walking away from sustainability for ccd

8/12/2019 Walking Away From Sustainability for CCD

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Walking Away from SustainabilityPhilosophy of Sustainability Seminar, 23 November 2010, Malaysia

Ursula K. Le Guins story The Ones who walk away from Omelas introduces thehappy city of Omelas. The citys happiness depends on a child sitting in a locked room, sothin there are no calves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of corn meal andgrease a day. It is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in itsown excrement continually. Everyone in the cit y views the child at least once and learnsthe terms of the arrangement, that if the child were released, in that day and hour all theprosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed. That viewingaffects everyone, but differently. Most accept the situation, and even believe that it isbecause of the child that they are so gentle with children. But there are some who, after the

visit, do not go home at all. They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, andthey do not come back. The y are the ones who walk away from Omelas.

The story reduces the resources of Omelas, or we may say, industrial, globalcapitalism, to one child; in reality, the terms of the present civilization are that 1 billionchildren will suffer so that one billion people can enjoy their lives; 1 that $13 will flow to richcountries as debt repayment for every one dollar received in aid; 2 that the U.S. militarybudget is larger, by 123 billion dollars, 3 than every other countrys budget in the worldcombined; that 90% of large fish are gone and we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction.Speaking of globalization -as-sustainable- development, Fidel Castro told the U.N., The

existing world economic order constitutes a system of plundering and exploitation like noother in history. 4 Indeed, i t is harder to justify the present system than that of Omelas. Thegenius of the allegorical story of Omelas is that it forces us to ask whether any use ofanother being is acceptable.

The citizens of Omelas have made a conscious, fully informed decision to stay. Incontrast, in our society, when one questions the right to use or exploit living beings, onebegins to sound like a duck, as Derrick Jensen describes it. In response to a statement at an

1http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats2 World Bank, Global Development Finance 2002, Financing the Poorest Countries, p. 22.3 http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm Cutting global poverty in

half would cost $20 billion (Technical Report of the High-Level Panel on Financing for Developmentwww.un.org/reports/financing/report)full.htm#appendix ) Malaysias military budget is 2.5 billiondollars (2005).

4 William E. Rees, Professor at the University of British Columbia, writing in the Toronto Star22 April 2002 Squeezing the Poor: Maybe Castros Right. Maybe Thats All Globalization Really IsAbout . Rees writes, In the 1960s only three dollars flowed North for every dollar flowing South; by thelate 1990s, after 30 years of unprecedented growth and increasing globalization, the ratio had grown to seven toone. In 1970 the richest 10 per cent of the worlds citizens earned 19 times as much as the poorest 10 per cent.By 1997, this ratio had increased to 27:1 and th e wealthiest 1 per cent of the worlds people commanded thesame income as the poorest 57 per cent. Just 25 million rich Americans (0.4 per cent of the worlds people) had

a combined income greater than that of the poorest 2 billion of the worlds people ( 43 per cent of the total population). As I said, Castro had a point .
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htmhttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htmhttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htmhttp://www.un.org/reports/financing/report)full.htm#appendixhttp://www.un.org/reports/financing/report)full.htm#appendixhttp://www.un.org/reports/financing/report)full.htm#appendixhttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm


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unit which cannot be divided (un-divided, as Steven M. Rosen points out, is in-dividual).Milk and love can be withheld, and this other has a life of her own. That fact may enrage thebecoming individual. The infant is dependent and helpless, but as he grows, he acquiresskills and powers, and he does so to prevent ever again that someone should have her ownlife and that what he wants could ever be withheld from him.

Such an infant may grow up with a belief that the world is a harsh place and hisneeds are not met. He must therefore find for himself the things he needs, and take themforcibly. He has no room for compassion or empathy or other weaknesses. No one is goingto help him, so it is up to him to gain the skills and knowledge needed to control, seize, anduse resources.

