Today, many people are aware that Nature - our natural environment - is under threat from constant and unchecked development, and from continued and unchecked industrialization. One obvious consequence of such development, urbanization and increased industrialization has been the steady decline in people's "quality of life" - there has been, and is, a concentration on material concerns.

The whole process of unchecked development, change and growth has been, and is being, fed by material greed - by a desire to acquire, maintain and increase the "standard of living" through the possession of material goods and material luxuries.

In the developed nations of the "Western world", the unchecked growth which has occurred, and which is still occurring, has led to the construction of more and more roads, more and more suburbs, more and more housing developments, and more and more industrial and commercial developments. Isolated, wild places has been destroyed or despoiled, with the countryside invaded by more and more houses and more and more noisy vehicles going ever faster. Everywhere, the activities of human beings has taken precedence over Nature, with profits and material growth coming before Nature. For example, in Europe, trees and woodland are cut-down, and the countryside destroyed, just so that more and more roads can be built so that more and more people can transport themselves around faster and faster in the pursuit of either self-indulgence or more and better material comfort.

What has happened is that the natural balance with Nature, which previous societies generally maintained, has been lost. Previous societies understood and valued Nature, with Nature, with wild places, often being given preference over human beings because such places were regarded as "sacred to the gods" - as where the gods themselves dwelt and where they could be experienced and known. Today, this natural spiritual awareness has been almost lost in the crass pursuit of wealth and personal self-indulgence.
 

The Denizen Of The Future

Many people understand that what is occurring cannot go on without some great catastrophe occurring. It such growth does continue, unchecked, we will be left with only a few unspoilt places where Nature can be felt and known, with these few places being almost over-run with people escaping from the urban and industrial wastelands. If such growth does continue, the social problems which are developing will increase. If such growth and such a pursuit of self-indulgence and materialism does continue, then our Western world - and probably the rest of the world as well - will become an inhuman place to live, with increasing and constant social turmoil, and with a loss of everything human and valuable. What is human - and valuable for us - is an awareness of our own place in the natural "scheme of things"; that is, a perspective, a depth of vision, an understanding of how we as individuals are balanced between the past and the future, and of how important Nature is for us - the creator, and mother of us all, on whom we all ultimately depend for food and our well-being, and whom we should respect, if not revere.

If change and growth continue on unchecked, with Nature despoiled, then a new type of human being will be created - the urbanized denizen who knows nothing of the wild profundity of Nature, and who therefore does not respect Nature, and who has no real perspective on life. This denizen will therefore be vainly arrogant and weakly self-indulgent, addicted to personal pleasures. All this denizen will know of Nature is the artificial, almost life-less and totally god-less "nature" encountered in "countryside parks", in the barren, chemically-polluted fields of agri-business farms, and in well-kept, well-trodden "nature trials". The wakening hours of this denizen will be filled with music of one sort or another, and entertainment, and possibly some work in some enclosed building or house, and he/she will feel at home in cities, in motor vehicles, in buildings and houses, and uncomfortable in what is left of the "real world". This denizen will have plenty of "spare-time" to indulge themselves in an unreal way through organized and controlled "games" and "sports" and "thrill-seeking pastimes". This denizen would not know what to do if he/she found themselves alone for any length of time, in a quiet place, with no "entertainment systems", and they would do almost anything to avoid prolonged and uncomfortable exposure to the "natural elements". They would exercise and exert themselves - but just a little, and probably in some indoor "gym" or "sports club".

The concerns of this urbanized denizen would be either personal ones, or abstract ones manufactured for such denizens by the international commercial and political concerns which would control, in an almost tyrannical way, all if not most of the nations of the world. Without knowing it, this denizen would be controlled - and looked after - by such concerns from the cradle to the grave. Gradually, the world itself would become a gigantic multi-national "theme park" for the enjoyment of such denizens, whom the international commercial and political concerns would want to keep well-entertained, well-fed and reasonably docile, since such denizens would be the workers and consumers who would keep the whole unnatural capitalistic System going.
 

Nature, The Environmental Movement and Culture

Many people understand such things as these, as many have some awareness of the problems and the nightmares which await in the future if nothing is done. Indeed, a whole new "environmental" movement has arisen, rooted in such concerns. Many of what has come to be called "ecological" solutions to be such environmental problems have been proposed over the past few decades, most of them well-meaning.

