It's Hip To Be A Humester
Find Gladness That Is Authentic, Abundant, And Abiding
One’s reactions to planetary predicaments ought not be based solely on blind optimism nor on blind pessimism—the two extremes that seem to color much of the public discourse. Some of those involved in the promotion of environmental solutions, for example, are what I call “boom-sters.” They argue that population growth and technological development are good for several reasons: 1) because people inevitably produce more than they consume; 2) because people are not bound by a carrying capacity of an ecosystem; 3) because people have the intelligence to improve their habitat by inventing technology; 4) because as yet unimaginable ingenuity will result in ecological solutions; and 5) because the free economic market will allow human products and human wellbeing to boom. Such a view, right or wrong, has a chance to become popular because it allows people to avoid the psychological discomforts that could accompany the other predominant view, that of the “doom-sters.” Those who adopt this “doom-ster” viewpoint tend to describe with fire and brimstone a “coming environmental hell in graphic detail” and scare their audience with “dreadful prophecies, then promise salvation through conversion to a new ecological worldview” (Winter and Koger, 2004, p. 19).
The “boom-sters” create hope (which is helpful unless it is blindly unrealistic) and the “doom-sters” create an urgency for action (which is good unless the gloom is so excessive it creates stultifying fear).
Given our current environmental predicament, I feel we cannot afford the pessimism that tends to accompany the “doom-ster” perspective nor the naiveté (unfounded optimism) that tends to accompany the “boom-ster” perspective. I propose an alternate perspective—that of the “Hume-ster.”
Understand ecological groundedness.
“Ecological groundedness” refers to a sense of connection, rootedness, and belonging to the natural world. It involves recognizing and honoring the interdependence between humans and the broader ecological systems. This sense is hard to develop without the employment of desire, perceptions, and ethics—the tools for Humesters.
A “Hume-ster” is supportive of the following contentions of Eighteenth Century philosopher David Hume regarding the psychological basis for human nature:
desire rather than reason governs human behavior;
perceptions are divided into strong and lively impressions, direct sensations, and fainter ideas which are copied from impressions; and
ethics are based on feelings rather than on abstract moral principles.
For these and other reasons, many of the theories and practices contained in this course, including the NatureConnect methodologies are, intentionally and unintentionally, compatible with the writings of David Hume.
Rather than speaking up for the environment with unrealistic optimism or with stupefying fear, take the advice of philosopher David Hume and share your desires, perceptions, ideas, ethics, and feelings.
Those who engage in the HumaNatureConnect Activities throughout the Path, for example, are embodying Hume’s emphasis on the importance of direct sensation. I believe the element of attraction, so pivotal in all Heartwood Path HumanNatureConnect Activities, can be thought of as one of Hume’s “impressions”—a conception that results from outer-world phenomena and are more passionate, lively, and forcible than a more feeble “idea” (Pratt) which arises after an inner world, mental reflection.
Through such inner reflections, ideas, and inner world impressions of outer world phenomena, one may consider that the world’s greatest need is the improvement of healthcare worldwide, or a more equitable distribution of food and water, or for improved education globally, or any of a number of actual, significant needs. For the purposes of this Substack, let us for the moment determine that all of these needs are secondary to the primary need of environmental sustainability, for without a suitable and sustainable environment there cannot be any significant and enduring resolution of all of the other imaginable or verifiable needs.
More than the other voices—the “Boomsters” and the “Doomsters”—the voice of the “Humesters” leads to Triple A Happiness—gladness that is authentic, abundant, and abiding.
Our destination, therefore, is an intersection of “happiness” and “the world’s greatest need”—a “place” in your life that is at once metaphorical but also actually reachable. I call this place “Gladandgreen Junction.”
Let us now break this name down into its three components because, in doing so, we will illustrate the purpose of following the Heartwood Path.
The first component is “Glad.” More than a temporary and trivial sense of joviality, the gladness we seek will be called “Triple A Happiness”—happiness that is authentic, abundant, and abiding. For happiness to be authentic, abundant, and abiding for our purposes here it has to have five components:
positive emotion (pleasure, rapture, ecstasy, warmth, comfort, etc.);
engagement (flow, stopping of time, loss of self-consciousness);
meaning (serving something bigger than the self);
positive relationships (emotional buoyancy due to other people); and
accomplishment (for its own sake).
The Heartwood Path series of courses helps participants come to the intersection of their own deep gladness and the world's deep hunger for environmental sustainability.
The second component in “Gladandgreen Junction” is “green.” By this I mean a healthy lifestyle, environmental sustainability, a healthy environment, and environmental protection.
To stand firm ecologically, commune with nature, in a place where “gladness” intersects with“greenness”—a natural place that feels like a refuge, that feels safe, that promotes creativity, and that provides inspiration.
The third component is “Junction.” We will be looking not for happiness alone, nor for environmental protection alone, but for the meeting and the binding of Triple A happiness and environmental protection.
