Micro-Landscapes of the Anthropocene

Flowers for humanity

Those who own pets would argue that they love and value their animals as an equal, a valuable member of their family unit: the family dog for example. They are given a human name, their owners swear that they have unique personality traits that separate them from others, they are loved as a human like Algernon is. The experiences that have been shared in these family units have demonstrated that these animals do show the traits that, in absence, are usually used to dehumanise the other, they do demonstrate the ability to rationalise and communicate but they dop so through vastly different values, urges and intentions.  

The divide that exists between the human and the non-human, and the self and the other, is taught from an early age. It exists as a function of survival, we cannot know what we do not truly understand, and we cannot be sure of the intentions of that which we do not know. There is some rationality to the basis of the current human – non-human relationship, it has historically kept us safe from the dangers of nature. Though we are not born with these understandings, as demonstrated in Flowers for Algernon, a child will walk up and interact with the non-human without fear, a curious nature that expects nothing but curiosity in return. In some ways education on the differences between the human and the nonhuman is a necessary, however the way it is currently communicated is what restrains humanity from understanding the non-human outside of those within their immediate lives. It is the nature of the language that used to describe the non-human to the youngest in society that creates these barriers that contribute to the maintenance of the hierarchical subject-object relationships currents driving the Holocene extinction. The language is one of difference, emphasising the unknown. Language that serves to define humanity as the binary opposite of the non-human.

For the relationship to be amended, there must be an examination of the language used to communicate differences. Do away with the human – non-human and subject-object, and embrace the idea that the contemporary human poses that same unknowns as the non-human.
 

Contents of this tag: