Blog #12 Green Democracy

I would definitely join the Green Party; I think all aspects of green values should be incorporated into the green party. The ten key values are what make the Green Party. I particularly agree with equality amongst all people, animals and nature. I think with the growing environmental issues, the Green Party will grow as well. The have strong values in the environment, equality, non-violence and overall preserving the natural world. I would be one hundred percent on board. I think through time they will continue to gain support and eventually become a prevalent political party. However, with any movement, there comes extremists. Although I do not support the increasing industrialization and urbanization going on in the world, I do not think the actions of monkeywrenchers are justified. They can claim they are non-violent, non-revolutionary and not involved in vandalizing all they want, but at the end of the day they are destroying someone else's property that was more than likely costly without their consent or approval. It is extremely radical, but with controversial issues such as this, activists emerge and create radical solutions to radical problems. I think their intentions are honorable but they are going about creating change in a way that is just as bad as the people involved in industrialization.

Blog #11 Spiritual Ecology

I was raised as a Catholic but never really felt welcome in that religion. If I still believed in Catholicism then I don't think I would be as open to spiritual ecology since it is a converting religion. In high school I took a comparative religions course and it opened my eyes to all different spiritual views. I connected most with the Buddhist and Hindu views. They value nature more and think everything you encounter should be cherished and teach you more about yourself and he Earth. They teach to be kind to all living beings, whether it be humans, animal or nature. Our lives are gifts as is every other living being's and we are all connected and equal. This is exactly the view of spiritual ecology; we are one with nature. James Lovelock formulated the Gaia Hypothesis, basically saying that Earth is a living being that sustains itself as its environment changes. The organisms that live on Earth help sustain it, just as Earth sustains them. I agree with this hypothesis because every living organism is affected and needs one another, Earth being one of those living organisms. I definitely believe we live in a hyper-masculinized society. From the beginning of time men have always dominated. I have seen it moving more towards equality but even so, there are many people out there that do and always will see women, and all species for that matter, submissive to men.

Blog #10 Social Ecology

The readings describe social ecology as how people live and interact with the environment, putting an emphasis on diverging from over consumption and over exploitation of resources and being one with the world, as we are part of it. I think like all the ecological ways of live, it would be ideal if everyone could see the benefits of living this way, however, I know that most people won't. In our world we have many forms of hierarchy. Each nation has its own system of government and definitions of what is wealthy and poor. We create a class system that I feel came from a materialistic point of view. Every civilization has placed values on inanimate objects and determined who is "high class and low class" based on how much of these items they have. It's a way of life that has been engraved into people's brains as long as humans have existed. I don't think most people know any better so they typically see nothing wrong with it, unless they are considered "low class." Of course there are better alternatives because defining someone by their "wealth" says nothing of their character or how they can benefit others, including the Earth. If people were to let go of class systems I think the environment would thrive as well as the human race. I do think people need some sort of government and leaders to follow but I don't think we should discriminate based on material items. 

Blog #9 Deep Ecology

I would have to agree with deep ecology. It relates a lot to spiritual ecology; the Earth is a living organism, just as us. We are in a symbiotic relationship with it and without that relationship neither of us would survive. People do need to learn how to coexist. No quality in one person makes them better than any other person. If people learned to cooperate better there would be less violence, which is a main component of ecological thinking. Widening diversity will give people a better chance to work together and accept differences, which in turn will help change the environment for the better. It will take a combined effort to live in symbiosis with each other and the Earth. I feel that most people only have the views of shallow ecology, but it truly is more than that. Simply recycling and reducing pollution is not enough to sustain the environment. I really like the idea of "people being active not merely reacting." Taking a mitigating approach will keep people active and help plan for the future, not just reacting when an issue must be dealt with. Action leads to change and people are the ones who must take action. I disagree slightly with the idea of decentralization. Decentralization is a vital part of deep ecology because it once again focuses on the ideas of togetherness and cooperation, however, I think that most people need that structure and some form of a leader or leaders to guide them in the right direction. Most people are not just going to deviate from the norm and speak out against others so I think that a centralized nation helps with having a leader that will give them the confidence to take action. A major concern would be whether people are willing to give this way of life a chance and if they can become more open minded and work together. I definitely think that deep ecology relates to my life because I have the mindset already and value the principles that are the foundation of deep ecology.

