man & nature

We are part of the nature. So, should I say, "man of the nature"?

Well, our civilization, at least the now dominant western civilization, didn't evolve along that motto - for the most part of the last ten or so thousand years we were defeating the nature. Ten or so thousand years, from the invention of agriculture and metallurgy to be more precise, we were treating nature as resources only. "Defeating the nature", that is the expression I learned in the grammar school and encountered many times afterwards. It was a slogan of the Industrial Revolution. Even as recently as in 1984, I heard the expression from a university podium (!), during a Ph.D. thesis defense in the field of pharmacology (!!).

Now, wait a minute, isn't that normal, don't all species treat their environment as resources? Yes, all species but we have to be reminded that something went wrong with evolution of the "Third Chimpanzee" – and the result is "we". We, the species who believe in their dominance on Earth, the species blinded by the advances in their technology, the species ignoring the fact that they are just one of the species temporary on Earth, more temporary than many other species and Earth itself. Then again, maybe we are not ignoring the fact, maybe our life philosophy is "let it go while it goes" because we are aware of the fact. I don't think so – never underestimate the power of ignorance.

Of course, there always were people close to the nature. I mean, being part of Nature by their conscience and their actions. Not those who research the nature to exploit it, not those who write and paint on nature just to make living. Thanks to them we have city parks and national parks, natural reserves and restricted industrial development. However, it is the mind of average western man (and all others who mimic him) which has to be remolded into Nature. How? Many small steps, encouraging the people to get close to Nature. For instance, people and animals are supposed to be together, they spent quite a long time evolving together, but now people are cut off from animals unless they have a dog or a cat. I live in a privileged location – the photo on the right is from my backyard. And most people have close natural parks and undeveloped land but they seldom go there. Again, I live in a privileged location – the rollover photo is from the forest just across the street.