The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization
This title is a famous quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He had no fixed idea to promote but his writings revolved around the idea than mankind has the ability to realize almost anything, as long as he had a healthy relationship between his soul and the surrounding world. He rejected the standard view of his age that God/mankind [especially the “civilized” ones] are separate from the world. In other words, as long as we know our place in the Creation life can thrive – both the human and non-human. It seems to me that this contract has been broken, as evidenced by just one statistic: the biomass of domestic mammals/humans in the world is 96% of the total mammalian biomass.
Today let’s explore the possibility that Emerson was right: that being civilized will result in our extinction. To begin, let’s see what being “civilized” meant to Emerson:
The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops, but the kind of men and women that the country turns out.
To me that sounds like the old Roman idea that character is what defines us. This is a good start. Fortunately, his poems and writings also explore in depth how that character is formed by friendships of two kinds: friendship with people and our friendship with Nature. Emerson as friend and mentor to Henry David Thoreau for decades. They shared many meals and discussed the Transcendentalist ideas that they were both formulating. For Emerson, friendship could be “entireness, a total magnanimity and trust.” To Thoreau, it encapsulated the “unspeakable joy and blessing that results to two or more individuals who from constitution sympathize.” He even wrote an essay in 1841 entitled Friendship whose punchline is this:
Friendship is not just a matter of finding someone with similar interests, but rather it involves a spiritual connection and a recognition of the other person’s essential qualities. Emerson goes on to argue that friendship can be a source of profound joy and fulfillment and can provide individuals with a sense of meaning and purpose.
In other words, we cannot reach our individual potential without friends. The second dimension of Emerson’s view of friendship is that he knew deep in his bones that humanity that is not living as part of Nature, which means we are not friends with Nature, is doomed. Thus, his quote. His idea that what civilization does is cut us off first from Nature, but also, eventually, from each other. Yes, he was a promoter of individualism – of a certain type. His type of individualism required friend to tell you when you’ve made a mistake and in his book Nature he emphasized that Nature was THE friend that stops us from being self-absorbed Narcissists. Nature, published in 1836, put forth the idea of “Transcendentalism” where he suggested that the divine, or God, suffuses nature, and that reality can be understood by studying Nature. For me his ideas infer if that we do not study Nature by respecting Nature and being Friends with Nature we destroy Nature and then ourselves, as evidenced by a quote from this book.
In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, — he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me.
So, what do Emerson’s thoughts relate to us today? What can you do to stop civilization from killing you? Reconnect. Reconnect to Reality – with a big “R” – which is often both the most beautiful experiences we have in life and the harshest and most painful. Don’t be safe – be wild, stop being so civilized and afraid. Have good human friends. Have good non-human friends. Spend lots of time in Nature. Find a spiritual centre within you so that we can feel in your bones that you are part of a story bigger than your life, bigger than the story of humanity – because all Life, in Emerson’s Transcendentalism, is connected – all Life is your friend – especially when it corrects you harshly for being a self-centered Narcissist like we are acting like now. Become part of Life and instead of shopping make a Friend: with your neighbour AND also hug a tree – the tree of Life – and that way you reconnect to the infinite story that you are part of.
The Tree of Life: the connection between Heaven and Earth, the infinite and the finite
References
https://emersoncentral.com/texts/essays-first-series/friendship/
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