I thought this teaser was fantastic. It's such a deceptively simple metaphor, but even in this brief statement, Capra shows us how ecosystems/communities are simultaneously simple and infinitely complex.
The metaphor helped me resolve some confusion I took away from the Roseland article. He spoke briefly of the interconnectedness of communities, but Capra's article really drove home that while a community/ecosystem could be studied in isolation, a true isolate is rare--impossible if you go down to the microbial levels. With the world getting smaller as it is, humans are finally becoming aware of a global community. Naturally, it is made up of billions of smaller interconnected networks.
On the topic of the world "getting smaller"--specifically, due to population growth and technological advances that have really let us map the majority of the world--this article made me think about the distinction between the "linear" and the "cyclical" thinking that differentiates a sustainable community/ecosystem from, well, specifically, U.S. Americans. Really, when you consider it, a lion is not thinking cyclically when he attacks a gazelle and leaves the remainder of a carcass for scavengers and bacteria. However, that is the end result--the gazelle's remaining energy is recycled into the ecosystem.
Why have "modern" practices ceased to be sustainable? Is it because the Earth system can no longer process the types of things we have developed (plastics, processed petrochemicals)? I am put in mind of the Gaia Hypothesis I studied briefly in cultural geography--wherein the whole earth is the ultimate ecosystem. The sub-system of humanity is just one of the links in the network, and if it ceases to be a viable link, it will end, while the overall system will adjust (with that flexibility born of diversity that Capra mentions). One hopes that humans are smart enough to allay this particular path--but that requires awareness of their place in a system. That awareness would hopefully expand to include the many systems/networks/communities every person is a part of.
I think Megan has nailed where this disconnect lies--there is not really any talk in Capra's article about the flux we have so obviously been in, especially in the last century. We are in no way in equilibrium, which is likely why my thoughts strayed to the Gaia Hypothesis--as one vision of how ecological equilibrium could be restored.
Because of the ecology slant to this article, I am thinking along environmental sustainability lines. But I am aware the metaphor can go further.
I am definitely looking forward to reading Making Connections--it's waiting for me at the library.
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Noam Chomsky starts his book, Hegemony or Survival, with a reflection of Ernst Mayr - a biologist. Mayr's reflection is on the tenuousness of human civilization and intellectual organization.
You can read it here as excerpt from the Chomsky book.
The Chomsky excerpt hinted at something I was thinking - our species has not evolved to the point at which its ability to direct behavior with circumspect thought is sufficient to be an effective tool for survival.
It is not that we don't have people likd Chomsky or Capra who can conecptualize a very big picture. It is because we are still (at the species level) prone to choosing (or having thrust upon us) leaders who focus narrowly on the exercise of power.
I fear that the dynamic is pretty much hard wired into the species and may be an insurmountable barrrier to "fixing things." On the other hand, what else have we got to shoot for anyway. So why not give saving the world a shot?
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