If you believe that America’s national park system is one of the greatest achievements in the country‘s history — and is for the betterment of mankind — you’d find yourself in the company of the majority, including me.
However, Cronon articulates a fascinating history of post-Civil War America and the winding down of the Indian wars. At this time, many native Indians were forced off their land to establish the national parks across the country in the name of keeping the land “pristine” and “sublime”. Naturally, we think of this as an absurd tragedy. We often think of the native people as having a deep connection with the land and a deep connection to their human nature. Why, then, would we divorce them from their natural place and way of life in order to respect an arbitrary line on the map?
In his essay, Cronon argues that we all possess the same human nature, whether we are native Indian, American settlers moving out West, Swiss mountaineers, or Japanese farmers. However, in our modern world, we Americans seem to have forgotten that truth that we are embued with human nature. Modernity and industrialization have done a good job of detaching us from the land, the fruits of our labor, and the wrath of natural disaster.
Cronon says that we have fetishized the wilderness out there and have failed to recognize the wilderness in here.
From a practical matter of public policy, it makes no sense to dismantle the national parks nor would I ever advocate for such action. However, my experiences in Japan, in Switzerland, and the reflections I’ve gained from reading this essay have taught me that it does little good to treat far-flung places as separate from civilization. If we do so, it becomes easy to slip into the mindset that we humans are devoid of nature, or worse, are contaminants to it.
Instead, Cronon argues that we should tend to our gardens, care for the trees along our sidewalks, and clean the streams in our neighborhoods just as if they are Yosemite Valley, the Amazon Rainforest, or the Ganges River.
There is a beautiful Buddhist belief that says that as you walk along the street and look upon the faces of the strangers going past you, you may just be looking at the face of the Buddha. In the same way, the nature in your backyard exemplifies the sublime if you only look close enough.
Books Mentioned In This Episode:
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Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature by William Cronon
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Walking by Henry David Thoreau
My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir
Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail by Theodore Roosevelt
The End of Nature by Bill McKibben
This Is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and Its Magic River by Wallace Stegner
Home Economics by Wendell Berry
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