SELF IN THE GLOBAL REPUBLIC: INDIVIDUAL STATES OF MIND
Resorces |
Lesson Three: Ecology, Technology and the Individual
Introduction
We often think that the word ecology refers to only to the natural environment: the forests and wild places, the oceans, wild animals, the elements. But ecology also refers to humans and our relations with our environments. Ecosystems refer to the interactions of all living things with each other in a particular environment.
We can even go further and talk about other kinds of ecologies. Social ecologies are the ecologies of people interacting with one another. Mental ecologies are how we ourselves interpret the world in our daily lives, our subjectivity, which is what each of us brings to how we understand the world. And finally, environmental ecologies are what we usually think of: the natural world around us. Philosopher Felix Guattari (2000) identifies these three kinds of ecologies as part of his idea of ecosophy.
Ecosophy to Guattari means that changing how we interact with our environment starts with changing how we think and how we relate to one another. For example, Guattari argues that our minds are influenced by advertising and the mass-media and that these influences work their way in without being felt. We find ourselves craving consumer products and are urged to shop. Mass production of consumer products results in environmental degradation. A mental ecology would help us understand these influences and put them into their contexts.
Guattari is also interested in how technology affects our subjectivity. For example, do we really use television, or does it use us? As humans, are we turning into cogs so that our machines may work efficiently? Are we really in control of our machines, as we would like to believe? He goes further and questions the humanness of subjectivity: are we really singular individuals, or is each one us really a combination, a crossroads, of influences coming from ‘outside’? Guattari believes the latter which is why he is very concerned about the power of technology and the media.
Likewise, Guattari sees that how people interact has an effect on the environment. He proposes a social ecology that would make us aware of how the effects of our social relations ripple across to affect the environment. He argues for a society built on creativity and friendly dissent. Because each one of us is uniquely influenced, because we are subjective, rather than trying to impose uniformity and impose agreement, we should accept differences. But not only should we work together amidst our differences, we should be embracing our differences and the creativity that comes from them. Social ecology is based on a vision of social ecosystems full of diverse and dynamic exchanges and interactions.
You will explore this intersection between subjectivity,
mental, social and environmental ecologies and yourself through the activities
in this lesson.
B.Johnston/2006