Monday, March 28, 2011

Remembrance as a Vehicle Towards Sustainability

I would like to discuss the implications of repression and remembrance on sustainability. I believe these two opposing, psychological characteristics represent aspects of our society that may be overlooked when it comes to looking through the lens of sustainability.

Since the dawn of mankind, I would argue that humans have gone down a path of repressing their emotions and feelings, rather than remembering them. I believe evidence to support this theory may be found in some of the earliest agrarian cultures, perhaps in even earlier civilizations. In response to changing climactic conditions that affected crop production, it is likely that our ancestors began to view natural forces as an opposition to their survival. Furthermore, I pose that these emotions helped to begin laying the foundation for the current world view that man is separate from nature. The possibility that humans began repressing these emotions as a way of reconciling the unknown weather conditions is quite possible, though ostensible.