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Chapter 11 the language of conquest and the loss of the commons Chet Bowers In contrast to the deep knowing embedded within the Mi’kmaw forms of communication, even the most progressive environmental movements of Western culture are superficial. Few can point out this shortcoming as conclusively as Dr. Chet Bowers. In this chapter, he shares his succinct and thought-provoking ideas about how K–16 education, the misuse of so-called liberal and conservative political discourse, the “myth of technology as a tool,” and about how uninvestigated language itself is destroying the commons at a frightening rate. Without even mentioning Indigenous People, who continue to absorb the worst that loss of the commons entails, or the Indigenous perspective per se, it is too easy to see that if our vicious cycle of “progress”—which ignores traditional Indigenous wisdom emphasizing a more community-centered and less money-dependent life—continues, we may soon see a lost of “commons” such that only the wealthy will be able to afford clean air and water. Chet Bowers has been on the faculty of the University of Oregon and Portland State University. He has been invited to give talks at twenty-nine foreign universities and is the author of eighteen books, including Culture of Denial, Let Them Eat Data, Educating for Eco-Justice and Community, Revitalizing the Commons: Cultural and Educational Sites of Resistance and Affirmation, and Mindful Conservatism. His approach to education is shaped by the view that the fundamentals of academia need to change: that there needs to be a shift in the present paradigm from a mechanistic society to a whole-systems approach similar to that of traditional Indigenous People. *** Most people, including college students and their professors, continue to be socialized to think within the traditions of inquiry and knowledge accumulation that are based on cultural assumptions that do not take account of the ecological crisis. The study of environmental issues, whether from the social sciences and humanities or from the hard sciences , does not provide people with the knowledge and values that enable them to recognize the cultural alternatives to living a less consumer- and the language of conquest 1 8 1 technology-dependent lifestyle. People may be aware of the need to recycle some throwaway products of mainstream industry, or of the need to purchase more energy-efficient technologies, but personal economic considerations are probably more responsible for such choices than a deep understanding of the consequences. On the whole, most of us join the vast majority, who are happily dependent upon the industrial approach to health care, processed food, entertainment, and leisure. The core cultural assumptions that influence thinking and values are unlikely to be reconciled with environmental issues and values, even in college-level environmental classes. These are sweepinggeneralizationsofcourse,butaskingpeoplewhattheyunderstand about the nature of the commons or how the idea of the commons is paramount in indigenous worldviews can assess their accuracy. Questioning them about the commons as well as about how various technologies are undermining the intergenerational knowledge that might help people to live less environmentally destructive lives might lead people to realize the power of hegemony that continues the destruction. Traditional Indigenous worldviews make a vital contribution to the reforms that are now necessary in thinking about the environment, but in this essay I am not suggesting that reform should be based on a preferred ideological orientation. Rather, I am saying that reform is required as a matter of survival because of the fundamental changes now occurring in the Earth’s ecosystems, by recent technological developments that are contributing to the global spread of poverty, and by the growing influence of market liberalism in globalizing a consumer- and technologydependent lifestyle. Global warming, now recognized as contributing to reductions in the yield of rice and other staple crops, as well as other cultural developments that are contributing to the depletion of the world’s fisheries, the growing scarcity of potable water, and the spread of deserts and the loss of topsoil, is now affecting daily experience of people around the world. Such experiences might cause people to question for the first time the long-held myth that the continual quest to create new technologies is the best guarantee for increasing their material security and overall well-being. In light of these accelerating global changes, it might seem foolish to suggest that addressing the influences that silence the important narrative we all should be having, especially college students, on these...

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