Artificially Made from Natural Ingredients

It is rather pompous how we like to exclude ourselves from nature. Mankind was granted the mandate to be a more superior species -- whether you are a Darwinian or a Creationist, it does not matter -- but even emperors consider themselves a part of the people. It was Aldo Leopold's lament that we do not see ourselves as belonging to the land, and so abuse it the way we do now; his sighs of desperation hold true even today.

For even in our language do we betray such arrogance. Why are man-made items termed artificial, and seen as the opposite of natural? It is as though "natural" has a pure, traditional connotation -- words which mankind in its dissociation from very subtly revel in. For if we are no longer traditional, then surely we must be advanced. Or perhaps, the disparity between the 2 words reveal much more conscience than we realise: for if "natural" were healthier, then we acknowledge that the less we tamper with something, the better it is for us. So what we do, I must admit, is rather ingenious. We take the natural items, process them through artificial processes, and label the product as having been "made from natural ingredients" -- as though there could be any other alternative.

But what am I leading to, you might ask.

Well, the world is presently faced with one of the biggest turning points of perhaps human history: the culmination of economic, ecological and impending political collapse -- ooh! Ecologists like David W. Orr have argued that all three in truth stem from the same cause: that of a poor education system that neglects to teach moral and social responsibility to the children. Of course, then you hear economists proclaiming that economic development spearheads scientific discovery, in turn promising the best solution to all our problems today. After all, they would say, did not barren Australia get tamed by irrigation technology? Surely then technology is our best hope for survival; for this, we need economic development. What then do the politicians say? None have denied the economic problem, although many hesitate to also acknowledge the environmental crisis; they almost certainly stand with the economists on this.

On the side of the economic issue, I have nothing to say. We have the most brilliant of minds working on a solution, and they are the best people to do so. After all, besides them, no one else can really understand what the state of the economy is. They came up with a whole myriad of theories that seemed awesome on paper but have now terribly backfired, and we simple-minded folk are none the wiser.

So, perhaps I could foray a little discussion into the environmental issue. The present state of the subject matter goes as follows. Activists are lobbying for humans to keep their hands off ravishing the environment any further; non-activists want to maintain their extravagant lifestyles as per normal. It is, however, the lone voices of a few that cry for something subtly different. They call for harmony. Now, harmony neither demands a complete hands-off nor permits unrestricted hands-on. What it calls for is the ultimate realisation that we are inevitably a part of nature; we live not in spite of it, but because of it.

Aldo Leopold once said, and David W. Orr concurs, that we humans must stop looking upon the resources of this Earth as commodities solely for our usage. This is not to say that we cannot use the resources that nature has granted to us but rather that in using it, we need to consider the ecological consequences -- when we take something, the Earth loses something; and if we take it all, does not the Earth then lose all? A simple concept, to be sure, but one that many people seem to have forgotten.

Clearly what we then need is some form of renewed connection with nature. In this respect, it is not a departure from nature -- to leave alone and give time to heal -- that we need but instead, a deeper involvement in the environment. We need to firstly see that we are not distinct from nature but that we both share this planet. We then need to understand that although nature can be bent to our will -- in most aspects -- we are also vulnerable to nature's temperaments. Ultimately, we need to accord to nature the respect it deserves.

Perhaps then, the best solution does not stem from some mere physical campaign but rather, it must start firstly from an attitudinal improvement.