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          <TD vAlign="top" width="90"><B><FONT 
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          <TD vAlign="top" width="356"><FONT 
            face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif"><A href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/se-crit.htm">Social 
                        Ecology critique</A></FONT>, Murray 
        Bookchin</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
      <H2>Social Ecology</H2>
      <P>Social ecology claims that the environmental crisis is a result of the  
             hierarchical organization of power &amp; the authoritarian 
      mentality rooted         in the structures of our society. The Western 
      ideology of dominating the         natural world arises from these social 
      relationships.</P>
      <BLOCKQUOTE>"The domination of nature by man stems from the very real    
             domination of human by human"</BLOCKQUOTE>
      <P><A href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/books.htm#se_books"><I>'The 
      Ecology of Freedom'</I></A>, page         1. Murray Bookchin</P>
      <P>The alternative is society based on ecological principles; an organic   
            unity in diversity, free of hierarchy &amp; based on mutual respect 
      for the         interrelationship of all aspects of life.</P>
      <P>If we change human society then our relationship with the rest of 
      nature         will become transformed. </P>
      <P>Murray Bookchin is the key thinker of social ecology movement, so I 
      concentrate         on his version of its philosophy. Bookchin has 
      carefully worked out a         coherent and broad philosophy which he 
      strongly defends. Perhaps because         of this, social ecology presents 
      a more consistent case than either <A href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/deepecology.htm">deep 
              ecology</A> or <A 
      href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/ecofem.htm">eco-feminism</A>.</P>
      <H4>Key Principles</H4>
      <P>The core principle of social ecology is that ecological problems arise  
             from deep-seated social problems. Ecological problems cannot be 
      understood,         much less resolved, without facing social issues.</P>
      <P>Social hierarchy and class legitimizes our domination of the 
      environment         and underpins the consumer system.</P>
      <P>
      <BLOCKQUOTE>"The root causes of environmental problems are such as       
          trade for profit, industrial expansion, and the identification of 
        "progress"         with corporate self-interest."</BLOCKQUOTE>
      <P><I>'What Is Social Ecology?'</I>. Murray Bookchin</P>
      <P>The ecological damage done by our society is more than matched by the   
            harm it inflicts on humanity. Social ecology emphasizes that the 
      destiny         of human life goes hand-in-hand with the destiny of the 
      non-human world.       </P>
      <P>
      <BLOCKQUOTE>"Social ecologists believe that things like racism, sexism,  
               third world exploitation are a product of the same mechanisms 
        that cause         rainforest devastation" </BLOCKQUOTE>
      <P><A href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/books.htm#ephil"><I>'Environmental 
      Philosophy: From Animal Rights         to Radical Ecology'</I></A></P>
      <P>Ecology show that nature can provide us with ethical principles. A 
      flourishing         eco-system maximizes diversity and interaction and 
      minimises hierarchy         and domination. The good of the whole is 
      archived through "rich individuality         and complex interrelationship 
      of the parts." John Clark, '<A href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/books.htm#se_books">Renewing 
              the Earth</A>', page 5.</P>
      <P>Bookchin calls for a holistic 'ecological sensibility' that would 
      encourage         play and celebrate imagination.</P>
      <P> <B>Social Ecology and other theories</B></P>
      <P>Bookchin claims that most environmentalists focus on the 
      <I>symptoms</I>         of our problems rather than the causes, so 
      mistakenly focus on technology         or population growth.</P>
      <P>Reducing population won't help: "the media that have fostered mindless  
             consumption would be mobilized to increase the purchase of goods, 
      irrespective         of the need for them." (Bookin. Ibid.)</P>
      <P> Unless we change society, 'soft' technologies won't make any 
      difference         either. Simple technology can still wreak environmental 
      damage if the         ideology that uses it is unchanged: The forests of 
      England were cut down         with axes that had not changed since the 
      Bronze Age.</P>
      <P>Today's environmentalism is mere "environmental engineering"         
      that is more concerned with "tinkering with existing institutions...and    
           values than changing them." Environmentalism is used to "win         
      large constituencies, not to educate them." <I>(</I>Quotes from<I>         
      'Open Letter to the Ecology Movement'</I>, in <FONT face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif"><A 
      href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/books.htm#open_letter">'<I>Towards       
        an Ecological Society</I>'</A></FONT>. Bookchin.)</P>
      <P>Theories that claim the ecological crisis is a <I>cultural</I> rather   
            than a <I>social</I> problem can also confuse the issue. 
      Hierarchical         societies had begun despoiling of the planet long 
      before the emergence         of modern science, 'linear' rationality, and 
      'industrial society', the         cultural causes most often invoked by 
      the ecology movement.</P>
      <P>Social ecology is highly critical of the notion of green consumerism    
           or green investment which Bookchin calls "green capitalism". Bookchin 
              warns:</P>
      <BLOCKQUOTE>
        <P>"We live in a highly cooptative society that is only too eager        
           to find new areas of commercial aggrandizement and to add ecological  
                 verbiage to its advertising and customer 
      relations."</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
      <P><I>What Is Social Ecology? </I>Bookchin</P>
      <P>He believes that no truly 'green' entrepreneur could survive because    
           ecologically sound practices would place them at fatal disadvantage 
      compared         with rivals who can produce at lower costs. See <A href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/se-crit.htm#green">Social 
              Ecology Critique</A></P>
      <P>Bookchin is well known for his dismissal of Deep Ecology as mystical    
           'eco-la-la', and it's easy to assume social ecology is suspicious of 
      spirituality.         But social ecology was "among the earliest of 
      contemporary ecologies         to call for a sweeping change in existing 
      spiritual values." (Bookin.         Ibid.)</P>
      <P> Social ecology aims to replace our mentality of domination with an 
      <I>ethics         of complementarity</I>. Such an ethics reflects our true 
      role which is         to create a fuller, richer world for <I>all</I> 
      &nbsp;beings.</P>
      <P> This ethics of complementarity has a spiritual dimension that is 
      sometimes         described by social ecologists as the "respiritization 
      of the natural         world" but is clearly not a call for a deistic 
      theology. </P>
      <BLOCKQUOTE>"The spirituality advanced by social ecology is definitively 
                naturalistic rather than supernaturalistic or pantheistic." 
