Are humans animals? Yes, no, maybe so…what say you? Your answer will likely be different depending on your upbringing and culture. Now at the risk of stereotyping, most folks in the western or colonial context would likely say “no” we are not, we are humans. Every single person I have asked this question of from an indigenous culture has told me unequivocally “YES”.
My opinion? Yes, yes, we are animals which means we are part of nature, not separate from it. So why have we developed a consumerism society that sees earth as ours to exploit and the precious resources ours to commodify, buy, sell, and tax? Well, each great age and stage of human ‘progress’ provided the springboard for the next (from the agricultural revolution, to the religious one, to the scientific one, to the industrial age, and onto the technological age). Each age was one of ‘progress’ and ‘growth’ and while they provided the platform for the many luxuries we enjoy today, each furthered humanity on the journey of separation.
~I want to pause and acknowledge that what I am sharing here comes from a western colonial context and is the “his-story” of colonial development coupled with the eradication of ingenious wisdom. EEEK, we need a more holistic view of “her-story” and the real experiences of ancient and indigenous societies not documented by the colonial anthropologists that studied and documented them like viruses in a Petrie dish (ok not all of them saw through this lens and it is important to note the perspective ‘his-story’ is told through) ~
I am going to oversimplify this, but here goes…. it all started ~12,000 years ago. Humans have been on earth for 200,000-300,000 years depending on your information source. For most of the time on earth, our ancestors were hunters and gatherers seeing themselves as one with nature. The end of the last ice age was about 12,000 years ago and it came with more hospitable climates that enabled more settled ways of life. Then there was an extreme drop in temperature, some say around 10 degrees C that forced our nomadic ancestors to seek shelter from nature, to protect themselves from nature. This is when many social scientists believe the identity of ‘ego’ and self-separate from nature started.
Humans alive at that time had to build shelters, clothes, and more dependable food systems. This was the birth of the agricultural revolution. The agricultural revolution was the foundation, the springboard for modern society. The book Regenerative Leadership by Giles Hutchens and Laura Storm outlines this in a more detailed and eloquent way- I highly suggest reading it!
The creation of cultivated agriculture and domestication of livestock enabled ancient humans to developed aspects of society never before dreamed of. Communities, societies, and vast agricultural and economic systems sprung up all over the world. Then about 500 years ago there was another drop in temperature and the crops that communities became reliant on were mostly wiped out. This created widespread disease and famine resulting in fear of the natural forces. What happened next…?
Enter the Religious Revolution where ‘God’ was seen as the savior and the forces of nature as the Devil. Battles between which God was to be worshiped and how launched bloody wars and crusades. At this time the sacredness of femininity was seen as connected with nature, so if nature was dark then so too are women. This furthered the separation of ourselves from self (GOD is the highest power), from each other (man from woman, one religion vs another) and from nature.
The next great ‘revolution’ was the scientific one where we were obsessed with breaking everything down into its smallest parts and studying them all as isolated entities. We compartmentalized the universe and then kinda forget to put it all back together again. On went colonial society leading ‘progress’ and ‘growth’ in American and Canada and countless other countries. Brining us eventually to the Industrial Age, further separating our relationship with nature and affirming earth’s purpose as a commodity for human profit.
The Industrial Age was the birth of the climate chaos we are just starting to feel. Did you know that the 1.1 degrees C warming we are feeling now is the fossil fuels from the Industrial age just now impacting our climate today? Well $hit, that means the effect of all the fossil fuels we have combusted since then are not even felt yet! Yikes!
The Industrial age was the springboard to the Technological Revolution which we are living through today. I don’t know about you, but when I go out and see groups of people most of them are glued to their phones rarely talking to each other. While all these ages and revolutions have provided grand advances to ‘modern society’ they have furthered the wedge between our deep connection to source energy, our selves, each other, and the natural world. The result is the disconnected, consumerism, commodified world we find ourselves in today. The symptoms are the widespread depression, anxiety, chronic dis-eases, rampant mental health problems, and the growing climate anxiety we are feeling.
I ask you, does this work? How many people in your life are depressed, anxious, stressed out, or dealing with chronic health issues? These are all symptoms, in my opinion, of this journey of separation. Yet there is hope. As one of my friends David Orr says, “Hope is a verb with its sleeve rolled up”. Well, my friends it is time to roll up our selves, say “No more to separation” and leverage all our collective power (a renewable and regenerative resource by the way) to springboard humanity into the journey of integration, regeneration and deep healing. Healing the embodied and generational trauma for ourselves, each other, and the natural world. We have much -to learn from and give back to- our indigenous brothers and sisters including our animal ancestors.
We now stand at a collective crossroads and each of us alive today must make a choice. Which path do you want to go down? How will you use your precious life? Will you continue to walk the path of disconnection doom scrolling your phones? Or will you rise to the occasion, decide enough is enough is enough is enough?
So, what do we do? We need to identify the systems, processes, beliefs, and paradigms that no longer serve and help them sunset. We can no longer put a band aide on the bullet wounds of society. We must face them head on. We must stop pretending we are separate from nature, better than nature. We must come together in radical collaboration to reinvent all the systems that shape and govern our lives. Are you in?
The journey ahead will not be easy, but it is possible. The future is malleable and full of infinite possibilities far beyond the probability of the charts and graphs of systems collapse and chaos the media likes to blast us with. There are pockets of hope all over the world of changes agents and leaders mobilizing transformation.
We need your help; will you answer the call?
With Love and Light,
B