Such a person may develop a fully antisocial personality disorder, 8 or may exhibitonly some of those traits. Certainly in an abusive person there is the assumption ofinstrumentality, that people only exist for his use. Another trait is deception and lying.

Words and sentences exist as one more means to make people do what he wants them to do,and to believe what he wants them to believe.

To expand a similar psycho-spiritual analysis to the global capitalist society, we mayidentify the Mother with Mother Nature. Rosen speaks of containing chaos, Mother Nature,apeiron9 as the basis of the scientific endeavor. The drive to contain the Mother comes fromthe anger at being dependent on another for milk and love. He says,

The existence of homo rationalis is predicated on an assumption that itself has beenobscured for centuries. Never enunciated but always taken for granted is thesupposition that man has contained Mother Nature and now stands free andclear of her. It is this posture of detachment and power of containment that mostessentially defines the individual. He maintains himself as an in-dividual as he whois one, undivided, unitary by containing her . At bottom, this is what sciences questfor unity has been all about. 10

So the first kind of person, thriving on the terms, learns how to exploit resources andhow to individuate and disconnect his self from his Mother and from the Other. Resources,human and other, exist for him to use as he sees fit. Nat ure is his good little girl or GoodMother, but if chaos should occur, nature becomes a witch, a Medusa, a demon that mustbe cast out. 11 Hence the drive to contain, to control, to predict the goals of the (phallically)

hard sciences.

There is also a threat to his perfect control from the second group of people, who areuneasy with the terms. They have too much compassion and empathy. They accept to some

8 That is, glibness /superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying,cunning/manipulative, lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect, callous/lack of empathy, failure toaccept responsibility for own actions.

9 From , infinity, boundlessness (Liddell-Scott).10 Steven M. Rosen [2004] Dimensions of apeiron: a topological phenomenology of space,

time, and Individuation. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi B. V., p. 61. 11 Rosen, p. 128.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superficial_charmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superficial_charm


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extent that mothers have their own lives and that sometimes they cannot get what theywant. In order to keep this second group in Omelas, in order to keep them from obstructingtheir relentless drives, the first group must lie. They must tell lies.

The latest lie is sustainability. Let us consider Wal- Marts new sustainability pitch. (If

the company were a country, it would be ranked about 38 th in the world, with Hong Kong,Malaysia, and Egypt.) The company is going local, they say. David Correia asks, Whatdoes this actually mean?

First, its a part of ongoing efforts by corporate actors like Wal-Mart to brandsustainability as a corporate -friendly term synonymous with productivity,efficiency and maximization. Sustainable means, in other words, whatever Wal-Martsays it means.

Consider their tricky term local. A 2004 Counterpunch article by Yoshie Furuhashiused a Teamsters organizing map of Wal-Mart distribution points to demonstratethat most states are already served by local Wal-Mart distribution centers. The termlocal, in other words, as a definition of sustainable doesnt require anytransformation to existing Wal- Mart distribution patterns. Its green washing at itsmost sophisticated.

Wal-Mart has joined the crowd and has seized on the new green economy asinsurance for their continued growth and expansion. Its th e new model but it meansthe same old thing. It means sourcing products from huge agribusiness firms whogrow monocrops dependent on the heavy use of pesticides and make narrow profit

margins by brutally exploiting farmworkers. Bon Appetit.12

The word sustainable is used instrumentally; it is used to sell the lie. It is the latest lie, andcorporations will go on to other lies, knowing that the focus is not the words but theindividual consumers confidence. Jill Ettinger describes it this way.

What's incredibly evident, if not downright chilling, is just how smart Coca-Cola is.Among countless ways they're dominating markets, they've realized there's reallyonly one product ever worth selling, one that never goes out of fashion: You. Theirbiggest moneymaker is consumer confidence and nowhere is this buoyancy moreprominent than in the booming sustainability movement. 13

The Healthy Forests Act in the U.S. mean s that logging companies couldcircumvent environmental protection laws by unilaterally declaring that a certain forest wasovergrown, and therefore a fire hazard unhealthy. The Act meant that more forests couldbe cut down with even less oversight. It was sold with the word healthy, while the realitywould have appalled its audience. But if one confronts the first group with unpleasantrealities, they will protest that they are helping the Earth!

