On the Ecological Viability of Cultures

Abstract

This paper starts from the premise that a species or society must adapt itself to, and live within, its ecosystem, or else perish. In the event of an ecological accident, the species must rapidly adapt itself to survive. In the event of ecological misbehaviour of a society – i.e. destabilizing the ecosystem beyond the ecosystem's recuperative capacity (e.g. by nuclear poisoning), or so changing itself that it becomes incompatible with the ecosystem (e.g. by genetic engineering), the society puts itself on the road to extinction. The paper then outlines the tests for judging the ecological viability of a culture. It goes on to show how, by its homo-centric world-view, by its social philosophy, by its value system, by its culture forms, by its economic system, by its folk wisdom, by the example and precept of the culture's high priests, the Western culture makes a resource demand far beyond the earth's finite yielding capacity, and discharges a waste load far beyond the biosphere's absorptive capacity. This is a warning clear enough to those non-Western societies which, under duress or blandishment or both, set out to imitate the West, ‘catch up’ with the West, ‘beat the West at its own game’ – all in the tantalizing name of ‘modernization’. It is a game not worth playing, because in such a game even victory will be total defeat.