Liberty Hyde Bailey on Evolution

In “The Holy Earth” (1915) Bailey wrote about evolution: “This is the philosophy of the oneness in nature and unity in living things.”

About the morality or immorality of the struggle for existence that is the instrument of natural selection, Bailey wrote: “If one looks for a moral significance in the struggle for existence, one finds it in the fact that it is a process of adjustment rather than a contest in ambition.”

It is, in Bailey’s estimation, morally significant that natural selection is not driven by ambition or purpose. By the expression “process of adjustment” I doubt that Bailey meant to offer an alternative teleology for the struggle. I think he understood that evolution, as understood in science, has no purpose, no meaning in a teleological way. If one removes the idea that life has purpose, then the character of morality must change, if it is to remain significant at all.

For Bailey, I think his expression “The Brotherhood Relation” defines morality, if the word morality even applies. I think the word eschatology applies here more than the word morality. The Brotherhood Relation is something that comes after the era of natural selection, after the era in which survival, the adjustment process, is tied to the instinct to kill. He wrote: “It is exactly among the naturists that the old instinct to kill begins to lose its force and that an instinct of helpfulness and real brotherhood soon takes its place.” That is an eschatological belief, rather than a moral belief. It is a vision of a new era. It is eschatological in the way Isaiah wrote – the wolf shall dwell with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6-9.) It is a vision of Zion, of God’s holy hill, of “The Holy Earth.”

Eschatology and evolution merge to form ecology in the writings of Liberty Hyde Bailey.  In ecology, evolution sings the song of Zion.

View Near Warren Mountain

For a few days last week clouds filled the desert sky. It does not happen often. I make photographs when it happens. Sun is the norm.

Would you cover this landscape with solar collectors to generate electricity?

Many people would. Green people.

The wind is often strong here. It breaks the branches of mighty Joshua trees.

Would you cover this land with windmills to generate electricity?

Many people would. Green people.

Beware of the greens. Like the browns and grays who came before, to them all the earth is mere resource, and they mistakenly believe life is a resource management problem.

Love the wild. As long as it lives.