from Ego to Eco

Diving into deep ecology, one of the three roots feeding this rhizome – or perhaps the soil where nutrients sprout towards the rest of the ramblings – in par with object-oriented ontology (ooo) and indigenous ways of seeing/being. It was a proposal for a different approach on our view of nature, with value detached from their function to humans but instead coming from recognizing her inherent worth. Re-shifting our priorities to a more biocentric (i.e. focus on life itself) worldview where the more-than-human world as-it-is is given more care. Let’s call it falling back in love with the planet, with this love being translated to the commitment to nourish and be an active part on, not just preserving, but also participating in its transformation and liberation. All life forms unite against the tyranny of anthropocentric views!

Sometimes called an “ecosophy”, because we are not talking about environmental policies per se and rather the philosophy behind them, it is supposed to be the antithesis of “shallow ecology”, the more mainstream ways we as a society address the environment, focused on dealing with mitigation, resolving climate change, stressing the effects from the biodiversity collapse on us — like we are the only ones deserving attention and we should merely fix things in case they affect us long-term. But we don’t navigate in the main streams as it is in the small rivers where the most interesting life forms appear: deep ecology attempts to break the prejudice of only “fixing” the nature affecting us, the climate catastrophes flooding our cities and the droughts reducing our food chain. Rejecting the vanity of keeping the Amazon alive so the industrialized countries can keep profiting from more fossil fuels, a tit-for-tat with a way larger and more complex world than us. We messing up nature on the bigger picture and then trying to take small selfies as quick band-aids so our lives go on, business as usual, reality as delusional. Like we could grow forever in a finite planet with zero consequences.

Being part of nature intimately as we are, even if we don’t see it, and seeing our needs without disturbing the homeostasis of the whole system, the natural balance of the planet, we need to start caring for some of the principles that deep ecologist pioneer Naess proposed:

“Inherent value: The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have value in themselves. These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes.

Diversity: Richness and diversity of life forms contribute to the realisation of these values and are also values in themselves.” As with the multiculturalism quality in true melting pots, or the celebration of the rich tapestry of traditions, aesthetics and life experiences in countries where different ethnic and indigenous groups co-exist, or even in the inner scale of the body with variety of DNA always being more resistant and immune to diseases. The cancer lies in sameness, in life, diversity always wins.

“Vital Needs: Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs.

Human Interference: The present human interference with the non-human world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening.” Land grabbing, dams without environmental impact assessments, chemical-based monoculture farming, expanding our reach towards forest are all additional stabs on an already bloody wound. As we have been noticing in the increase of people-wildlife encounters, from destruction of crops by elephants or bear attacks, to the very existence of pandemics such as covid.

Quality of Life: seen as actual Quality of Life(s) and not just as standard of living. Going beyond the comfort and the transactional, valuing experiences as how close they are connected with the natural, with the authentic, with the real.

And this real is very much mystical, in the sense that is addressing nature as-it-is, in all the magical qualities it possesses with no need for a supernatural entity. As Spinoza would say, there is passive nature — the materials and objects that everything is composed of, the atoms, the strains of genetic information, the seemingly dead matter of bones and inner tree trunks — and there is active nature. The natural laws that govern the passive particles, the gravity that pulls things down in our point of reference, the invisible strings making a plant grow up vertically or the (non-supernatural) hand pushing a queen bee to develop differently than the rest of the bees in the hive. What Spinoza called god, what indigenous people call the guardians of the lands and water, Matcha Dei and Matcha Teuk.

Deep ecology professes the equality of species as much as ooo, where all objects have the same value independently of how they are used by others, but at the same time interdependent — an endless dialogue with no conclusion to be reached. We are all important connectors of the rhizome we call Life, no need for rigid theologies or even stiffer ideologies that our current societal model operates within. And definitely not believing in a troubled story of humans living over nature, only stewards interwoven on this flesh and sap fabric of our reality. Living WITH nature as the gesture of taking down fences separating our curated lawns to the wilderness. In fact, it’s all about allowing a certain rewilding of our ways of seeing and being.

The environmentalist movement cannot focus only on conserving and protecting nature. It needs the mission to restore, not only the biosphere but also its stories. Deep ecology argues that a person is cut off from others and their surroundings when the self is seen as a solitary and independent ego among other solitary and independent egos. That separation is the root cause of not just the environmental degradation and the climate crisis, but also the decrease in our mental health — our brains are flesh evolved to be part of nature, not isolated from it. Not individuals fighting for their survival but as agents deeply entangled in the process of inter-being & co-becoming of everything around them. From ego to eco, how can we start re-designing our society to become as regenerative as all life that came before us and continues to exist feeding off each other in an endless flux of positive feedback loops?

And also to acknowledge the intersectionality of the environmental issues we are facing, its relations to power, being the dominance-focused patriarchy or the north-versus-south unbalance of costs and rewards, the inherent racism of our current globalized system keeping itself alive and growing by not caring for the “disposables” continuing to produce too much for the comforts of the too few. This was one of the criticisms deep ecology philosophy faced when it sprouted, for not connecting the dots enough. But yes, of course everything is interconnected and impacting each other, our own human worlds and egosystems could never succeeded as a better narrative than the overall more-than-human ecosystem. No bees no pollination. No pollinators no fresh vegetables wrapped in plastic on a supermarket shelf. We deviated so much from the natural towards the comfort and the pretense, that we lost the capacity to see beyond the labels and shiny packages. Linked as well to one of the other criticisms(?) deep ecology received, that is too mystical. The exact problem we are faced with the crisis of faith in modern days, well resolved for generations between the animists. What’s wrong with worshiping nature if that leads to pragmatic increases on both our mental and the planetary health?

Isn’t this real enough, in a world literally dying from our lack of imagination?

"Look at what realists have done for us. They have led us to war and climate change, poverty on an unimaginable scale, and wholesale ecological destruction. Half of humanity goes to bed hungry because of all the realistic leaders in the world. I tell people who call me "unrealistic" to show me what their realism has done. Realism is an outdated, overplayed and wholly exaggerated concept."

(Satish Kumar, indian peace, ecological and spiritual activist)