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1 Toward a Post-Industrial Consciousness 1 Toward a Post-Industrial Consciousness: Understanding the Linguistic Basis of Ecologically Sustainable Educational Reforms By C. A. Bowers 2 Contents: Chapter One Introduction Chapter Two Western Philosophy, Language, and the Titanic Mind-Set that has Put Us on a Collision Course With Environmental Limits Chapter Three The Linguistic Colonization of the Present by Past Thinkers Who Were Unaware of Environmental Issues Chapter Four How the Linguistic Complicity of George Lakoff Supports the Market Liberal’s Agenda for Enclosing the Cultural and Environmental Commons Chapter Five The Double Bind of Environmentalists Who Identify Themselves as Liberals Chapter Six Revitalizing the Cultural Commons in an Era of Political and Ecological Uncertainties Chapter Seven Toward an Ecologically Sustainable Vocabulary Appendix: Handbook for Faculty Workshops on How to Introduce Cultural Commons and Ecojustice Issues into Their Courses 3 Chapter One: Introduction Recent developments in higher education should be welcomed as the “Great Awakening”. Hopefully, with the establishment of the American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education, along with the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment, the traditional relationship between higher education and the deepening ecological crises finally can be reversed. For many readers, the suggestion that higher education has been a major contributor to the form of development that is now being globalized and that is exacerbating the ecological crises, may cause deep consternation—especially if they were educated to thinking that their university education is the basis for our current level of economic prosperity and technological advancements. Indeed, a strong case can be made that the high- status knowledge promoted by colleges and universities was based on the same deep cultural assumptions that gave conceptual direction and moral legitimacy to the industrial/consumer dependent culture. The emphasis on individualism, the quest for new knowledge and technologies that would expand markets and thus dependency upon a consumer-based existence, the idea that the Western model of development should be promoted in other cultures, and the emphasis on print based storage and communication that fosters abstract thinking that, in turn, marginalizes the importance of cultural contexts and the diversity of cultural ways of knowing, were all packaged as the formula for escaping the constraints of the past and for participating in the achievements of the modern world. The Janus nature of higher education, while being a major contributor to an ecologically unsustainable lifestyle, has also made many genuinely positive contributions to expanding people’s knowledge of how to overcome seemingly intractable limitations and prejudices, as well as of what needs to be conserved—especially in the areas of civil liberties and gains in social justice. These genuine achievements need to be kept in focus especially as higher education is criticized for its cultural hubris and failure to recognize how it continues to reinforce many of the misconceptions inherited from the past. Unfortunately, knowledge of how to expand on the previous achievements in the areas of social justice, and on how to live more enriched lives by drawing upon the heritage of literature and the creative arts, have been overwhelmed by the ecologically problematic face of higher education—which has been to promote the individually-centered and consumer-dependent 4 lifestyle as well as the relentless drive to create the new technologies essential to the expansion of capitalism. It is not that the value of this lifestyle has been an explicit part of the university curriculum; rather it is learned through both the silences which allows the cultural messages of the consumer culture to go largely unchallenged and through the continual emphasis on equating change with progress, on individualism as the source of ideas and values, on representing language as a conduit in a sender/receiver process of communication that puts out of focus how language carries forward the earlier misconceptions, and on thinking of technological innovations and the expansion of consumerism as yet further expressions of modern development. The shopping cart approach to selecting courses, where students often encounter conflicting interpretative frameworks, also facilitates the students’ smooth transition from being a university student to being fully committed to the laissez-faire race to the top of the consumer and social status pyramid. That these new national organizations are dedicated to reducing the ecological footprint of college and university campuses, and that there is a growing number (but still a minority) of faculty in the social sciences, humanities, and professional schools joining the science faculty who have for years been addressing environmental issues in their research and classes, represents a positive development. Nevertheless, the number of college and university presidents who are signing declarations that commit their institutions to becoming leaders in reversing the current state of environmental degradation falls far short of what is needed if colleges and universities are to contribute to the change of consciousness that will enable people to expand their symbolic rich universe while reducing their addiction of consumerism. Signing declarations, joining national organization dedicated to addressing environmental issues, and approving the adoption of more efficient technologies that modern campuses depend upon, are of minor significance when we consider what is really needed—which includes providing conceptual leadership in challenging the long held idea that the faculty member’s academic freedom allows her/him to pursue subjectively determined scholarly interests while continuing to reinforce the cultural assumptions and silences that marginalize an awareness of the catastrophic consequences now facing an increasing number of the world’s population With scientists predicting that the world’s cultures are now within 10 to 50 years of the tipping point where changes in human behaviors will not longer have an influence on slowing the rate of global warming, and with the scarcity of basic sources of protein and potable water 5 now reaching the point where riots are breaking out and large numbers of people are becoming environmental refugees, there is a need to recognize that the limits on academic freedom again need to be adjusted. And the adjustments need to take account of the current moral and social/ecojustice challenges we now face. The suggestion that the legitimate boundaries of academic freedom have been reframed in the past may come as a surprise to many faculty who are not aware that academic freedom has always been a social construction—and that it has not always served enlightened and humane ends. Indeed, there many instances in which it has led to scholarship and teaching that have challenged prevailing prejudices and forms of exploitation. It has also been influenced by the prevailing ideologies and economic interests of the times. For example, academic freedom, driven by the pursuit of new knowledge, was used in Nazi Germany to justify scientific experiments on populations regarded as sub-human and on political prisoners. Scientists in many Western countries who were part of the eugenics movement experimented on citizens who were categorized as defective. Not to be overlooked is how scientists working for the Public Health Service conducted what has become known as the Tuskegee experiments on 399 African American males who were suffering from syphilis. Their 40 year quest for new knowledge on how long it took these men to die was justified on the basis of academic freedom, and the pursuit of new knowledge. More recent examples of how academic freedom have been redefined can be seen in the silences that scholars are no longer allowed to perpetuate. The growing awareness of the genocide and exploitation of the indigenous cultures across America, the oppressive nature of slavery, the traditions of hyper-patriarchy, and the long traditions of Social Darwinian thinking about the backwardness of Third World cultures have all led to shifts in the focus of scholarship and in teaching. In short, these silences are no longer justifiable on the grounds of exercising academic freedom. And the continued silence about the cultural roots of the ecological crises on the part of many faculty in the social sciences, humanities, and professional schools should no longer be accepted. The scope and momentum of the ecological crises that are now affecting even the lives of academics and college and university presidents now require another reframing of what is allowed and not allowed in the name of academic freedom. I could list the title of many scholarly papers still being presented at academic conferences as evidence that most faculty in a wide range of disciplines need a wake-up call about the environmental and cultural turning point that some leading scientists are referring to as the sixth extinction. At the very least, faculty who 6 continue to ignore the ecological crises need to hear scientists explain just how degraded the oceans have become, the short and long term implications of global warming and its impact on glaciers, the changes in habitats, and the threat to species and sources of food. The importance of the turning point that humans are now facing would seem to justify faculty in all the disciplines reading books
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