Do you feel this is a separation seen across all cultures, or is it mainly western based cultures that have ripped themselves apart from nature? I’d also be interested to hear your thoughts on when this rupture happened- my impression is that previous people walking the earth lived alongside the natural world, their rhythms were intertwined.
The history of our separation from nature is complex and deeply rooted. While most pronounced in societies transformed by industrialization, urbanization, capitalism, and globalization, it isn't inherently "Western." Though originating in the West, these forces are now global, impacting cultures worldwide.
I plan to write more on this in future posts, but now (in brief), this rupture wasn't a single event but a gradual process, accelerating over time. Beginning with the Renaissance (14th-15th centuries) and its emphasis on humanism and the everyday world, the Reformation (16th century) further elevated the individual by prioritizing conscience over tradition. This laid the groundwork for the Enlightenment (17th century), which championed reason and cast humans as shapers of reality, a view reinforced by the scientific revolution's “objective” observation of nature. Industrialization and urbanization in the 18th and 19th centuries accelerated this detachment, further solidified by the 20th century's World Wars—often overlooked for their disruption of traditional life—and the rise of global capitalism. These forces fractured communities and their connection to the land.
Even so, a different way of being remains within living memory, even in the West. John Moriarty's Nostos, for instance, depicts an Ireland where people lived in close relationship with the earth (Moriarty was born in 1938). As Erazim Kohák argues in The Embers and the Stars, the concept of humans as alienated from nature is relatively recent, departing from millennia of Western thought that saw humanity as integral to the natural world: "The image of the human as a stranger contingently thrown into an alien context is as alien to the spirit of Western thought through history as it is to experience. Through its three recorded millennia, Western thought has been consistent […] in understanding humans as continuous with and at home in nature."
Thus, while the forces driving this separation are now widespread, the experience of alienation isn't culturally specific but rather reflects the extent to which these forces have reshaped human experience.
There is a reality! And one of creation’s very purposes is to beckon us toward it.
Do you feel this is a separation seen across all cultures, or is it mainly western based cultures that have ripped themselves apart from nature? I’d also be interested to hear your thoughts on when this rupture happened- my impression is that previous people walking the earth lived alongside the natural world, their rhythms were intertwined.
The history of our separation from nature is complex and deeply rooted. While most pronounced in societies transformed by industrialization, urbanization, capitalism, and globalization, it isn't inherently "Western." Though originating in the West, these forces are now global, impacting cultures worldwide.
I plan to write more on this in future posts, but now (in brief), this rupture wasn't a single event but a gradual process, accelerating over time. Beginning with the Renaissance (14th-15th centuries) and its emphasis on humanism and the everyday world, the Reformation (16th century) further elevated the individual by prioritizing conscience over tradition. This laid the groundwork for the Enlightenment (17th century), which championed reason and cast humans as shapers of reality, a view reinforced by the scientific revolution's “objective” observation of nature. Industrialization and urbanization in the 18th and 19th centuries accelerated this detachment, further solidified by the 20th century's World Wars—often overlooked for their disruption of traditional life—and the rise of global capitalism. These forces fractured communities and their connection to the land.
Even so, a different way of being remains within living memory, even in the West. John Moriarty's Nostos, for instance, depicts an Ireland where people lived in close relationship with the earth (Moriarty was born in 1938). As Erazim Kohák argues in The Embers and the Stars, the concept of humans as alienated from nature is relatively recent, departing from millennia of Western thought that saw humanity as integral to the natural world: "The image of the human as a stranger contingently thrown into an alien context is as alien to the spirit of Western thought through history as it is to experience. Through its three recorded millennia, Western thought has been consistent […] in understanding humans as continuous with and at home in nature."
Thus, while the forces driving this separation are now widespread, the experience of alienation isn't culturally specific but rather reflects the extent to which these forces have reshaped human experience.
Oh sheesh. So sobering to have it named... and energising at the same time? The hope / trained recognition that there is a reality!