ECOLOGICAL HUMANISM:

An Answer to 'Where Do We Go from Here?

By Henryk Skolimowski

At a packed Forum at the Architectural Association (London) on Thursday June 20 (1974), four specialists put forward their views on the subject 'Beyond Alternative Technology'.

Taking part were Edward Goldsmith Editor of The Ecologist, Peter Harper, a frequent contributor to radical and alternative publications, Gerry Foley of the AA Technical Services Unit and Professor Skolimowski of the Humanities Dept, College of Engineering, Ann Arbor, Michigan, whose contribution is reproduced here:

Oswald Spengler has written that 'Technics are the tactics for living'. This is a very useful phrase indeed. I shall take advantage of it while stating our dilemma and while searching for possible solutions.

Modern technology, or better -- western technology, has failed us not because it has become economically counter productive in the long run; and not because it has become ecologically devastating, but mainly because it has forgotten its basic function, namely that all technics are, in the last resort, the tactics for living. Because modern technology has failed us as a set of the tactics for living, it has also proved in the process to be economically counter-productive and ecologically ruinous.

But this indictment also affects Alternative Technology. Alternative Technology has started rather vigorously, captured the imagination of many, and is now fizzling out. Why? Because Alternative Technology has not taken itself seriously enough, that is, as a new set of tactics for living.

When pushed to an extreme, Alternative Technology has either become an idolatry of new kinds of gadgets, or else a crass ideology of the New Left: a feverish process perpetuating itself, though perhaps empty of content. Alterna-tive Technology has been waning (though the Establishment has just discovered it: see the article in the Observer, 26 May 1974) because it did not go to its roots; it did not confront itself with the ultimate task of all technics: to become a set of tactics for living.

The tactics for living are not merely new uses of old instruments. Culture is a fundamental part of the tactics for living. Thriving and healthy, culture provides a set of dynamic structures for living. Within the western world, particularly during the last 150 years, and especially during the last 50 years, culture (as well as religion) has been systematically misunderstood, mystified, misread and distorted, and taken either to be a sickly product of decadent minds or an anachronism of the pre-technological era. In either case, culture was considered more or less spurious. But culture and religion are an inherent part of the human strategies for survival and well-being.
However, the culture of the post-industrial era cannot be a simple resuscitation of some traditional cultures, for it will have to meet new contingencies of life, which means it will have to rethink the products of the human mind and spirit within a differently conceived world.

I have chosen to call this new set of tactics for living, which encompasses New Technology, New Culture and New Ideology, Ecological Humanism. Ecological Humanism is not a new label for old things, nor simply pouring old wine into new bottles. I must point out, in particular, that Ecological Humanism has little to do with traditional humanisms; and it quite sharply separates itself from Marxist or Socialist humanism, which calls (along with other humanisms) for the appropriation of nature to man.

Traditional humanism has emphasized the nobility of man, the independence of man, indeed the greatness of man who is cut in the Protean mould. This concep-tion of man went hand in hand with the idea of appropriating nature to the ends and needs of man. Marx fully accepted this conception of man and the idea of the appropriation of nature (or simply using nature) to man's advantage, or, indeed, to man's content.

Ecological Humanism is based on the reversed premise. It calls for the appro-priation of man to nature. We have to see man as a part of a larger scheme of things: of nature and cosmos. We have to transcend and abolish the idea of the Protean (and Faustian) man. The consequences of this reversal are quite far reaching, and I will just touch on some of them. On a more practical level, Ecological Humanism signifies, among other things, frugality, recycling, the reverence for nature, which are really three different aspects of the same thing.

I must emphasize that Ecological Humanism is not just another fancy name for saying that we should be less wasteful, for it signifies a fundamental re-orientation of the multitude of things. Not many people, Marxists in particular, are aware that traditional humanism, as based on the ideal of the Protean man and the idea of the appropriation of nature (with the tacit acceptance of both present science and present technology) are simply incompatible with the ideal of harmony between the human species and the rest of nature.

Now, let me spell out some of the consequences of Ecological Humanism. On the practical level, as I have already mentioned, Ecological Humanism spells out a new kind of technology based on the idea of frugality, recycling, the reverence for nature, new economy; of which the reverence for nature is not a spurious ornament, but an intrinsic part of a new design.

On the level of the individual, Ecological Humanism signifies (that is, after we cease to be consumptive hogs) inner exuberance instead of the restless outward activity; empathy and compassion rather than ruthless competition; understanding in depth rather than merely handling of information.

On the level of the entire culture, Ecological Humanism signifies a fundamental switch from the traditional idiom, in which man asserts himself against things 'out there', tries to impress himself on the world, to the idiom, in which man will mesh himself with the things 'out there'.

It is by now clear to you, I hope, that no New Technology can provide a solution by itself, that no new Culture can provide a solution by itself, that no New Ideology can provide an answer by itself, but that each must become an aspect of a larger paradigm, an aspect, in other words, of a new set of tactics for living.

In the realm of ideology, Ecological Humanism points towards social relation-ships based on the idea of sharing, and stewardship rather than owning things and fighting continuous ruthless battles in open and camouflaged social wars. In short, Ecological Humanism is based on a new articulation of the world at large:

- it sees the world not as a place for pillage and plunder, an arena for gladi-ators, but as a sanctuary in which we temporarily dwell, and of which we must take the utmost care;

- it sees man not as an acquisitor and conquistador, but as a guardian and steward;

- it sees knowledge not as an instrument for the domination of nature, but ultimately as techniques for the refinement of the soul;

- it sees values not in pecuniary equivalents, but in intrinsic terms as a vehicle which contributes to a deeper understanding of people by people, and a deeper cohesion between people and the rest of creation;

- and it sees all these above mentioned elements as a part of the new tactics for living.

"A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" (Browning).

[This article first appeared in "AA Notes", June-July 1974]