Living On A Different Planet

 

Something is off. I can feel it, and I’m not the only one.

There’s something fundamentally wrong. It’s not at the periphery. It goes much deeper than that.

It’s as if a huge crack has emerged at the foundation of Western civilization, threatening to bring the whole thing crashing down.

There are no quick fixes.

It's about how we imagine reality and our place in it.

The modern sense of reality has been long in the making and has come to dominate the planet and all other ways of being on Earth. It was born on European soil, took root in the minds of many, and guided the great enterprise of imperial conquest, the slave trade, the rise of the nation-state, the industrial revolution, a world at war, the great acceleration, the information revolution, globalization, and climate change.

Some would have us believe in its narrative of progress: of humans moving from dank caves, huddled around fires, to finally finding their place among the stars. Others would invoke the myth of Icarus, the boy in Greek mythology who soared high above the sea on wings of feathers and wax, but, ignoring his father's warning, flew too close to the sun, which melted his wings and sent him plummeting to his death.

Perhaps, reaching for the stars in itself is not an act of hubris, but the way we have chosen to place ourselves above nature, separate, almost god-like in the way we are changing life on the planet is, and we do so at our peril.

Humanity is experiencing an ontological conflict: two groups of the same species living on a different planet. On the one hand, we have those who believe that a Judeo-Christian God gave humans dominion over the earth and all the creatures in it, based on the idea that humans are superior and possess a God-given right to control and exploit nature for their own benefit, implying that humans are distinct, totally separate, with man being the measure of all things. Later, with the rise of rationalism in the 17th and 18th centuries, nature became viewed as a machine, to be measured, analyzed, and manipulated by humans. By the 21st century, this worldview has come to dominate and direct what takes place on the planet.

But the modern worldview, though dominant, has not eliminated other ways of being in the world. There are those who do not believe that humanity is above and separate from nature. On the contrary, they do not share the anthropocentric belief that humans are the center of the universe, entitled to disregard and devalue other forms of life and the ecosystems that sustain them. Rather, as the keystone species on the planet, humans have a duty of care to ensure that life, in all its myriad forms, thrives in the present and for future generations.

It is the presence or absence of this duty of care that creates a fundamental conflict between those who subscribe to the modern worldview and embrace a rapacious desire to extract as much wealth as possible from the world's natural resources with a devil-may-care attitude toward the consequences of their actions, and those who would impose limits on human behavior in order to exercise humanity's collective responsibility to ensure that life flourishes.

It appears that, for now, the desire to be free of all constraints and the belief in freedom’s guarantee of a better life, manifesting in unencumbered individuals trading freely in free markets, has won the day. Surprisingly, philosophic beliefs dating back to the Enlightenment, when there were less than a billion people on the planet, have remained essentially intact. Attempts to redirect a small portion of the extracted wealth to support the ecosystems and the people who dwell in them are met with savage attacks that seek to demean and denigrate anyone who dares to suggest that a redistribution of this wealth is in order. So powerful are the voices and interests that protect and advance the global industrial-consumer way of life that nothing, including the dissenting opinions of the international scientific community, will stop them from cranking up the global thermostat (now at 422 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere), which will render many parts of the planet inhospitable for both human and other-than-human life.

It is as though we are held captive in a prison of our own making while smoke and fire creep closer and closer, threatening to engulf the inmates and those who keep the prison running. Clutching the keys to the gate, the overseers are deaf and blind. Undeterred, they follow the orders on how to create an ever-expanding global economy. Their rationality prevents them from responding to the warning signs. They are like men made of tin, unable to feel the suffering of others because they have no hearts and refuse to imagine how things could be different.

The algorithms of wealth extraction churn on, and as expected, the biosphere, which supports all life, continues to degrade.

As I watch this sad spectacle unfold in slow motion, I wonder if Daedalus ever lived to rue the day he attached the wings made from wax and feathers upon his son. His neglect of his duty of care led to a tragic result. Likewise, our collective neglect of our duty of care for future generations is the stuff that tragedy is made from.