#eco-romantic

Regarding quarantine, I feel the deep resonance to the thought of the philosopher of ecological aesthetics Gernot Böhme that for a long time we were involved in environmental degradation and this affects our own nature. We are talking about the ecological continuum, where the boundaries between human and nature are illusive and nominal, nature does not lie outside of us, as it is usually represented in our anthropocentric philosophy. An important point, in his opinion, is that the destruction of the external nature becomes a conscious problem for us only when it affects us and becomes perceived by our own bodies. And any destruction sooner or later concerns ourselves.

Historically, this is exactly the moment when at the physical level almost all the inhabitants of the planet felt a lack of stability, at least through an extensive narrowing of their living space - which is also very symbolic that we closed up to the purely anthropogenic world of concrete boxes and technologies - who we are without nature? As a maximum it concerns us through a real threat to life. I think this awareness and holistic body-psychic collective (!) living-through of this experience can have important potentials for all of humanity to somehow rethink itself as a natural being and part of a single ecosystem, and be able to recognize that the dominance of nature is impossible - and need to change it and establish the partnership with the nature. For such a qualitative leap in consciousness, a universal “planetary” experience is probably necessary. Virus is very natural, logical and even “reasonable”, it solves some global problems and looks only like an evil from the standpoint of anthropocentrism.

Maybe we are just a new romantics. But it’s not an escapist strategy. We believe in Nature and Harmony. Relationships with Nature based on Love are possible and required. Ecology can be poetic. We have souls and the Nature have the soul too. We are natural beings connected to the Earth. We can co-exist and co-create with nature. The part of the beautiful wholeness. We are free to choose whatever to believe (as our survival depends on our settings) and if some myth should resurrect - we will re-enchant the Earth together. For ones it’s just tales on noosphere, animism, pantheism, ecocentism but these tales nowadays can heal us as the society which used to oppress and abuse the nature. For some (like me) it’s complex and multidimensional reality. Facts doesn’t matter here! It’s the matter of culture, collective awareness and ecological consciousness. Let’s imagine the world of human-nature harmony and then let’s make it real! We need to believe something bigger.