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Straw Revolution : an Ecological Reading

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Straw Revolution : an Ecological Reading ONE – STRAW REVOLUTION : AN ECOLOGICAL READING. Dr. Mathew Fed Department of English Modinagar, UP(India) ABSTRACT The doctrine of a return to nature is as old as Diogenes of Sinope, 412- 323 BC, the Greek philosopher. This radical call has been repeated in history under various forms. This paper is an attempt at evaluation of the distinguished vision of Masanobu Fukuoka, narrated in „The One-Straw Revolution‟ on the basis of ecological approach. Fukuoka, vehemently advocates nature farming and illustrates his conviction that humanity does not know anything. He holds that human intelligence fails both to understand „the real Nature‟ and substitutes it with its shallow projections. This vision is reviewed from environmental tradition and the modern eco-aesthetical approach. Finally the three fold evolution of ecological consciousness has been dealt with. The paper analyses ecological consciousness into three different phases as the first stage of beauty consciousness, the duty conscious stage and the third one as ecological impasse. Introduction The doctrine of a „return to nature‟ is as old as Diogenes of Sinope (412-323 B. C.), one of the champions of Greek Cynicism. He earnestly exhorted his disciples to reject the artificialities of civilization, to march back into the very heart of existence, the Nature. This radical call has been repeated in history in various forms and is still echoed in our century under a number of names as „Environmental Tradition‟, „Deep ecology‟, „Nature Writing‟, Eco-criticism and „Eco-aesthetics‟. This paper deals with the distinguished vision of Masanobu Fukuoka, narrated in „One-Straw Revolution‟ on the basis of environmental tradition and eco-aesthetics so as to explain the three fold evolution of ecological consciousness. The German Zoologist Ernest Haeckel (1834-1919) coined the word „Ecology‟ (Oekologie) in 1866 and defined it as: “ the whole science of the relations of the organism to the environment including, in broad sense, all the conditions of existence.‟ „These are partly organic, partly inorganic” (Taylor:339). “Oekologie‟ was formally considered at the Madison Botanical Congress of 1893, where the „O‟ was dropped and the Anglicized spelling‟ ecology‟ adopted...”(Taylor: 353-354). Ellen Swallow, the first campaigner for better living conditions in U.S.A. in 19th century promoted ecology as the science of healthy and happy life by quoting Haeckel‟s words “…so let Oekology be hence the worthiest of the applied sciences which teaches the principles on which to found healthy and happy life” ( Bate: 56-57). This new branch of science was made a holistic science dealing with the relationship between living beings and their environment, by the efforts of the environmental movements. Besides this, the new branch of science has proliferated with multiple branches and the twentieth century may be called the century of ecology. Environmental Tradition The earliest approach of ecological consideration in the English literary field seems to be that of the environmental tradition championed under the leadership of Wordsworth and other Romantics. The environmental tradition gets blossomed during the Romantic period of English Poetry. The Wordsworthian notions of ecology enriched the tradition. This ecology “reverences the green earth because it recognizes that neither physically nor psychologically can we live without green things; it proclaims that there is „one life‟ within us and abroad, that the earth is a single vast eco-system which we destabilize at our peril” (1991:40). The diction of environmental tradition is ever green; interrogates the maladies of industrial revolution, like city and civilization. It eulogizes pastoral life and shepherds, weeds and wilderness, meads and lees. The general appeal of ecological approach towards harmony with the environment, has been fundamentally complemented by Ruskin‟s recognition that there is an intimate connection between the conditions in which we work and the way in which we live with nature. The famous quote on the spring of Prague is a case in point “The air pollution”, as Lubos Beniak holds, “more than the existence of the Iron curtain brought about the revolution in Czechoslovakia” (Bate:1991: 1).The same idea is presented by Ruskin, who holds that the fundamental material basis of political economy was not money, labour and production but „Pure Air, Water and the Earth.” (1992: 119) One of the popular features of environmental tradition is the description of land-scape with moralist overtones. The very concept of pathetic fallacy is employed as an effective tool to initiate moral discourse. It is mainly used by modern landscape poet or painter, who endeavours to express something which is lifeless, imagines to be a lively object. It is through pathetic fallacy, the nature is subordinated to the poet‟s self; it is used as a