Final Paper for Deep Ecology

Final Paper for Deep Ecology, Part 1: Personal Myth Ron Khare This is who I was: When the imagination of the Great Unmanifest stirred and brought forth the potential for all of Creation, I came into existence. I am, or was, the expression of pure geometry, crossing lines inside a perfect circle. For a moment I simply existed, one design out of the nearly infinite possible designs. Then the Creator breathed life into the world, and I began to vibrate – I became alive. This design is called, among other things, the “sun cross.” Like the sun, it has a radiant center that spreads energy outwards, intense and unrelenting. From a distance, or when it is small, it gives and nourishes life. Embedded in every design was motion; underlining each of my brother and...

Ten Years Wandering in a Cocoon.

Reading: Nature and the Human Soul by Bill Plotkin, chapters 1, 3 and 7 “A man walks down the street   It’s a street in a strange world   Maybe it’s the Third World   Maybe it’s his first time around   He doesn’t speak the language  He holds no currency   He is a foreign man   He is surrounded by the sound  The sound  Cattle in the marketplace   Scatterlings and orphanages   He looks around, around    He sees angels in the architecture   Spinning in infinity    He says Amen and Hallelujah!” – You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon Despite the size of the reading, and the author’s tendency to say more when less would do, I thoroughly enjoyed and identified with this reading, and am purchasing the...

Transpersonal Ecology – More Eco-La-La?

Reading: Warwick Fox’s “Towards a Transpersonal Ecology” pages 215-243   I understand, perhaps more than people realize, just how important it is to get to the real cause of problems, and once getting there, finding effective and permanent solutions. In my view, that approach to life is the only valid one – while relieving superficial symptoms definitely have their place, every true healer knows the difference between alleviating symptoms and true health. While some Deep Ecologists may debate it, we can clearly see that a good segment of humanity retains an unhealthy relationship with the natural world, in that their actions (whether consciously or unconsciously) are directly driving the Sixth Major Extinction Event and wholesale...

The War on the Guinea Worm and Deep Ecology

Reading: Social Ecology versus Deep Ecology: A Challenge for the Ecology Movement, by Murray Bookchin. (read it here: http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bookchin/socecovdeepeco.html ) I was once contracted to transcribe audio files to text, and the file I received was a talk from the  man who’s mission had been the eradication of Guinea worm. Outright, wholesale destruction of this terrible parasite, which once afflicted most of Africa. Due to dedicated efforts from the Carter Foundation and the World Health Organization, however, transmission rates steadily decreased, and now the final goal (zero cases globally) is within reach: http://www.cartercenter.org/health/guinea_worm/mini_site/index.html This is almost universally considered to be...

Might Makes Right

I’ve been wrestling with this idea for years, but I think I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that might makes right. “Right,” in this case, means actualized, manifest correctness. It does not mean, nor imply, any unrealized concept of correctness – that is to say, as understanding and experience increase, so to the potential for better rightness. Until that improved rightness is successfully implemented in the world, however, it is not right. The method by which an improved right is brought to the world is Might. Ability. Power. This means that any dominate thing is right, at this moment and in whatever place it holds power. To replace it with something new requires energy, attention – that is, a conscious effort to...

The Democratic King

[NOTE: This was my first and final draft for my Philosophies of Sustainability class. I had to cut about 9 pages of notes to get under the 10-page limit. It's not really up to my standards for papers or publishing, but I hyped it a bit as I was writing it, so I'm putting it online as-is for general improvement of civilization. - Ron] The Democratic King   How the transfer of power to a new system of accountable monarchies may be the only viable method to create a sustainable civilization.   “Reformers have the idea that change can be achieved by brute sanity.” - George Bernard Shaw The Parameters of the Problem / The Need for Change Complete Worldwide Topsoil Erosion and Infertility in 42 to 84 years.1 Half of the world’s forests are...