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.