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Post by CRCP on Oct 26, 2006 21:58:08 GMT -5
Posts by forum members follow:
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Post by John Zeger on Oct 26, 2006 22:02:37 GMT -5
"The Tao Te Ching says:
Man models himself on the Earth; The Earth models itself on Heaven; Heaven models itself on the Way; And the Way models itself on that which is so on its own.
We could model ourselves on earth and find a kind of humility that in no way contradicts or interferes with our creativity but instead puts valuable limits on growth and development."
Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life
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Post by John Zeger on Oct 26, 2006 22:06:58 GMT -5
"Modern development also seems to be antagonistic toward all that is pristine and raw, or old and falling apart. Undeveloped nature appears as an affront to our civilizing efforts, and we may pave it over or build insensitively on it out of anger. In the right hands, a bulldozer can be a sculptor's scalpel, but often it's a weapon of rage."
Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life
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Post by Rick Shea on Oct 27, 2006 10:30:41 GMT -5
Don't despair. All is not lost. There is a growing awareness of what needs to change. We are making progress. We have seen that the bigger the machine, the more vulnerable it is. With the changes in Eastern Europe, we can also see how rapidly the world can be altered, and how quickly paradigms can be changed. There's plenty of room for maneuvering. And do not be too self-conscious to speak, from time to time, the words "Mother Earth."
Jerry Mander, in "In the Absence of the Sacred"
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Post by Rick Shea on Oct 27, 2006 10:40:47 GMT -5
For in the end, (Aldous Huxley) was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.
Neil Postman, in "Amusing Ourselves to Death"
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Post by John Zeger on Nov 11, 2006 23:18:26 GMT -5
"If thou findest in human life anything better than justice, truth, temperance, fortitude, and, in a word, anything better than thy own mind's self-satisfaction in the things which it enables thee to do according to right reason ... if, I say, thou seest anything better than this, turn to it with all thy soul, and enjoy that which thou has found to be the best. But if nothing appears to be better ... if thou findest everything else smaller and of less value than this, give place to nothing else ... for it is not right that anything of any other kind, such as praise from the many, or power, or enjoyment of pleasure, should come into competition with that which is rationally and politically good." -- Marcus Aurelius
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Post by John Zeger on Nov 20, 2006 22:24:07 GMT -5
"The task of the coming city is to put the highest concerns of man at the center of all his activities: to unite the scattered fragments of the human personality, turning artificially dismembered men -- bureaucrats, specialists, 'experts,' depersonalized agents -- into complete human beings, repairing the damage that has been done by vocational separation, by social segregation, by the over-cultivation of a favored function, by tribalisms, and nationalisms, by the absence of organic partnerships and ideal purposes....
We must now conceive the city, according, not primarily as a place of business or government, but as an essential organ for expressing and actualizing the new human personality -- that of 'One World Man.' The old separation of man and nature, of townsman and countryman, of Greek and barbarian, of citizen and foreigner, can no longer be maintained: for communication, the entire planet is becoming a village; and as a result, the smallest neighbourhood or precinct must be planned as a working model of the larger world. The individual and corporate will of its citizens, aiming at self-knowledge, self-government, and self-actualization, must be embodied in the city. Not industry but education will be the center of their activities; and every process and function will be evaluated and approved just to the extent that it furthers human development, whilst the city itself provides a vivid theatre for the spontaneous encounters and challenges and embraces of daily life...
We must restore to the city the maternal, life-nurturing functions, the autonomous activities, the symbiotic associations that have long been neglected or suppressed. For the city should be an organ of love; and the best economy of cities is the care and culture of men." --- Lewis Mumford, The City in History
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Post by John Zeger on Dec 5, 2006 16:01:37 GMT -5
"This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood which unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
Chief Seattle
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Post by John Zeger on Feb 21, 2007 11:24:09 GMT -5
"The only thing more radical than the end of growth is the continuation of growth" -- Andy Kerr
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Post by John Zeger on Feb 22, 2007 11:50:00 GMT -5
David Suzuki on growth:
"in a finite world, nothing can grow indefinitely"
"I don't think we can have economic growth forever."
"We are way overpopulated in both the industrialized and developing world."
"If progress is represented by economic globalization and growth, then there seems to be a limitless opportunity to try to keep the economy growing indefinitely ... this to me represents the greatest threat we now confront."
"This idea that we've got to have steady growth forever is suicidal. ... All of this talk about growth and 'we've got to have more' is just saying we've got to hurry up what is a suicidal course."
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Post by Rick Shea on Feb 25, 2007 16:23:56 GMT -5
Herman Daly, quoting David Orr, on the human conceit that we are capable of managing the entire planet:
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Post by John Zeger on Dec 14, 2007 17:39:22 GMT -5
"The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical construct. To say, as many do, that the difficulties of nations are not due to people but to poor ideology or land-use management is sophistic." --- E.O. Wilson, biologist
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