Aug.-Sept. 1982 RAIN Page 13 ^ According to the classical model, production and prices are determined by the economic choices of consumers and producers who inevitably act in accord with some timeless human nature: to maximize utility and profit, respectively. This description of consistent economic behavior enables theorists to justify their conclusion and prescription; that “social benefit" is maximized by the natural outcome of simplistic economic choices, notwithstanding any irreparable damage to the biosphere. This rapid translation from "what is" to "what should be" says more about the premises of industrial society (that is, maximizing consumption and profit) than it does about the reality of humankind's diverse ways of interacting within equally diverse societies and ecosystems. Exploring or rediscovering these myriad pathways of endeavor means, first of all, abandoning the "value-free" description of the human species as "rational economic animal." As a map, rather than a blueprint, a bioregional model, while retaining the devices of the scientific method, looks past its "impartial observer" status to maintaining the health and diversity of the life-place. The result is confirmation of our membership in the wider life-conununity. This new cultural identity as reinhabitants also mitigates against the exploitation and destruction of natural life-forms and processes wrought by their objectification. 59 from Toward a Bioregional Model SUSTAINABILITY tivity. . . . An abundance of natural life in an unscarred environment is a consequence of restoring and maintaining a bioregion, and will provide evidence that figures of regulation are working. Social success or progress would also be measured by increased quality of life such as providing diverse work opportunities for individuals to interact with natural systems. Rather than feeling alienated from society and the life-community as many do currently, people would be able to view themselves as belonging to both. Individuals, society and the bioregion would be interconnected rather than existing as separate entities. A political manifestation of this connectedness could be in the establishment of small-scale bioregional governments with watershed-bounded units. Smaller, more naturally defined political entities would present many more opportunities for participation in the political process than currently exist, and decisions resulting from direct democracy would be more prevalent. The spirit of these governments could be mutualistic and nonhier- archical as a reflection of the operation of the biosphere itself. 5 5 — from Figures ofRegulation • • For 99.9 percent or several million years of (our) history. Homo sapiens lived in the wild, often very well. This association with the wild, both secular and sacred, has left its mark on our psyches and on our behavior. Vestiges linger in hunting, fishing, birdwatching, nature photography and gardening. Caged in skyscrapers and in box architecture we sense a loss, yet we Imow not what. My thesis is that the loss we feel is the loss of balance between culture and the living world. No western culture has achieved this balance in historic times. But it yet may happen, through the mysterious workings of science and technologies, that for the first time in millenia, the polar opposites of culture and wilderness can now be fused. It is time for nature again to enter culture and become part of the fabric of our lives. It is more than a metaphor to think of a future city block built in the image of the forest. Such a block or neighborhood could have architectural forms, structural relationships and support elements designed after the forest and could be a beautiful, healing and inviting place to live. 9 9 from Reinhabiting Cities and Towns
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