Preserving nature within civilization always means dominating it more completely
Evidence
The use of zoos for entertainment and instruction seems a thin pretext. They are allegories of the specimen or the pair who defy the disaster that befalls the species qua species. This is why the over-richly stocked zoos of large European cities seem like forms of decadence: more than two elephants, two giraffes, one hippopotamus, are a bad sign. … The more purely nature is preserved and transplanted by civilization, the more implacably it is dominated. We can now afford to encompass ever larger natural units, and leave them apparently intact within our grasp, whereas previously the selecting and taming of particular items bore witness to the difficulty we still had in coping with nature. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 145
Categorization
- XREF: The paradox of preservation-as-domination echoes the third article on trees as infrastructure — the living root bridge and tamarisk ‘natural air conditioners’ that are nonetheless managed stands of nature. — connects to: Reason’s apparent triumph over nature is really its obedient subjection to facts — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 45; Rational self-preservation conquers nature only by imitating nature’s own rigidity — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 63; Nature is the object of reason as liberation, not only domination — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 826 (+6 more)
- DEEPTHINKING: Not just a point about zoos: it is a compact statement of the whole dialectic of enlightenment — reconciliation through domination cancels the possibility of reconciliation. Dense enough to sit with.
Broader Connections
- Nature is the object of reason as liberation, not only domination
#contradicts(0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 826 - Rational self-preservation conquers nature only by imitating nature’s own rigidity
#corroborates(0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 63 - Total mediation makes nature nothing but domination-available, eliminating any positive first nature
#expands(0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1335 - Enlightenment reason is fundamentally a project of self-preservation through mastery of nature
#corroborates(0.80) - Universal quantifiability is a prerequisite for the domination of nature.
#expands(0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 608 - A society’s project of mastering nature becomes exclusive and totalizing once institutionalized.
#expands(0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 99