This environmental movement, however, has failed for the most part to really understand Nature because it has ignored one of the most important aspects of Nature. Accordingly, lacking an understanding and appreciation of this aspect, the solutions proposed will not fundamentally work: they will be "against Nature" itself, and will create more problems than they will ultimately solve. The first problem we must understand, and solve, is our own - the nature of our own species, of our own relation to Nature. Having understood this, and solved it, we can seek to work in harmony, in balance, with Nature, and hopefully create a balanced, natural world where Nature is restored to her rightful place, with other species respected and protected and allowed to evolve in their own way.

What has been ignored hitherto is the human cultural perspective and the human morality of honour: the fact that we, as a species, have evolved because of Nature, can evolve still further because of Nature, and must depend upon Nature - must act in accord with the processes or laws of Nature - if we are to survive and evolve further. The concern of most environmentalists and conservationists has been and is, to preserve or conserve as many of the varieties of living things as possible, but they have neglected to consider that we, as a species, are of many cultures, and that these many cultures deserve to be preserved and allowed to continue to evolve in their own unique way.

Nature - and thus evolution - works to bring about diversity and difference. Our own distinct and diverse cultures are the product of evolution. These things have evolved over long periods of time, and they are what make us, as individuals, unique and special. We are - or rather should be - part of a culture. If we act to preserve and extend our own culture, then we are acting in accord with Nature - we are respecting Nature. If, however, we act to undermine or destroy our own culture, we are acting against Nature - we are being disrespectful to Nature. When we seek to undermine or destroy cultural difference and diversity through either capitalistic greed or ignoring the human ideal of honour through the pursuit of abstract political goals, we are being arrogant, vainly believing that we know better than Nature. When we do such unnatural things, we are being just as bad, just as thoughtless, as someone who out of ignorance, greed or selfishness, seeks to, or does, destroy some species which Nature has laboured to create. When we do such unnatural things as undermining personal honour - through, for example, condoning some abstract, anti-cultural law or accepting such an unnatural creation as a political society - we are no better than some ignorant, greedy developer who destroys some natural habitat, and wipes out a species or two, in order to build some unnecessary road.
 

The mistake made by many in the environmental movement has been: (1) to assume or believe that we, as a species, are somehow not subject to the laws of Nature - that what applies for all other species does not, or should not, apply to us; and (2) not understanding the importance of personal honour and accepting it as a natural development of Nature and one which, moreover, has enabled us to create and maintain cultures in balance with Nature.
 

Rather than accepting the destruction of our own unique diversity and difference, we should celebrate this diversity and difference of culture. We should nurture it, and hope to advance it further. We should also recognize and uphold the ideal of honour as a means of preserving and enhancing culture. To do these things, we must learn to think in terms of the slow time of Nature - in terms of the wisdom of Nature - and not in terms of the fast artificial time we have created through our abstract political and social ideas and theories. Our own unique cultures are under threat and need saving just as much as those animals, those plants and those other species which are threatened by global change, global greed and global ignorance.
 

We must come to a complete and rational understanding of our own place in the natural "scheme of things", and seek to create a balanced, harmonious way of life where all the many creations of Nature, human, animal, plant and so on, are respected, and where they can continue to evolve. Our planet - so far as we know - is special because it contains life, and this life is special, and should be valued, because of its great diversity, abundance and difference.
 

The complete and rational understanding we need is contained in the natural philosophy of Folk Culture with its understanding of personal honour and its recognition of culture as our link to Nature. Folk Culture explains the importance of the wonderful natural creations - culture, and individual character which is made by honour - as it explains how a balanced, or harmonious, society can be built to preserve and extend still further these natural creations. Folk Culture further explains how this new type of society can lead individuals to an understanding of Nature herself.

Folk Culture, simply explained, is an example of the laws of Nature in action, and a society based upon Folk Culture is simply an organic society where Nature is respected and revered, and where the natural balance, the natural harmony and beauty of Nature, is displayed in a human and social way. In contrast to such an organic, Nature-revering, society, all other types of society, presently existing, or existing as a political idea, are lifeless, abstract, and disrespectful of Nature.
 
