Žižek, ECOLOGY, CONSERVATISM

Arthur Vafin
unpublished
The theory of nature has troubled humanity's greatest minds since ancient times. Without reflection on nature man would not have struck a spark from a stone, would not have created nuclear reactors, would not have paused to think about the meaning of life, i.e. would not have raised questions about what man is, what environment is, what metaphysics is, that stands above nature. However, ecology as science did not arise until 20 th century. Apart from the theory of ecology, an ecological
more » ... st) ideology exists in our modern world. Representatives of science are called ecologists, while political activists and ideologists are referred to as environmentalists. The specificity of rise of the environmentalist ideology is such that its core was based on an extreme understanding of man and nature, "extreme" meaning that man was declared a warrior of nature, stretching beyond the scope of social existence. There are two main streams in Europe, representing ecologism; these are "deep ecology" of the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess and "eco-anarchism" of Murray Bookchin. "Deep ecology" implies equal values of social and natural life. Nature is not a resource or a product to drain all juices from; nature is a part of man that science and progress cannot dare to touch. Apparently, it is on the assumption that nature is a part of man that Naess, unlike other environmentalists, who are mostly vegetarians, could easily afford crabs and caviar with vodka or wine (see an amusing story about this by Jens Bjørneboe [Bjørneboe 2005: unpaginated]).
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