Blog #8

For a census decision making group or community to work there needs to be a group of people that are willing to compromise and keep and open mind. From the readings, I learned that a main component of a functioning census based community is trust between the members. The members have to be comfortable with one another enough to accept constructive criticism. You have to break away from your fears of what others will think of your opinion and know that growing to make a decision together will make you stronger and in the end your community stronger. The article on Conflict and Consensus states, "it will not be easy to create the kind of environment where differences can be expressed without fear or resentment. But it can be done. It will require tolerance and a willingness to experiment." I feel that perfectly describes the census community mind set. You also need to write a plan of what to want the overall purposes, including the groups' principles and values. The main values of a functioning consensus community are trust, respect, unity of purpose, nonviolence, self empowerment, cooperation, conflict resolution, commitment, active participation and patience. The strengths are that there is no hierarchy because the groups decides on the best for the community and everyone can have a say on what is truly best for the community. However, the weakness in having such a community I would think that it's hard to get a group of people together and actually make decisions that benefit the community more than themselves. People are very opinionated and it's hard to put that aside and think of what's best for everyone. You really do have to trust and be comfortable with the people in your community for it to succeed.

Blog #7

Marylin Bordwell starts off by describing "uncommercials," specifically the one featured above, to introduce the topic of culture jamming. Culture jamming is technique used to get people to rethink consumerism and the affect media has on them by using rhetorical strategies. "It confronts consumption by targeting the purveyors of excess consumption and challenging them on their own turf" (Bordwell). Adbusters Media Foundation is a leading organization that practices culture jamming; they create national days where people don't watch television or use their cars, they try to undo what the media ingrains into our minds. They release "unadvertisements" in the forms of picture ads, Internet ads, magazines, newspapers, campaigns books and television commercials. I do think that it is an effective form of activism. As Bordwell states, "advertising consumes us as we consume it." People feed into what the media defines as cool or socially accepted, through the advertisements they see every day. Media creates a socially accepted norm that is constantly changing and as it does people feel the need to keep up with it in order to avoid judgement from others. It's not a healthy way to live and definitely does not make people feel great about themselves when they deviate from that norm (for the most part). With organizations like Adbusters, people can decide for themselves that they no longer want to live relying on the media for approval. Once they have someone to show them how consumed they have been, passions to make change emerge and activists are created. Although the reading talks about critiques to Adbusters and how they aren't radical enough to make change, I disagree slightly. They may not be able to make change on their own but with the support from the people they touch they could very well start a movement and progress away from a consumer society. I do think they would need an extremely large number of supporters however.

Blog #6: Spiritual Ecology

I thought the spiritual ecology readings were very insightful and inspiring. I really enjoyed reading about the different tribes that value nature and give back to it as they use its resources. I completely agreed that we are one with nature and should be more conscious of how we are treating it. I found "The Gaia Hypothesis" very interesting. The whole concept of Gaia was something I've never heard before. I thought it was insightful that the Earth was considered to be a living organism that maintains homeostasis, just as we do. I don't think majority of people would read that article and agree with its message. In the article, "Beyond Humanism, Modernity and Patriarchy," I obviously agreed that we need to understand more of how the natural world works to fully appreciate. I thought it was funny that equality has become such a large issue, especially with men, even though women are still not "invited to speak on their panels, and their conferences, or in their journals." One of the articles even said as much as much as we thrive for equality our nature has been built on a patriarchal society. Even higher, spiritual beings are portrayed as men, making women dependent on men from the start. The final reading, "Spiritual Ecology," captured my interest the most. I liked how every religion cherished the Earth and thought it was their religious duty to give back and take care of it. They did not over exploit natural resources or slaughter animals to the extent we do today. They recognized that they benefit from other living organisms (even the Earth) and they needed to sustain it. The more people try to rebel against religions and traditional views the less they will care about the environment. Unless those who rebel turn into environmental activists, we are losing so many people to non-traditional mindsets and a lack of empathy for the environment.

My ideas for leading a class based on spiritual ecology would be to have everyone discuss what their religious values are and what they were taught as they were raised about their religion and the environment. I would want them to read "Spiritual Ecology" for sure because I truly think it's an eye opener. Society today relies so much on industry and technology but as the article said, "If they can do it, so can we." Why couldn't we go back valuing what the native tribes valued? Why couldn't we take care of the Earth as people once did? This quote stuck with me and I want to know what others feel about it. "When I was small, my mother often told me that animals, insects and plants are to be treated with the kind of respect one customarily accords to high-status adults. Life is a circle, and everything has a place in it."