opposing the system

“The U.S. must be the most difficult country to correct in the world. Americans are always open discussing values at a personal level, but when you mention opposition to the system, they think you are a communist” (Erik Dammann, 1989, from Wisdom in the Open Air, 215).

More on being lost...

“A man that is lost and seems to be wandering has undoubtedly the best opportune to find his new calling” (reflection based on Arne Næss and Al Gore).

Isak, immersed in the wilds

“In the wilds, each season has its wonders, but always, unchangingly, there is that immense heavy sound of heaven and earth, the sense of being surrounded on all sides, the darkness of the forest, the kindliness of the trees. All is heavy and soft, no thought is impossible there” (Knut Hamsun, Growth of the Soil, 1921, page 178).

Beautiful Sellanrå

“Look at you folk at Sellanraa, now; looking up at blue peaks every day of you lives; no new-fangled inventions about that, but fjeld and rocky peaks, rooted deep in the past – but you’ve them for companionship. There you are, living in touch with heaven and earth, one with them, one with all these wide, deep-rooted things…Look, Nature’s there, for you and yours to have and enjoy. Man and Nature don’t bombard each other, but agree; they don’t compete, race one against the other, but go together” (Knut Hamsun,1921, Growth of the Soil, page 428).

Wergeland and early norsk ecological poetry

“There is nothing, great or small,

that is fruitless, or decayed,

but its ending keeps a purpose,

however hidden that may be”

– Henrik Wergeland (1808-1845), from Follow the Call

Carson and strength

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts” (Rachel Carson, unknown source, from Call of the Wild, 2002, pg. 100).

Lost and finding the way

“I offer myself as a nature guide, exploring for values. Many before us have got lost and we must look the world over. The unexamined life is not worth living; life in an unexamined world is not worth living either. We miss too much of value” – Holmes Rolston (Light and Rolston, Environmental Ethics, 2003:143).

Impossible, unthinkable

"If we do not do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable" (Murray Bookchin, unknown source). –speaking in regards to an ecological disconnect.

More domination and table scraps

"In our own time we have seen domination spread over the social landscape to a point where it is beyond all human control. Compared to this stupendous mobilization of materials, of wealth, of human intellect, of human labor for the single goal of domination, all other recent human achievements pale to almost trivial significance. Our art, science, medicine, literature, music and ‘charitable’ acts seem like mere droppings from a table on which gory feasts on the spoils of conquest have engaged the attention of a system whose appetite for rule is utterly unrestrained" (Murray Bookchin, unknown source).

Singing into existence

“The philosopher Martin Heidegger said all we had to do was sing.  You might have heard other things about him, good and bad, but remember he did say that the Earth needs humanity in order to sing it into existence, to give it word, name, not substance but story.  Much as I too want to sing I can’t quite believe that.  The world is wonderful because it doesn’t need me at all, except perhaps to save it from the sum total of human mistake” (David Rothenberg, Always the Mountains, pg. viii).

Ibsen's human revolution

“We have been living on crumbs dropped from the revolutionary table of the preceding century.  They have been chewed far too long.  Thought requires new nourishment and stimulus.  Liberté, Egalité et Fraternité no longer mean what they meant in the age of the guillotine.  Bullheaded politicians make no effort to understand this.  That is why I hate them.  All they want is a political revolution, a particular revolution superficial in all things.  Such a revolution is absurd.  The important thing is renovation of the human spirit” (Henrik Ibsen wrote in a personal letter, taken from Choose Peace: A Dialogue Between Johan Galtung and Daisku Ikeda, 1995, pg 11).

Philosophers from the masses

“The truly great members of the masses of humanity are the people who labor not in the spotlight, but behind the scenes. I am most comfortable and can work most untiringly in the company of philosophers from the masses” (Daisaku Ikeda, Choose Peace: A Dialogue Between Johan Galtung and Daisku Ikeda, 1995, pg 6).

Good servant, but bad master

"It used to be said of fire, the first of the technological weapons, that it was a good servant but a bad master. The same holds true for the newer weapons of technology". (James Lovelock, Gaia: A new look at life on earth, 1979, pg 115).