substitute for the religious belief that had been ruined by the modern development. The old notion of nature was always connected with presence and power of God; the medieval landscapes are stable and luminous whereas the modern landscape is enshrouded in the pale gloom of cloudiness. The dim appearance is a clear symptom of vacuum of the modern mental realm. The Greek myth may be another instance. The whole gamut of Greek & Rome mythology has a spiritual halo/aura around it. It is interesting to note that “the medieval never painted a cloud, but with the purpose of placing an angel in it ; and a Greek never entered a wood without expecting to meet a god in it… our chief ideas about the wood are connected with poaching.” (1973:130) The modern malaise, according to the environmental tradition, is „want of faith‟ a consequent of the split of culture and nature, an impoverishment, inherent, in civilization of urbanization. Another feature of environmental tradition is the notion of „locality‟ in composition. As in the case of any reality, a work of art is also determined by both space and time. The notion of time, takes the form of history and space that of Geography or culture. In the broadest sense, it includes nationality and in the miniature form, it is our locality. As we go through the literature, we can find this local consciousness both as the lived literature and unconscious one of shepherds. Both approaches co-exist in literature. Although this naming of places (the explicit practice of this tradition), seems to be associated with hegemony and dominion, but without any negative connotation; rather it is an act of assimilation. Thus, the environmental tradition defines ecology as a basic attitude of mind, a sort of realization leading to effective environmental initiatives. One-Straw Revolution The world famous film director Korosowa, in his Dreams, presents an old man in a village of wind mills, as the last dream of hope in a world of confusion. This old man lives in a village of wind mills, doing the old fashioned mode of agriculture. He returns to Nature, doing Natural farming. The grand disillusion of the earnest microbiologist Fukuoka comes as a sort of confession as ; “It was simply … a shock , a flash, one small experience that was the starting point.” “ It is generally thought that there is nothing more splendid than human intelligence, that human begins are creatures of special value, and that their creations and accomplishments as mirrored in culture and history are wondrous to behold”(1999:4). He describes his realization with all details: “One night as I wandered, I collapsed in exhaustion on a hill overlooking the harbour; finally dozing against the trunk of a large tree…I can still remember that it was the morning of 15th of May. In a daze I watched the harbour grow light, seeing the sunrise and yet somehow not seeing it. As the breeze blew up from below the bluff, the morning mist suddenly disappeared. Just at the moment a night heron appeared, gave up a sharp cry, and flew away into the distance. I could hear the flapping of its wings. In an instant, all my doubts and the gloomy mist of my confusion vanished. Everything I had held in firm conviction , everything upon which I had ordinarily relied was swept away with the wind. I felt I understood just one thing. Without thinking about them, words came from my mouth : In this world, there is nothing at all… I felt that I understood nothing”(1999:8).The insufficiency of human intellect is the beginning point of radical re - consideration towards Nature and the gradual conviction that every living things are united. His realization enabled him to take stock of his „so called Knowledge‟. “I could see that all the concepts to which I had been clinging, the very notion of existence itself, were empty fabrications. My sprit became light and clear. I was dancing wildly for joy. I could hear the small birds chirping in the trees, and see the distant waves glistening in the rising sun. The leaves danced green and sparkling. I felt this was truly heaven on earth. Everything that had possessed me, all the agonies, disappeared like dreams and illusions, and something one might call „true nature‟ stood revealed. I think it could safely be said that from the experience of that morning my life changed completely (1999:8-9). His conviction was so powerful that he decided to resign his post as a senior microbiologist at Kochi University(Japan). He challenged a lot of people with his conviction that everything was meaningless and of no value, that everything returns to nothingness. He was quite sure that the concept of non –usefulness would be of great benefit to the modern world, which is moving so rapidly in the opposite direction. He actually wandered about with the intention of spreading the word throughout the whole country. What is the message of this old man ? This old man, Masanobu Fukuoka, in his book „One Straw Revolution‟ taught the message that “Humanity knows nothing at all.
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