[Sundaycommunity] Integral Ecology, Laudato Si movie, "The Letter"and fear based naratives.

[Arthur Blomme]

Hi all

I just polished up  the reflection I rushed of for the community three 
weeks ago.

Arthur Blomme



          Integral Ecology, Laudato Si movie, "The Letter
          <https://youtu.be/Rps9bs85BII>"and fear based naratives.



    In October 2022 on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, a documentary
    inspired by Laudato Si, _The Letter_ was released.The authors
    intended the documentary as a call to action on Caring For Our
    Common Home which is the English title of Laudato Si.One of the
    primary actions promoted is reading and reflecting on Laudato Si in
    a group. Hence to  only watch the documentary "The Letter" would not
    give you the best view of Laudato Si.

    When initially I looked into this documentary and saw that it was an
    original production of Youtube I was suspicious of the slant the
    movie would take.  For me it is hard to understand the position of
    the Pope as he is so often portrayed by a media that is deeply
    immersed in a narrative which seeks to control our beliefs through
    fear.  I find it unsettling that for the past two years we have been
    bombarded with fear messaging from legacy media that has been
    used<https://youtu.be/Rps9bs85BII>to drive a giant wedge between the
    left and the right wings of our culture. The fear of Covid has
    morphed into fear of the unvaxed to fear of Russia and nuclear war.

    With this back drop in mind I wondered why Google/Youtube would
    produce(pay for ) "The Letter" which heralds the Popes message to
    love the earth.Perhaps I am paranoid in concluding how this
    documentary fits into the fear based dominant narrative by
    characterizing the film with the opening frame of the film draws us
    into the fear of sea level rise caused by climate change.   In
    contrast Francis message in Laudato Si Is the positive message of
    Caring for Our Common Home which he calls Integral ecology.  In this
    regard  Francis quotes the Eastern Right Patriarch Bartholomew:
    Integral ecology “entails learning to give, and not simply to give
    up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I
    want, to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed
    and compulsion.”

    The notion of Integral Ecology weds together two complex concepts. 
    I believe that they both have emerged from a systemic view of the
    world. The first concept, integral has the same route as integrity
    and integrated.  The dictionary meaning is possessing everything
    essential; entire. While ecology according to its Latin roots is the
    Study of Consequences.  It was originally coined in biology as the
    interrelationship of organisms and their environments. But Ecology
    is not limited to the biological sciences as there is also the field
    of human ecology. In Human Growth Therapies an ecology check is
    usually done to see if the desired outcome of the therapy is
    positive for the whole personality. In Gestalt therapy the therapist
    asks the client if there are any parts of the personality that are
    in disagreement with the desired change.

    Putting these two concepts together Francis states the following 
    “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and
    the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both
    social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an
    integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the
    excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.”

    For me Integral ecology requires us to take a page from Human Growth
    Therapists.  When we want a change to our global society we must
    pose the question ;  Are there any parts of our global society for
    which this change would not work.  The current method of impulsive
    change where we create fear to impose rules on the unwilling is
    doomed to failure.

    The change needed is the cal to action encouraged by the authors of
    the The Letter.We must reflect and orient our value systems to Care
    for Our Common Home.This is a positive mystical task . A task that
    is encapsulated in passage 11 of Laudato Si that defines Integral
    ecology through the life of St. Francis as beyond the language of
    mathematics and biology..

        11. St. Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls
        for openness to categories which transcend the language of
        mathematics and biology, and take us to the heart of what it is
        to be human. Just as happens when we fall in love with someone,
        whenever he would gaze at the sun, the moon or the smallest of
        animals, he burst into song, drawing all other creatures into
        his praise. He communed with all creation, even preaching to the
        flowers, inviting them “to praise the Lord, just as if they were
        endowed with reason.”19 His response to the world around him was
        so much more than intellectual appreciation or economic
        calculus, for to him each and every creature was a sister united
        to him by bonds of affection. That is why he felt called to care
        for all that exists. His disciple Saint Bonaventure tells us
        that, “from a reflection on the primary source of all things,
        filled with even more abundant piety, he would call creatures,
        no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister.’ ”20
        Such a conviction cannot be written off as naive romanticism,
        for it affects the choices which determine our behaviour. If we
        approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe
        and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and
        beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be
        that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set
        limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel
        intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care
        will well up spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint
        Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much
        more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to
        be used and controlled.
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