Essay on "The forest of forgetting"

There once was a time where mankind cherished the land and valued, even nurtured, its natural existence. This was a time before steel and concrete and before silicon and copper wire. Many people resent that era as being pre-civilized, overrun by savagery and disorganization. Now we are an industrialized people, we tear apart the Earth to make room for our parking lots and condominiums. The incredible irony, however, is that no matter how civilized we are, we still need the Earth in the same way we did thousands of years ago. The wood that builds our houses comes from the same trees that once helped discover fire; no matter how advanced we become we will always need the nature to provide us with the material to grow. Everything from food to industry is dependant on nature still, but we somehow choose to ignore that fact and continue to bite away at the proverbial hand that feeds us.

        In "Forest of Forgetting", this exact scenario is summed up in one concise example. The original inhabitants of the Scotland Highland Forest embraced the nature around them. They took only what they needed and were very aware of their dependence on the land and because they were aware they consciously took care of it, and preserved it. By doing so, the natives were able to in a sense become one with the nature. They left nature the way it was and adapted around it.

        The British, however, sought to civilize these savages and teach them the modern way of life. This, of course, meant razing the forests and establishing a proper city ecosystem. With the invention of the steel saw this modernization transformation took no time at all. Before the natives knew it their forest was completely leveled but a few patches.

        The...