Customer Reviews

The Way: An Ecological Word-View

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In `The Way: an ecological world view', one of the most informed and intellectually formidable minds of the environmental movement turns conventional thought on its head and demonstrates point by point how most of the fundamental mores and principles taken for granted by our modern society are fundamentally flawed and, as such, are leading us in the opposite direction of the healthy and happy life they promise. In contrast to this Edward Goldsmith argues for a revival of a way common to many societies prior to the industrial revolution and the influence of its reductionist world view.

The way of these traditional societies could not be more at variance with the way of the modern, and yet could not be more in tune with our biological, social and psychological needs. Goldsmith contrasts this vernacular way with the world view of the current technocratic, industrial mission.

The thesis that Goldsmith weaves together claims that by rejecting and pulling itself away from the path of the biosphere our modern industrial way of life has effectively become diseased in almost every aspect of its operation, and as a result cannot possibly sustain its own vital, living processes. The result of this straying from the Way is breakdown, disorder and chaos worsening from one crisis to another until final, inevitable collapse. This is so as the processes of industrial society are consistently at odds with the primary processes of the real world that have sustained complex life on the planet for several hundred million years without aid.

The Way explains how this works, and how the same principles are in operation at every level of organisation whether it be in the life of the cell, the individual, the family, the local community, society at large or the biosphere as a whole. It explains why the current dominant world view attempts to foist upon people the pathological belief that natural, living processes are redundant and must be surrogated by the great artificial enterprise of the fake, imitated and engineered. It rapidly becomes clear how this is threatening our own survival and the biosphere itself within what is a mere blink of an eye of evolutionary time.

Although modern in its technical elucidation and method, The Way's carefully reasoned message is a call for a revival of most of what is rejected by our modern way of life. The Way is a call to instinct, intuition and aesthetics as much as to knowledge gathered by careful study and analysis. It is a call for the mythopoetic as much as for reason and sensory experience. Religion, art and myth figure prominently as means of interweaving our lives with the natural way. Emotion, faith, aliveness and natural creativity are all called upon as vital for the survival of the ancient, intelligent living processes that maintain our planet, our societies and our very selves. It calls upon the basic common sense that if one realises one has made a serious mistake by turning the wrong way then it's not too late to turn back and recover the well trodden way once again. There is really no shame in rethinking the most fundamental assumptions of one's life, since now it has become a matter of general urgency.

Yet such ways by their very nature cannot be imposed simplistically from on-high without ruining them. By and large these complex living processes require nurturing cooperatively from below, and this may prove to be the most uncomfortable challenge of all to our massively over-powered and rigidly controlled institutional structures.

`The Way: an ecological world view' may yet become one of the key works that transformed our way of thinking and practice in the 21st century. Read on...

In "The Way: An Ecological World-View," Goldsmith shows us what an ecologically sustainable society, which ours is not, looks like. And he need not make one up, either, because there are plenty of models already in existence in so-called primitive societies. While Goldsmith's vision is optimistic in that it shows us what is *possible*, when one realizes the enormity of the task of transforming our society into one that is ecologically sound, one is liable to become rather despondent. As Goldsmith shows, all societies are package deals, meaning that everything--institutions, governments, customs, values, education, etc.--supports the overall condition of the given society. Thus in our society, mainstream scientists, educational institutions, religion, etc. contribute to our society's current state.

Another great feature of the book is its rich bibliography. It's a great place to look for further reading if you want to go more in depth.

I had two problems with it, though, both related to the copyediting. First, not *all* works are cited. For example, at the bottom of p. 390, Ch. 60, is the sentence "The social psychiatrist Marvin Opler has shown..." One would expect this sentence to be annotated, but no note is given. Where did Opler show this? What is the name of the work? Also, McNeill is mentioned in the text, but no work is given (my guess is McNeill's "Plagues and Peoples," but I don't know).

My second gripe has to do with punctuation. Often, commas are used where they shouldn't be. For example (p. 367): "Erwin Chargaff of Columbia University, writes of the..." There's no reason for a comma after "University" here. Unfortunately, mistakes like this are rife throughout the book. For me they get distracting and annoying, which is why I gave the book only four stars.

But overall, this is a great read that needs to be read by everyone in our culture (though I have no doubt it would be poorly received by most politicians, scientists, and average citizens).