Unwinding the Spool of Civilization in Pontings The Green History of the World and Quinns Ishmael :: Green History of the World Essays

Unwinding the Spool of Civilization in Pontings The Green History of the World and Quinns Ishmael Clive Pontings The Green History of the World and Daniel Quinns Ishmael both critique the paramount paradigms of modern human civilization-especially where its relationship with environment is concerned. Both ascertain strongly that we argon in trouble. Neither are quite willing to make last-place connections and present us with a systematic method for getting out of our impending ecological crisis, but they both do spell out what has been treat, what is wrong now, and what will happen should we choose not to take evasive action. In the absence of similar works in the canon it is hard not to feel as though, (as the character Ishmael promised), if you accept their premises you are doomed to isolation for, those who unwrap the future most clearly are usually outcasts, disordered as to what power they may assimilate to change minds and directions. Enlightenment almost always comes at a price, often steep. In the interest of exploring the necessity of dissent, lets prosecute that line of environmental thought a little further. Ponting presents us with the scientific/cultural evidence that backs up what Quinn is saying that we as a species are destroying our foundations plain as we proclaim our creation-Civilization-a success. If this massive breakdown and foreboding future are certainties, then we must ask-as Quinn does-who or what is telling us lies to make us hope otherwise? His character Ishmael calls it Mother Culture and insists that its pervasive voice acts to keep us on course even when large portions of the population have every reason to lose hope in Her tenets. This all-powerful entity would, presumably, include most educational establishments and media outlets, and so information to the contrary would rarely be funded or reported, and probably never directly emphasized. Which leaves us with a challenge using Thomas Kuhns model for change in the social sciences, we must endeavor to see if the Ponting/Quinn paradigm for all civilization is merely a change in attitude or-as would be difficult for Kuhn to imagine-an entirely new realization that carries with it remedies for the penalties it warns of. If this is a shift back in paradigm, to hunter-gatherer or Noble Savage imagery, then the potential for civil disruption is great. With the stakes of annihilation as high as they are presented, such a shift could justify sweeping political/economic reform that-in the absence of the believed-in reality-would only place more of the Earths population in positions of subsistence and subservience.