November 08th, 2017

Gary Snyder gives some hope for the planet:  "In the larger scale, things will take care of themselves.  It's obviously human hubris to think we can destroy the planet, can destroy life.  It's just another exaggeration of ourselves.  Actually, we can't.  We're far too small . . . The time scale is far too large, and the resistance of cellular life is far too great.  But that's . . .no excuse for doing things poorly.  A kind of bottom line is that all human activity is as trivial as anything else.  We can humbly acknowledge that and excuse ourselves from exaggerating our importance, even as a threat, and also recognize the scale and the beauty of things.  And then go to work.  Don't imagine that we're doing ecological politics to save the world.  We're doing ecological politics to save ourselves, to save our souls . . . It's a matter of living right.  It's not that the planet requires us to be good to it.  It's that we must do it because it's an aesthetic and ethical choice.."