It also has to be mentioned that I didn’t explicitly deal with the question of depth in my comment, which makes the whole issue much more complicated.

Alright, that’s enough from me. Good to see you again Eric… Just remembered who you were, and that we knew each other in meatspace… Ha Ha Ha.

So back to what you were saying. The way I would re-phrase what you seem to be saying is that man has privileged a 3rd person perspective on nature, seeing “it” as an object to be aware of and to put “on display” as you put it, rather then another subject to relate with intimately and to perhaps even commune with (2nd person) or unite with (1st person). As a friend and I were discussing just a few hours ago, our Western heritage is one of privileging 3rd person perspective. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t some validity to 3rd person perspectives or that we need to demonize it and make it the problem (making an “it” out of “it” is just perpetuating that perspective in any case). The lack of ability or willingness to take multiple perspectives is what really needs to change (which in a different way of putting it, is what I hear you getting at in any case). The reason I would re-phrase it this way, is because if we make the mistake of abandoning the 3rd person, and privileging instead another, then often what happens is we ironically don’t actually see the problem and instead use what we know (a 3rd person view) to fight against itself. Notice that your paper is itself a 3rd person narrative and analysis of a lack of 1st and 2nd person perspectives. Often what I’ve seen happen is this very thing. One argues using a 3rd person voice and perspective that this perspective is harmful. It ends up becoming an infinite regress of defensive & fragmented views. Now to use this very argument against myself, this comment is itself a 3rd person narrative. So what would it look like for me to switch to a 2nd person narrative? Hmm, let’s experiment.

You and I seem to agree on something here. That there is something missing in our relationship to nature. This causes me, and I’m guessing you, a lot of pain. How painful it is to treat precious manifestation as mere objects. We surely need to look at it different, so we can minimize this pain for both ourselves and for the sentient life forms, the actual subjective beings that we are always so deeply connected with. Let’s go out and touch nature with our Hearts, feel into the manifest world with as much sincerity as we possess and then share the beauty of that with the world!

Thanks for listening to my rant, and also thanks for sharing this beautiful blog with me… I look forward to coming back often.