|
|
Green nationalism? How the far right could learn to love the environment
Catterall, Peter Paul
http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2988855/green_nationalism_how_the_far_right_could_learn_to_love_the_environment.htmlDate Written: 2017-04-12 Publisher: The Ecologist Year Published: 2017 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX20973 Myths of a pagan past in harmony with nature have been a feature of green nationalism, from its beginnings through to the Anastasia ecovillages in contemporary Russia where - unlike their equivalent hippy communes found in the West - sustainable living is combined with a 'reactionary eco-nationalism'. Could it happen here too? Abstract: - Excerpt: Green causes are not usually the main motivating factor for those attracted to the far right. This does not mean, however, that their espousal is mere greenwashing. The far right tends to think of green issues differently from their left-wing counterparts. Their approach focuses on the local, not the global, and reflects the centrality of landscape to national identities. Their defensive parochialism means that these threats are usually seen in cultural terms through the appropriation of victimhood, hence the tendency to focus upon immigration as opposed to the emphases of left-wing environmentalists. Green issues tend to be seen by the far right through the distinct lenses of cultural identity and the land. That does not necessarily prevent, however, the emergence of a green nationalism. Subject Headings |