Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
American wilderness: a priceless natural treasure. It belongs to us, the American people, and in a larger sense to the world. 2014 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Very few ideas in human history have changed the way we see and relate to the world. America's one original unique, world altering idea, and surely our grandest, was the concept of preservation of wilderness for its own sake. No society in human history had ever had this visionary inspiration. No one can say how this revolutionary idea originated; perhaps it was always implicit in the vast wild land called the New World, waiting for the genius to receive it.
What we know is in the early 20th century, a few visionary people shared a dream. Their dream led eventually to an act of congress that for the first time anywhere on Earth, mandated protection of wilderness by law. Fifty years have passed since the Wilderness Act was signed and nearly all of those who devoted themselves to see it enacted are gone. One man remains who was in at the creation: Stewart Brandborg. He makes his home where he was born in the Bitteroot Valley of western Montana.
The fate of wilderness may seem inconsequential. Not so. The reality we are schooled to forget is that we are inextricably part of wild nature. That truth is now glossed as folklore, as hypocrites mouth dead dogmas decoupled from the core demands of their faith. Advocates want the wild saved as a living laboratory; only visionaries say save it for its own sake. What is never said is that man cannot and will not be human without it.
In commodifying all nature capitalism commodifies mankind. If humanity is simply one class of objects, it can be bought and sold with all the rest. Manipulated humanity has lost itself in the sorcery of the mechanical. If the last wild is eradicated, only artificial virtual nature will exist. Cut away from our roots and the nourishing Earth, we must inevitably wither into a virtual species. A fundamental mutation in kind that can never be undone.
This end to our human story is threatening, appalling and likely, but it is not inevitable. With enough fierce outrage, love and wisdom, we can shatter the illusion of our impotence and resist, rebel and repeal this lethal system. If we are to survive as vital autonomous human beings, we must save our miracle, our only home. We must find the spirit and courage to reconnect with the fecundity of wild nature and defend our essence from destruction. In our deepest core, we have always known that life is truly sacred and that in wildness is the preservation of the world.
View the Original Show on YouTube:
youtu.be/nxEZ75NE9Do
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Tags: Wilderness, Wildness, Nature, Preservation, Earth, Nurturing, History, Humanity, Change, World, America,
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YouTube
youtu.be/jtGKU4vbFck
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Also, this show is available for local public TV stations to broadcast.
Phone your local public TV station (LPTV) to request they broadcast this film to your local community. Your station can download the film in TV broadcast format, HD or SD, from www.PEGMedia.org . This film is available for broadcast from any LPTV station in the country - and world. Stations that use Telvue, DVDs or other media can contact us for instructions.
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American wilderness: a priceless natural treasure. It belongs to us, the American people, and in a larger sense to the world. 2014 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Very few ideas in human history have changed the way we see and relate to the world. America's one original unique, world altering idea, and surely our grandest, was the concept of preservation of wilderness for its own sake. No society in human history had ever had this visionary inspiration. No one can say how this revolutionary idea originated; perhaps it was always implicit in the vast wild land called the New World, waiting for the genius to receive it.
What we know is in the early 20th century, a few visionary people shared a dream. Their dream led eventually to an act of congress that for the first time anywhere on Earth, mandated protection of wilderness by law. Fifty years have passed since the Wilderness Act was signed and nearly all of those who devoted themselves to see it enacted are gone. One man remains who was in at the creation: Stewart Brandborg. He makes his home where he was born in the Bitteroot Valley of western Montana.
The fate of wilderness may seem inconsequential. Not so. The reality we are schooled to forget is that we are inextricably part of wild nature. That truth is now glossed as folklore, as hypocrites mouth dead dogmas decoupled from the core demands of their faith. Advocates want the wild saved as a living laboratory; only visionaries say save it for its own sake. What is never said is that man cannot and will not be human without it.
In commodifying all nature capitalism commodifies mankind. If humanity is simply one class of objects, it can be bought and sold with all the rest. Manipulated humanity has lost itself in the sorcery of the mechanical. If the last wild is eradicated, only artificial virtual nature will exist. Cut away from our roots and the nourishing Earth, we must inevitably wither into a virtual species. A fundamental mutation in kind that can never be undone.
This end to our human story is threatening, appalling and likely, but it is not inevitable. With enough fierce outrage, love and wisdom, we can shatter the illusion of our impotence and resist, rebel and repeal this lethal system. If we are to survive as vital autonomous human beings, we must save our miracle, our only home. We must find the spirit and courage to reconnect with the fecundity of wild nature and defend our essence from destruction. In our deepest core, we have always known that life is truly sacred and that in wildness is the preservation of the world.
View the Original Show on YouTube:
youtu.be/nxEZ75NE9Do
--
Tags: Wilderness, Wildness, Nature, Preservation, Earth, Nurturing, History, Humanity, Change, World, America,
--
YouTube
youtu.be/jtGKU4vbFck
--
Also, this show is available for local public TV stations to broadcast.
Phone your local public TV station (LPTV) to request they broadcast this film to your local community. Your station can download the film in TV broadcast format, HD or SD, from www.PEGMedia.org . This film is available for broadcast from any LPTV station in the country - and world. Stations that use Telvue, DVDs or other media can contact us for instructions.
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