If they are told, Do not spoil the Earth!

12 David Correia [October 15, 2010] Greenwashing the Wal -Mart Way in counterpunch.org 13 http://www.realitysandwich.com/zero_calories_or_zero_waste
http://www.realitysandwich.com/zero_calories_or_zero_wastehttp://www.realitysandwich.com/zero_calories_or_zero_wastehttp://www.realitysandwich.com/zero_calories_or_zero_wastehttp://www.realitysandwich.com/zero_calories_or_zero_waste


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They reply, Rather, we are the ones doing good! [2:11]

The same theme is found in the GM biotech deception. Multinational biotechnology

giants like Monsanto continue to spread their genetically-modified organisms (GMOs)around the world in the name of ending world hunger and reducing poverty, but a newreport out of Sweden has found the exact opposite to be true. 14 It is unpleasant both for thecritics who sound like they are quacking like ducks and the proponents who mustcontinually deceive. The proponents have their closed-door meetings where they can dropthe pretense.

When a member of this first group goes to such a gathering, he may affirm that hetruly belongs to this first group and disavow the lies. The situation may be something likethis.

When they meet the ones who are grateful, they say, We are grateful ones!

But when they seclude with their satanic [associates]

They say, We are with you! We rather mock [them] 15

Oren Lyons, a native American activist, tells of an awkward moment when invited

into the inner circle at the World Economic Forum in Davos. This is what happened. I asked this man, do you have any grandchildren? He said yes, I have an eight-year-old grandson. I said, why, I have a grandson eight years old too. So we were twograndpas talking about our kids. I asked him, when do you cease being a CEO andbecome a grandfather? And there was silence. He couldn't answer that. It got veryuncomfortable in there. He would not answer the question so finally somebody says,well Chief, we hear about Indian prophecies. Can you tell us a prophecy? I said okay,how about a guaranteed prophecy? Ever hear of a prophecy guaranteed? They saidno. I said, I can tell you one, being an Indian. They said okay, what is that? I said,you are going to meet next year and nothing will have changed. Guaranteed. Thatwas the end of the meeting. What did I do? I brought a moral question into aneconomic forum and I was way out of line. They couldn't or wouldn't answer me

14 According to a recent piece in SvD, a Swedish newspaper, the transition of SouthAmerican agriculture from small-scale, localized, diversified farming to primarily large-scale,industrialized, GMO soy farming is destroying the environment, increasing poverty, and harminghuman health . http://www.naturalnews.com/030390_GMO_soy_poverty.html

15 : :

said, When misfortune befalls the muminn , they say, We are with you, we are indeed yourbrothers! But when they seclude to their satanic [associates], they mock the muminn . From al -Tabaris commentary on 2:14, Jmi` al-bayn f tafsr al-qurn (altafsir.com).
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because they couldnt verbalize what they all know. And the World Bank remainsthe largest public funder of fossil fuel projects in the world. 16

Oren Lyons was not with them, because he did not mock the people outside who posemoral questions, so it was simply an awkward silence that ensued.

We will return to the verses quoted above, but first we go on to the analysis of thesecond group, who want to believe that there is no torture involved in their energy source.They are lied to, but another way to look at it is, they demand lies, as they demand themaintenance of the illusions and hopes that make their lives tolerable.

This group actually fits the part of an abusive family, as Derrick Jensen shows in TheCulture of Make-Believe [2004]. We like to think that lies proceed from one party and areimposed on another party. But as Michel Foucault pointed out, the more meaningful way tosee power is as collusion, where the abuser and the victim have a strange co-dependency. Asfrustrated social workers will affirm, victims of abuse seem not only to stay in abusiverelationships but almost seek them out, going from one abuser to another. And too, victimsof abuse often grow up to be abusers, perpetuating a cycle of violence. R. D. Laing put thisinto a song f amilies with abuse sing to each other. One requires collusion to play HappyFamilies, he says.

