after failing to heed his father’s warning about flying too near the heat of the sun. This is the story of Western civilization and its relationship to its environment.
The dream of colonialism was ever-expanding boundaries and fresh sources of cheap (exploited) labor and resources. The dream of capitalism was that the greater good of society would be served by individuals working in self-interest and that unregulated competition by private enterprise would result in ever-increasing material prosperity for all people. Francis Bacon, a key figure of the scientific revolution, declared that “knowledge is power.” He viewed technology and mastery of natural science through God-given intellect and creativity as the means to transcending the difficulties and suffering of humanity exiled from Eden.
Whether or not we are aware of them, these three philosophies shape most aspects of our daily lives. We are the conqueror, merchant, and inventor chasing the Utopian rainbow, often careless of what we step on and who we break in the process. We prefer to live with our heads in the clouds. This is our inheritance.
We’ve had our time in the sun, a century or two of flight from the natural limitations of human creaturehood. We must return to earth, and we will do so violently if we do not choose to do so carefully and soon. There is no easy way out of our present predicament. We all depend on and participate in an economy that is on a trajectory toward self-destruction. We are all implicated to some degree in the problem, and none of us can ethically exempt ourselves from responsibility to our neighbors and to our descendants.
Movement toward a sustainable future will require drastic paradigm shift and commitment to wise, disciplined, and well-informed choices. We must learn from our mistakes and change our ways. We must humble ourselves before our Maker whose good creation we have desecrated and whose provision we have taken for granted, commodified, and squandered.
Who will bring about the necessary changes? We can no longer abdicate responsibility for the consequences of our lives to our elected officials. Though warned by President Carter’s administration about pressing concerns relating to fossil fuel consumption and the environment, our nation’s lawmakers have for the last several decades consistently chosen short-range expediency and popularity over wisdom in these matters, even repealing conservation laws that were put in place mid-20th century. Advocating responsible policies might help to move our culture in the right direction, but hierarchy and concentrated power will never build a sustainable world because it is contrary to the very nature of these institutional forces.
Sustainability means meeting the needs (not wants) of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This can only grow from the ground up, one attitude and community at a time. The following are examples of paradigm and priority changes that will move our lives in the right direction:
competition => cooperation
ignorance => awareness
apathy => compassion
isolation => community
disposable => durable
quantity => quality
convenient => worthwhile
linear => cyclical
consuming => sharing
profit => value
exploitation =>servanthood
waste => conservation
fragmentation => integrity
entitlement => gratitude
more => enough
Ecology is the relationship of living things to their living and non-living environment, and the study of these connections. Context determines the meaning and consequences of our actions. We do not live in a vacuum, and whether or not we understand or acknowledge our place in the system, our decisions have complex ramifications for many (and maybe all) other lives. As Wendell Berry writes, “The context of everything is everything else.”* Improving our personal ecology requires the attentiveness and humility to see the systemic relationships for what they really are, and the courage to change our behaviors for the sake of our fellow creatures (human and otherwise) even when it means inconvenience, discomfort, or sacrifice.
The myth of eternal affluence is a fairy tale we tell ourselves so we can sleep at night. The age of cheap energy and unlimited resource extraction is over. Time to wake up. Our short-sighted consumptive practices already have serious negative consequences for our less prosperous neighbors all around the world, and they are beginning to catch up with us. Several generations have chosen to ignore the warning signs. We are no longer free to pretend that the material economy can keep up its ascent indefinitely. It is time to pledge allegiance. Do we follow Christopher Columbus, Adam Smith, and Francis Bacon, or do we follow the risen Christ? Will we choose responsibly to walk and steward the earth as God intended, or will we persist in our illusions until we fall?
* Berry, Wendell. “The Purpose of a Coherent Community.” The Way of Ignorance. Washington, D.C.: Shoemaker and Hoard, 2005.
theme - 'sankofa: looking back to move forward'
- - - -
A tragic figure in Greek mythology, Icarus escapes prison on cleverly invented wings of feather and wax, only to plummet to his demise after failing to heed his father’s warning about flying too near the heat of the sun. This is the story of Western civilization and its relationship to its environment.
