Ecovolution

Article Summary - From Zygon Journal of Religion and Science

File:Mine or Garden.pdf

https://www.zygonjournal.org/article/id/11852/

Mine or Garden? Values Tables

Source: Thomas Devaney Harblin, Mine or Garden? Values and the Change in the Next Hundred Years, Zygon, Vol. 12, No. 2, June 1977.

Table 1. The Ethic of Anthropocentric Hedonism: “The Mine”

PAV	Environmental Impact	Processes of Cultural Adaptation	Specific Examples of Cultural-Adaptation Processes
1. Maximally desirable present gratification; egoistic hedonism	Lack of desirable images of the future to motivate collective adaptation; future seen as dystopian	Extol the “now existence”; extend indebtedness rather than saving and deferred gratification	Prominence of 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 as probable models of the future; high level of indebtedness
2. Maximum short-term stability; suppression of tension, conflict, and change whenever possible	Social change with high collective and personal costs	Permit change through growth and “trickle-down effect,” but minimize redistribution	Suburbanization and loss of city tax base; high inflation and unemployment; taxes raised; reliance on public welfare programs to maintain dependents at a minimum level of living
3. Materialistic progress and growth; isolation with things for entertainment	Environment mined rather than nurtured	Emphasize economically profitable applications of technology; substitute machines for human skills wherever possible; acquire material wealth to demonstrate success	Spending of public funds on space and military hardware while going door to door to collect cancer-society funds; high-technology medicine amid widespread medical indigence
4. Environmental exploitation; environment viewed chiefly as commodity for profit value	Contamination-depletion of environment; less security regarding continuity of life	Prefer the “technological fix” to prevention; harbor anthropocentric view of the natural environment	Chlorination of water supply; use of bottled spring water
5. Private property-riparian rights viewed as chief among individual rights; natural and human resources viewed as commodities	High potential for misuse of natural and human resources upon which a collectivity may be dependent; resource depletion	Use more intense and costly exploitation techniques; expand exploration; use marginal-quality resources; ignore net-energy principle	Alaska pipeline; shale oil development; Elk Hills Diversion; expansion of strip mining; substitution of coal for oil and lower air-pollution standards
6. Population growth; implying strength, success, and economic health	Growth exceeding ability to plan for it; future sacrificed to meet pressing immediate needs; competitive demand stimulating inflation	Accept famine and warfare for containment; employ triage model and lifeboat ethics	Bangladesh; Biafra; Sahel; Navajo Indian Reservation
7. Radical individualism; underestimation of interdependence	Competition taking precedence over cooperation; individuals who “lose” have little stake in the system and may be willing to destroy it	See poverty as just and as an acceptable correlate of progress; social inequality becomes more structured	Slums; lack of low-income housing; high crime rates; common mental-health problems; accepted malnutrition; skid row; poor nursing-home conditions; social Darwinism and work ethic used to explain success
8. Personal security through competitive advantage over others	Increased personal insecurity and fear; increased threat to public order; increased property destruction	Expand formal social control and surveillance	Expanded police budgets; use of national guard on campuses; development of computer-linked information networks; infiltration of “subversive” groups
9. Persons valued as interchangeable and expendable commodities; utilitarian value	Widespread alienation and resulting loss of sense of personal responsibility for own actions	Offer financial and other compensations to the exploited rather than ceasing exploitation; seek identity outside work	Union pressure for shorter work week and higher wages; Watergate affair; destruction in Lordstown, Ohio, GM plant by workers
10. Centralization of authority; representation by experts	Expanded bureaucratic complexity and ascendancy of large-scale organizations; fostering dependency and waste	Expand government services; tolerate monopoly in private sphere	Growth of government; New York City financial crisis; growth of multinational corporations; corporate interference in government process
11. “Pragmatic,” reactive, short-term treatment of symptoms of immediate problems; “muddling through”	Unanticipated consequences of many “independent” individual decisions	Emphasize “clean-up” operations after the fact	Lack of comprehensive-integrated public policies; frequent changes in public policies and programs for cosmetic and political purposes
12. Science valued chiefly as an adjunct of the marketplace, including warfare capability	Science more reactive than anticipatory; not as protective of humans as it is capable of being; producing a false sense of security	Take a curative rather than preventive approach to illness, accidents, or natural disasters	Lack of national health policy; reduced basic scientific research budgets; disasters explained as the “will of God” rather than the “failure of man”

Table 2. The Ethic of Preeminent Environmental Consciousness: “The Garden”

AV	Possible Environmental Impact	Alternative Cultural-Adaptation Process
1. Optimally desirable quality of future life; expectation of cultural continuity motivating sacrifice and change in the present	Greater personal security; improved mental health of the community; enhanced sense of personal meaningfulness; positive images of the future to flourish	Construct and promote collectively positive utopias; use educational curriculum and mass media to promote consciousness and imagination
2. Dynamic order; understanding positive functions of tension, conflict, and change	Change more easily accommodated and less resisted; more interesting, humane, and representative political process	Institute comprehensive-integrated planning; encourage and support development of alternative institutions; bring program diversity in rather than out
3. Qualitative culture and human-skill development; technique, handicrafts, interpersonal communications; participation in community	Environment nurtured and treated as a garden rather than mined	Experiment with new life-styles; emphasize getting by with less; substitute human skills for machines; “translate” and distribute specialized knowledge
4. Environmental control through harmony with laws of nature and respect for carrying-capacity limits	Less destruction and waste of resources; lower taxes; greater predictability of consequences of actions on the environment	Institute preventive approach; reduce waste to a minimum; recycle; promote public planning
5. Public “ownership” of basic resources — air, water, land; private stewardship as temporary control with accountability	Greater ability to accomplish the goals of a plan; environmental quality more secure in the long run; reduced social and economic inequality	Introduce air-, water-, and land-management policies; revise riparian-rights system of owner sovereignty; promote public planning
6. Population planning	Destructive competition and conflict reduced; warfare and famine controlled; slower rate of heat production by man	Develop a national population policy; support population-control research; raise standard of living of poor who use children as “social security”
7. Interdependence; collective security as the means to personal security; respect for human life in all states of dependence	Increased human control of ecovolution and adaptation process	Stress theme of interdependence; guarantee that basic human needs are met independently of occupational role; increase worker participation in decisions affecting work role
8. Relative social and economic equality	Reduced destructive conflict; increased sense of stake in maintaining an orderly system	Effect social change through resource redistribution and greater equality of future resource allocation
9. Guaranteed personal dignity and worth of each individual	Greater sense among the majority of a stake in society; more willingness to participate and take responsibility for resources under one’s stewardship	Reduce structured inequality; institute tax reform, guaranteed rights, and minimum standards
10. Self-reliance and personal efficacy; decentralization to facilitate participation by all in resource-allocation decisions	Greater initiative and imagination in problem solving; greater political participation; less administrative waste	Effect genuine revenue sharing; decentralize authority to local governments; reduce administrative complexity
11. Planning the future; anticipatory, idealistic solving of ongoing problems; treatment of problem “causes”	Humankind gains control and responsibility as the “helmsman” of planet Earth	Legitimize and establish comprehensive-integrated yet decentralized planning as a major national priority
12. Science valued as a principal tool of human adaptation, noncommercialized	Cybernetic adaptation; more enthusiasm and optimism about long-term continuity of human species; enhanced sense of personal security	Make greater investment in scientific research; promote cybernetic thinking; extend scientific findings so public can understand and apply them