mentalist lobbies that include the heavilynbureaucratized and technocraticnfunds and foundations, as well as thencorporate, governmental, and academicnorganizations that understand hownto use the movement to enhance theirnown power at the expense of socialninstitutions and habits, local jurisdictionsnand national sovereignties, andncultural identities and relationships. Itnis this part of the movement that hasneffectively created Earth Day and environmentalismnas respectable and evennfashionable causes, because it realizesnthey and’their symbols are not threatsnto its power but rather the best thing tonhappen to it since the Earl of Sandwichninvented fast food.nOn the other hand, there is anotherncomponent of environmentalism that isnusually manipulated and exploited bynthe first. This part of the movementnrejects the whole idea of a technologicalnsociety and an elite that bases its powernon technology. As some of its championsnreadily acknowledge, it is not, strictlynspeaking, a “left” or “progressivist”nmovement but a reactionary force. Itnnot only rejects technology and its applicationsnto man, machine, and nature,nbut also seeks to make a quick marchnout of the Newtonian universe. Darwiniannbiology, Lockean sensationalistnpsychology, and a unilinear conceptionnof history.nBut it is reactionary mainly because itnmerely rejects modernism, not becausenit seriously aims at restoring pre-modernism.nWhile it idealizes premodernn(usually primitive and animistic)ncommunities, it seems to be contentnwith fantasizing about pastoral Nirvanasnwhere the meanest machine available isna slingshot. It offers no realistic socialnmodels as alternatives to technologicalnmodernism, no means of arriving atnsuch alternatives, and no particularlyncompelling reasons to look for them.nMany of its adherents wind up (or startnout) sucked into occultism, mysticism,nand New Age esoterica.nIts critique of modernism is essentiallynethical, but it nevertheless relies onnscientific (or pseudoscientific) propheciesnof material, natural disasters thatnwill ravage the Earth unless we abandonnmodern technology and the socialnstructures and world view that supportnit. When these prophecies turn out tonbe unreliable (as global warming theoriesnhave), the environmentalist chal­nlenge to modernism collapses. But byndepending on science to support itsnclaims, reactionary environmentalismncrawls into bed with the very technologicalnsystem it claims to repudiate andnallows managerial environmentalists tonassimilate it and manipulate it for theirnown purposes.nOne reason reactionary environmentalismnoffers no sustained ethicalncritique of modernism is that its proponentsnprobably realize it would soundneven more bizarre than the doomsayingnthey usually thunder about. For allnthe pother about global warming, acidnrain, resource depletion, carcinogenicnfoods, insecticides, and spray deodorants,nno one other than the mostnmarginal oddballs and the most etherealneggheads really wants to live like thenIroquois, the Eskimo, or medievalnserfs. No one even wants to live likenAmerican farmers of the 19th century.nThe remarkable absence of peoplenwho choose to exist at pre-industrialnlevels of subsistence is due only in partnto the materialism which holds that fornsome reason such technologies as runningnwater are preferable to haulingnbuckets from the village well. Societiesnthat do prefer such levels or can’t movenbeyond them don’t survive in competitionnwith those that don’t or can.nMoreover, the civilization of the Westnis distinguished from other culturalncomplexes in large part by a qualitynthat Oswald Spengler called its “Faustian”ncharacter, its seemingly irrepressiblenimpulse to expand, explore, conquer,nand create, and its capacity toninstitutionalize this impulse in intellectualnand aesthetic life, as well as innpolitics, the economy, and technology.nContrary to Spengler, the FaustiannDomestic production of America’snnumber one cash crop—marijuana—njumped sixfold in the 1980’s, tripling innthe past three years alone. According toninformation from the U.S. Drug EnforcementnAdministration, the area contributingnthe most to this boom is cashstarvednAppalachia, particularly thenBooneville region of Eastern Kentucky.nAlthough the mountainous terrain isntoo steep and remote for an exact ac­nLIBERAL ARTSnTHE BLUE GRASS STATEnnndynamism of the West is characteristicnnot only of modernity but also ofnancient and medieval Europe. Probablynits first manifestation was in thenprehistoric outpourings of the Indo-nEuropeans into continental Europenand their rapid conquest of more primalnsocieties that had the misfortunento get in their way. Millennia later itnpopped up again in the ethos thatnimpelled Europeans to build roads andnaqueducts across deserts, design Gothicncathedrals, invent capitalism and industry,nstretch out to China, Africa,nand North and South America, holdnsway over continents and the oceansnthat link them, and ultimately intrudeninto the caverns of the atom and reachnupward toward the stars.nWhether they called their holidaysnChristmas or the Saturnalia, the elitesnthat created European civilization understoodnthat they and the people theynruled were destined for somethingnother than the bucolic toe-picking thatnreactionary environmentalists seem tonthink is the chief and proper end ofnmankind. They understood also thatnwhile economic growth and technologicalninnovation are part of the Faustiannethos, they are not the whole of it.nThey would therefore have regardednthe preoccupation with acquisitive andnhedonistic individualism and the manicnpursuit of growth and gratificationnchampioned by contemporary “conservatives”nas a deformation of thatnethos, no less than the primitivist whiningsnof the greenies; and they wouldnhave recognized in the resurrectionnand cultivation of Faustian aspirationsnthe only authentic source of an enduringntechnological civilization of thenfuture. <^ncounting, it appears that one-third of allnmarijuana plants cultivated on publicnlands are now found amid the lands ofnthe Daniel Boone National Forest. Informantsnhave told prosecutors that asnmany as four in ten residents of Booneville’snOwsley County now grow marijuananfor profit. Marijuana growers arenreportedly paying grocery bills with Cnotes,nand formedy unemployed fieldnhands are paying cash for new trucks.nAUGUST 1990/11n