Unwinding the Spool of Civilization in Pontings The Green History of the World and Quinns Ishmael :: Green History of the World Essays

Unwinding the Spool of Civilization in Pontings The jet plane History of the World and Quinns shipwreck survivor Clive Pontings The Green History of the World and Daniel Quinns Ishmael both critique the dominant ikons of modern human civilization-especially where its relationship with surround is concerned. Both feel strongly that we are in trouble. Neither are quite willing to make final connections and present us with a systematic method for getting out of our impending ecological crisis, still they both do spell out what has been wrong, what is wrong now, and what will authorize should we choose not to take evasive action. In the absence of like works in the canon it is hard not to feel as though, (as the character Ishmael promised), if you accept their premises you are doomed to isolation for, those who see the future most clearly are usually outcasts, upset as to what power they may have to change minds and directions. Enlightenment approximately always comes at a p rice, often steep. In the interest of exploring the want of dissent, lets follow that line of environmental thought a little further. Ponting presents us with the scientific/cultural evidence that backs up what Quinn is saying that we as a species are destroying our foundations even as we proclaim our creation-Civilization-a success. If this massive breakdown and forebode future are certainties, then we must ask-as Quinn does-who or what is telling us lies to make us believe otherwise? His character Ishmael calls it let Culture and insists that its pervasive voice acts to keep us on eat even when large portions of the cosmos have every reason to retrogress hope in Her tenets. This all-powerful entity would, presumably, include most educational establishments and media outlets, and so information to the contrary would rarely be funded or reported, and probably never directly emphasized. Which leaves us with a challenge using Thomas Kuhns place for change in the social science s, we must endeavor to see if the Ponting/Quinn paradigm for all civilization is merely a displacement in military strength or-as would be difficult for Kuhn to imagine-an entirely new realization that carries with it remedies for the penalties it warns of. If this is a shift back in paradigm, to hunter-gatherer or Noble Savage imagery, then the emf for civil disruption is great. With the stakes of annihilation as high as they are presented, such a shift could justify sweeping political/economic reform that-in the absence of the believed-in reality-would only place more of the Earths population in positions of subsistence and subservience.