Lines

Lines are the units of conceptualization, which in creating representations mark “things” off from their surroundings, create object and environment. I enjoy thinking about a lineless world, where all things are indescribable, too specific and chaotic in form, too universal in specificity and texture, to be meaningfully separated. But this denies the fundamentality of construction to human existence and experience, and in attempting representation fails to truly comprehend nature.

There is a line separating humanity and its environment, for the observer in the park overlooking downtown, on one side of which is the rectangularity of buildings, and on the other, the knots and rough curves of a tree. Here lies design, and there unknowing growth. Here is control, there freedom. On this side is symbol, and on the other lives reality. Nature, by and large, is in balance, but here there is no-one to tell us when to stop.

The “built environment” is a curious analog to natural systems. A city sprouts from the ground looking vaguely like a forest, but its underpinnings are very different. Cities function as an open circuit, where inputs enter and waste leaves, with little synthetic material recycled. In nature, however, the attractor of ecological efficiency has caused closed circuits of nutrients to evolve, so that all biological matter is reused. Cities profoundly and consciously manipulate their environment to meet their needs, while ecological communities are limited by environmental constraints.

People were made and reside in a natural world, and nothing defines us quite like the line between us and the Rest. We conceive of ourselves on the basis of belief and social experience, but we can also shed a bit of subjectivity and see Man as he stands out from the rest of the world. In this perspective, ecological identity overshadows our less detached understandings to describe what is at base not the cultural idea “humanity” but a simple species.

The more humanity diverges from its environment, the more important this self-consciousness becomes, because to distance ourselves philosophically from our sustaining system can lead to a disregard for its health. We see this dynamic in the shift in human culture towards growth and manipulation, which has been accompanied by increasing environmental disturbance. Because we cannot live unsustainably for long, we must recreate the line between human and natural worlds.

This means closing the destructive gap between human ideals and natural process. The spirit, and the physical function, of our civilization must follow nature’s example. Buildings must be ecologically engaged, and release waste products useful to the environment, rather than siphoning energy and resources while giving off ecologically foreign substances. Our culture as a whole must better align with nature’s sensibilities.

On a large scale, this implies a qualification of economic imperatives, which lead to unmeasured growth and antagonism to the environment. Our policies should not consider material progress unquestionably good, and should encourage businesses and citizens to work closely with nature in their lives and designs. Our values will in time lose their fixation on society, and hold the balance, freedom, and durability of nature as a necessary ideal.

I am interested in the ways in which individuals value nature, because that is the substance of change. Many see a spiritual power to it, and here I find the main hope for a new course. Perceiving nature as an absolute, and seeking its many everyday beauties, gives a viable alternative to fulfillment found in success and accumulation. Failing this radical transformation, though, we can accept the practical necessity of valuing nature that comes with sustainable existence.