The Spiritual Dimension of Green Politics

Spretnak trots out her same old tired arguments; mankind and its patriarchal society have subdued both nature and women, and has created unnatural roles for everyone to try and fulfill. Violence against women come from these forced roles. If society would only embrace the old "matrifocal" (read: women in charge) ways, we'd all be better off. Spretnak also makes some arguments that the Judeo-Christian religious structure is acting against nature, and that it should acknowledge its pagan foundations and work towards preserving nature.

The most interesting aspect of this book was Spretnak's examination of spirituality, hence the title of the book. She believes that society would be better off if everyday, people would engage in spiritual exercises and then try and live up to them the rest of the day. Spretnak says that once a week people would attend little meetings where kindness and love would be discussed. I'm amazed she doesn't mention somebody bringing a guitar to the meeting so everyone could break into song while they're holding hands. Another aspect of this spirituality is what Spretnak calls, "body parables". These parables occur when a person gets a sense of being one with the harmonic forces of the universe. She believes that childbirth and post-orgasmic sensations help women attain this oneness. She talks of the feeling of borders being crossed or broken down. This is the way it should be, Spretnak says, because boundaries are just arbitrary and relative anyway. Really. I guess she is right. Who needs boundaries on their behavior. If it feels good, just do it. No wonder our society is in such a mess.

I read this book after reading Kenn Kassman's, "Envisioning Ecotopia", which looked at the Green movement in some depth. Spretnak was used as source material for this book, so I wanted to get a closer look at the belly of the beast, so to speak. I found this book to be a sick fraud and unhealthy for society. It is only interesting as a look at what makes the far, far left tick. Charlene, you're very, very lucky I gave you three stars!