Re: I am afraid the winter is nuclear [nt]

Well, I do agree with you in rejecting a Rousseauen belief in the goodness of nature. Nature operates forever beyond good and evil, as Paglia recognised. The universe does not share in human values. It is utterly uncaring, and belief in a loving deity lurking behind it is irrational. That should be clear enough from natural selection. Is it possible to imagine a mechanism of speciation more hideous in its indifference to the wellbeing of the creatures that nature so thoughtlessly throws into being to endure a brief and horrible existence? But the Earth is nevertheless spectacularly beautiful and precious, it is our home, and humans can choose to respond to the indifference of the universe with an ethic of care, for the animals as well as members of our own species. That, at least, is my belief. I do believe there is still time to make the necessary adjustments to a different way of living, but I admit things do not look very rosy at the moment. The difference between now and past instances of impending collapse is that, due to science, we can foresee the outcome of our actions. And yes, we still 'live fast, die young'. The question for me is, is this written in our DNA, or is it something to do with the path that humanity has taken in social-economic terms? If the former, then we can only look forward to extinction or supersession as a species. If the latter, things are still precarious, for we cannot merely shake off our current historical situation through an act of will. In this, I suppose I am something of a Marxian determinist. We'll have to agree to disagree on astrology!