No Vision = Wandering in the Wilderness

Mel Kotyk

• Responses To This Article
• Literature Cited

Published: December 16, 1999

It was with sadness that I read the editorial "Visions: a personal essay" by Buzz Holling regarding his lack of vision. His implication that adaptive management, or sculpting, precludes the need for a defined vision is mistaken. Vision does not equate to rigidity or lack of hearing but merely defines the objective we wish to achieve. One cannot attain even the noblest of causes, such as sustainable development or the protection of endangered species, without the necessary vision and motivation these terms evoke in one's mind. Vision provides the fuel that propels us forward even when confronted with the mud of adversity. Dogmatism is merely the outward expression of the individual's pride in assuming that he inherently possesses all the tools necessary to achieve his vision. However, I agree with Holling's argument that we must have a listening ear, as this paves the road to our goals. The vision of an entrepreneur is to gain wealth, and the road to his goal is listening to his customers and determining their wants. Our role as scientists is not dramatically different, except that our vision is generally not one of personal gain. Surely we do not have to sacrifice our vision to have a listening ear.

Responses to this article are invited. If accepted for publication, your response will be hyperlinked to the article. To submit a comment, follow this link. To read comments already accepted, follow this link.

Holling, C. S. 1999. Visions: a personal essay. Conservation Ecology 3(1): 12. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/Journal/vol3/iss1/art12

^*The copyright to this article passed from the Ecological Society of America to the Resilience Alliance on 1 January 2000.