LOYALTY TO THE NATURAL WORLD: HOW AND WHY TO HAVE REVERENCE FOR NATURE
We can see ourselves as separate from nature, but that sense of separateness is an illusion.
A conversation with writer and environmental activist Max Wilbert, co-author of “Bright Green Lies” and director of Protect Thacker Pass.
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HART HAGAN: When you talk about the Biden administration spending all this money--$357 billion dollars at last count--and you have said that your loyalty is to the natural world, not to a high energy civilization. Talk about why the average person should have this loyalty to the natural world.
MAX WILBERT: Ultimately everything that we have is a result of the natural world, every breath of air we take, every sip of water, every bite of food, every article of clothing, all the physical goods that we rely on. All of it comes from the planet and comes at the grace of the planet.
We could even take this deeper. Engaged Buddhists talk about the concept of Interbeing. And they talk about the reality that human beings emerged from other life forms through Evolution. And as far as we know life began somewhat spontaneously on this planet. What that means is that inanimate matter became animate matter and then became us, that there's a continuum between us and stone and the Earth itself, the soil, the air, the water.
The water that is circulating in our blood and in our stomach and throughout every cell in our bodies has been all over the planet and will be all over the planet again. There's a very real sense in which to believe there's no separation between us and the planet. We are of the planet and the planet is of us.
That doesn't mean we're not individuals. That doesn't mean there is no separation between the different beings. That’s a useful understanding. But that's just one layer. That's a more superficial layer of reality. The truth is, there is no separation between us and all other life and non-life, non alive things on this planet.
We're all part of the circulation of matter and energy. Some people may look at that as sort of woo woo. If that's the way you think then that's also true from that mindset. I think that biocentrism is ultimately an adaptive mindset.
There's a reason why if you look at indigenous peoples and communities that have lived in place around the planet for thousands of years, you find this almost universal worldview which has a reverence for the natural world and which looks at us as lesser in many ways than rivers and mountains and other life forms, that sees us as one participant in this greater process of life unfolding.
I think that is an adaptive mindset. In other words, that worldview supports the flourishing of our species, over the long term.
If you have a mindset, on the other hand, that's common today, an anthropocentric mindset that says humans are separate from nature, that we're the only beings that matter, that our needs come first, that other life forms aren't animate, or aren't intelligent or aren't important, that we can take whatever we want from the world and we should to develop our own power and strength …
That common mindset is ultimately self-destructive because it will lead to the destruction of those systems that provide our food, our water, our sustenance, everything that we rely on.
We're seeing that play out right now. This isn't a theory. This is an observable reality that anyone can look at. You don't have to be a scientist.