TLIE JOY OF LIFE
This
cumulative process is integral to
129
an
eco-erotic principle of
development. It represents the process by which organisms both retain and
transform their old identity to become something newer, more complex, and
differentiated. The process of ‘becoming’ that constitutes natural evolution is
indeed a process in which organisms ‘change’ while paradoxically staying the
‘same’.
This latent striving toward development in nature represents a process of
self-development which is not determined, but is endowed with degrees of
open-ended and active participation that gradually emerges into the social
developmental desire in society. In The Ecology of Freedom. ,8 Bookchin
emphasizes the ‘self-organizing’ properties of organisms, describing the degree
to which they actively participate in their own development by shaping and
organizing their environment:
I wish to propose that the evolution of living beings is no passive
process, the product of chance conjunctions between random genetic
changes...evolution has been marked until very recently by the
development of ever more complex species and eco-communities.
Diversity
may
be
regarded
as
a
source
not
only
of
greater
eco-community stability.. .it may also be regarded in a very fundamental
sense as an ever expanding, albeit nascent, source of freedom within
nature, a medium for objectively anchoring varying degrees of choice,
self-directiveness
and
participation
by
life
forms
in
their
own
evolution.^
Bookchin unsettles the idea that organisms merely adapt passively to an
akeady determined environment, asserting instead that organisms become
increasingly participatory and self-directed as the evolutionary process unfolds.
Social ecology rejects notions of biological determinism and evolutionary
necessity. Moving beyond mechanistic and lawful portrayals of ‘nature’, it
depicts an evolutionary process that is marked by spontaneity and potentiality
rather than natural law and pre-determined order. Nature is not a static green
box sitting at the edge of society; nor is it a metallic spring that unwinds
mechanically. Rather, natural evolution represents the ongoing dance of life
itself moving toward ever greater levels of self-expression, eventually giving
rise to a potentially rational and desirous second nature. Organisms are marked
by a tendency to adapt, modify, and to develop creatively by making nascent
evolutionary choices.
This
developmental
tendency
within
natural
evolution
resonates
historically with social developmental desire. Just as organisms have a latent
desire to fulfill their potential for development, humanity possesses a social
desire to develop its unique talents, abilities, and potentialities as well. This