Protest Whitney Biennial

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Raymond Williams: Ideas of Nature.

Raymond Williams starts his essay on ideas of Nature by explicating that unlike words that have simple and unequivocal meanings attached to it the idea of nature is historical and its very own definition, or meaning, carries within itself changes on perception and experience; "we have here a case of a definition of quality which becomes. through real usage, based on certain assumptions, a description of the world." (Williams 68).

    •    One of the first ideas of nature come expressed in the words of Burke "in the state of rude nature there is no such thing as a a people". The notion of a "state of nature" implies a sort of barbarism (as a Greek would say), a state of permanent war and violence, unlawfulness and immorality; in opposition to the a people. The notion of "a people" is that of a common agreement, a corporation, cooperation, purpose, collective work, property, morality and law, all of which are qualities whose preponderance makes up for different theories of the idea of the human as a society, i.e the fundamental place that fear and power has in the the imposition of absolute order in Hobbes, or the central aspect of property in Locke's system, or the role that labor has in the production paradigm of Marxism.

    •    "The central point of analysis can be expressed at once in the single formation of the term. As I understand it, we have here a case of a definition of quality which becomes, through real usage, based on certain assumptions, a description of the world." (Ibid 68).

The Rousseauian idea of the "bon savage" is one of these descriptions of the world. One among many that are based on an emphasis of the multiple qualities of  "Nature is" according to the processes we select: the food chain, dramatized in the shark or the tiger; the jungle of plants competing for space, light and air; or the pollinator -the bee and the butterfly- or the symbiotic and the parasite; even the scavenger, the population controller, the regulator of food supplies." (Ibid 70).

    •    "Many of the earliest speculations of nature seem to have been in this sense physical, but with the underlying assumption that in the course of the physical enquires one was discovering the essential, inherent and indeed inmutable laws of the world. The association and then the fusion of a name for the quality with a name for the things observed has a precise history. It is a central formation of idealist thought. What was being looked for in nature was a certain principle. The multiplicity of things, and of living processes, might then be mentally organized around a single essence or principle: a nature" (Ibid 68).
   
It is a shame that Williams doesn't provide at least one example of the moment in which the "name for the quality" got associated and then fusioned with "the name for the thing". I assume he is talking of the moment in which explication of natural phenomena ceased to rely on mythological thinking such as "Zeus produces the lighting and thunderstorm" to enquiry into the physical reactions provoked by electricity.

As a result of the focus on observing things and discovering their inherent quality (Idealist thought, pantheism and polytheism gave way to monotheism. The idea of a nature with an order and a dual hierarchy became the underlying principle of the universe, God the sovereign and absolute patriarch in opposition to its prime minister and executive power female Nature.

This singular interpretation of the world as one became the dominant one in the last two thousand years, " a dominant kind of interpretation, idealist, metaphysical or religious(…) But just as in religion the moment of monotheism is a critical development, so, in human responses, to the physical world, is the moment of a singular Nature" (Ibid 69).

Then the history of singular, abstracted and personified nature starts. Feminized nature in opposition to fatherly God which is an account of the struggles in society and the ideas of man in society. Individuals souls are conflicted on whether to reject the absolute universal patriarch or accept mother nature. In other words, if it would be proper to accept a scientific explanation of the universe rather than to keep the dogma of Christianity alive. This conflict is amplified with the advent of evolution or Darwin's theory. Evolution changes the sight on nature from singular personification to process and history.

Frontline

Watch Opium Brides on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Radioctivity is Bad. But, Isn' it?

Radioactivity may be bad for humans, but not for animals, the ecosystem and the earth. As this video proves, radiation may save the planet from unstoppable human predatory and destructive behavior.

The aesthetic appeal of the images and the romantic quality of the narrative makes you wonder if we humans have only accomplished to make our planet an awful place. Isn't present Chernobyl a beautiful place? It is, and if it wasn't for the cost in human lives we would have even said that a nuclear explosion was one of the best things that ever happened to Ukraine and Belarus.

After watching  this video I'm left with the impression that this planet has an intelligence of her own and that she will always look for ways to restore her inner balance, wrestling the destructive powers away whether from dinosaurs or from humans. That is why is so important that we stay grounded in reason and in harmony with mother earth. Because she will always take back what has been wrestled away from her.

Watch Radioactive Wolves on PBS. See more from Nature.