      </BLOCKQUOTE><I>What Is Social Ecology? </I>Bookchin       
      <P><B>Humans and Nature and Society</B></P>
      <P> Bookchin emphasizes that human beings are basically just highly 
      intelligent         primates. We are a part of nature and suggestions that 
      we are a 'special         case' are superficial and potentially 
      misanthropic.</P>
      <P>In a comment aimed at some deep ecologists, Bookchin says that to 
      depict         human beings "as 'aliens' that have no place or pedigree in 
      natural         evolution, or to see them essentially as an infestation 
      that parasitizes         a highly anthropomorphic version of the planet 
      (Gaia) the way fleas parasitize         dogs and cats, is bad thinking, 
      not only bad ecology." (Bookin. Ibid.)</P>
      <P> Far from being unnatural, humans are an expression of a deep natural   
            process. Bookchin believes that human consciousness is a result of 
      nature         striving for increasing complexity and awareness. Humans 
      are nature that         has become self-aware. We are part of biological 
      evolution, which Bookchin         calls 'first Nature', but also have a 
      unique social awareness which he         calls 'second nature'.</P>
      <P>Our second nature, the development of technology, science, social 
      institutions,         towns and cities, all depended on human abilities 
      that evolved from first         nature. </P>
      <P> But although humans are part of the evolutionary process, that does    
           not mean we can ignore humanity's unique place by putting the 
      'intrinsic         worth' human beings on equal terms with every other 
      species.</P>
      <P> Bookchin rejects the 'either/or' thinking behind the commonly held 
      opposites         <A 
      href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/glossary.htm#A">anthropocentricity</A> 
      and biocentricity. Anthropocentrism         places humans at the top of a 
      species hierarchy with the premise that         the world was made for us. 
      The opposing principle, biocentricity, claims         that all beings have 
      equal intrinsic value and is bound up with the notion         of a 
      'biocentric democracy' which Bookchin describes as "almost meaningless".   
            See the Deep Ecology Critique section on <A href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/deepcrit.htm#bio-eq">biocentric 
              equality</A></P>
      <P> Social ecology integrates first (biotic nature) with second (human 
      nature).         Human society and non-human nature are connected in one 
      evolutionary flow.</P>
      <P> Humans building cities and towns to create a comfortable place to 
      live,         just like any other species. The problem is that the 
      environmental changes         we produce are far greater that those of 
      other species. Our 'second nature'         has become a problem for 
      ourselves and non-human life. How and why this         happens is the key 
      to solving our ecological crisis. </P>
      <H4 class="sub-heading">The Origins of Social Domination</H4>
      <P> Social domination originated with human males dominating females. The  
             infirmities of age, increasing population, natural disasters, 
      technological         changes, the growth of civil society, and the spread 
      of warfare were contributory         factors.</P>
      <P>Bookchin claims that the notion of a natural world separate from human  
             culture appeared with the rise of hierarchy:</P>
      <BLOCKQUOTE>"the idea of dominating nature has its primary source in     
            the domination of human by human and the structuring of the natural 
        world         into a hierarchical Chain of Being"</BLOCKQUOTE><I>'What Is 
      Social Ecology?'</I>. Murray Bookchin       
      <P>We can only overcome the ideology of dominating nature by creating of   
            a society without hierarchical structures or economic classes.</P>
      <P>Bookchin claims that industrial growth isn't the result of a change in  
             a cultural outlook alone, nor is it due to the impact of scientific 
      rationality.         Rather it stems from the principle of the market 
      itself, the demand to         grow or die. </P>
      <P><B>The Ecological Society</B> </P>
      <P>In place of the existing hierarchical and class system social ecology   
            proposes an egalitarian society based on mutual aid, caring and 
      communitarian         values. People in this new society would appreciate 
      that the interests         of the collective are inseparable from those of 
      each individual.</P>
      <P>Property would be shared and, ideally, belong to the community as a 
      whole.         In this "commune of communes" property would not belong to 
      private producers         or to a nation-state. </P>
      <P>This transformation is to be achieved through radical collective action 
              and co-operative social movements. The process of eliminating all 
      domination         must begin:</P>
      <BLOCKQUOTE>"not only in the factory but also in the family, not only    
             in the economy but also in the psyche, not only in the material 
        conditions         of life but also in the spiritual ones."</BLOCKQUOTE>
      <P><I>'Open Letter to the the Ecology Movement'</I>, in <FONT face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif"><A 
      href="http://www.thegreenfuse.org/books.htm#open_letter"><I>Towards        
       an Ecological Society</I> </A></FONT>Bookchin.</P>
      <P> Bookchin believes that oppressive hierarchies &amp; inequality are at  
             the root of the problem, &amp; that only a true community can solve 
      the         environmental crisis. Social Ecology is less well known in the 
      UK than         Deep Ecology, but deserves to more widely studied.</P>
      <P>
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