Page 208 - Contribution To Phenomenology

PHENOMENOLOGY AND ECOFEMINISM 201

which will not harm the natural environment. The other is providing ways
for the society to handle its affairs and solve its problems.
Too many people now feel a need to use motorized vehicles in their
recreation. Their sense of personal significance seems often to be tied to
certain accomplishments in the use of vehicles, or perhaps just in the
possession of such expensive toys. It will be a mistake simply to force
people to give up that which gives them satisfaction and a sense of their
own importance. Somehow people must be taught the joy and satisfaction
to be found in activities which do not require an inefficient petroleum
fueled motor. This simply must be done, and a feminist approach to life
provides the sorts of values which can give satisfaction and significance
to a life without offroad vehicles, water skis, and cigarette boats. Of
course we will fail with a large number of people; they have been made
unfit for an environmentally sound life. They will lay aside their "macho"
toys only when the fuel is unavailable or too expensive. The society may
need to find cheap ways to entertain them until they die.
The majority of people will be less intransigent, and the various modes
of pubUc education can teach new ways to find pleasure and satisfaction.
To realize what some of these are we need turn back no further than
the period before the second world war, when few children played with
motorized toys or realistic looking space-age weapons. Many things
developed since that time are not energy intensive and do not serve
primarily to express hostility. Many people are now enjoying making
things, growing things, cooking things, and learning things. Others are
writing, painting, singing, and acting. We do not need a total revolution
in ways of Uving, just a shift away from those activities which are at odds
with a sound natural environment and a sustainable society.
A critical aspect of finding a sustainable society is learning ways of
governing ourselves which are just, peaceful, and conducive to personal
growth. Feminism is now identified with ways of leadership and group
activity which can contribute to living in a sustainable society. These are
really much older than feminism; I was taught some of them years ago
in group dynamics and leadership workshops. Feminists have adopted
these democratic ways of group activity, however, so I have no qualms
about referring to them as feminist.
The "macho" approach insisted that every group needs a forceful
leader: "every ship needs a captain." Studies of leadership methods can
demonstrate that a forceful leader can seldom get from a group the
creative contributions which can come from a democratic group, even one