Barbara Frey
Reflective Essay II The Ecological Life
In the second half of his book, The Ecological Life, author Jeremy Bendik-Keymer brings his arguments for living as a Citizen of the Earth to fruition by identifying the criteria, motivations and actions that humans require to live a flourishing life and to enable a sustainable environment for human and non-human life.
Beginning with an examination of extremism in human actions, the author introduces the reader to the deep ecology movement and its proponents who perform radical actions to restrict human activities with the environment. He does not advocate these groups, but introduces the far side of human interference with nature so as to lead us to a more moderate, rational point of understanding the effects of humankind on the environment. He then discusses the concept of anthropomorphism and how indeed humans are selfish in their relationship with nature. He is beginning his argument that we are part of nature, not the center of it as we tend to think and act.
Next, Bendik justifies the philosophical argument for becoming an Ecological Citizen. That being, that it is moral to respect life as a mode of humanity. Because we are moral, social animals, we are accountable and we appreciate life, we do belong to a moral, sustainable society. Contrasting this mode of living with that of a sociopath who has no concern for anything outside his own special realm, Bendik argues that we (most of us) are already socialized. However, his wants to point out the obvious, that is, we are dehumanized if we cannot respect life in a sustained society. Further, he persists, that to develop full socialization we must grow, give and even have devotion to life on Earth.
Furthering that argument, Bendik introduces us to a maturing idealism in our connections with the Earth. He advocates developing a social and ecological maturity as living well with other forms of life; developing habits that help us balance human with non-human needs. He does this by asking us to become more attuned to non-human life (the Humanization Criterion), to be sensitive to ecological interdependence (the Leopoldian Criterion) and to be attentive to the good of other life-forms (the Thoughtfulness Criterion). He warns us of the obstacles to ecological maturity: moral invisibility or ignorance, ecological ignorance, lifestyle rigidity and political blocks and the habits needed to overcome these obstacles, including a Master Habit involving thought and action in the service of respect for life. He sums up that “the habit of ecological idealism gives us an ongoing practice of informing ourselves, being self-critical about our moral complacency and limits, and making our lives express the best judgement on we arrive.” 140 I mention this entire quote because to me as the student of these lectures this is the totality of his message; this sentence encompasses the crux of the entire book.
In A Circle of Life lecture, Bendik uses the visual symbol of a circle to illustrate the realm of respected life. He asks us to narrow the circle of moral exceptions, such as our “cloaking” of the realities of factory farms and widening our circle of respectful relations with animals – becoming aware of the treatment of animals that we use for food and relating the package of meat in the store to a real animal. He furthers the argument for widening the circle of respect by pointing out that even harmful bacteria should be left alone if not harming us directly.
In the final chapters, Bendik encourages the reader and all humans to be agents of change to monitor and participate in local and institutional structures to promote the Laws of Earth. He reminds us of how we interact with nature: instrumentally in using nature; integrated in a respectful, non-exploitive manner; and oppositional, in which we simply don’t interfere with nature when we don’t have to. Two final points he makes: “To flourish, we need to develop a relationship with nature.” 199 and, “The more we treat other life forms respectfully, the more we become human.” 201
Bendik’s arguments are strong, thorough and enlightening in that many humans, citizens of the Earth, as we are, are unaware of the issues and attitudes that the author reflects upon. Especially here in a developed, wealthy nation, where we are privileged enough to spend time and efforts on many other things we often don’t think about the environment while we drive our nice cars or certainly not where our food comes from when we go to restaurants or mega grocery stores. Our society’s mentality is alienated from the world around us, and yet, our very alienation, aside from our individual unawareness is what is contributing to the damage to the physical environment and the economic environment that permits, fosters and requires factory farming methods in order to “sustain” the standard of living we expect. And therein lies the irony and the challenges to educating, changing and monitoring the positive actions of humanity in respect for life on earth.