Thinking like a mountain
Lisa asks:
That's my favorite quote by Aldo! I was wondering what your
meaning of it was? I have heard different impressions. of what it meant.
Really good question Lisa, so good in fact I think I'll steal it and ask my
grad students.
This quote seems to crop up about as often as "fierce green fire" from the
same essay. I have seen both of them in many context over the years, but my
own opinion about them is that this section of SCL (Sketches Here and There)
is intended to take the simple ecology lessons from Section I (A Sand County
Almanac) and prepare the argument in Section III (The Upshot). That argument
being that evolutionary and ecological "facts" can open our thinking to an
extension of ethics to the natural world. The idea of "Thinking like a
mountain" seems to mean that short-term, non-evolutionary time is too short
to make an accurate appraisal of issues for ethical decision making. It is
necessary to take a much longer view of events in order to see all of the
ethical issues.
For example, the last essay in that section is "Escudilla," which is the
name of a mountain. Like "Thinking Like a Mountain" is concerns predator
control, in this case a grizzly bear. One of the interesting things about
these essays is that it is where Leopold specifically stated his lost faith
in predator control. The last part of that essay specifically states that
all involved in the decision to kill the bear were taking a very short view.
And, IMO, the literary value of this essay is more powerful than "Thinking
like a mountain."
"Since the beginning, time had gnawed at the basaltic hulk of Escudilla,
wasting, waiting, and building. Time built three things on the old mountain,
a venerable aspect, a community of minor animals and plants, and a grizzly.
The government trapper who took the grizzly knew he had made Escudilla safe
for cows. He did not know he had toppled the spire off an edifice a-building
since the morning stars sang together. (and so on)"
I do not think, as I've seen in some publications, that Leopold was speaking
in any sort of metaphysical sense. I think by this time in his life Leopold
had little or no ideas about pantheism or mystical things at work. He was
through and through an evolutionary ecologist and wanted to convey the
messages of ecology and evolution to the public in such a way as to show
that they could have ethical importance. Nor do I think that Leopold meant
that one had to go to the mountains to absorb some sort of existential
experience in order to appreciate nature. While Leopold deplored the
destruction of 'wild' areas, as evidence by the first essay in this section
(On Top), I think that the overall point was not a sentimental one, but a
pragmatic one.
Anyway, my view on the quote, thanks for asking.
Steven
“Our human ecology is that of a rare species of mammal in a social,
omnivorous niche. Our demography is one of a slow-breeding, large,
intelligent primate. To shatter our population structure, to become abundant
in the way of rodents, not only destroys our ecological relations with the
rest of nature, it sets the stage for our mass insanity.”
Paul Shepard
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