Dualistic blind spots structurally prevent the master culture from perceiving ecological peril

Evidence

The logic of domination and the deep structures of dualism create ‘blind spots’ in the dominant culture’s understanding of its relationship to the biosphere, understandings which deny dependency and community to an even greater degree than in the case of human society. The distorted perceptions and mechanisms of denial which arise from the master rationality are an important reason why the dominant culture which embodies this identity in relation to nature cannot respond adequately to the crisis of the biosphere and the growing degradation of the earth’s natural systems. The coloniser perspective is blind to the intricate pattern and workings of nature, seeing only a disorderly other in need of the imposition of rational order via development. The mechanistic world-view means that the master rationality is unable to see in biospheric nature another centre of striving and needs for earth resources, or to see that these needs must limit and bound its own demands. Through instrumentalism and incorporation the dominant culture comes to frame its conceptual approach to this sustaining other entirely in terms of its own needs, treating it as an infinitely manipulable and inexhaustible resource. Instrumentalisation and homogenisation, with their assumptions of intersubstitutability, prevent the master rationality from recognising in biospheric nature a unique, non-tradeable, irreplaceable other on which all life on the planet depends. Because it has not fully come to terms with earthian existence, but clings to illusions of identity outside nature, the master rationality is unable to grasp its peril. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 739

Categorization

• XREF: Directly extends the dualism mechanism from chs 8-9 (backgrounding, denied dependency) into an explanation of environmental blindness — connects to Merchant’s account of why mechanism disable moral response, and to why eco-justice pedagogy must teach against these blind spots. — connects to: Environmental despair proves human interests are essentially connected to nature’s flourishing. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 573; Ecology changes what the eye sees, disclosing depth Boone could not perceive — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 609; Dualism demands hyperseparation achieved by magnifying differences and denying shared qualities — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 201 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• A dominant theorist’s blind spots can propagate through an entire field #corroborates (0.82)