Abstract
Linking to the second-generation holocaust experience of the author, this article suggests that the human species has warned itself for millennia that we would eventually generate the current ecosystemic holocaust from consuming and assimilating planet Earth to ourselves. It explains the contradictory engine of this as rooted in an instinctive orientation towards growth and self-interest, in pursuit of well-being, satisfaction and meaningful life. The article explains the psycho-cultural reasons why, in the human species, this natural orientation ends up inverting ecological necessities, with catastrophic consequences. A traditional word for this dynamic is ‘idolatry’, self-worship. We have continued on this route, unwilling to hear ancestral warnings, in spite of our ability to do otherwise – to know that we are participants in a bigger contextual ecosystem on which we depend, to live meaningful lives by discerning our roles within this context, and behaving accordingly. So doing, we continue to destroy the bigger Body of which we are members, and on which we inescapably depend. The spiritual-religious traditions explain the causes and consequences of these two basic orientations to life – consumptive and contextualizing. The first points to the ‘klippotic’ ‘tree of death’, the second to the harmony of parts and the ‘Tree of Life’. The route to both is via the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’, and whether life or death results depends upon how we choose to interpret our knowledge, and for what purpose, through our individual and collective free will. Ecological language and imagery were not available millennia ago, but other language was used to describe the functional versus dysfunctional psyche–ecology relationship, and to give clues to the psycho-spiritual evolution necessary for our species to discern our ‘membership role’ within the ecosystem, and to align our lives accordingly. It was also abused and distorted for idolatrous purposes. The article ends with contemporary examples of the two orientations, and a challenge to the reader.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Paul Maiteny: Since childhood, I’ve had two key questions: why are humans so cruel to each other and other species; and what is the true contribution of humans as members of the ecosystemic web? These questions have informed my working life – in ecological education and management, university-based and independent research in eco-anthropology, organizational behaviour, and private practice in psychotherapy, ecological counselling and spiritual accompaniment. I also teach psychotherapy research methods, education for sustainability (since 1996) and transpersonal ecopsychology on Masters degree programmes. I integrate scientific and mytho-religious ways in seeking to understand, and contribute to, how humans might discern our role(s) as members of an ecosystem seeking conscious self-expression.
Notes
1. Cleverage: a word that emerged spontaneously in conversation with Sarah Deco at the memorial day of our friend Chris Seeley. Gratitude to both.