On (Environmental) Fundamentalism

I’ve been thinking a lot about fundamentalism these days, and how we as humans can so easily use fundamental ideas and primary positions to become superior to others. With a tightly held idea, theory or attitude firmly in place, we can easily dismiss others if they disagree with us, because we know we are right. We all so easily have our facts and figures and arguments ready to hand. When I inhabit that place I notice I can feel strong, purposeful, energised, and perhaps convinced that I am on the right side of history. I can also feel tight, angry and become exhausted more easily. And we can also alienate a lot of friends who might otherwise help support us.

“It has to do with the logical ‘Law’ of the Excluded Middle…Not being able to be in the middle is a big problem for ecological thinking. Not being able to be in ‘May’ mode. It’s all so black and white. And it edits out something vital to our experience of ecology, something we can’t actually get rid of: the hesitation quality, feelings of unreality or of distorted reality, feelings of the uncanny: feeling weird.”

Timothy Morton, And You May Find Yourself Living in an Age of Mass Extinction

Juxtapose that with a position of uncertainty where we are open to being wrong, and interested to learn more or listen better. Perhaps we might be right, in this moment but we also know we may be wrong the next. In this stance I am able to stay vulnerable, flexible and open to others. More importantly I notice in this uncertain stance I have connection with a larger ‘field’ or consciousness that helps hold me.

It seems to me a great part of our human dilemma today is being over confident, overly superior, or overly removed from this place of not-knowing. I find I can be easily reactive, quick to rebuttal, and also easily dismissive of other points of view. It feels superficial, and emotional. Not in a healthy way. And I don’t think this approach is going to be saving the planet any time soon.

“Because if there’s uncertainty, then we are no longer sure quite what’s the right way to behave. And there’s potential in that, an openness to new forms.”

Martin Shaw, Navigating the Mysteries

I’m thinking this as I read a once-friend’s bombardment of my Facebook posts. Said ‘friend’ is very passionate about the campaign group ‘just stop oil’, and this are-you-with-us or are you part-of-the-problem attitude is entering the mainstream consciousness. Just as many other attitudes and ideas are swirling around on the social media pages that easily lead to protest or platforming or silencing academic teachers in their university who hold a different view. But when do these positions become fascistic? At what point do we shut down other voices because we pretend to know the right way?

“We, as citizens, as human beings, cannot point to these institutions as ‘them’—there is no them. All of these contexts of society (and more) are in a kind of ecology of interdependency, pattern, and relationship. You and me, we are simultaneously in the systems and occupying the position of observer or change-maker. We cannot get out.”

Nora Bateson, on Liminal Leadership

I think this hard grasp on position taking is a coverup for a deeper existential fear that we have to somehow face into. As humans we have made sophisticated psychological tools and developed protective layers of persona, as well as contrived cultural attitudes to defend us against our primal existential fear of being undefended in the forest, of being alone and separate, or worse – of transgressing an unwritten agreement with the rest of nature. But that is a place where animals inhabit all the time. Maybe we need to become more animal again – always on the alert, always listening, always ever-present, never quite knowing if we have done the right thing or not.

Have we become so self-assured, so overly confident and comfortable, that we’ve taken a position that is now destroying our very planet? Maybe our fundamental belief in our own ascendency and our own perceived brilliance has brought us to the precipice of extinction. Perhaps we need to learn to let go of control and our incessant need to use force to change nature/others/Life in general to suit our desires. Our sophisticated intellectual/economic/technological loop is pulling us ever-deeper into a death spiral.

“If human culture is to fit into nature, actively replenishing and recreating it, as true sustainability requires, human desire must become inherently contoured to the needs of nature.”

Freya Mathews, On Desiring Nature

I do strongly, and increasingly, feel we need to discover a nuanced spiritual and philosophical depth in order to have groundedness and balance as the world becomes increasingly more uncertain. This helps us to better navigate the wild plethora of hard fixed messages and position taking of what and what not to do while at the same time guiding us forward, albeit in smaller tentative steps. Without that depth of letting go we won’t be able to freshly create any coherent vision for the future, nor will we discover the very solutions we so desperately need.