Carl Amery (1922–2005)

Carl Amery was co-founder of the German Green Party. He had published fiction before and science-fiction after. I have not read any of these.

This is a strange book: A treatise without quoting sources, decorated with garlands of fiction. Can one take it seriously? To answer: It needs to be taken seriously as the survival of humanity is at stake!
Amery writes 1970-72 a few years after the widely discussed paper by Lynn White Jr.: ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis’ that blames, show more as Amery does, Judaeo-Christianity for the ecological crisis although with different emphasis. I do not remember whether Amery mentions this work.

Amery makes a passionate plea addressing all and every human to take responsibility not just for fellow humans as the Christian faith demands, but for all life on Earth, plants and animals and for the soil, the water and air that sustains life.

The first half of the book is a detailed critique of the Judeo-Christian traditions which are the basis of the self-understanding of the western world and which are responsible, he says, for the environmental catastrophe the world is plunged into. He goes into much greater detail than White does in 'Roots'.

Unlike most other religions, the Jewish-Mosaic understanding of humanity separates humans from all other creatures and sets humans as master over all of nature when God says to Noah and his sons: "fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands." (Genesis IX, 2)
Amery discusses many further Bible verses, the irresolvable contradictions between the Christian Church and the teachings of Christ: this uniquely expressed by Dostoevsky in The Grand Inquisitor, also the history of the Church supporting capitalism and encouraging exploitation of the environment. Socialism, he says, does not fare better: it deals with the worker - production relationship but also supports unlimited increase in the exploitation of natural sources (he does not mentioned that by substituting capitalist selfishness and greed with solidarity, socialism is better placed to rescue humanity). The book closes with the 'last word of the Absent God': "gedenk, daß du staub bist und zum staub zurückkehrest. dann — kannst du Mein Sohn sein."

What has happened in the 50+ years since its publication? The Church now says that God's mission to 'subdue the Earth and rule over any living creature' meant that man should be a shepherd and take good care of the earth and all it's creatures; it should not be interpreted as a license to exploit and destroy everything ✝︎. However this comes too late, the horse has bolted the stable; also man in Judaeo-Christianity, by being the only living being created in the image of God, is set above all living beings: man is not imbedded in nature but remains separated from it.

Amery's warning, as may be expected, fell on deaf ears: not only destruction of habitat and pollution increases and more and more species die out, but to make matters much worse - seemingly not evident 50 years ago - the earth is heating up, the impending catastrophe: hunger, death and destruction is looming over us. We are on a train rushing full power towards the abyss; a few desperately trying to stop the train, hanging on, being dragged along.

Few may have the patience to read through this book. Should you want to be challenged then it is in my view best discussed within a group. But read first the transcript of White's talk mentioned above. (III-26)

✝︎ See e.g.: https://www.pthsta.it/fileadmin/files/ksb-28-08-2024-schoepfungszeit-lintner.pdf
https://www.erzdioezese-wien.at/unit/kardinalschoenborn/katechesen/katechesen/ar... show less

Die Schere zwischen Arm und Reich geht immer weiter auseinander. Es gibt keine Theorie des Reichtums, er wird verschämt versteckt und entzieht sich über die Neiddebatte elegant allen Erklärungen. Dieses Buch ist ein guter Schritt zum Verständnis, fernab von Neid und Missgunst. Es leistet einen unverzichtbaren Beitrag z.B. zur aktuellen Diskussion um Erbschafts- und Vermögenssteuer.

Einfach genial ist der Lauschangriff von Andreas Eschbach bei der Beratung eines geschulten Bankbeamten show more (Max Mustermann ist der Kunde) und dessen Erkenntnisse darüber, wie man Geld arbeiten lässt und dem Kunden mit Fachchinesisch alles aufschwatzen kann. Geld ist kein Produkt wie alle anderen, das wir kühl betrachten und berechnen, es entzieht sich meist unserer Vorstellungskraft und leider auch einer Berechnung. Mit dieser fehlenden Phantasie von uns allen machen Banken glänzende Geschäfte. Der Nachhilfekurs von Andreas Eschbach sollte als Grundkurs in Schulen oder beim VWL bzw. BWL-Studium gelesen werden - weil er so einfach verständlich ist.

Die Kraft dieses Buches entwickelt sich aus diesem einfachen und natürlichen Charme des Plötzlich-Verstehens von sonst kompliziertesten Zusammenhängen, die wir in Diskussionen von Sabine Christiansen immer nur hin- und herwogend bzw. undurchschaubar erleben. show less

L-7

Eines der feinsten deutschen phantastischen Bücher