Wild Echoes

Rating:
Summary: Postmodern cant
Review: A disappointment. Here's a book on wild
animals, those extinct and those nearly so,
something we should all care about. The author
traveled extensively to interact with some wild
animals, or at least with people who interact
with wild animals.

And what happens? Bergman simply can't leave
behind his postmodern pinhole view of the world.
He sees people trying to save nearly extinct
species, protecting the existing animals, and
asks: what is the MEANING of it? And his
answer: a foucaultian rant on power over nature.

With respect to the effort to save the North
American condor, he says that because the condors
live in zoos, "this is the central paradox, we also
demystify the creature. The condor lives the life
of a secret, but the zoo, run by vets and bureaucrats,
steals its strangeness and makes it a creature we
can train."

He continues to rail against the rationalism of
science: "We can't expect biologists and
bureaucrats to solve our problems. We need a
revolution of consciousness. That's why I believe
in desire and passion, make my attacks upon the
sovereignty of reason, look for answers in the
shadows and the gaps in our knowledge -- and in
endangered species."

That sums it up. Bergman's bogeymen are bureaucrats
and scientists. It's too bad he decided to embellish
such a serious topic with postmodern cant that
French philosophers discarded years ago.