our ongoing Eco-Crisis have such a view because they analyze and evaluate concepts by means of reductionism. In that method of analysis, whatever is being examined is broken down into its constituent parts. Each part is thoroughly evaluated separate from the others, and then the various parts are added together to determine some sort of conclusion regarding the whole. Such a method can be extremely misleading when dealing with complex (not just complicated) systems. Complexity is nonlinear. [A motor vehicle is a linear system; it's "complicated", but the behavior of the "whole" is predictable by examining the individual parts. Thus, it's not a complex system.]
Instead, for complex items (such as the Eco-Crisis, or even a single ecosystem, or a single living organism), the method of examination described in General Systems Theory should be utilized. Why? The approach used in Systems Theory (the updated version doesn't include the word "General") is holistic, not reductionist. It uses synthesis rather than only analysis of parts. It is aware of synergy: a whole system is greater than the sum of its individual parts, which means the behavior of a whole system is unpredictable from the analysis of only its parts.
The above is true because a whole system produces emergent properties, or emergence. Such properties are found in complex, self-organizing, dynamic, whole systems rather than in individual parts. Emergence often is unpredicted, and a big surprise to people who adhere to reductionism. Briefly, following are a couple of examples of emergent properties.
1. The human body is a complex, dynamic, synergistic system. It's made up of innumerable parts, from macroscopic to microscopic. You may examine bones, or blood cells, or the stomach, or brain cells, or the heart, or the adrenal glands...but you will never find the emergent properties of anxiety, fear, anger, or love in those parts. Only the whole "system" is capable of such. [The human body produces many other forms of emergence.]
2. A forest of hundreds of acres also is a complex, dynamic, synergistic system. Examine a leaf, a strip of tree bark, a beetle, a squirrel, a clod of soil, or even a single tree...and you still won't find the emergent property of rainfall over a large area. That rainfall often is the result of the process of green plant transpiration in all the trees combined. Water is taken in by the roots, distributed throughout the plant, and a small portion of it is used to support individual cells of the organism. The vast majority of it, however, is moved from the leaves to the atmosphere. Depending upon various factors, it then can result in rainfall. [Forests also produce many other forms of emergence.]
All ecosystems and all living organisms (even a bacterium) are complex systems. Synergy applies, nonlinearity applies, and emergence applies.
The point being: our Eco-Crisis involves complex, dynamic, nonlinear, living systems which only can be properly understood by taking a "systems theory" approach. It's no wonder to me why people (of all kinds) using a reductionist, linear approach are perplexed, puzzled, and confused over the urgency of the Crisis. They simply can't see it. [I'm not talking about folks who see it full well, but are concerned only with promoting corporatism's greed.]
This little essay did not explain how to apply Systems Theory toward understanding and solving the socio-eco-econ-ethical crisis because such an explanation would take multiple, multiple pages. Books have been written on the subject. Google it. Awhile back, I listed several of them on this venue when I shared the bibliography for my first book.
In two parts:
http://individualsovereignty.blogspot.com/search/label/Bibliography In particular, especially see: Lent, Jeremy 2021; and Ratcliffe, Jennie M. 2021.
With the holistic approach of Systems Theory, we can effectively deal with the present Crisis. But, to be effective, we must ignore the propaganda coming from corporatists and their political puppets, and we must sway the sincere nonbelievers.
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Not only my opinion. Take Care
