Quote of the Day: David Orr on "Biophobia"
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 10.22.07
'Nature and I are two,' Woody Allen once said, and apparently the two have not gotten together yet. Allen is known to take extraordinary precaution to limit bodily and mental contact with rural floral and fauna. He does not go into natural lakes, for example, 'because there are living things there.' The nature Allen does find comfortable is that of New York City, a modest enough standard for wildness.
Allen's aversion to nature, what can be called biophobia, is increasingly common among people raised with television, Walkman radios attached to their heads, and video games and living amidst shopping malls, freeways, and dense urban or suburban settings where nature is permitted tastefully, as decoration. More than ever we dwell in and among our own creations and are increasingly uncomfortable with nature lying beyond our direct control.
Biophobia ranges from discomfort in 'natural' places to active scorn for whatever isn't manmade, managed, or air-conditioned. Biophobia, in short, is the culturally acquired urge to affiliate with technology, human artifacts, and solely with human interests regarding the natural world."
—David W. Orr in Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect (2004, Island Press)
I've seen it. When you take your kids outdoors and they play in the dirt and then you get told how you need to wash their hands because they dirty. That dirt in the middle of a national forest is cleaner than any of the play places in the malls.
When I was a kid I kept my fishing worms in my shirt pocket with a little bit of damp dirt. Mom had to keep an eye out for the remains at laundry time.
If a modern child did that there might be revulsion and reprimands from any adults present and cries of "Ewwww Gross" from friends.
This hits the nail on the head. Nature is something you can't really control, so if you're a certain type of person, you're going to feel irrationally threatened by it.
Biophobia is not an aversion to nature, it's an aversion to other forms of life. Albeit they are contained in nature, or are part of nature.
But hey, whatever is new to you is going to be scary. NY for example. Nature for example.