By Nick Routledge (posted via email to the Eugene Permaculture Guild listserv, March 19, 2007)
There, did that get your attention!!?! True, too. Here's the skinny. Who said the following?
"Respect for divine creation is the measure of all culture."
Not Jefferson, Thoreau, Muir, Rousseau or Traherne as it happens, but rather Heinrich Himmler in 1942. He went on: "The peasant of our racial stock has always carefully endeavored to increase the natural powers of the soil, plants, and animals, and to preserve the balance of the whole of nature. For him, respect for divine creation is the measure of all culture. If, therefore, the new living spaces are to become a homeland for our settlers, the planned arrangement of the landscape to keep it close to nature is a decisive prerequisite."
Mollisonian, almost, isn't it? Yup, Hitler's Reich explicitly situated itself as an organic, holistic, nature-centered movement, which practiced organic agriculture, forest protection, invasives-control programs, promoted a "return to nature," and implemented far-reaching nature-protection laws. The modern ultra-right-wing in Germany is reviving this form of "eco-fascism," even calling for a "Green Adolf." Now, as then, the polemic was dressed up in the language of German nature mysticism.
As the regenerative design movement gathers impetus, it pays to keep in mind that no matter how coherent the trend, the corruptions of reason can throw a walloping great spanner in the works. There is much in the way of potential for misunderstanding and misappropriation: the dangers are both insidious and substantial. Where materialist fundamentalism, dressed up as noble sentiment, religiously motivated or otherwise, meets the dirt, we still have a dominator ethos.
Interestingly, David Theodoropoulos, arguably one of the world's most informed voices around the relationship between fascist modes of thinking and our relationship with the green world is going to be presenting at the Native Plants and Permaculture Conference, May 11-13 at LVEC. His text, Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience is very highly regarded as a seminal contribution to emerging alternatives to much in the way of majoritarian and received opinion around the topic of "invasives":
http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/Books.htm#Invasion%20Biology [1]
Not everybody agrees with David. Here's a review David included on the backflap: "Now it is invasion biologists' turn to face misguided invective. [The book is] faulty... inconsistent... [has] an inadequate evolutionary framework... incendiary... disingenuous... inflammatory... spurious, highly politicized... invective, masquerading as an authentic scientific critique." -- Dr. D. Secord, University of Washington. Book Review, Ecology 85(4), April 2004.
Yes, tempers run high on this one. On the one hand the nativists are keenly aware of the increasing ecological havoc prompted by exotics running wild and on the other, for example, we have a minority but prescient group of counterculturalists who observe, among other things: "We are seeing greater use of prison labor in anti-exotics extermination projects...Also ominous is the fact that during Adolf Hitler's 'Third Reich,' the National Socialists (Nazi Party) had an identical program to rid the landscape of 'foreign' plants. An interesting paper, 'Some Notes on the Mania for Native Plants in Germany,' by Gert Groening and Joachim Wolschke-Bulma (Landscape Journal, Vol. II, No. 2, 1992) details this history...As constructed, alien-invader theory is founded on non-operational constructs, is immune to testing, cannot be falsified, and has no predictive capacity. Its structure & conceptual elements are identical in all particulars with those of racism, fascistic nationalism, and other conspiracy theories. Instantly recognizable is the 'ultimate attribution error' of Pettigrew's cognitive analysis of prejudice. Circular reasoning, low standards of evidence, self-sealing arguments, unsupported causal attribution and resistance to contradictory evidence are frequent." -- J.L. Hudson.
Not too sure what that means, exactly, but you get the drift. And I could go on. But suffice to say, the May conference at Lost Valley represents the very first occasion that we are are aware of anywhere to bring the "pro-natives" and "pro-exotics" camps together -- to use two highly-limiting word cages. A simplistic assessment of the rendez-vous would suggest the character of a prizefight in the making. And who knows, some tempers may flare. But a core group of organizers perceive that this conference may well represent the beginnings of an emerging consensus about a "third way" that transcends controversy, undoes discord, and unites apparent "opposites." Was it Emerson or Thoreau who said something about a great truth suddenly revealed simply undoes apparent "discord," by alerting parties to a fundamental dimension to the story that may have been, quite simply, overlooked so far? The truth will set ya free, as they say.
The conference is shaping up as a hot ticket.