Individually, I am unhappy. I deny I am to myself ; I deny I am denying anything tomyself and to the others. They must do the same. I must collude with their denial andcollusion, and they must collude with mine.

So we are a happy family and we have no

secrets from one another.If we are unhappy/we have to keep it a secret/

and we are unhappy that we have to keep it a secret

and unhappy that we have to keep secret/the fact/that we

have to keep it a secret

and that we are keeping all that secret.

But since we are a happy family you can see

this difficulty does not arise. 17

The defense mechanism of the collusive family is that any attempt to pierce the deceptionwill simply sound like a duck quacking.

In addition to the collusion of the first group and the second group, the first groupimposes what poet John Trudell calls the trinity of chains: guilt, sin, and blame. 18 The

16 Faithkeeper: An Interview with Oren R. Lyons , Realitysandwich.com 08/26/2010 17 R. D. Laing [1971] The politics of the family, and other essays. New York: Routledge, p. 99.

18

As an aside, I was wondering whether this central tenet of guilt in contemporary societyhad a referent in classical Arabic. The English-Arabic dictionary provides for the word guilt thefollowing Arabic words: ithm, ma` iyah, kha i`yah, and mudhnib. Those words, though, connect to


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connection of these terms to sustainability is obvious. Our sin of existence means that wemake carbon footprints. It is our fault the environment is degraded, because we take longshowers 19 and drive cars. 20,21,22 We feel guilty about all this and so embrace enthusiasticallythe concept of sustainability. The satirical newspaper The Onion takes the logic to the end; ifyou and your carbon footprint are bad, then the best you can do is die.

offense, disobedience, mistake, and crime or again offense. None of the psychologicaldepth of guilt can be found in these Arabic words.

19 Derrick Jensen http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4801/ Orlets talk water. We so often hear that the world is running out of water. People are dying from lack ofwater. Rivers are dewatered from lack of water. Because of this we need to take shorter showers. Seethe disconnect? Because I take showers, Im responsible for drawing down aquifers? Well, no. More than 90percent of the water used by humans is used by agriculture and industry. The remaining 10 percent issplit between municipalities and actual living breathing individual humans. Collectively, municipalgolf courses use as much water as municipal human beings. People (both human people and fishpeople) arent dying because the world is running out of water. Theyre dying becau se the water is

being stolen. 20 The domination of the car in the U.S., for example, was not a foregone conclusion. In the1930s and 1940s automobile companies, especially GM, bought up public transportation systems anddestroyed them, to make the car inevitable. See http://culturechange.org/issue10/taken-for-a-ride.htm In other countries, the car economy is introduced to make some people very rich, throughfinancing, sales, tolls, and infrastructure contracts.

21 Ivan Illich writes, T he model American male devotes more than 1,600 hours a year to hiscar. He sits in it while it goes and while it stands idling. He parks it and searches for it. He earns themoney to put down on it and to meet the monthly installments. He works to pay for gasoline, tolls,insurance, taxes, and tickets. He spends four of his sixteen waking hours on the road or gathering hisresources for it. And this figure does not take into account the time consumed by other activitiesdictated by transport: time spent in hospitals, traffic courts, and garages; time spent watching

automobile commercials or attending consumer education meetings to improve the quality of the nextbuy. The model American puts in 1,600 hours to get 7,500 miles: less than five miles per hour. Incountries deprived of a transportation industry, people manage to do the same, walking whereverthey want to go, and they allocate only 3 to 8 per cent of their society's time budget to traffic insteadof 28 per cent. What distinguishes the traffic in rich countries from the traffic in poor countries is notmore mileage per hour of life-time for the majority, but more hours of compulsory consumption ofhigh doses of energy, packaged and unequally distributed by the transportation industry. http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/illich02.htm

