Blog Post #11

            I was originally raised with the Presbyterian religion growing up but this only lasted until I was around the age of 7.  After that, my family stopped going to church and religion really stopped playing a part in my life.  I currently don’t identify with any formal religion and I would describe myself as spiritual rather than religious.  Not having a strong religious backing, I’m open to knew ideas and I so found spiritual ecology to be really interesting.  I love that spiritual ecology seems to centered around respecting nature and working with nature, however the rituals described in the readings do seem to be a little far fetched to me.

I’m used to hearing that organisms adapt to their surroundings so it was interesting to hear the theory of co-evolution presented by the Gaia Hypothesis.  I don’t feel like I know enough to say if this hypothesis is right or wrong, but I definitely do think that it is a possibility.  If the Gaia Hypothesis is correct and nature does evolve to help life survive on Earth, this just further stresses the idea that we as humans must show nature the same amount of respect that nature shows us.

I do feel in some ways that our culture is hyper-masculine.  Although exploitation of women does still exist to some degree, I feel that hierarchy and constant competition are the two things that really propel our “hyper-masculine culture”.

Blog Post #10

Social Ecology links all of the problems in the world whether they are environmental, social, political, etc. to the hierarchical set up of the world.  Furthermore, Social Ecology asserts that hierarchy is an institutional phenomenon that is the result of the creation of power- centered relationships by man.  

            The readings were very interesting and informative.  I really liked Bookchin’s challenge of the idea of Darwinism and his idea that we should replace “survival of the fittest” with the idea of mutual cooperation.  I found the “Third World Poverty” reading to be the most interesting.  This reading really made me think about the hierarchy that we have created between developed countries and underdeveloped countries.  Living in the US, it’s easy to the follow the pattern of over-consumption without thinking about the impact that our behavior has on the rest of the world. 

            There are many forms of hierarchy in the world today.  As seen in the “Third World Poverty” reading there is the hierarchy of Third world countries vs. developed countries.  As seen in the Bookchin reading, there is the hierarchy of the “survival of the fittest” created by the idea of Darwinism and the hierarchy of Man over Nature.  We also see hierarchy in everyday life such as the hierarchy of the boss over the worker and the teacher over the student.  In my opinion, we have a natural tendency to want to create hierarchies but I don’t feel that these hierarchies are natural in and of themselves.  Instead of creating hierarchies, I think we need to identify the importance of mutual cooperation and respect the role that everyone or everything plays in nature and/or society.  

Blog Post #9

I agree with the main ideas set forth by Deep Ecology.  More specifically, I agree with the concept that man is a part of nature and not something separate from and dominate over nature.   Deep Ecology seems to be a reaction to the type of society that we live in today.  Living in the US we are constantly surrounded by over-consumption and excessive pollution.  The recent concerns for nature seem to be centered on preserving nature so that man can exploit it for longer.     

            I agree with several of the principles of Deep Ecology but the principle that I agree the most with is the principle that states that all life on Earth, whether it be human or nonhuman, has value in itself regardless of its use to humans.  Just because a life form may not appear to have a direct use for humans does not mean that it is worthless.  Every life form on this Earth is here for a reason and I think it is important for us to recognize this.  We also need to be aware of our impact on the Earth and how our actions many threaten other life forms.    

            The principle that I agree the least with is that the human population needs to be controlled and decreased.  I understand that the human population is growing at an extremely fast rate, however it scares me to think how this principle would be implemented.  Would this go so far as to countries limiting the number of children allowed in each family? 

Blog Post #8

            There are several preconditions necessary for using consensus decision making in a group or organization.  The most important thing is that the group or organization must create an environment that promotes trust and respect.  Group members must be open to new ideas, listen to other members, and criticize the action and not the person during discussion.  The members must also be aware of the group’s purpose and must find unity in this purpose.   The dynamic between group members must be cooperative and not competitive and there should be a focus on creating a nonviolent atmosphere in which no member attempts to control or dominate the group.  Finally, active participation must be encouraged.  Everyone’s voice should be heard and everyone should have an equal opportunity to voice his or her opinion during the meeting.

            One of the weakness with consensus decision making is that it can be very time consuming.  The group must reach an agreement which can take some time.  If the group is not properly structure or the preconditions for consensus decision making are not met, the entire process will likely be very inefficient.  Also, consensus decision making requires some training, which again may take some time.  There are, however, a number of advantages with this type of decision making process.  Consensus decision making promotes cooperation instead of competition among members.  The process is very democratic and as long as there is active participation, all voices are able to be heard.  Consensus decision making also builds a sense of community.  Knowing your other group members helps the decision making process run more smoothly.  Finally, it encourages the group to self-evaluate therefore further strengthening the group’s sense of purpose and also allowing for growth.

Blog Post #7

What I gathered from the readings is that culture jamming is a reaction to the domination of society by consumer culture.  We are constantly exposed to advertisements whether it is when we’re watching TV, reading a magazine, driving along a highway, listening to the radio, etc.   Culture jamming is a way to make us stop and think about the constant advertisements aimed to make us consume more.  It is a movement that confronts and challenges consumer culture and attempts to put ideas in the spotlight rather than products.

            Culture jamming can take many forms.  One example is the campaign by Adbusters known as Buy Nothing Day which takes place on Black Friday, one of the largest shopping days of the year in the US.  Adbusters also creates a number of “spoof ads” (ex. Joe Chemo) that resemble those of large corporations but are twisted to send a message and make people think.   Culture jamming also includes media hoaxing, which tricks journalists into covering elaborately crated fake news stories, and billboard banditry, altering billboards whether it be with graffiti or with reworking the words or images on a billboard to create a new message. 

            I think that culture jamming can create a pretty powerful message to society.  The issue that I have with culture jamming as a tool for activism is that it makes a statement but it doesn’t necessarily provide a solution.  I also feel that culture jamming can be a little too “in your face”.  I agree that the consumer culture in the US is pretty out of control but I feel there are better and more appropriate methods to use to educate the public.

Blog Post #6

            I decided to be a part of the Social Ecology GTP group because I thought the short description that David gave in class sounded really interesting.  I don't know much about the subject, so I didn’t really have a lot of background information about before I completed the readings on Blackboard.  The GTP readings for Social Ecology, however, are very informative and give a nice overview of the subject. 

Bookchin’s “What is Social Ecology” provides a great introduction into the subject, however the reading is pretty lengthy and is a little dense at some points.  I do really like his challenge of Darwinism and I think that this could be a great topic to focus on during our GTP class time.  The Milbrath reading is also fairly lengthy but it provides a nice comparison of the Dominant Social Paradigm vs. the New Environmental Paradigm.  He provides some very strong arguments about how humans need to start accepting limits to their behavior and also argues that environmental problems originate in the socioeconomic-political system.  My favorite reading was the Trainer “Third World Poverty” reading.  This reading is not only the most manageable but also the most powerful.  Finally, I thought the Center for a New American Dream was very interesting to look at and provides a nice example of how an organization is transforming the arguments of Social Ecologists into direct action.

I’m not sure exactly how our GTP group should lead the class on this topic, however I think it would be really nice to bring in a guest speaker from either the Environmental Studies department, Sociology department or even the Philosophy department.  Social Ecology seems to cover a wide number of topics so it will just be a matter of narrowing down what topics we find either the most interesting or the most informative and then going from there.