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102 | Tue PrıLosorry oF Eco-PoLirics If, in regard to man and nature, the Greens only demanded the minimum of what humanity must definitely and urgently do to prevent a civilisational catastrophe, according to the majority they are already demanding too much. They must therefore accept that they have but two choices: radicalism and insignificance. 2. (not more, but better — an economical economy!) When we wish to translate the goals regarding the protection of nature to the language of human acts and agendas, according to the current dominant way of thinking, we find ourselves in the field of economy, in the broad sense of the word. However, economic considerations demand exactly that the relationship between man and nature not be seen as a purely economic issue, because at its core it never was and never can be one. Our much-mentioned separation from nature effectively means that we no longer notice the irreparable loss we have caused ourselves in the most basic dimension of our being. According to Ernst F. Schumacher, we are practicing a false double standard of accounting; we record as gains the income derived from consuming our natural capital.” The main factors of the separation or alienation are, according to ‘Thomas Princen: automatic work, marketified conditions, mass distance transportation (which makes man rootless), overdriven urbanisation, electronic communication (the loss of physical connection with everything natural), formal education and finally — the existence of zoos. He claims that these are all consequences of a “mining economy”; the competition is for the exhaustion of resources instead of their increase. The problem with this is that the purpose of husbandry has been reversed: consumption is viewed as production, namely as what we remove and use up of nature and not what we add to it. For mining (removing) economy views labour as a technical necessity to be progressively phased out, as an unfortunate deviation from the ideal state, in which the ripe fruit falls into our mouth of its own accord. According to Princen, the first condition of the realisation of an economical economy in the original sense of the word -i.e.,an economy that saves on resources — would be to place the emphasis from the end product of labour to the process of its production, from the breadwinning “occupation” to the creative activity. The main goal would no longer be the satisfaction (and generation) of so-called material needs, but rather the realisation of a truly human striving towards a meaningful % Ernst F Schumacher: Small is Beautiful: a Study of Economics as if People Mattered. Blond & Briggs, London, 1973.
