DWELLERS
IN THE LAND
The Bioregional
Vision
Kirkpatrick Sale
I have been led to this consideration of the shape of the bioregional vision, inevitably as it were, by the trajectory of my previous work: on American radicalism, on American regionalism, on the abject failure of American giant-ism. It expresses for me not merely the newest and most comprehensive form of the ideals of decentralism, participation , liberation, mutualism, and community that I have expounded in all that Work—but, as it stems from the most elemental perception of the crises of the planet, the ideal of ecological sanity, regional consciousness, speciate humility , and global survival. It is for me, therefore, not merely a new way of envisioning and enacting a very old American ideal, but also a crucial, and perhaps virtually the only possible, means of arresting the impending eco-logical apocalypse.
I hope you will understand and come to share that perception, feel that urgency, and ultimately become energized by that vision. Because what other choice, really, do we have?" (from the preface)
The greatest beauty is Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty of the universe. Love that, not man Apart trom that. Robinson Jeffers, "The Answer"
Technology, masquerading as an end rather than a means, kas unnecessarily moved man away from nature, and in so doing has moved him away from himself. David Ehrenfeld, conserving Life on Earth
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Sale, Kirkpatrick. Dwellers in the land.
Bibliography: p.193 Includes index.
I. Ecology—Philosophy. 2. Human ecology.
Science—Social aspects. 4. Technology and civilization.
Title.
QH540.5.S25 1985 304 2'01 85-2163
0—87156—847—0
