Ecopathy: The environmental disease
Ecopathy: The environmental disease
Ecopathy is derived from two Greek words, oikos for “house” and pathy for “sickness”, “disease” or “suffering”. The word is sobering because it recognizes that the deteriorating ecological condition of our planet is the direct result of an indifference and negligence in our human behaviour that we seem incapable of correcting, even though we have known for decades what to do and how to do it. The medical term for this condition is a pathology.
The origin of the term ecopathy may have emerged about 1979 from the reflections of environmentally conscious Buddhist scholars in the West who would have been comparing the importance of compassion in their tradition to its relative absence in humanity’s treatment of nature.
The psychological and philosophical character of Buddhism would have noted that a cultural insensitivity to the well-being of the plants and animals surrounding us could be construed as a fundamental failure in awareness. As ecologies suffered increasing damage, this absence of empathetic connection would have become increasingly obvious. Although earlier Buddhist thinkers would not have used a term such as ecopathy to identify this condition, the modern use fits uncomfortably well.
The symptoms of ecopathy match the classic symptoms of psychopathy. Rather than applying to the social pathology of interpersonal relationships, however, the symptoms of ecopathy apply to our treatment of the natural world. The following characteristics that compare the behaviour of the ecopath to the psychopath are derived from the World Health Organization via two environmental writers, Derrick Jensen and Michael Harris:
- a callous unconcern for the feeling or well-being of other things in the environment;
a gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for ecological norms, rules and obligations;
- an incapacity to maintain enduring ecological relationships, but no difficulty in establishing them;
- a very low frustration tolerance and an equally low aggression threshold, with discharges that include violence toward the environment;
- an incapacity to feel guilt and to learn from experience, particularly from threats and punishments from nature;
- a distinct inclination to blame others or to invent implausible rationalizations for behaviour that has brought the culture into conflict with ecologies.
I personally believe that this "diagnosis" is itself a projection of blame onto others. However, for those who believe that the root cause of the planetary predicament is human moral failures of various sorts, this article provides yet another easy-to-swallow pejorative label.
= new reply since forum marked as read
