Original post from Dec 5, 2020
What would an animist society, that respects and sanctifies life in all its forms, look like? As myriad animist cultures have shown, there’s no single answer, but it’s a good question to ask. We can each act on a personal level, but much can only be done collectively.
As I wrote last week, food is fundamental in any animist culture. When all life is important, a lot of thought and resources go toward creating the most respectful and harmonious production of food, for people, for the “environment”, and for those we are eating. How can we cultivate respectful and sympathetic relations between the fed and the eaten? I imagine more or less everyone would be somewhat involved in growing or gathering food, which would mostly take place close to home, that there would be a consolidated effort to find the best methods for everyone, and that food would be healthy in the true sense of the word – both in its own life and for those who eat it. There would be gratitude for the death involved and no toleration of horrific methods. It also seems clear that such a culture would never encourage marketing of unhealthy and even addictive food, and that it would take storage, transportation, and packaging into account.
A society dedicated to life rather than profits would also prioritize raising children with respect for ourselves and the human and non-human others, long before the development of other abilities. This is much more than what we now call “education” – it includes the entire environment of raising children, including supporting the adults responsible for them. We would also focus on treatment of the elderly, the sick, the weak, and the dying. This is where we would devote the most effort and resources. We would make sure that those who need care and assistance receive it in high quality and abundance, so that difficult situations don’t also entail loneliness and certainly not shame. We would recognize death as a part of life, with respect and support for all the accompanying processes – after all, we will all be there someday, and death will visit those close to us more than once in our lives.
At this moment in history, regeneration of nature is critical. We must invest a lot of resources and effort to restore water cycles, soil health, vegetation, biodiversity, and habitat. We must find and adopt ways of life that weave human life back to the nonhuman and allow us all to prosper together. We would not abandon the search to provide ourselves with energy, transportation, communication, and other needs with far less damage than is accepted today, but there is a lot of room for creativity in these areas, and many of the solutions will be more social than technological.
An animist society recognizes that joy, happiness, and a deep sense of meaning come from connection, communication, and a sense of belonging. Real gratification comes from seeing how our unique contributions help others. Of course, developing abilities and creating beauty are also sources of satisfaction, which have a special place in connecting with the collective, with what the world needs from us, and with our specific challenges, insights, and aspirations. We would not only prohibit profiting from causing harm to people and the environment, we would work to cure the factors that lead people to do that. A culture with animist values sees that if someone does not want to work for their own good and that of the whole, it is a matter for correction and healing.
Many roles, jobs (David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs), institutions, and products that would cease to exist, and a lot of new ones would take their place. A society organized on an animist basis of mutual respect and connection will be very different from ours, and much happier. I think it is also possible. Certainly more possible than continuing as we are, which is not possible at all. We are capable of a lot, if only we prioritize other things. We have to dare to start thinking about it, publicly, together.