One Nature to rule them all — Letter #3

Photo by Jad Limcaco on Unsplash

Dear Ricardo,

I too must admit that your letter was one of a kind in so many years. I was questioning if I’d get a reply at all!

I’m doing great, thank you for asking!

I’m glad you find this topic interesting. I’m perfectly aware of where this push for so called natural things comes from. In a way, I understand it. I understand it when you say “we disconnected from Nature”. But, is this a reason to structurally change anything? Isn’t this personal, above all? You want to see mountains? Great, pick up your stuff and go! You want to see rivers? Good, pick up your things and go! You want to see prairies? Wonderful, pick up your things and go!

But going beyond that, I wonder if the part of the brain that is activated when we see some “natural wonder” isn’t the same that is activated when we see some “unnatural” one. For example, when we see something like the Grand Canyon and something like Paris. Maybe it is. The dream of the Parisian is to visit the Grand Canyon, but the dream of the rancher that lives in Arizona is to visit Paris. I guess my point is if this discourse isn’t one more of the typical urban elite tantrums.

Regarding the part of the products we make and the industrial processes we execute, it’s true that we can artificially fabricate something bad for our health, but it’s also true that we can pick something bad for our health directly from the raw, untouched nature. I think our worries should concentrate on our health alone, not some characteristic that, on its own, doesn’t mean anything. That said, it’s intriguing the point that you make that we may distrust our industrial processes because we don’t trust each other or our institutions. Although, I think that at the end of the day we don’t believe the airplane is designed to kill us.

A last word for the garden and public parks topic you mentioned. I completely agree that our cities’ public spaces are occupied by an abusive formal public power. I’m all in favor of redefining what the public space means and starting with public parks would be perfect!

Take care my friend,

Francisco

Read Ricardo’s response here.