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Published on Visualizing Ecology (http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter)

Aileen Milliman - Week 3

    “Some, like Thoreau, were exploring ways to overcome man's estrangement from nature and giving fresh relevance to arcadian paganism, others came to find that natural joy too tame and to take an increasingly decadent interest in the fearful and demonic forces around them. The contradiction is only partial, for the enthusiasts of fear were in their own peculiar way also seeking reconciliation between man and nature. But it was a bond of violence they found; to be at one with the world, for them, was to embrace all the tumult, horror, and darkness in it, to commit oneself to struggle and defiance.” (Worster 125)


    Worster points out that some naturalists accepted and rejoiced in the darker side of ecology and what they experienced in nature. Things that were generally considered “evil” or horrible were intriguing and exciting. “...Francis Parkman, for example, was delighted to find on the American prairies of the 1840s a world no 'soft-hearted philanthropists' could love. 'From minnows to men'...'life is an incessant war'; and he celebrated that belief for forty more years in a long series of robust, heroic books.”(Worster 126). Naturalists as dedicated to the darker side of nature as Parkman were not all that common. While it is important to appreciate the parts of nature equally, the “darker, more gruesome side” was more often ignored. Mostly because many people either chose to ignore it, or thought that it was hard to reconcile with creationist beliefs. Darwin wrote that, “'It is difficult to believe in the dreadful but quiet war of organic beings going on [in] the peaceful woods & smiling fields.'”(Worster 128). But Darwin had also seen the tumultuous conditions in the Galapagos and the diversity that it inspired. Surely, more exotic and dangerous environments influence more exotic organisms. Seeing the violence in nature allowed some naturalists to better understand man's connection to nature, and the violence inherent in man. They realized that their economies and “civilized” lives were not unlike those of other organisms struggling to survive and reproduce. In describing certain aspects of nature as “demonic”, Worster points out the double standard of creationism. How can a creation of god, such as parasitic wasps, be described as “demonic” and harder to accept as a god's work, than the wheat that humans cultivate? Who are we to decide what parts of nature should be “civilized” or controlled? By accepting the darker side of nature with the more palatable parts, we can begin to view ourselves as but another part of the struggle, and perhaps earn a bit of respect for the delicate natural balance that could so easily destroy us.





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