Open access
FUTUROLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS FROM ECO-PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
Wiesław SZTUMSKI1
Publication language: Polish
Journal article
Special issue Lech W. Zacher in memoriam
Transformations No. 3 (118) 2023, Publication date: 29 September 2023
Keywords: environmental degradation, raw material deficit, new slavery, new wildness, adaptive potential, New Enlightenment, new metanoia
Abstract The article contains the author's thoughts on what awaits humanity in the near future, probably still this century. And it looks dramatic. Contrary to common sense and the warnings of ecologists, people continue to irresponsibly destroy the natural environment and exterminate many species of fauna. They reduce biodiversity, thanks to which they live. They indulge in exploiting the already depleted deposits of fossil and non-fossil raw materials, as well as water and oxygen. They also destroy, to a lesser extent and faster and faster, the social environment and do not resist its degradation. As a result, it becomes more and more unstable, chaotic, unpredictable, risky, and full of exacerbating conflicts and contradictions. They allow themselves to be fooled more and more by various manipulators - politicians, corporatocrats, advertisers, fashion dictators, etc. As a result, they lose their common sense, self-preservation instinct and freedom. They indiscriminately succumb to new standards of thought, expression, fashion and behavior that contradict standards traditionally considered good or correct. This is due to the ideologies of exaggerated liberalism and consumerism, the universal cult of money, and an excessive and naive faith in the benefits of the progress of science and technology. The rulers of the world ignore expert reports showing real threats and sinister scenarios of human collapse. Is it possible to turn back from the road that will lead you to the abyss? Various scientific experts, environmentalists, creators and philosophers try to answer this question and present more or less utopian solutions. One of the realistic proposals seems to be Ernst Ulrich v. Weizsãcker's proposal - to make a New Enlightenment and a New Metanoia consisting in the restitution of the priority for natural science and the importance of nature in people’s lives and its impact on social reality. As a result, various manipulators would not fool the masses. There would be conditions for an "ecological revolution", the first in history. This challenge should be taken up by the next generations of young people, who have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Its implementation is difficult, but not impossible. It requires a lot of effort, self-denial, great determination and organic work. If they were to cope with it, humanity would enter a new phase of the development of the Anthropocene epoch and would have a chance for longer survival on Earth.
em. profesor Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach, Polska
ORCID: 0000-0002-6353-7206
E-mail: ws34@op.pl