Oldal 60 [60]
OCR
58 | Tue Purtosopny or Eco-Porrriıcs our values, but because of the logic of events. The global expansion of the patterns of aggressive modernisation have destroyed or rendered obsolete the local knowledge with which various cultures were able, in their own way, to maintain some kind of dynamic balance between population reproduction, the qualities of nature, the technologies that ensure a living and the institutions maintaining the order of society, which they are no longer capable of doing. The final collapse of the delicate balance among the four listed factors has precipitated the explosion of the population. Its consequences led to the exhaustion of the irreplaceable natural resources, which causes a constant state of war and finally forces a part of the population to emigrate. That these processes strengthen each other needs no explanation. It is also evident that the continents able to adapt, relatively speaking, most successfully — Europe and North America — to the new patterns (industrial mass society, mass culture, mass democracy), are those which had the most time to do so. Here, in one way or another, the drastic changes realised the possibilities contained within their own cultural heritage and, what is even more important, took place gradually. (The joint characteristic of biological and social systems is that they can adapt with incredible flexibility to slow, gradual changes, but sudden, aggressive intervention can easily lead to chaos and the collapse of the system. All this bears no relation to so-called sustainability and even less to the political statements on the needs of future generations.) The deluge of information on the internet does not necessarily make up for the loss of knowledge. Neither do the international educational assistance programs, which provide the recipients with tools for adaptation rather than the restoration of local cultural identities. The parrot who has forgotten how to fly in his cage is not compensated by learning to say a word or two in the meantime. If one then approaches the issue of impoverishment from the perspective of institutional and technological changes, one notices that the scientific-technological revolution made possible the unparalleled speeding up the circulation of goods and energy in societies. ‘This promised to solve all the troubles of society purely through the increase of economic performance. It provides everyone with a living and satiates and reconciles the nations and social groups previously hostile towards one other. Henceforward they will no longer war against each other, but instead set to the exploitation of nature together and in competition with one another. This latter is well underway but it has brought no social peace, but has instead become a source of new animosity,
