Be Guided by Gaia and other wacky ideas


	Be Guided by Gaia and other wacky ideas

abailart

10-26-2007 12:34 PM

197 views

tags:

gaia, new age, projection, existential dread

abailart says:

A review of philosopher Mary Midgley's book.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/4bcab33c-ab40-40d9-9d9c-087728ccbafe/D7EA6207-7FEC-49F5-99BA-D908DC2287B9/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/" href="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.spiked-online.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/">As a scientific hypothesis, James Lovelock’s Gaia theory is worth serious consideration. He suggests that it is possible to view the Earth as a self-regulating system: that organisms do not merely ‘adapt’ to the environment, selected by the blind hand of evolution, but rather play a role in creating that environment.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/">
Yet this scientific hypothesis has been blighted by the peculiar moral climate that has prevailed since the 1960s, when it was first proposed</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/">Gaia has become an intermediary in human beings’ spiritual crises; and, unfortunately, this has meant that an interesting theory has been taken in increasingly wacky directions.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/">“Gaia is now cast as a wise figure which somehow knows what is best for the planet”</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/">
Gaia stops being a theory, and becomes merely the projection of human hopes and anxieties.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/">Gaia is cast as a wise figure, an Earth guardian,</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/">This guardian Gaia is an answer for the human search for moral guidance. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/">Books discussed:</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/4006/"><I>Earthy Realism: The Meaning of Gaia</I>, by Mary Midgley</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/D7EA6207-7FEC-49F5-99BA-D908DC2287B9/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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