 

The fundamental difference between the folk-society created by Folk Culture ideals and all other modern societies - be such societies the product of Marxism, capitalism, socialism, liberalism or parliamentary "democracy" - is that a Folk Culture is an organic society, and as such reflects, or represents, the laws of Nature.
 

Such an organic society is natural, healthy and evolutionary. All other modern societies are either: (1) based upon, or derive from artificial abstractions, or ideas, and as such they are all non-organic societies, or (2) the abstract ideas created to create such an unnatural society have infected a healthy organic society, and have reduced that healthy organic society to sickness as they will ultimately cause its death. That is, all other modern societies either are, or will inevitably produce, what is lifeless, soul-less and de-evolutionary.

One of the two fundamental aims of Folk Culture is to create an entirely new type of modern society through implementing the ideals of Folk Culture in a practical way. This new type of society is a community which makes possible and which aids the development of the individuals within it. It is a means to further the evolution of those individuals and their communities. Indeed, the very reason for the existence of such a society is to do this - to continue our upward development as individuals and so create a new, higher, type of human being. To create this new type is the second fundamental aim of Folk Culture.
 

The Folk Organism

To be living, or organic, a society has to reflect, to represent, the natural living organism which is a folk-community bound by a common culture or heritage, with this culture itself re-presenting the innate, slow, wisdom of Nature expressed most evidently in the human ideals of personal honour and respect for Nature herself. This is so because only such a community is living as a natural healthy organism: only such a community is rooted in the earth and grows from this earth. Only such a unique cultural organism is distinct, and the product of evolution, of Nature.
 

All other types of "community" - such as the ones of modern States - are unnatural, artificial, constructions which are or which become non-organic. Such ideas do not expresses the essence of our humanity, symbolized as it is by honour. Furthermore, the abstract ideas underlying such societies can infect a healthy organic society and destroy it. Such unnatural societies - or an infected, diseased, once healthy society - do not reflect the natural biological, organic, imperatives found in Nature.

A living society has a biological imperative - that is, its has a Destiny and an ethos. It is subject to the laws of Nature - to the pattern of birth-life-death-renewal which is found in Nature. Because it is living it seeks to grow, to prosper, to live-on by re-producing itself. Because it is living, and has evolved, it is distinct; it has its own nature, character, or ethos. The truth is that an organic culture is Nature made manifest. Culture is Nature working to produce diversity, difference and humanity - as such, it is evolution in action.

The fundamental truth of our own nature, as human beings, is that we are not - or should not be - isolated beings. We are part of - or should be part of - an organic culture just as we possess within ourselves the organic ethos and the organic Destiny of such a folk-organism. We are part of - or should be and can be part of - a supra-personal organism which has lived for thousands of years before us and which can live for thousands of years after us - provided we aid its unique organic Destiny. This Destiny is to prosper, to grow, evolve, to develope.

This supra-personal organism which is our culture is the meaning of our lives as human beings. Our purpose is to aid and assist its growth, its evolutionary change, its prosperity. We live-on after death in this organism - in our descendants, in our deeds, in the soil, in the Nature, in the "homeland" where this organism dwells, and in the increased humanity our culture produces. There is no meaning to "life-after-death" other than this. There is no meaning to life other than this - everything else is, in reality, either an illusion or a waste of the opportunities that human life offers.

The reality of our human nature is that we have slowly evolved into thinking beings - we have developed an awareness of ourselves. However, our awareness of ourselves, as separate individuals, is both good and bad. It is bad because it can lead us into selfishness - into the pursuit of selfish goals, pleasures and happiness to the detriment of the larger family which is our natural clan, tribe, folk, Culture. It is good because it means that we possess the ability to consciously change ourselves by an act of will. This means we can actively aid evolution.

Fundamentally our evolution toward consciousness has presented us with a choice. We can either choose to be remain ignorant, unenlightened and selfish, and so ignore our own culture and its future; or we can choose to aid our culture, and thus aid our own individual development. We can either choose to live selfishly, and squander our chance to live on after death; or we can choose to be idealistic and enlightened, and live on after death in our culture and in the increased humanity that culture creates. We either accept our organic Destiny, or we have no Destiny. We either accept our responsibilities, our duties, as evolving human beings, or we do not.
 
