Public intellectuals as “functionally extinct” – 2cotAED

This year I am going to write something short, mostly daily, about what is going on – “2 cents on the Arrived Ecological Debacle” (2cotAED). I have to write it; you don’t have to read it. If you DO read it, feel free to tell me how wrong I am (and hopefully why). Re: the debacle aspect: in 2004 the English writer Sara Maitland  wrote about the “pending ecological debacle.” The expression stuck with me; it’s a debacle because it was foreseen, warned about and was avoidable. Well, it’s no longer really “pending” is it?

I am avoiding the return of you know who. I have nothing to say (rarely stops me from shooting my mouth off, I know). Instead, this came up in a conversation with a very smart friend who I haven’t seen for about 25 years.

On the title – a species can still have individuals in existence but who are not fulfilling the role their species previously had in a given ecological niche. This known as being functionally extinct.

“That [recent book] looks like it’s making the classic mistake of focusing on the charismatic megafauna and not the microbes, because one is what you see in the headlines and it’s easier to get attention for writing about it. And studying forms of relationships that constitute what sometimes manifests as protest takes time and money.

“Once upon a time the public intellectuals of the left were similarly the beautiful flowers of an entire dense rooted structure.  Now they are just morning glory wound like a parasite onto the supporting structure of academia or the media and so of course they don’t have access to the other forums where meaning is being created any more and end up just being a different flavour of centrism.”