NATE:
I think the problem with this whole rational/irrational riggamarole is that,
as western rationality gradually steamrolls across the world, we're losing
that right-hemispheric way of thinking. Take forest management for example.
In forests all over the world there are indigenous people living in and
working the land quite adequately. They help shape the forest by managing
their hunting, burning, using what they take from the forest efficiently,
choosing where they live, et cetera. They don't have precise knowledge of the
state of the forest, but an whole, intuitive idea. They have a deep, complex
understanding of the health and general state of the forest and wildlife.
ROG:
Sorry to "nitpick" , but this is a myth widely propagated by Disney, ABC
Movies of the week and romantics. The truth is that some indigenous people
live in harmony with their environment, and others don't. I know of no
hemisphere studies on hunters and gathers, but will certainly keep both my
'spheres open to your evidence if you could pass it on.
NATE:
Eventually the indigenous people are heaved out by some sort of government
controlled management department who do all sorts of extensive data
collection ... databasing wildlife population and whatnot. And based on this
collected data, they manage the forest. Indigenous people can't tell you an
exact number, because they have that aforementioned intuitive idea of the
state of the forest. Their minds aren't clouded by fragmentation. This is a
kind of understanding a beurocrat could never obtain.
ROG:
Please support the assertion that indigenous people have a clearer idea about
how to manage the forest and/or are less clouded by fragmentation.
NATE:
Further (this is an idea my friend Bri discussed with me), indigenous people
would take action by not acting, thinking in the long term ... they let it be
so as to allow the forest to regain its health and natural state of being
gradually, on its own, as it would without human medaling. "A western
thinkier would be constantly
trying techniques in an ever-spiraling series of actions that would lead to
out of control action/reactions. Think of physical health too. Eastern
thought gives all focus to keeping the body healthy through preventive
measures -- eating right, abstaining from excesses -- while western thought
prescribes emergency room heart defibrillators after you eat butter all day.
I remember hearing of a world wide plan to paint all roofs white to countera!
ct some greenhouse effect. Rather than limit our technology, they were going
to do more things, which of course would cost a shitload of money, creates
tons of toxic chemicals and of course, contribute to the greenhouse effect."
ROG:
Could you please document the assertion that white roofs solve the problem or
that preventative medicine is more common in Eastern cultures. I get the
feeling you are just making this stuff up. I am probably wrong, of course.
NATE:
I also have a theory involiving time travel and subatomic particles'
tendencies to just "appear" in a void which challenges logic and/or
rationality as the best way of thinking.
ROG:
Now this I believe.
Rog
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