The dream of colonialism was ever-expanding boundaries and fresh sources of cheap (exploited) labor and resources. The dream of capitalism was that the greater good of society would be served by individuals working in self-interest and that unregulated competition by private enterprise would result in ever-increasing material prosperity for all people. Francis Bacon, a key figure of the scientific revolution, declared that “knowledge is power.” He viewed technology and mastery of natural science through God-given intellect and creativity as the means to transcending the difficulties and suffering of humanity exiled from Eden.
Whether or not we are aware of them, these three philosophies shape most aspects of our daily lives. We are the conqueror, merchant, and inventor chasing the Utopian rainbow, often careless of what we step on and who we break in the process. We prefer to live with our heads in the clouds. This is our inheritance.
We’ve had our time in the sun, a century or two of flight from the natural limitations of human creaturehood. We must return to earth, and we will do so violently if we do not choose to do so carefully and soon. There is no easy way out of our present predicament. We all depend on and participate in an economy that is on a trajectory toward self-destruction. We are all implicated to some degree in the problem, and none of us can ethically exempt ourselves from responsibility to our neighbors and to our descendants.
Movement toward a sustainable future will require drastic paradigm shift and commitment to wise, disciplined, and well-informed choices. We must learn from our mistakes and change our ways. We must humble ourselves before our Maker whose good creation we have desecrated and whose provision we have taken for granted, commodified, and squandered.
Who will bring about the necessary changes? We can no longer abdicate responsibility for the consequences of our lives to our elected officials. Though warned by President Carter’s administration about pressing concerns relating to fossil fuel consumption and the environment, our nation’s lawmakers have for the last several decades consistently chosen short-range expediency and popularity over wisdom in these matters, even repealing conservation laws that were put in place mid-20th century. Advocating responsible policies might help to move our culture in the right direction, but hierarchy and concentrated power will never build a sustainable world because it is contrary to the very nature of these institutional forces.
Sustainability means meeting the needs (not wants) of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This can only grow from the ground up, one attitude and community at a time. The following are examples of paradigm and priority changes that will move our lives in the right direction:
competition => cooperation
ignorance => awareness
apathy => compassion
isolation => community
disposable => durable
quantity => quality
convenient => worthwhile
linear => cyclical
consuming => sharing
profit => value
exploitation =>servanthood
waste => conservation
fragmentation => integrity
entitlement => gratitude
more => enough
Ecology is the relationship of living things to their living and non-living environment, and the study of these connections. Context determines the meaning and consequences of our actions. We do not live in a vacuum, and whether or not we understand or acknowledge our place in the system, our decisions have complex ramifications for many (and maybe all) other lives. As Wendell Berry writes, “The context of everything is everything else.”* Improving our personal ecology requires the attentiveness and humility to see the systemic relationships for what they really are, and the courage to change our behaviors for the sake of our fellow creatures (human and otherwise) even when it means inconvenience, discomfort, or sacrifice.
The myth of eternal affluence is a fairy tale we tell ourselves so we can sleep at night. The age of cheap energy and unlimited resource extraction is over. Time to wake up. Our short-sighted consumptive practices already have serious negative consequences for our less prosperous neighbors all around the world, and they are beginning to catch up with us. Several generations have chosen to ignore the warning signs. We are no longer free to pretend that the material economy can keep up its ascent indefinitely. It is time to pledge allegiance. Do we follow Christopher Columbus, Adam Smith, and Francis Bacon, or do we follow the risen Christ? Will we choose responsibly to walk and steward the earth as God intended, or will we persist in our illusions until we fall?
* Berry, Wendell. “The Purpose of a Coherent Community.” The Way of Ignorance. Washington, D.C.: Shoemaker and Hoard, 2005.
posted by Ingrid at 11:56 AM
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