Chaparral Wisdom

Embracing Our Humanity Through Nature, Learning, and Friendship

For a number of reasons, many of which you are surely well aware, American society is undergoing tectonic shifts. Our relationship to Nature, each other, and ourselves are moving in directions that can compromise our humanity and our joy – but only if you allow it.

Therefore, we invite you to rebel against the the conventional crisis-embellished view of the world that is so pervasive, by nurturing the one characteristic that has advanced our species like no other, curiosity.

After a lot of thought and experience, we’ve found the best tonic for igniting curiosity is by challenging our intellect to learn new things, sharing those things with others, and allowing Nature to inspire us along the way. The path we’re suggesting requires difficult questions of course, especially of ourselves, and challenging assumptions that sometimes prevent us from learning. But as we’ve found during our own exploration of curiosity, such as during our Chaparral Naturalist classes and our monthly Philosophy Gatherings, there’s a lot of fun in it too.

But first, some history about how we arrived where we are.

Beginning in the late 1800s, the lessons and wisdom gained from the past twenty-five hundred years were slowly pushed aside in schools, especially in the United States, to make room for the remarkable expansion of scientific and technological knowledge. Studying the Classics, and the languages in which they were written, became increasingly passé.

The social revolution of the 1960s in America pushed this displacement accelerator to the floor, forcing the active rejection of Classic literature in favor of examining past trespasses of Western Civilization. By the dawn of the third millennium, the stunning accomplishments of the West, and its most influential thinkers, began suffering damnatio memoriae, the Roman practice of erasing the memory of those who blasphemed or fell our of favor with the new emperor.

As the 2000s progressed, many of those who challenged the dogma of grievance and erasure began losing family, friends, and careers. The mad rush of the crowd to affirm allegiance with the new paradigm elevated ideology, myth, and belief over science, curiosity, and truth. Shame became the norm, especially in the environmental community, and a large portion of of the American population engaged in private and public self-flagellation to express the guilt they felt over their ancestors deeds.

As has occurred repeatedly in history, pushback has emerged as many began to reject the grievance paradigm over the past decade or so with their own mythical dogma to enthrone an array of aspiring autocrats who have proclaimed simple answers to complex problems, promising to make the shamed great again. On top of it all, the burgeoning power of technology has facilitated the tunnelization of opinion, the rejection of rational thought, and the isolation of individuals. And thanks to modern media in all its forms, irrational fear and social stupidity have increased significantly.