22 In the late 70's, I found myself unable to save money because I miscalculated how muchmy vehicle was costing. In 1986, I talked with a neighbor who was driving his pickup a hundredmiles every day to work for $5.00 an hour, work being hard to find at that time. He had never thoughtabout calculating how much it cost him to drive. But even the roughest figures make it doubtful that

his $40.00 daily pay, after taxes and work-related expenses were deducted, would even cover hisvehicle costs, let alone compensate him for his efforts. He would have been ahead to have stayed athome. http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/advocacy/autocost.htm
http://culturechange.org/issue10/taken-for-a-ride.htmhttp://culturechange.org/issue10/taken-for-a-ride.htmhttp://culturechange.org/issue10/taken-for-a-ride.htmhttp://culturechange.org/issue10/taken-for-a-ride.htmhttp://culturechange.org/issue10/taken-for-a-ride.htm


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Executives at Philip Morris USA this week unveiled Marlboro Earth, a new eco-friendly cigarette that gradually eliminates the causes of global warming andenvironmental destruction at their source. By killing off the No. 1 threat to theenvironment, new Marlboro Earths will have a long-term effect on the overall healthof our planet," Philip Morris spokesperson Janet Weiss said. "If everyone in Americadoes their part and joins our new green-smoking movement, then together we caneradicate man's destructive practices once and for all." 23

One of the psychological consequences of the environment of lies, guilt, sin, andblame is something like obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). Because peoplein the second group have little feeling of efficacy to really change their situation, they resortto controlling the tiny things that they can. One gets obsessive about greening everything,and one uses green products compulsively. Mother Jones magazine, traditionally weightedtoward social political action, has a feature addressed to the isolated individual calledeconundrums. In this column, questions about whether it is more green to turn off thecomputer or keep it on are addressed. One may assume from the column that its readers areobsessed about every detail of their lives being sustainable, and compulsive in religiouslyturning off (or keeping on) their computers.

In another piece from The Onion, we are shown the pitiful spectacle of the greenobsessive-compulsive.

But by carefully conserving water with the specially designed low-impact toilet I hadinstalled, I can take comfort in the knowledge that I did what I could do to delay thisinevitable global death-age by as many as several nanoseconds.

Won't you join me in this ongoing effort to foster an imperceptible improvement tothis doomed and dying planet? You'll be rewarded with the knowledge that, despitethe irreversible effects of centuries of sustained environmental abuse by the humanrace, individuals, working together, can fight this inevitability in a real, concrete,tiny, and totally ineffective show of unity. 24

I have tried to show that the concepts of sustainability and greenwashing exist aslies to ease acceptance of the underlying reality that is kept hidden: the energy that powerssociety has been taken; it has not been given. To the extent that this energy oil and otherresources, including human created, support, and sustain this society, this Omelas must

acknowledge its basis.

Finally, what about the ones who walk away from Omelas? The first thing onenotices is a lack of ego. Margaret Wheatley writes that the effort to avoid chaos what Rosentalked above about as apeiron and Mother Nature has been a fearful posture . She says,

Three centuries ago, when the world was imagined as an exquisite machine set inmotion by God a closed system with a watchmaker father who then left the shop 23N ew Eco-Friendly Cigarettes Kill Destructive Human Beings Over Time June 1, 2010

theonion.com. Continuing the eco -friendly theme, the Onion wrote In the Know: How Can We

Make The War In Iraq More Eco- Friendly? Panelists discuss ways to wage a greener war in Iraq,such as d riving biodegradable tanks and shocking detainees testicles with wind power.24 Im Doing My Inconsequential Part For The Environment May 10, 2006, theonion.com


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the concept of entropy entered our collective consciousness. Machines wear down;they eventually stop . . . . This is a universe, we feel, that cannot be trusted with itsown processes for growth and rejuvenation. If we want progress, then we mustprovide the energy to reverse decay. By sheer force of will, because we are theplanets intelligence, we will make the world work. We will resist death . . . . What afearful posture this has been! 25

Wheatleys exploration of chaos and the fractal universe show s the insights, andpeace, that come from abandoning Newtons mechanical world with its dead or absent god.The sheer force of will to make the world work is the voice of the ego, and thesustainable and green movements have no lack of ego mountainous egos! For example,evolver.net has as its banner, Its Our World to Change.

