Enlightenment Paradox

Here's one passage from last week's reading that I found particularly compelling:

"What the romantic tourist sought in the wilds of the Adirondacks was not further evidence of celestial engineering but hints of meaning in a universe that suddenly no longer physically revolved around the human species" (Schneider, 163).

After focusing so much on the anthropocentrism of early Adirondack settlers as well as many people today, Schneider's discussion of the Enlightenment struck me as flying in the face of that human-serving mentality. At least for some, their understanding of the wilderness shifted from the idea that a divine being created the world as a home, playground, and wilderness directly for human use (in much the same way the political "higher powers" created the Adirondack Park for these same ends) to the idea that nature exists, no matter who put it there, with or without humankind. I can definitely understand how this revelation could lead people to the wilderness to contemplate how humans fit into the natural wonders of the world. But given this shift in thinking, it still seems funny to me that whether people think of the wilderness as existing for human use or not, they still use it! The "enlightened" flocked to the wild Adirondacks to understand their place in the non-human-centered world just as I still benefit from modern amenities and luxuries that I know come at the cost of many natural resources. The Enlightenment brought with it a shift in thinking about nature, but it also created what seems to me an irreconcilable rift between thought and action: how can I possibly align my thoughts about my place in the environment and how I should treat the natural sources that sustain me, with my actions, especially when so much of my ingrained daily life undermines those thoughts? In this way the Enlightenment doesn't illuminate the situation, but muddies the water with many other questions and incongruities. In psychology this incongruous thought/action is called cognitive dissonance and I find it happening to me on a pretty big scale in this class. I've come to think of this as just another paradox of our class and the Adirondacks--just one that hopefully I'll be able to find a balance with.