Editorial
303
Editorial
Mental Health and the Environment
This is the "year of ecology"; may it be the beginning of an age in which men will learn to look upon the natural world with understanding and sympathy, stop plundering the earth, water, and air, and discover how to live as the children of nature, not her enemies and exploiters. Many scientific and conservationist journals and groups are concerned with the specific reforms that are required to purify our air and water and restore our earth. Other groups are dealing with problems of population, urban development, and methods of improving the environment of human life. Without underestimating the importance of any of these, we are concerned with a philosophy of life, a theory of nature and of man's place in it, that will undergird and stimulate all such efforts. The sad truth is that we have had a theory of nature, reinforced by religion, that has been abusive and vandalistic. Nature has been presented as man's enemy, a wild, destructive force that man nmst learn to bend to his will. Man has been so successful in this struggle that nature now lies helpless at his feet, her creative powers diminished, her resources depleted, her beauties ravished, and her capacity to support life seriously weakened just when the human population is exploding. No part of nature is safe. Thor Heyerdahl, who recently crossed the Atlantic on a papyrus raft, reported daily evidences of human pollution--cans, bottles, pieces of plastic, and floating masses of oily waste. Evidences of destruction by pollution on land and in the water can be multiplied indefinitely.
304
lour*~al of ReligioT~ alld Health
W e need a system of belief, a philosophy of life, that makes us the friends of the whole of nature, not her masters. W e suggest herewith some possible lines of development for such a theory of the world. It will have to be based on the realization that nature is finite, as man is. As the earth was once without life of any sort and over millions of years slowly produced the conditions essential to life, so can it again become a dead star that will not support life. This may happen no matter what we do today, but it will happen sooner if we continue to do little or nothing about improving the natural environment of human, plant, and animal life. Once we grasp the idea that earth's destiny is one with ours, we shall have the beginnings of a new point of view about nature. A n y b o d y w h o takes any part of nature and her resources merely for his o w n use is trifling with the destiny of the earth itself. Hence the necessity for some kind of authority of eminent domain over business, industry, government, and all the instrumentalities of private wealth and pleasure-seeking. Our theory of life must take the future seriously. T o o long we have been content to leave the future to those w h o will inherit it, offering them little except some money and some free advice. O u r new theory will have to help people become conscious of the implications of their choices and acts for an earthly future. Man has been so shortsighted, selfish, and wasteful of natural resources that our children will have less of them to enjoy than we have had. At best, what remains may be better protected and appreciated; at worst, there m a y be none at all. O u r theory of the world may involve some elements of primitive animism. Early man endowed the natural world with familiar spirits. T h e spring, the river, the lake, the sea, the forest, the field, the clouds, the air, all had life in the sense that man animated them with spirits toward w h o m he looked with reverence. He k n e w that he depended on these forces for his life; hence he treated them with respect. W e were all taught that animism was a primitive form of religion superseded by the discovery of the one G o d of all nature. But there is one thing to be said for animism: If one believed that a lake or river was inhabited by a powerful god, one probably did not throw refuse into it. Modern man needs the respect for the workings of nature that primi-
Editorial
305
tive man expressed in his mythology. W e have no river or woodland gods to propitiate, but the results of our blindness with respect to the ecological systems on which life depends have become so frightening that we can no longer deny them. Inculcating in ourselves and our children reverence for earth, wind, sun, air, water, and the natural creative processes would be the most basic kind of religious education. Our theory of the world will have to arrive at some new judgments about quantity and quality. It appears likely that we shall have to learn to live with less material wealth and turn our attention to quality. William Morris said, "Possess nothing that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." It is an excellent maxim. Some decisions will have to be made as to the things and activities that are essential to life and those that are trivial or even harmful. W e wonder whether it is important to have iet aircraft that can travel at supersonic speed if the price is additional noise pollution, air pollution, and what might be called "haste pollution," the sense of disorientation that floods the mind when one steps off an airplane and has to adjust to a whole new time scheme. It must be remembered that, by increasing speed, we are decreasing the traveler's time for thought and reflection. Our theory of the world should have a new perspective on the importance of human labor. Our civilization has deified the idea of work work in itself, as therapy, as a means of keeping young and old, rich and poor, male and female "out of trouble." W e shall have to learn to enjoy the world again, to savor its charms, and not to feel guilty when we are just being part of a natural scene, taking nothing from it, imposing nothing upon it, simply enjoying it. The psychological effects of this kind of experience would, we think, be constructive. Wars and other social tensions are caused by the compulfive, power-hungry, and world-transforming people who cannot wait to take over a situation so as to mould it into what they think it should be. One of the results of a more acceptant view of nature might be relaxation of tension in business, governmental, and professional circl_es. The hippie culture has shown us the way by its gentleness and tolerance for individual differences. It has Steadfastly refused to be organized, while encouraging each one to "do his own thing" so long as it does not harm others.
