The analysis of the planetary condition by politically active environmentalists is flawed and expressed in dogmatic terms. Their agenda, though vague, is more radical and more intensely political than is appreciated and their policy recommendations are far more authoritarian than is usually acknowledged. Their vision is flawed because it omits that fact that man is part of the natural order, endowed with gifts which actually enable him to enhance its beauty as well as to exploit its riches. Most disturbing of all is the illiberal bias of their assumptions. Their proposals for de-urbanization and curbing economic growth could only be effected by stringent economic controls and coercion on a massive scale.
Ecology is effectively the only radical ideology in town after the eclipse of communism and the inherent unsustainability, to name only one drawback, of capitalism.
Social ecologists argue for a decentralized society of communities, modern in technology and wise in environmental husbandry. They blame exploiting classes and interests for the ecological mess. Their worldview embraces outcasts and refugees from the present capitalist economic system, such as travellers, squatters, unemployed and other societal drop-outs, arguing that work does not necessarily depend on formal employment and status. It encourages exchange of services and goods without money (the black economy). For social ecologists, deep ecology is as so much middle-class "ecolala", spiritual striving and philosophical escapism which avoids the issues of how people live on a daily basis.