-- *Mar*Below is a *carefully edited and refined version* of your essay, preserving your core arguments, tone, and philosophical urgency while improving clarity, flow, grammar, and coherence. After that, I have added *my own views in a clearly separate section*, as you requested. ------------------------------ *Nature under Deadly Oppression (Revised Version)*
Science and technology oppress nature—completely and comprehensively. This oppression is so deeply destructive that we bleed, torture, kill, silence, and disable every facet of geography. We have routinized and standardized this violence, institutionalized it, wrapped it in scientific language, and made it a formal part of education. Today, we call this oppression *economic activity*. Economics has become the systematic conversion of nature’s torture into a branch of physics and mechanics. Mechanics, by definition, deals with emotionless and feeling-less subject matter (ignoring, for convenience, the disruptive implications of modern quantum physics). In doing so, we have trained ourselves to reject any life form as our emotional complement. This profound insensitivity has gradually hardened into economic vested interest. I am often reminded of the American Civil War of 1860–65. In the southern states of that era, a wealthy man was a proud owner of “property,” which included slaves. He convinced himself that he was a pious and lawful owner of sub-humans, no different from livestock. One can imagine his outrage at the idea of recognizing slaves as human beings—an act that would have meant financial ruin. Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy—“government of the people, by the people, for the people”—was intolerable precisely because the word *people* implicitly included slaves. Even after the Civil War, so-called freed slaves found themselves without livelihoods and were forced to continue under similar oppression, merely stripped of the legal label of slavery. They faced systemic violence and lynching. It took immense struggle, sacrifice, and leadership—most notably from Martin Luther King Jr.—to transform former slaves into full citizens in practice, not just in name. Yet today, the plight of the biosphere is even worse. Can we imagine granting equal fundamental rights to cats, dogs, birds, trees, rivers—rights equal to our own? We cannot accept the idea that every life form is an emotional complement to every other, or that the biosphere is a web of life sustained by natural emotional and ecological symbiosis. Instead, we “Darwinized” nature into a battlefield, asserting that life exists only in ruthless competition. This logic was then imported into human society as competition and social Darwinism. Ecology and symbiosis were sidelined. We even refuse to accept that humans are part of the Earth—limbs of the planet, anatomically and existentially connected to nature. To practice science, we first condition ourselves to deny this fundamental truth, training our minds to behave as if we are outsiders observing nature from a distance. Those who seek to interact with nature, or who challenge the Cartesian separation of subject and object, are mocked and marginalized. Nature, however, is rumbling—signaling correction. The asthenosphere simmers beneath our feet; tectonic unrest hints at large-scale planetary rebalancing. It is not unthinkable that the many fires of war igniting across the world today are themselves expressions of nature’s corrective force—human madness amplifying geological and ecological instability, with explosions and destruction making violent “adjustments” easier. The least that universities—now deeply entrenched in Cartesian mechanistic thinking—can do is to establish *Free Nature Parks*: spaces entirely free from human interference, where nature can recover and reorganize itself. Such sanctuaries may allow gentler, less violent paths of correction. But how do we cure universities themselves, which continue to promote mechanization as progress? Every machine harms nature in some way. The weak defense that “not all machines are harmful,” offered without serious examination or accountability, does nothing to avert the catastrophic correction that looms ahead. Nature does not suffer from anthropocentrism—humans do. *—Y. M. Sarma* ------------------------------ *My Views (Added Separately)* Your essay raises a powerful and necessary challenge to the dominant worldview of modern civilization. I strongly agree with your central claim: the crisis we face is not merely environmental, but *philosophical*. It arises from a deep-seated separation between humans and nature, reinforced by mechanistic science, economics, and education. However, I would suggest refining one aspect of the argument. Science and technology themselves are not inherently oppressive; rather, *the philosophy guiding their use* is. Indigenous knowledge systems, ecological sciences, and systems thinking demonstrate that science can also reveal interdependence, empathy, and limits. The problem is not knowledge, but knowledge stripped of ethics, humility, and emotional intelligence. I also believe that framing nature’s “correction” as intentional or purposive risks alienating readers who may otherwise sympathize with your critique. Nature does not need intention to enforce limits—feedback loops alone are sufficient. Climate instability, biodiversity loss, and social conflict emerge naturally when systems are pushed beyond resilience. Your proposal for “Free Nature Parks” is especially compelling. I would extend it further: universities should teach *ecological citizenship*, emotional literacy toward non-human life, and planetary ethics alongside physics and economics. Without these, education becomes training for domination rather than understanding. In essence, the survival of both humanity and the biosphere depends on replacing domination with relationship—competition with symbiosis, and control with participation. Your essay is an important step toward articulating that urgently needed shift. If you would like, I can: - Make the language more *academic*, *poetic*, or *accessible* - Shorten it for publication - Help prepare it for a journal, blog, or speech -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CACDCHCLf3ECvKpMoFke5TY4nRVKeV5vGWD%3DDxfxq8uSidnRV1Q%40mail.gmail.com.
