Habitat restoration and colonial progress both impose narrow ideas of good

Evidence

It came to me once again that restoring a habitat, no matter how well intentioned, produces casualties. We set ourselves up as arbiters of what is good when often our standards of goodness are driven by narrow interests, by what we want. I piled the cut brush back up near the nest in some semblance of the protective cover I had destroyed and sat on a rock, concealed on the other side of the pond, to see if she would come back. What did she think as she watched me come closer and closer, laying waste to the home she had carefully chosen, threatening her family? There are powerful forces of destruction loose in the world, advancing inexorably toward her children and mine. The onslaught of progress, well-intentioned to improve human habitat, threatens the nest I’ve chosen for my children as surely as I threatened hers. What does a good mother do? — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 311

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels settler-colonial land improvement rhetoric: ‘improving’ land was a legal justification for dispossession in ch4’s land-rights discussion — same single-mindedness, bigger stakes. — connects to: The doctrine of progress makes colonialism appear natural rather than impositive — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 217; Colonial progress destroys cultural ecosystems as thoroughly as ecological ones — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 256; Settler violation of reciprocal land ethics caused cascading ecological and cultural loss — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 763 (+3 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: ‘What does a good mother do?’ — the honest open question where the author refuses easy resolution; central moral tension for this hinge text.

Broader Connections

• Colonial subjugation extends beyond people to the natural habitat itself #exemplifies (0.85) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 441
• The doctrine of progress makes colonialism appear natural rather than impositive #expands (0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 217
• Colonial progress destroys cultural ecosystems as thoroughly as ecological ones #complicates (0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 256
• Settler violation of reciprocal land ethics caused cascading ecological and cultural loss #exemplifies (0.80) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 763
• Enlightenment environmentalism furnished a rationale for colonial hierarchy #exemplifies (0.75) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 232