cornerstones

1 files changed, 71 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/log.md b/log.md
index 32f277c..c66d265 100644
--- a/log.md
+++ b/log.md
@@ -6,6 +6,77 @@ author: Joe Carstairs
 
 ## 2026-05-13
 
+### @{cornerstones}
+
+There was a cracking bit of narrative in the last chapter. Big takeaways:
+
+- It is all our fault, equally, since primeval pre-history to now
+- The problem is that we have deliberately, collectively, acted in what we
+  believe to be the collective human interest, to the exclusion of nature’s
+  interests
+- The solution is awareness, knowledge, wisdom, ingenuity (science and
+  technology hiding in the intertext)
+- Then we’ll realise that we depend on nature to exist, and naturally start
+  behaving to protect nature (because deliberately acting rationally in the
+  collective human interest is what we’ve always done)
+
+> \[…] we became systematic, methodical and determined in our eradication of
+> some cornerstone species \[…] By the Middle Ages, our desire to tame the
+> natural world around us grew in intensity and purpose \[…] As we began to
+> industrialise, the Great Fens would be drained and our conquest of the
+> land-at-scale, beginning with our deforestation in the Bronze Age, grew almost
+> complete \[…] By the early twentieth century, we had for the first time the
+> ability to create total order in the world around us; order that made way for
+> just one species’ progress and stability: ourselves. \[pp200-202]
+
+Quick comment: notice the magic 'we' which flattens humanity into one mass with
+united collective intentions and interests. The big takeaway is: it is all our
+fault, equally, including me and you. We should feel guilty and not blame anyone
+else. Back to the story.
+
+> By the late 1950s and early 1960s came a critical moment in human awareness.
+> We began to notice, at last, the growing silence around us. By this stage, the
+> environmental movement was nascent \[…] it would take further decades before,
+> at last, the Ape Aware would emerge. \[p202]
+
+What changed? We gained 'awareness,' we 'began to notice,' we evolved into the
+'Ape Aware.' This is identified with the environmental movement. The big
+takeaway: the way out of this mess is knowledge, and by implication, the reason
+we got into this mess is ignorance. Private interests aren't important, because
+we have always been driven by collective interest anyway.
+
+> In the past 50 years, in Britain more than in most European or indeed global
+> countries, our divorce from the natural world, and our role as its steward
+> \[…], has continued apace. \[…] if our relationship with the natural world is,
+> for the most part, fundamentally broken, then we have at our disposal \[…] all
+> of the tools to fix it. \[…] The greatest tool, however, is human ingenuity.
+> Right now, as the great Sir David Attenborough once said, ‘We are the
+> cleverest species on our planet. Now, it is time to be wise.’ \[p203]
+
+The problem is our relationship with nature. We should be relating as husbands
+or stewards. However (see quote from pp200-201) we are instead relating
+selfishly, deliberately choosing as a unified human collective to exploit nature
+for our own benefit to the exclusion of nature’s interests.
+
+The solution is, of course, knowledge, wisdom, science, technology. (Spectacular
+failure to address the central role of knowledge, science and technology in the
+accelerating exploitation of the natural world documented on pp200-201.)
+
+> To date, the greatest problem worldwide has been that, as we have grown, the
+> natural world has shrunk. As such a new species, we have failed to realise
+> that our own survival is dependent not on ourselves, but upon the natural
+> world around us. \[…] We are a species within nature: a cornerstone of
+> cornerstones. As we begin to realise this role, a whole range of possibilities
+> emerge. \[p204]
+
+The reason our relationship with nature is wrong is because the human race has
+only reached maturity in the last few thousand, or hundred, years, or even the
+last few decades (see 'Ape Aware' narrative). And in that time, there is less
+nature for us to relate to (because we have destroyed it). Thus, we have an
+inadequate AWARENESS of our place in nature. When we regain AWARENESS, we will
+inevitably put things right, because human beings have always acted rationally
+in what they believe to be their collective interest.
+
 ### @{sarn-helen}
 
 > \[…] the climate and ecological emergency is not, in the end, a scientific