306
Journal of Religion and Health
Our conviction is that a deepened understanding of nature and our place in it will help us solve many of the problems that n o w afflict us. W e would k n o w that the destruction of the rice supplies of a small country in southeast Asia is not a mere act of military strategy, but a violation of the human contract with nature and mankind. W e would k n o w our priorities better: h o w our m o n e y should be spent w h e n people are hungry, sick, and ground d o w n by poverty. W e would k n o w the precariousness and the beauty of this swiftly passing life, and so we would k n o w h o w to enjoy it and contribute to it constructively. All this would greatly increase our mental health and total health. Health is essentially the quality of being at home in one's environment and knowing h o w to sustain one's o w n life and help other life. On a clinical level, it is all too easy to see what awaits mankind if he does not solve the problems of his natural environment. T h e tensions of overcrowding, of life as a perpetual subway rush hour, the competition for food, for pure water, even for air will produce emotional and spiritual disorders on a scale we cannot n o w imagine. Hence the urgent need for the development of a way of thinking about our world that enhances our awareness of nature and of our need to take care of her as she has taken care of us. Nature is, in truth, the mother of all life. N o w she is sick, perhaps unto death. T h e least her children can do is hurry home to her and do what they can to show her she is loved and needed.
Harry C. Meserve
We present in the pages that follo~v the three principal addresses delivered at the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Academy of Religion and Mental Health, held jointly with the Metropolitan Applied Research Center, Inc., in Ne.w York on April 29-30,1970.
303
Editorial
Mental Health and the Environment
This is the "year of ecology"; may it be the beginning of an age in which men will learn to look upon the natural world with understanding and sympathy, stop plundering the earth, water, and air, and discover how to live as the children of nature, not her enemies and exploiters. Many scientific and conservationist journals and groups are concerned with the specific reforms that are required to purify our air and water and restore our earth. Other groups are dealing with problems of population, urban development, and methods of improving the environment of human life. Without underestimating the importance of any of these, we are concerned with a philosophy of life, a theory of nature and of man's place in it, that will undergird and stimulate all such efforts. The sad truth is that we have had a theory of nature, reinforced by religion, that has been abusive and vandalistic. Nature has been presented as man's enemy, a wild, destructive force that man nmst learn to bend to his will. Man has been so successful in this struggle that nature now lies helpless at his feet, her creative powers diminished, her resources depleted, her beauties ravished, and her capacity to support life seriously weakened just when the human population is exploding. No part of nature is safe. Thor Heyerdahl, who recently crossed the Atlantic on a papyrus raft, reported daily evidences of human pollution--cans, bottles, pieces of plastic, and floating masses of oily waste. Evidences of destruction by pollution on land and in the water can be multiplied indefinitely.
