Cultivating the Ecological Conscience: Smith, Orr, and Bowers on Ecological Education Page: 13
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sustainability.33 They can begin, however, only after they admit the extent of their complicity in
fostering the modern industrial worldview.34
A central aspect of that worldview, as well as an epiphenomenon of the ideology of
personal independence (mentioned above), is the enthusiastic embrace of the idea of competition.
Smith rejects the seldom-questioned but ubiquitous belief that competition, whether it be in the
personal, academic, or economic realm, leads, as if part of some law of nature, to personal
improvement and social progress. Rather, under capitalism the logic of the marketplace reduces
the competing individual and her skills to commodities, the value of which is judged relative to
the perceived value of other human commodities. As Smith observes, under this state of affairs
"survival depends on competition with strangers rather than cooperation with intimates."35
Because children need to recognize the interdependence of humans, the linkage between their
own welfare and the welfare of others, and the reality that the pursuit of one's individual self
interest does not necessarily advance the commonweal, both they and society would be far better
served if schools viewed learning as fundamentally a social activity.36 Cooperation promotes
human flourishing far more than does competition, given that the fundamental units of society
are not detached individual consumers but "the primary groups or small communities in which
they are embedded." Because a much more cooperative orientation toward others is necessary if
we are to fend off "widespread human misery and chaos," it is imperative that we rethink many
of our basal suppositions concerning the individual and society.37 People need to realize that
inevitably living a life grounded on "the celebration of human inclinations of greed and avarice"
33 Smith, Education and the Environment, pp. 42-43.
34 Ibid., p. 43.
35 Ibid., p. 30.
36 Ibid., pp. 3, 43, 59-60, 101.
37 Ibid., pp. 2, 42, 75, 80, 84-87, 98-103, 107-108.13
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Hoelscher, David W. Cultivating the Ecological Conscience: Smith, Orr, and Bowers on Ecological Education, thesis, December 2009; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc12133/m1/18/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .