Miyazaki and environmentalism

Environmentalism as in the concern for the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural environment?

or in the environments he creates in his anime?
 
You're right I probably should have done that first.

I re-watched Princess Mononoke and realised that it has quite a disturbing message when you think about what happens.

He's basically saying that people who live in industrialised towns and want to improve their living standards are bad (or at least misguided) and people who live and the woods, wear skins and talk to animals are good.

You could also look at Future Boy Conan. The bad guys live in Industria (which has slavery) and the good guys live in a perfect agricultural town with no real problems until it encounters the influence of Industria.

Considering his way of life and the industry (no pun intended) he works in he can't possibly believe this stuff he's pushing.
 
I admire Miyazaki greatly for two of his beliefs, one of course is enviromentalism, which is as important now as ever. But I think I admire him more for his being a Feminist (which I consider myself also) - and making films that show it!
 
Ark said:
You're right I probably should have done that first.

I re-watched Princess Mononoke and realised that it has quite a disturbing message when you think about what happens.

He's basically saying that people who live in industrialised towns and want to improve their living standards are bad (or at least misguided) and people who live and the woods, wear skins and talk to animals are good.

You could also look at Future Boy Conan. The bad guys live in Industria (which has slavery) and the good guys live in a perfect agricultural town with no real problems until it encounters the influence of Industria.

Considering his way of life and the industry (no pun intended) he works in he can't possibly believe this stuff he's pushing.
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Oh, I'm pretty sure he believes it.

In addition to the examples you mentioned, Pom Poko and Nausicaa (even more so in the manga) are very much nature/environment=good, poeple/industrialisation=bad. Although ultimately the message he tries to put across is one of living together in harmony rather than one side taking clear precedence over the other.

I know some people are put off a bit by his moralising, which can feel a little heavy-handed at times.
 
in the end it's pretty much the truth of life.

Even if we are talking about ourselves, Farmers, fishermen and people who go out and do work for their own survival are more likely to enjoy the food they've worked so hard to get, while to us who just go out and buy it, it's just another meal.
 
Ryo Chan said:
in the end it's pretty much the truth of life.

Even if we are talking about ourselves, Farmers, fishermen and people who go out and do work for their own survival are more likely to enjoy the food they've worked so hard to get, while to us who just go out and buy it, it's just another meal.
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I'm pretty sure most people would rather live in a society where they are less likely to starve or die of disease. It's only people who have compfortable lives who dream of going "back to nature". In the words of Omar Shariff "No Arab loves the desert".
 
Ark said:
Ryo Chan said:
in the end it's pretty much the truth of life.

Even if we are talking about ourselves, Farmers, fishermen and people who go out and do work for their own survival are more likely to enjoy the food they've worked so hard to get, while to us who just go out and buy it, it's just another meal.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure most people would rather live in a society where they are less likely to starve or die of disease. It's only people who have compfortable lives who dream of going "back to nature". In the words of Omar Shariff "No Arab loves the desert".
Click to expand...

I think a lot of people are disgusted by the supposed desecration of nature. Though I agree with your general sentiment that seems to echo "survival of the fittest", as a race, we are abusing our responsibility to nature by hunting animals to extinction often for little more than a fur-coat. In Miyazaki's movies, the "bad" humans aren't polluting, hunting and killing animals to survive, there are doing out of greed and ambition; this is especially the case in Princess Mononoke, with Lady Eboshi going out of her way to kill the "spirit of the forest" for little more than town expansion and a personal quest for honour.
 
Paul said:
Ark said:
Ryo Chan said:
in the end it's pretty much the truth of life.

Even if we are talking about ourselves, Farmers, fishermen and people who go out and do work for their own survival are more likely to enjoy the food they've worked so hard to get, while to us who just go out and buy it, it's just another meal.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure most people would rather live in a society where they are less likely to starve or die of disease. It's only people who have compfortable lives who dream of going "back to nature". In the words of Omar Shariff "No Arab loves the desert".
Click to expand...

I think a lot of people are disgusted by the supposed desecration of nature. Though I agree with your general sentiment that seems to echo "survival of the fittest", as a race, we are abusing our responsibility to nature by hunting animals to extinction often for little more than a fur-coat. In Miyazaki's movies, the "bad" humans aren't polluting, hunting and killing animals to survive, there are doing out of greed and ambition; this is especially the case in Princess Mononoke, with Lady Eboshi going out of her way to kill the "spirit of the forest" for little more than town expansion and a personal quest for honour.
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It's not just an issue of plain survival though. Humans will instinctively try to make their lives easier if they can and by extention making their chances of survival more likely. This is what makes us different from animals. We don't have to adapt biologically to different environments because we have creative mental abilities. I just find this idea of going back to nature whether from Miyazaki or Tolkien to be escapist in the extreme.
 
Ark said:
I just find this idea of going back to nature whether from Miyazaki or Tolkien to be escapist in the extreme.
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Tolkien aside, I don't think Miyazaki is quite as much for "going back to nature" as you seem to think - at the end of Mononoke, IIRC, Ashitaka goes back to the town to help them rebuild and expand. I'd say that the focus is on consideration for nature, as opposed to blind expansionism.
 
Ramadahl said:
Ark said:
I just find this idea of going back to nature whether from Miyazaki or Tolkien to be escapist in the extreme.
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Tolkien aside, I don't think Miyazaki is quite as much for "going back to nature" as you seem to think - at the end of Mononoke, IIRC, Ashitaka goes back to the town to help them rebuild and expand. I'd say that the focus is on consideration for nature, as opposed to blind expansionism.
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I don't see how the town was engaging in blind expansionism but more importantly I'm not sure what would constitute blind expansionism.
 
Ark said:
I don't see how the town was engaging in blind expansionism but more importantly I'm not sure what would constitute blind expansionism.
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Blind expansionism is along the lines of clearing a hillside of trees for farmland, only to have the hillside collapse due to it's support being taken away - it's essentially considering the immediate needs of the population without consideration for future consequences that may result.
It's the same kind of mentality that results in houses being built on flood plains.
 
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