Misanthropic environmentalism
Middle-upper class Western urbanites often develop apparently strong feelings regarding environmental exploitation and destruction. The problem often emerges as soon as extremely idealised views of nature and extremised concepts of the anthropic influence on the environment emerge. The truth is that there are vast swathes of land that have been largely anthropized for centuries, if not millennia. Hydrogeological balance, control of pests and hunting all sorts of invasive species, prevention of fires, etc. This are all things humans CAN do, and in agrarian communities these things have been done for centuries. In addition to this, since obviously nature has no political voice, these people are the only ones who can correctly and introspectively advocate for the nature that surrounds us. The concept of degrowth in its environmental declinations, or the idea that nature is innately self-balancing and that all human presence is a hysterical, bourgeois idea that conceals the disguised loathing that urbanites harbour for agrarian communities and their ability to live in actual communion with nature beyond all middle-upper class fanfares; it is indeed a way of life that has no need for soy latte, transatlantic avocado trade, and the unnatural concoctions of a vegan diet - it is a way of life that does not shy away from hard labour (unlike urbanites), from making hard decisions such as slaughtering animals, and from a truly spiritual relationship with nature. Hence, be very wary of those who apparently espouse absolutist, idealised views of nature, and who often barely conceal misanthropic hatred. These are childish, bourgeois individuals who have never lived in contact with nature - they only conceive nature through their sentimentalistic, fetishised, surreal distortions of it.
Quite often it is precisely the destruction or removal of these communities that leads to vast environmental damage or irreversible alteration of the local biodiversity. Practices are lost; know-how is dispersed; social capital eradicated. True love of nature implies the understanding that the part must give way to the whole, the only process that can allow for rejuvenation, cyclical regrowth, and balance (thus, hunting; thus, fire trenches; thus, controlled logging).
If you have ever been in a formerly cultivated area which has been abandoned for a while, you can really feel this forlornness of the landscape. A millstone laying by a creek, bereft of its gears. A set of stairs leading to it, forgotten by all. Fenced kitchen gardens invaded by weeds. Smashed doors and ruins of stone walls. The people who for generations flourished on that land, kept it teeming with labour, sweat, tears, and laughter - gone. And you can almost hear the silent weeping of the land, if you listen closely. Where are those who rooted out my weeds? Where are those who drank from my creeks? Where are those who watered crops and ran the mills? Where are those who checked pests and tended to me? And the silence is deafening.