--
Addendum added March 6, 2008
Chris, I had an acquaintance tell me a couple of days ago that a google search on my name placed this page very close to the top of the search rankings. I've been writing to cyberspace almost constantly for about 20 years now on a great variety of topics but it seems this particular posting has 'legs'. Given the wherefores of this strong-legged, long-lived digital imprimatur, I'd like to return to it briefly.
First, some quick context. As we headed into the conference last May I found myself volunteering at the Friends of Buford Park native plant nursery one afternoon and in discussion with Jason Blazar, the astoundingly eco-savvy stewardship coordinator for FBP. Jason had been asked to present at the conference (as he indeed did) but as our conversation around the upcoming conference unfolded, it became clear to me he was feeling very intimidated indeed at the prospect of being present there. Why? He confessed that he and other key memebers of the local Native Plant Society of Oregon chapter perceived they had been painted as Nazis by the local permaculture community who, of course, were keenly involved in helping stage the event. Jason was not unnaturally worried that in attending the conference, he was going to be walking into a public lynching of sorts. Ouch.
I was glad I was in a place to assuage his concerns. And the reason, regrettably, I was so well-placed to soften his concerns was that I knew precisely what the cause of distress was to him and his plant-loving cohorts - my original 'Nazi tie-in to Forthcoming Local Permaculture Gathering' posting to the local pemaculture guild listserv which we picked up and placed on the pre-conference recommended reading webpage for conference attendees (as above). It was also clear to me as I shared in the nursery that day with Jason that I was personally responsible for some of the resistance we were running into around conference buy-in by key members of the local native plant community - with our 'pro-exotics' stance already a 'stretch' for many native plant lovers, the Nazi tarnish amounted to a major body blow. Jason hadn't read the piece and neither, it was clear, had many others in the 'natives camp', but the word was out and the damage was done.
Though it is perhaps worth noting that the 'Nazi tie-in' posting was originally an attempt, in part, to lend some rigor to a continuing, rather freewheeling conversation on our feisty local permaculture listserv about the documented 'Green Nazi' phenomeon and, lifted and divorced from that context and stylistic setting and placed on this website as a standalone webpage, both the subject line and content of the piece took on a whole new character as a 'conference promotion piece', nevertheless the piece is one I regret - whatever its original context and whatever merits it contains. A fulsome, heartfelt apology to those who find it callous, insensitive and a sensationalist attention-grab because yes, I see it was also those things. It makes me just wince to look at it up there. "Fascist modes of thinking" is a somewhat fascist turn of phrase itself, don't you think? The things you wish you hadn't done, or done differently, eh? Just the sort of thing it can take years to undo.
Since that very fine conference which attendees appeared to universally regard as an unparalleled success, the world evolves. I'm struck by how many of the notions we explored there, profoundly avant-garde to many of the more sophisticated ecogeeks among us, are appearing more commonsensical all the time. I'm particularly taken by the way the evolving enviornment, and our perception of it, is moving towards supporting many of the unorthodox constructs we were attempting, between us, to air. I'm thinking, in particular, of the growing awareness of the realpolitik of climate change, its consequences, the shift in perceptions such awareness is prompting, and the consideration of valid strategies for responding to them. Much food for thought here, but for the time being, here are some pointers which suggest that 'recombinant ecologies' may yet have their day:
“This term ‘assisted migration’ is gaining some traction,” said Dr. Wilcove, who formerly worked with the Wilderness Society and Environmental Defense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/science/earth/29habi.html [2]
"Scientists are now suggesting that efforts should focus less on restoring ecosystems to their original state and more on sustaining new, healthy ecosystems that are resilient to further environmental change. Accepting some permanent changes may increase health of ecosystems...Such projects could include "reassembling" forest ecosystems in the West devastated by bark beetles, replanting them with bug-resistant trees and introducing vegetation that absorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide and filters nutrient-enriched water." (Science Daily) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080131101747.htm [3] and the piece in question
http://www.seedambassadors.org/pdfs/NovelEcosystems.pdf
[4]
and a piece I haven't yet got to, "The Role of Genetic Responses in Helping British Forests Respond to Climate Change, Forestry Commission Information Note, June 2007" about which a UK-based permaculturist says"...a new Forestry Commission Information Note looks at possible strategies which will help forests in Britain cope with the rapid climate change which is going to occur at least over the next 50 years. It does not deal with alternative species to use - a valid strategy in itself - but rather with how current species can be aided by either encouraging species adaptability or by using genetic stock sourced from locations further south..."
Thank you for the opportunity to revisit this fascinating topic, Chris!
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