mation through language, through text, by
moment’s straightjacket, that we evolve, not
way of human gestures, by fearing and desiring, getting distance from attention, by creating,
settings, emotions, by approaching or an object of its by dissecting, by
just as a species, but as individual spirits, to consume and to make contact with an everbroader range of information, not so we can be corrupted and post-modernized, but so we
appreciating or by competing with other realities. The depth of that “other reality”, the reality of the vast multiplicity of otherness, existing “out there”, but also deep within the
can better adapt to environmental factors, carry out the natural imperative of survival and procreation, and devote the power of our conscious attention to the vitally important
basic structure of our body, our physical existence, our chemical awareness of self, that complexity is the lifeblood of what makes being human more interesting to us than
human work of forestalling unnecessary depletion and unraveling of prized stabilities within a hotbed of relentless self-overturning.
being a mass of granite. In this light, complexity is really a fundamental truth for us all, and as such is increasingly a right of every conscious
wildering degree of complexity to remain dynamic, adaptable, resilient. The degree of elasticity in an ecosystem—its ability to absorb harmful interactions or infusions of
individual. We are entitled to experience, to seek to know, to indulge in and to express complexity, entitled because complexity is what the human life is made of. Simplicity, or
matter or energy—determines its “fitness” for survival in the wilds of geological changes over time. Climate variations and intrusive organisms can upend a seemingly balanced
the “simple life” as it is often called, a life away from the chaos of big cities, even the aesthetics of “clean edges” or a so-called minimalist style, are all complexities designed
and harmonious ecosystem suddenly, leading to disaster for its most habitat-dependent species; the degree of biodiversity, of foodweb complexity, of climate-elastic charac-
by the individual or by human surroundings, to indulge an aspect of our humanity that we prize above others. In the complex and intertwined human
teristics, determines the long-term viability of an ecosystem, and by extension the possibility for relative homeostasis in surrounding ecosystems or the broader
relationships that comprise today’s global village, in friendships that exist across far borders, as with diplomatic negotiations, we can find there is something deeper and more
natural environment. The degree of elasticity available in a given context also affects directly how human civilization is able to interact with the natural
true, more accurately applicable to the human element in that connection, in the contradictions, in the vast terrain of “gray area”, in the relational vortex that is neither
environment. Where exists—meaning only species of plant is agricultural economy
black-and-white nor non-negotiable. We find that one moment’s staple truth is another
sudden collapse, as happened in Ireland in the 19th century, due to its dependence on a
Natural ecosystems depend upon a be-
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monoculture cropping one variety of a given cultivated—an entire can be in danger of