ABSTRACT
Ironically while scientific research is marshalled by Greens to further their arguments (witness the use of scientific evidence to discredit nuclear power or to draw attention to the greenhouse effect) the movement draws upon a long tradition critical of science and technology. Suspicion of the ‘technofix’ is common, with nuclear power, the chemical industry and biotechnology viewed with particular hostility. Such technophobia derives from a number of distinct yet linked concerns. First, as Capra (1983) argues, a reductionist scientific method is innately flawed and hostile to nature. While science may not be rejected (such critics tend to be keen on ecology and the New Physics), what is usually seen as orthodox scientific method is criticized. A new holistic science is called for, which draws on and in turn enhances ecological appreciation. Second, modern science, far from being defective, may be seen as all too effective at revealing nature’s secrets. Greens fear that effective technology allows humanity to rape nature more effectively. Science is seen as being out of control, with scientists developing new and potentially dangerous technologies as a means of expanding their control over others or simply for the hell of it, out of curiosity. Greens, especially those of a deep ecology or leftist orientation, suspect that inappropriate and atavistic techno-fixes are proposed as the solution of social or environmental problems that demand democratic and political
answers. In our first passage, from Needham’s authoritative study of science in ancient China,
we see that such fears are far from new. The Taoist sage spurns the emperor’s demand that he should tell him how to manipulate nature for his benefit. In a prophecy of the misfortunes of misapplied technology Tzu fears that the emperor, if informed of the true workings of the Tao, would wreak havoc: ‘the herbs and trees would shed their leaves… the light of the sun and moon would hasten to extinction’. Taoist feeling for nature, its anarchism and commitment to a communist society which balances spiritual growth with human freedom, is certainly worthy of study by modern Greens. The Taoist relationship with earlier shamanistic pantheism is an area that demands careful research. Needham (1956:2, 98) notes the similarity of the Taoist outlook to the peasant communism of the seventeenth-century English Diggers, whom we will be hearing from later (Chapter Seventeen).