Wheatley says it is time to take the world off our shoulders. As the saying goes, Givethe ego a break its not easy being the center of the universe! The following passage from

Ibn `Arabi seems to speak lyrically to the burden of the ego lifted away.(About) the provision to each creature of what is fit for each creature, as he needs,from divine wisdom: it is his word, He gave each thing its creation, then guided it[20:50], that is, he explained that he, ta` l , gave each thing its creation such that noneof the things would say, I lack such and such, because that lack which onepresumes is fleetin g, arising because of ones ignorance of ones self and an absenceof ones faith [in the verse 20:50] , if his word had gone out to him that He gave eachthing its creation . The created being will not recognize his completeness or his lackbecause he was created for another, not for himself, and the one who created him

created him for Himself, not for himself; and He gave him only what suited Him ta` l but the creature wants that it be for himself, not for his Lord. So because ofthis, he says, I want such and such, and I lack such and such. But if he knew that hewas created for his Lord, he would know that God has created creation in a mostperfect form suiting its Lord. I take refuge in God lest I be among the ignorant ones [2:67][who dont realize this].

This issue is one that is most forgotten (even) by our companions, despite theunderstanding of the greatest of them of it. It is something needing to be understoodat the beginning, middle, and end. It is the basis of courtesy toward the divine, which

True One demands from his creatures. But only they know it who say, Our Lord,you extend over everything with kindness and understanding [40:7].

But those who say, Will you make on Earth one who spoils her and spillsblood? [2:30] , they did not stand with the intent of True One who created creation.If the matter did not transpire as it did [with spoiling of the Earth and spilling ofblood], many names in the divine presence would go idle and would not come out inforce. Messenger said, If they did not sin, God would have gone to another peoplewho sinned, and they would ask forgiveness and God would forgive them.

25 Margaret Wheatley [2006] Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in aChaotic World. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, p. 19.


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So he pointed out that everything that transpires in the universe transpires tobring out the force of a divine name. And since the matter is like this, there does notremain in all-possible-worlds any more wondrous than this universe, nor moreperfect. There only remains in all-possible-worlds the likes of this universe, on andon to infinity. So understand that! 26

The second quality the ones who walk away have is thankfulness, described in thenext passage as the original instructions ,which the Six Nations peoples described to theU.N. in Geneva, in 1977.

All things of the world are real, material things. The Creation is a true, materialphenomenon, and the Creation manifests itself to us through reality. The spiritualuniverse, then, is manifest to Man as the Creation, the Creation which supports life.We believe that man is real, a part of the Creation, and that his duty is to support Lifein conjunction with the other beings. That is why we call ourselves Ongwhehonwhe-

-Real People.The original instructions direct that we who walk about on the Earth are to

express a great respect, an affection, and a gratitude toward all the spirits whichcreate and support Life. We give a greeting and thanksgiving to the many supportersof our own lives --the corn, beans, squash, the winds, the sun. When people cease torespect and express gratitude for these many things, then all life will be destroyed,and human life on this planet will come to an end. 27

The archetypal description of human society and the environment in the Qur n isthe Marib Dam, its collapse, and the ensuing cataclysmic flooding. In the following, the textis split up to reveal a rhetorical structure.

