Is Mother Nature Caring or Ruthless?

What is the best description of Mother Nature according to your experience?

This week I want to do something different: a debate and a poll. First is the debate, in the form of a back and forth exchange between two characters taking on opposite standpoints.

Prologue

There is no denying that immersing yourself in Mother Nature can constitute some of the most blissful and relaxing experience in life. On a functional level, Mother Nature provides for all our essential needs. But imagine for a second, placing yourself in the middle of a dark, mazy jungle, with insects buzzing and birds crying all around non-stop. Snakes, jaguars and other predators lurk under the noise and shades, the threats built onto the suffocating heat are making you cover in sweat fully exhausted (no bathing for you in the caiman-infested river, unfortunately). These two situations seem to both be a valid representation of nature, or are they?

Quokkasian #1:

On a psychological level, there is just something magnetic about spending time in nature that you cannot get from any other sources. Probably due to evolutionary reasons, we feel “connected” and fulfilled when we immerse in abundant greenery as this is our original cradle and home, a concept known as biophilia. Yes, there are dangers and risks in the wilderness, but without the experience of stress and hardships, one cannot fully comprehend the substance of joy. Hiking up a steep hill is tough, but nothing can take away the sense of accomplishment when you finally reach the summit to gape at the grand orchestra of Mother Nature. On the contrary, the stress that we experience in an urban concrete setting usually feels draining i.e., we often feel like a troubled, confused child, but Mother Nature is still always here to open the door for us to return. I am not saying that urban cities are not necessarily a part of Mother Nature (everything is Mother Nature if you define it broadly enough) but you get what I mean, there are some significant differences between “real nature” and those of manmade. I believe that the fact that we are more content with our time spent in real Mother Nature shows Mother Nature’s benevolence.

Marmotian #1:

Although Mother Nature can be generous and give us joy at times (most of us can agree), I hold the position that the core characteristic of Mother Nature is her ruthlessness, but she exhibits ruthlessness in different degrees, depending on when and where and how we act in reciprocal to her. In my view, the blissful side of nature is kind of circumstantial, a wildfire can engulf a vast tract of pristine forest in the blink of an eye, a meadow teeming with beautiful blossoms can be turned into a lifeless monoculture field overnight. If humanity does not act with enough prudence, extreme weathers, climate change, desertification etc. can all occur on a larger spatial and temporal scale to give us “hell”. There you see a tension of what kind of life we can bargain from Mother Nature i.e., she can give us peace and prosperity only if we behave well and respect her standards.

Quokkasian #2:

I do not disagree with what Marmotian mentioned, of course, the laws of physics, the laws of nature etc., do not necessarily care about our feelings at the basic level, and so understandably Mother Nature doesn’t have an “active intention” to make us feel good and comfortable. But I think there is more nuance to that. Humans are not just simple machines experiencing isolated moments of suffering and joy, we derive great fulfillment from a complex interplay of feelings. By feeling the joy, marvel, mystery and suffering emergent from experiencing Mother Nature (which are not easily found in manmade objects), it reconnects us with our higher meaning at a deep level. This overall constitutes a positive to our human experience, despite there exists pain and suffering perceivably. By that, I would refuse to say that Mother Nature gives us “a ruthless hell” but rather, “a great lesson” as a great teacher or parent does. Everything is “ruthless” to some extent because they are not 100% made to please us, urban dwellers could also develop long-lived discontent and even mental illnesses if they are too separated from nature. I too wouldn’t want Mother Nature to be all fluffy and showering me with comfort, that’s not what constitutes caring and benevolence in my view.

Marmotian #2:

I agree with Quokkasian’s words about the different kinds of stress one feels when spending time in nature versus in an urban city. This is in part because we are affected by all kinds of “evolutionarily unfamiliar” noise and distractions in urban cities. In the true wilderness, we tend to be much less distracted, there is only one goal — to live and be alive. However, that is a hard and stressful goal in and of itself, and even tougher for the whole human species to flourish. We ought not to forget that especially for urban dwellers living in material comforts, we often have the luxury of getting well-prepared, bringing ample food and drink whenever we explore nature i.e., we treat nature as a holiday retreat for enjoyment — we are kind of a hobbyist, which is somewhat different than surviving in the wild over a long period of time. A few days might pass alright, but if we are not well-attuned and -adapted to survive in the wilderness (i.e., not behaving in the right way in reciprocal to nature), the stress can become overwhelming and coerce you to become someone you wouldn’t dream of previously (e.g., a blood-thirsty hunter). It shows that Mother Nature does not care about anyone of us specifically, we must bend and suit ourselves to the overwhelming force of nature, there is no other way round. Otherwise, there would be no such stats that over 99% of the species ever existed are extinct, there would be no such thing as the Black Death, the Spanish Flu. Caring parents would compromise and adjust standards most of the time, but Mother Nature doesn’t give us that same leniency. You know, it is easy to say that Mother Nature is kind and caring when some of our blood-thirsty ancestors wiped most large dangerous animals out wherever they went. Modern humans collectively are largely just quenching present physical suffering/punishments (as we bear the illusion that we are living in peace with a benevolent Mother Nature), in exchange for more sufferings of other kinds, particularly the ones in the future.

Quokkasian #3:

I concur that the average urban dweller especially in wealthy nations is probably overrating how warm and caring Mother Nature is. How many of us have ever cut down a tree to make a boat? A piece of furniture? How many of us have ever tilted the soil and grown food with our hands? Obviously, not so many under the modern globalized regime. However, my point remains that Mother Nature constitutes a net plus to our experience. Human is a being of perpetual suffering due to our physical limit to fulfill all of our conscious desires — “we regret the past we cannot change and have hopes for the future which are rarely fulfilled”. It is what defines us, and we would experience suffering with or without actively interacting with Mother Nature. Mother Nature, in all likelihood, is able to provide us a sanctuary and relief on this suffering, and I am sure we have all experienced the abundance and vibrancy of Mother Nature at some point, but this caring support can be destroyed by selfish over-exploitation, i.e., we only have ourselves to blame. My view is that we should recognize the positive interaction with Mother Nature is not trivial and we must be grateful for that. Further labeling Mother Nature as “ruthless” does not help us to be more grateful, if anything, it might even make us resentful and fail to do “the right thing in reciprocal” as Marmotian suggested. In fact, studies showed that people who feel a positive connection towards Mother Nature are more willing to engage in pro-environmental behaviors.

Marmotian #3:

I think we both agree that Mother Nature provides us with a mixture of experiences — joy, peace, suffering, etc. However, these are just the human brain trying to assign feelings to a specific sensation and meaning to a specific situation. Different people disagree on the subjective experience, even if they are on the exact same hike. New studies even showed our “pro-nature” tendency varies significantly with genetic makeups (on top of the huge influence of different upbringings). Some may enjoy the bright Sun but others might find the relentless heat unbearable. If we all rely on our feelings, we will never get to those who disagree with us on how they feel, hardly any consensus and concerted actions in harmony with nature can take root. Yes, our feelings are very real and exist, but it doesn’t change the overwhelming objective evidence that Mother Nature does not care about any one of us in specific, she gives us a good life only when we behave well (i.e., Mother Nature is more than willing to punish and even kill us and all of our next generations if we don’t behave, unlike a caring parent). Having this realization confers a humbling effect as it helps us understand our place in Mother Nature and thus not do reckless things.

That’s the end of the debate. I hope it helps you better understand your own relationship with Mother Nature. Now is a really short poll to get your opinion on this matter, I will publish the result when I gather enough responses!

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