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GliderGuider

(21,088 posts)
3. Mine too.
Sun Feb 26, 2012, 05:22 PM
Feb 2012

You'd probably also find a lot to agree with in Charles Eisenstein's book The Ascent of Humanity.

[div class="excerpt" style="border:solid 1px #000000"]The myth of technological utopia is uncannily congruent to the religious doctrine of Heaven, with technology as our savior. Thanks to the god Technology, we will leave behind all vestiges of mortality and enter a realm without toil or travail and beyond death and pain. Omnipotent, technology will repair the mess we have made of this world; it will cure all our social, medical, and environmental ills, just as we escape the consequences of our sins of this life when we ascend to Heaven.

When we separate ourselves from nature as we have done with technology, when we replace interdependency with "security" and trust with control, we separate ourselves as well from part of ourselves. Nature, internal and external, is not a gratuitous though practically necessary other, but an inseparable part of ourselves. To attempt its separation creates a wound no less severe than to rip off an arm or a leg. Indeed, more severe. Under the delusion of the discrete and separate self, we see our relationships as extrinsic to who we are on the deepest level; we see relationships as associations of discrete individuals. But in fact, our relationships—with other people and all life—define who we are, and by impoverishing these relationships we diminish ourselves. We are our relationships.
In terms of truly understanding this message, "Ascent" remains one of the most important books I've read.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Thank you. This is related, and worth a listen - Alan Watts: Man in Nature drokhole Feb 2012 #1
This was always my (main) beef with predominant religions felix_numinous Feb 2012 #2
Mine too. GliderGuider Feb 2012 #3
Thank you! felix_numinous Feb 2012 #4
I just came back here to thank you again felix_numinous Feb 2012 #5
I'm glad you like it! I kind of thought you would. GliderGuider Feb 2012 #6
You have a very cool website too felix_numinous Feb 2012 #8
I'm happy to hear that. GliderGuider Feb 2012 #9
K & R ellisonz Feb 2012 #7
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