 

The fundamental ideals of Folk Culture are honour, loyalty and duty. These ideals produce, or can produce, personal excellence. They represent what is human and civilized, and they produce individuals of real character, of human personality. Fundamentally, these ideals enshrine the noble idealism of Folk Culture itself - the pursuit of supra-personal goals and the setting of high and noble standards for individuals.

The most fundamental principle of Folk Culture is that individuals can change themselves, and the world, for the better through an act of will. That is, individuals possess the ability to change themselves, and others - all it requires is an act, or acts, of will, and idealism, the pursuit of a noble goal. This is being idealistic and self-disciplined, and it is the way for individuals, their communities, to be healthy, and to prosper and evolve. In practical terms, this principle means individuals placing the interests of their folk before their own self-interest and before their own pleasure and happiness. According to this principle, there can be no excuses for bad conduct, for decadence, for weak character - the individual can, and should, change, once they are aware of such things as the noble ideals of Folk Culture, for such change is what it means to be human.

Thus, a society based upon Folk Culture fundamentally means a change in people's outlook and behaviour - it means individuals striving to change themselves through an act of will by them applying the ideals of honour, loyalty and duty in their own personal lives. From this personal, inner, change, a new society can be built, slowly, in a natural way - with the structures and Institutions of such a society reflecting or representing these noble ideals and the principles.

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The second principle of Folk Culture is that of respecting and revering Nature herself. Culture and personal honour reflect the reality of Nature, and accordingly an organic culture is the best, most natural and most healthy type of society for individuals to live in. Such a society strives for a harmonious balance with Nature, balancing Culture and Soil with Technology and Change.

To attain this balance, technology must be harnessed in a controlled and human way, with Nature respected and placed before profit, exploitation and greed. Similarly, change must be wise change, reflecting the slow time of both Nature and a balanced human life. And it is individuals of honour, who are aware of and who do their duty to Nature, their culture and humanity itself, who can help to create and maintain this necessary balance.
 
 

The Destiny of a particular culture can be made manifest in - expressed through - a homeland. For a particular culture to survive, prosper and evolve - and thus for Nature herself to be aided - it should have a home, a place to dwell, as it must establish a harmonious balance with Nature. Most importantly of all, it must have or establish its own identity - the folk must value its own traditions, heritage and culture, as they must seek to extend their culture in a human way, that is, through honourable means. The individuals of that folk should be nourished by good food, as they must be or become physically healthy. The land itself must be cared for, for the folk depend on its well-being. .

There is also, or there must be developed, an awareness of the Destiny of that unique folk. In the past, the Destiny of a particular folk has been expressed by means of a myth or legend, mostly involving gods or deities. Such myths and legends are no longer necessary, since we now possess the ability to consciously know and understand the Destiny of our culture, based as this unique Destiny is on the unique ethos, the unique character, of a particular culture.

A living society has a supra-personal purpose - a striving to make its Destiny real. The individuals of such a society thus posses a supra-personal purpose. This is an aiding of Nature - an evolution of our very humanity.
 

Basically, a folk society is or should be an ordered society full of self-disciplined individuals who willingly cooperate together for their own greater good because they know or feel that such an ordered, self-disciplined society makes them better more healthy individuals, and gives them an opportunity to fulfil the real purpose of their lives. Thus can they, and their folk, their community, evolve, and a new higher type of human being come into existence. The values of an organic society are the values of idealism and nobility - the quest or striving for personal and supra-personal excellence by the setting of high personal standards.

In contrast, modern non-organic societies aim to satisfy the selfish material desires of the individuals within that society. There is no supra-personal purpose which individuals can aspire to and which inspires them, and indeed no united purpose which such societies strive for - except for vague and illusive and abstract ideas like "happiness" and "security". Thus, such societies are dis-organized, de-evolutionary and do not work particularly well.

We have now reached the stage of our evolution when we possess the understanding - and have developed the self-centred arrogance, the illusion of self - to either aid Nature, or to severely damage Nature. Folk Culture is a step toward aiding Nature and our own evolution, both as a species and as individuals.
 

To create an organic society requires us to act with understanding, to be self-disciplined, to achieve our own unique triumph of the will. We either recognize, and strive to restore, our connection with Nature evident in culture and honour, or we selfishly and arrogantly ignore this connection, and damage Nature, and the future of our own species, here on this planet we call Earth.