The Neoliberal Colonization on Nature and Our Deep Ecological Selves Presented at the National Association of Multicultural Educators Annual Conference in November 2014 in Tucson, AZ.

1. The Neoliberal Colonization on Nature
and Our Deep Ecological Selves
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Central Connecticut State University
!
National Association of Multicultural Educators
Annual Meeting, November 5-9, 2014
Tucson, Arizona

2. The Map of Diversity
• The “map” of diversity has routinely deselected
relationships with nature.
• The privileged discourse in diversity studies is
anthropocentric and has created an academic
blindspot.

3. Privileging Humans &
Omitting Nature
• Racism, sexism (by extension, heterosexism), Capitalism, classism,
Neoliberalism, religionism, globalization, and colonization can all be
traced to a particular version of discrimination that favors humans
as distant from nature (usually through technology, wealth and
often reinforced militarily)
• White, European, Christian, wealthy people in positions of
domination have relied heavily on a narrative that treats them as
God’s people who are right, fully human, have the moral doctrine
(rationale), and governmental structure to rule others who are
indigenous, poor (or outside of a capitalistic structure), not Christian.
• The first and most important step is to see one self as being
removed from nature in order to be part of today’s privileged,
dominant group.

4. Neoliberalism’s Roots
• Neoliberalism, the favoring of “free market” ideology in business and non-business contexts, is borne
out of a desire to accumulate wealth.
• Wealth comes from capitalism, which depends on consumerism
• Capitalism and consumerism are fundamentally against close relationships with nature and have
long-standing practices of exploitation with those who are close to nature.
• The global colonizers, Europeans, created racism out of desires to control, colonize, and capitalize
from those who were initially closer to nature (subhuman)
• Europeans viewed themselves as superior primarily because they became more technological
(militarily, agriculturally, and through the mining of the earth), or created themselves and their self
images as being increasingly distant from the earth and more able to control the earth.
• Controlling the earth also meant controlling people of the earth. People who were not as
technologically developed did not have the designator of being fully human.
• People who were not fully human could be destroyed, manipulated, and exploited.
• People of indigenous societies, women in general, and poor people were all seen as being closer to
the earth and were therefore routinely dominated.

5. European Colonizers &
American Indians
Clash of two peoples with two
different “ecological selves”!
European Colonizers: Nature for profit,
land ownership, enclosure, capitalist
mindset/values!
American Indians: Nurturance,
reciprocity, sustainable mindset/values!
Genocide: From up to 18 million in
1490’s to 190,000 in 1890, up to 200
million Indians died in the Americas!
Land Domination

6. European Colonizers &
West Africans
Clash of two peoples with two
different “ecological selves”!
European Colonizers: Nature for profit,
land ownership, enclosure, capitalist
mindset/values!
West Africans: Nurturance, reciprocity,
sustainable mindset/values!
Slavery: About 12 million captured and
shipped to the Americas, 645,000
brought to the U.S., nearly 4 million
slaves in the 1860 census!
Domination for profit via capitalism

7. Shift Away From
Valuing Nature
Joseph Campbell
stated that we can
see the movements
of a society based
on the highest
buildings in an area.

8. Shift Away FromValuing Nature
Gods and
Goddesses
communicate
through the
actions of nature
in the forests
Gods and
Goddesses
communicate
through the
actions of nature
and in growth/
harvest of crops
God (no
Goddess) &
salvation are
found only
through Jesus.
The Devil resides
in nature.

9. Shift Away FromValuing Nature

10. Shift Away FromValuing Nature
Government provides
policies of morality
aimed solely at rights of
humans
Transcontinental corporations heavily
influence governments and national policies
through trade agreements creating the
greatest negative impact on the global
environment

11. Shift Away FromValuing Nature

12. INDIGENOUS RELIGIONS
& SPIRITUALITIES
Pre-date
Christianity
Pre-date Islam
Pre-date Judaism
Earth-based
spiritualities
Found in all parts of
the world

14. CREATING PATRIARCHY
Women are closer to
nature than men;#
Nature is wild, chaotic,
and uncontrollable
Therefore...
Women are wild, chaotic,
and uncontrollable
Adam & Eve

15. REALISM & PATRIARCHY
Women are closer to
nature than men;#
Nature is wild, chaotic,
and uncontrollable
Therefore...
Women are wild, chaotic,
and uncontrollable
Aristotle and Phyllis
(Alexander the Great’s Wife)
"If thus it happened to me, an old man most
wise, that I was deceived by a woman, you can
see that I taught you well, that it could happen
to you, a young man." - Aristotle

16. Christians &
Earth-Based Spiritualities
Movement out of nature and into
“Human” as separate from nature!
Nature is where Satan resides !
Technology is Godly & righteous!
Christian missionaries with indigenous
peoples globally, views on nudity!
Killing of at least tens of thousands of
“witches” from 1400s-1600s!
Continued persecution of paganism,
neopaganism, and Wicca

17. MAINTAINING PATRIARCHY
A mass killing of women during the
“Burning Times” in Europe & the US
Removal of a religion where
women are spiritual leaders
and the central spirit is
seen as feminine.
!
Origin story: Goddess comes
into her own, splits her self to
have a male half who governs
the physical plane (physical
universe), and we are all aspects
of the Goddess with the
support of the God.

