The Beautifully Unnerving Gaze of “Evil Does Not Exist”
This sense of dark awe is the sort of veneration that Japanese have toward certain forests and natural objects—in short, it’s an animistic primitive religion. Many places have a “forest that shouldn’t be entered.” Even people who are used to working in the mountains feel there is something there. They are suddenly overcome with fear and it becomes
... See moreHayao Miyazaki • Starting Point: 1979-1996
Rebuilding our philosophical connection to nature has the largest potential to drive a societal transformation toward sustainability but it is also likely the most difficult connection to change. This is because it demands not only a shift in deeply entrenched and nuanced cultural narratives but also a fundamental transformation in individual minds... See more
Jonathan Aronson • Restoring Respect for Nature: How Mindset Shifts Can Solve the Biodiversity Crisis
NAKAMURA: That is one of the points at issue. Behind the reason nature was preserved in the past was a certain sense of aesthetics, which was supported in major or minor ways by a sense of religion. Today, we live in an irreligious manner, so we have separated aesthetics from religion. This has weakened the status of beauty in our time.
Hayao Miyazaki • Turning Point: 1997-2008