304
lour*~al of ReligioT~ alld Health
W e need a system of belief, a philosophy of life, that makes us the friends of the whole of nature, not her masters. W e suggest herewith some possible lines of development for such a theory of the world. It will have to be based on the realization that nature is finite, as man is. As the earth was once without life of any sort and over millions of years slowly produced the conditions essential to life, so can it again become a dead star that will not support life. This may happen no matter what we do today, but it will happen sooner if we continue to do little or nothing about improving the natural environment of human, plant, and animal life. Once we grasp the idea that earth's destiny is one with ours, we shall have the beginnings of a new point of view about nature. A n y b o d y w h o takes any part of nature and her resources merely for his o w n use is trifling with the destiny of the earth itself. Hence the necessity for some kind of authority of eminent domain over business, industry, government, and all the instrumentalities of private wealth and pleasure-seeking. Our theory of life must take the future seriously. T o o long we have been content to leave the future to those w h o will inherit it, offering them little except some money and some free advice. O u r new theory will have to help people become conscious of the implications of their choices and acts for an earthly future. Man has been so shortsighted, selfish, and wasteful of natural resources that our children will have less of them to enjoy than we have had. At best, what remains may be better protected and appreciated; at worst, there m a y be none at all. O u r theory of the world may involve some elements of primitive animism. Early man endowed the natural world with familiar spirits. T h e spring, the river, the lake, the sea, the forest, the field, the clouds, the air, all had life in the sense that man animated them with spirits toward w h o m he looked with reverence. He k n e w that he depended on these forces for his life; hence he treated them with respect. W e were all taught that animism was a primitive form of religion superseded by the discovery of the one G o d of all nature. But there is one thing to be said for animism: If one believed that a lake or river was inhabited by a powerful god, one probably did not throw refuse into it. Modern man needs the respect for the workings of nature that primi-
Editorial
305
tive man expressed in his mythology. W e have no river or woodland gods to propitiate, but the results of our blindness with respect to the ecological systems on which life depends have become so frightening that we can no longer deny them. Inculcating in ourselves and our children reverence for earth, wind, sun, air, water, and the natural creative processes would be the most basic kind of religious education. Our theory of the world will have to arrive at some new judgments about quantity and quality. It appears likely that we shall have to learn to live with less material wealth and turn our attention to quality. William Morris said, "Possess nothing that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." It is an excellent maxim. Some decisions will have to be made as to the things and activities that are essential to life and those that are trivial or even harmful. W e wonder whether it is important to have iet aircraft that can travel at supersonic speed if the price is additional noise pollution, air pollution, and what might be called "haste pollution," the sense of disorientation that floods the mind when one steps off an airplane and has to adjust to a whole new time scheme. It must be remembered that, by increasing speed, we are decreasing the traveler's time for thought and reflection. Our theory of the world should have a new perspective on the importance of human labor. Our civilization has deified the idea of work work in itself, as therapy, as a means of keeping young and old, rich and poor, male and female "out of trouble." W e shall have to learn to enjoy the world again, to savor its charms, and not to feel guilty when we are just being part of a natural scene, taking nothing from it, imposing nothing upon it, simply enjoying it. The psychological effects of this kind of experience would, we think, be constructive. Wars and other social tensions are caused by the compulfive, power-hungry, and world-transforming people who cannot wait to take over a situation so as to mould it into what they think it should be. One of the results of a more acceptant view of nature might be relaxation of tension in business, governmental, and professional circl_es. The hippie culture has shown us the way by its gentleness and tolerance for individual differences. It has Steadfastly refused to be organized, while encouraging each one to "do his own thing" so long as it does not harm others.
306
Journal of Religion and Health
Our conviction is that a deepened understanding of nature and our place in it will help us solve many of the problems that n o w afflict us. W e would k n o w that the destruction of the rice supplies of a small country in southeast Asia is not a mere act of military strategy, but a violation of the human contract with nature and mankind. W e would k n o w our priorities better: h o w our m o n e y should be spent w h e n people are hungry, sick, and ground d o w n by poverty. W e would k n o w the precariousness and the beauty of this swiftly passing life, and so we would k n o w h o w to enjoy it and contribute to it constructively. All this would greatly increase our mental health and total health. Health is essentially the quality of being at home in one's environment and knowing h o w to sustain one's o w n life and help other life. On a clinical level, it is all too easy to see what awaits mankind if he does not solve the problems of his natural environment. T h e tensions of overcrowding, of life as a perpetual subway rush hour, the competition for food, for pure water, even for air will produce emotional and spiritual disorders on a scale we cannot n o w imagine. Hence the urgent need for the development of a way of thinking about our world that enhances our awareness of nature and of our need to take care of her as she has taken care of us. Nature is, in truth, the mother of all life. N o w she is sick, perhaps unto death. T h e least her children can do is hurry home to her and do what they can to show her she is loved and needed.
Harry C. Meserve
We present in the pages that follo~v the three principal addresses delivered at the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Academy of Religion and Mental Health, held jointly with the Metropolitan Applied Research Center, Inc., in Ne.w York on April 29-30,1970.
