Prerenaturalism
Prerenaturalism is the curious discovery of two of my friends after a long discussion. They and I are not prerenaturalists. However, it is an interesting concept.
Prerenaturalism is an ideology that strongly values nature, but holds little faith that the people of this generation will act responsibly to conserve natural resources. In other words, society will not use resources responsibly until they are nearly gone. The prerenaturalist takes the radical stance that natural resources must be consumed as fast as possible in order to give society a proverbial kick in the ass. Only then will society re-evaluate its values. This following generation will hypothetically become renaturalists and will reorganize to work in harmony with nature.
posted by Unknown @ 7/27/2005 06:21:00 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Although I dont feel that would be a step in the right direction, it makes complete sense. Humans thrive on tragedy and misfortune because it makes them stronger. it works 2 ways. 1. Cereal killer, bullee, etc. It physically empowers them to see others fall. 2. a large unfortunate mass. When lagre amounts of people are ailing from the same misfortune, they will band together to create a coilition of the weak, making them collectively stronger, to thus overcome the misfortune. once our natural resources are fucked people are going to freak out, some will die, some will also die. but those who remain will gather to recreate a society that works together to regain some of the resources, and learn to use other resources to rebuild. Either that or the world will die, and human existence as we know it will perish.
I just re-read what I wrote and realize that it makes absolutley NO FUCKING SENSE, I dont even know if no fucking sense makes sense. wow....I'm going to bed
The environmentalist in me thinks action must be taken now to save ourselves and or future, but the realist in me knows that we arent going to die tomorrow. well anyway, I completely disagree with the pessimistic tone of prerenaturalism, it's not going to be like waterworld or anything.
What prerenaturalism fails to realize is that market economies constantly react to scarcity as long as it is refelected in prices. Why do you think there are more hybrid cars on the market and more people are buying them now that gas prices have gone up.
I also do not personally subscribe to the pessimistic, and apocalyptic notions of prerenaturalism, nor do I know of anyone who would label themselves a prerenaturalist. In fact, very few people even acknowledge the existence of prerenaturalism as an ideology.
Anyway, I agree with you that it will not be humanity’s sense of responsibility toward our environment and future generations that will cause us to be more conscionable with our resources. It will be the economic forces of supply and demand. All bow to the mighty dollar.
You make the point that there are more and more hybrid cars appearing on the market every day. However, I think it is worth noting that many of these new hybrids are big SUVs that still only get about the same gas mileage as a regular passenger car. Americans still want their big toys. Some of our compact cars would be considered huge in some parts of the world……But I digress.
Anyway, food is on the table and it belongs in my stomach, so I must sign off. Anyway, appreciate the comment! I must admit, I’m curios who the anonymous author was. Was it Salty?
On the topic of hybrid SUVs, I would say that their availability and some consumers' choice to purchase them is also a clear reflection of the market for petroleum products. The price of gas has not become high enough to preclude the purchase of hybrid SUVs.
It is also very important to note the differences in fuel taxation policy between the United States and many other (especially European countries) of similar wealth. I'm sure you know that gas prices are far higher in Europe than in the United States, so clearly this is going to drive down the demand for gas-guzzling vehicles, promote the use of more fuel-efficient vehicles (like vespas and tiny cars), as well as encouraging the use of public transportation.
Instead of immediately jumping to a negative conclusion about U.S. culture, I think we should examine the reasons that fuel prices are higher in Europe. A HUGE reason for this is that there is very high taxation on fuel (well over $3.00 per gallon in the UK), and they use this revenue to pay for social service programs (which are more expansive than in the U.S.).
Don't think that I like SUVs because I definitely don't, but I think it's important to think about how and why people make decisions. I'm also not super-duper hardcore capitalist , I kind of lead toward socialism, and I disagree strongly with the notion that economic social welfare is equivalent to true human welfare.
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