Arne Næss

E- even if we, we are atheists, we need a new spiritual sensibility.

Um, because without that, uh, Arne Naess says, you know, it's no good just trying to manage our way out of, out of the eco crisis, right? Out of a moral ought.

We have to do it by finding a... falling in love again with the world around us, and finding the, the, the kinship with everything that is.

And, and I'm interested in, you know, 'cause you really, uh, in, in your last section of the second book, you, you, you, you, you talk a lot about this.

That's an important point to clarify, and I have to finish up here so we have time for people to weigh in.

But Arne Ness, you may be familiar with Arne Ness.

He's a deep ecologist.

Actually, I didn't get his dates, but he's quite a voice in the deep ecology movement.

I was really delighted to discover that one common thread between us is deep ecology, and I'm curious how you sort of think about that in your own life today and what it means to you.

First of all, Arne Næss, the kind of the father of the intellectual creation of the idea of a deep ecological mind, was a good friend of ours.

So I was able to, to hear him speak about what is the floor of a deep ecological mind, and it really is so simple to me, in my version, is that all life has intrinsic value.

It's so easy to say it, but if you actually believe it, it really throws the brakes on a lot of your, the way you look at things, the decisions that you make.

I've also had to think about this, but I've not... done as much work on it as I should like.

You know, Arne Ness, of course, is one of those theorists who are especially tied to or like linked to the concept of deep ecology.

I think he coined that term.

There's the Gaia hypothesis, you know, we've loved Locke.

Yeah.

So, like I mentioned, mid- in the mid-'70s, you had this idea of deep ecology start, starting to take root from Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss and others arguing that the natural world is a complex of relationships in which the existence of organisms is dependent on the existence of others within the ecosystems.

They argue that destruction of the natural world poses a threat not only to humans, but to all organisms that make up the natural order.

So it's more than just humanity that's at risk, um, when the environment is being damaged.

There we go.

Arne Næss was asked if he believed in the future, and he said, yes, yes, yes, very much so, from around 2100.

We just opened this house called the House of Wonder, Disagreement and Democratic Innovation.

We just started this.