{A} There was for Saba in their settlement a sign

(a) two gardens on the right and left(b) Eat of the provision of your Lord, and be thankful to him(c) a land good, and Lord forgiving

{B} but they turned away

{C} (a) S o we sent against them a violent torrent

(b) and we changed their gardens(c) into two gardens, producing bitter fruit, and tamarisk, and a few lote-trees

{Ingratitude} That was their recompense for their ingratitude{General} Do we recompense any but the ungrateful?

{A} We made between them and the blessed cities a visible city(a) and we measured them for journey-stages(b) Journey there nights and days, safely

26 Futt III:143-144.27 http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/6nations1.html#part1a


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{B} but they said, Lord, increase the distance between our journey-stagesAnd they darkened their souls

{C} (a) So we made them lore(b) and scattered them, all scattered

{Gratitude} In that are signs for every refraining, thankful one{General} Iblis, his opinion was confirmed against them

They followed him, except a fragment, the believers

{A} is the sign the people of Saba had, described in (a) and (c) with (b) being thedescription we the audience imagine as we hear the divine command to them eat and bethankful.

{B} is what they did instead.

{C} is the divine response, the n egative a, b, and c mirroring the positive a, b, and c.

The theme is ingratitude, and a generalization is made.

{A} is another sign they had, described in (a) and (b), with (b) a description we theaudience imagine as we hear the divine command to them journey there safely.

{B} is what they did instead, parallel to {B}.

{C} is the divine response, mirroring a and b.

The mirror theme is gratitude, and a generalization is made.

The lesson from the collapse of the Marib Dam is thankfulness and restraint, As a sign for

each one who is restrained, thankful [34:19].

The commentaries on refraining ones and thankful ones describe the opposing pair asfollows: when something (good) is given, one is thankful; when something difficult is givenas a test, one is restrained. In the Lisn al-àrab, Ibn Manzur says it is binding ones self orsoul when anxious. To connect abr to an ecology, it is refraining from exceeding theboundaries, waiting patiently. Connecting back to this passage, we can see that the oneswho darkened their own souls did so by not being thankful for what they had, and also bynot refraining from exceeding the boundaries, in this case by greedily or arrogantly askingfor increased distance between the stages so they could gain economic benefit fromoutfitting and supplying the travellers.

To connect these terms of an àrab mub n, we may configure the following.

The mumin is the one with m n, semantically situated in Lisn al-àrab as m n; its antonym iskufr . In the following verse, shukr and kufr are opposites.

We guided one to the way; one is Thankful, one is Ungrateful [76:3]


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The mumin is thankful, someone who acknowledges that we receive Gods blessing it isnot there for the taking. Such a person walks away from Omelas.

The k fir is semantically situated as kufr, the contrary to m n, and kufr of blessing, that is,denying and covering up blessing; the contrary to thankfulness ( shukr ). The k fir deniesGods blessing, derived from covering up. Such a person denies that God providesblessings and believes instead that resources are there for the taking.

The mun fiq is semantically situated as the jerboa tunneling ( naffaqa) into his tunnel ( n fiq i),and from it is derived the word mun fiq. The attribute of the mun fiq is displaying m n while inside is kufr [Ibn Ab lib al -Makk , Al- hidyah on 2:14, altafsir.com].

In the commentaries on the verse we have considered, If they are told, Do not spoilthe Earth! they reply, Rather, we are the ones doing good! [2:11], there is one argument thatthe they in this verse are actually sincere in the ir statement. 28 One of the meanings of i l

(as in, we are al-mu

li

n) is reconciling two parties. In this situation, one argument goes, thetheyof this verse are trying to reconcile two parties, the mumin n and the kuff r . In ourallegorical tale, perhaps the first party in Omelas try to reconcile the second party with theones who walk away. But I think that Ursula Le Guins ending is correct.

They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back.The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the cityof happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But theyseem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

28 In Razis commentary on 2:11, that is, this group are proceeding to il (reconciliation)between the muslims and the kuffr (altafsir.com).

walking away from sustainability for ccd

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