18. Science as a Product of
Sociocultural Values
Galileo Galilei
“The Universe is a clock”
Johannes Kepler
“The Universe is a machine”
Francis Bacon
“For you have but to
follow and as it were
hound nature in her
wanderings...Neither
ought a man to make
scruple of entering and
penetrating into these
holes and corners, when
the inquisition of truth is
his whole object”
Thomas Hobbes
“Nature is dead, stupid
matter”
René Descartes
“We can be the masters
and possessors of nature”

19. Aloha & Haole

20. Aloha & Haole
Aloha #
“Together, we breathe the sacred breath”#
A consciousness that we are inescapably interwoven with
each other and the earth. #
What we do to each other and the earth, we do to ourselves.

21. Aloha & Haole
Haole #
“One who is without sacred breath”#
A consciousness that does not include an awareness that we are
inescapably interwoven with each other and the earth. #
A consciousness only of self and an ignorance of one’s energetic and
spiritual impact. Often comes with little or no understanding of
spirituality or the purpose of one’s soul (soul loss).

22. Hubris and Ideology
Root metaphors:
Words that carry forward cultural value systems; these are often mystified#
Hubris:
Bowers argued that we often use root metaphors in our language that ultimately express
hubris, ideology, and have long-term negative consequences both culturally and ecologically#
Examples:#
Individualism#
Progress#
Technology#
Savage#
The Corporation

23. Is “Progress”
Ecologically Sustainable?
Progress #
Technology#
Individuality/Isolation#
Capitalism#
Competition#
Movement away from
nature#
Sustainability#
Cooperation#
Reciprocity#
Nurturance#
Interconnectedness with
each other and with
nature
“Progress” as typically defined in the first world
nations is the opposite of “sustainability”

24. “Progress” Creates Oppression
We are currently at the stage of global peak oil, and the next 30-40 years will very likely be
focused on rapidly decreasing supplies and is connected to a current energy crisis (Zittel, 2007).
Access to freshwater is becoming increasingly difficult, especially for peoples in third world
countries where freshwater sources are polluted or privatized (Shiva, 2005; Vorosmarty, Green,
Salisbury & Lammers, 2000).
Global warming is creating increasingly unstable and unpredictable conditions in local and
global contexts with experts predicting numbers of environmental refugees in the hundreds of
millions (Bhandari, 2009).
Half the world’s population lives on $2.50 per day or less, and 80% of the world lives on $10
per day or less (Shah, 2010).
Children in cities have higher rates of asthma than children in surrounding suburbs (Kozol,
2005)

25. Ecojustice Purposes of
School
Sustainability #
Environmental#
Social#
Economic

26. Sustainability - Environmental
The Earth has the ability on global local scales to
replenish itself within a human generation (25 years)#
Human/Nature connection critically analyzed

27. Sustainability - Social
Working towards peace
(non-violent conflict
resolution)#
Solidarity - Affirmation -
Critique of Power#
Health & Wellness

28. Sustainability - Economy
Strong local
economies and
responsible global
commerce#
Reintegration of the
cultural commons

29. A Vision

30. A Diversity Without
Sustainability
Diversity studies cannot be truly sustainable without
ecological identities as an integral part of the discourse.#
Currently, diversity studies favor Western, industrial
culture as an endpoint for social justice. Students of color
who have more access and success within the current
structures of schools are used as a point for social justice.#
Our schools are cultural vehicles forming all children to
become docile workers in a capitalistic, consumeristic
structure that ultimately creates a global monoculture
that is unsustainable.

31. References
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!
Bowers, C. A. (2006). Revitalizing the commons: Cultural and educational sites of resistance and affirmation. New York: Lexington
Books.
!
Doppelt, B. (2010). The power of sustainable thinking: How to create a positive future for the climate, the planet, your
organization, and your life. New York, NY, Routledge.
!
Feagin, J. R. (2001). Racist America: Roots, current realities and future reparations. New York, Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Hardt, M. and A. Negri (2000). Empire. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
Loewen, J. W. (1996). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong. New York, NY,
Touchstone.
Martusewicz, R., Edmundson, J. and, Lupinacci, J. (2011). Ecojustice education: Toward diverse, democratic, and sustainable
communities. New York, NY, Routledge.
Merchant, C. (1980). The death of nature. San Francisco, CA, Harper & Row.
!
Nieto, S. (1994). "Affirmation, solidarity, and critique: Moving beyond tolerance in multicultural education." Multicultural
Education.
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Plotkin, B. (2003). Soulcraft: Crossing into the mysteries of nature and psyche. Novato, CA, New World Library.
Zinn, H. (2003). A people's history of the United States New York, HarperCollins.