Chernyshevsky009

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On Nature

From Arkady Chernyshevsky's In Our Likeness: Essays on Humankind Reaching Adulthood:

The question of our relationship with Nature has bedevilled us since the earliest days of our species. Since before the first city was built, we felt that there was something different about us. Animals, we intuited, were part of Nature; we were not.

But of course, humans clearly are the products of Nature, our history intertwined with that of every other species. In fact, the very notion of the "unnatural" is a contradiction in terms. Everything that exists must, by definition, be natural. So this view, no matter how common, is deeply paradoxical. This paradox has produced a great deal of confusion. Some proclaim us chosen by a divine power, set above all other creatures, and are justly accused of arrogance. Others proclaim us sinners, worse than other creatures, and are rightly accused of misanthropy. Others yet try to oppose this binary by saying that we are merely animals after all - but that too is manifestly wrong, in that no other animal is capable of having this conversation.

It is in the contentious issue of our impact on the ecosphere that an answer may be found. Other animals have accidentally terraformed the planet before, driving other species to extinction. This is not unnatural. If we continued our current path, even to the point of changing the climate enough to cause the collapse of civilization, that would be entirely in keeping with how animals behave.

But there is one profound way in which we are not like animals: we can learn to understand ourselves and the world. It is this knowledge that makes us fundamentally different. We have choices. We have control.

There are many today who are afraid of the consequences of control, and would prefer a return to a state of animal ignorance, whether by blinding ourselves to the impact of our actions or by demanding we humble ourselves before Nature. This is the response of an adult in crisis, who wishes for a return to childhood. But this can only ever be regressive in every sense of the word.

To resolve the paradox of Nature we must act as adults: accept our power, and act consciously and deliberately in shaping the world. We must become Nature, and Nature must become human.