Destroying the Myth that Humans are Toxic
By: Violet Bee
Tags: Community, Environment, Mythology, Climate Change, Philosophy

It’s difficult to examine our own society. We are as much a part of it as it is a part of us, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of accepting things are unchangeable or even right, because they are familiar.

As we grapple with our changing climate, late-stage capitalism, pandemics, war, famine and too many other horrors to name, many of us have come to the conclusion that the world would be better if there were no humans. We spend our time thinking about how we should live as we watch the planet and many of the species on it die, and blame our inherent badness.

But what if our commonly believed toxicity is a lie? What if humans aren’t bad for the planet? How could we reckon that with the evidence around us?

Examining this problem through the lens of Deep Adaptation and my favorite philosopher, Daniel Quinn, I believe we can come to some understanding of our pervasive mythology and how its destruction can help us move forward.

Though not always by name, I write a lot about resilience and restoration, two of the Rs of Deep Adaptation, which are as follows:

Resilience: what do we most value that we want to keep and how?

Relinquishment: what do we need to let go of so as not to make matters worse?

Restoration: what could we bring back to help us with these difficult times?

Reconciliation: with what and whom shall we make peace as we awaken to our mutual mortality?

For my part, I think resilience and restoration are the two “easy” ones on this list, but relinquishment keeps coming up in my life as I struggle with raising a small child on a planet that is rapidly becoming uninhabitable.

There are plenty of things that would fit into the category of things we could give up, cell phones, indoor plumbing (yes, seriously), air travel and more. If we think more broadly about relinquishment, though, I think what we really need to let go of is our shared mythology and troubling story of humanity.

We live in a culture, a single culture, almost world-wide, that is devouring the Earth. There are a few small tribes left that live another way, but they won’t survive us long.

Before anyone objects to the assumption that we live under one shared culture, let’s just define it. If there are people who must work so that they can survive, you are part of this culture. Of course there are individual exceptions, the billionaires could all stop working, if they ever actually did, and they’d be just fine. But the masses must work or starve. That is our culture, our civilization, if we dare call ourselves civilized.

Now that we have that straight, we need to think about how we got here if we’re ever to move forward.

Daniel Quinn provides us a beautiful summary of our shared creation myth, and I will not try to do better.

Humans appeared in the living community about three million years ago. When they appeared, they were foragers, just like their primate ancestors. Over the millennia, these foragers added hunting to their repertoire and so became hunter-gatherers. Humans lived as hunter-gatherers until about ten thousand years ago, when they abandoned this life for the agricultural life, settling down into villages and beginning to build the civilization that encircles the world today.

I’m sure it sounds familiar. Not only that, it seems perfectly true and reasonable. Some may scoff at my calling it a myth, but a myth it is. Why? Because humans did not follow that story. One group of humans did, one culture, one civilization, which then spread and over-took almost the entire world. All other cultures were overrun, murdered, forced to assimilate.

Plenty of other cultures around the planet 10,000 years ago were living and thriving in their surroundings. Many of them practiced some form of agriculture. They were not necessarily perfect, noble or saintly. They were, however, not concerned with taking over the entire planet and requiring everyone to be conquered.

There were skirmishes, wars and other conflicts between these peoples. They were not pacifists and many of us would not want to belong to their cultures. That is inconsequential. They simply lacked one single belief that drove the conquering of the Earth.

The belief that we, of this culture, are the culmination of evolution and therefore ours is the one right way to live. All of that pre-history was just humans working to become us. What arrogance. We should be ashamed.

Now, what do we do with that? Rather a lot. First, you might want to let that sink in, because everything else rests on it. If we are but a single culture, that has grown out of control, then humans aren’t the problem. Humans aren’t all destructive. The world would not be better without us. Our culture is the destructive problem that must go.

People are no less members of the web of life than any other non-human animal, tree, insect or fish. We are a part of the Earth and our presence here is not naturally toxic. We are not naturally toxic, our culture is. Humans could live in harmony with the natural world, it was done for millions of years.

And no, I’m not suggesting we all become hunter-gatherers, nomads or kill three-quarters of the population to accomplish it, because that is both lazy and irrational. Let’s remember that people, often deemed “primitive”, though they were not, lived in relative harmony with the natural world for most of human history. Now if they could do it, what makes us so damn stupid so as to believe that we cannot? Think about that for a moment, because we’ve been sold a lie for our entire lives and it takes some work to un-pack.

We are neither helpless nor naturally destructive. We are, however, currently very destructive and need to let go of this myth that keeps us immobilized.

Those of us who are trying desperately to “save the planet”, fight for equality, justice, animal liberation, all of the above and more are laboring under this false assumption that humans are bad. Perhaps not every single one of us, but enough of us to allow this myth to be carried forward and passed on through generations.

It keeps us squabbling and feeling defeated, exhausted by the strain of trying to live and trying to change. Our species is not inherently bad and our goodness needs only to be allowed to transcend this toxic culture.

It is incredibly important that we all understand that we are just one culture, we are humans, but we are not all of humanity. Our culture cannot, must not continue. We are destroying the Earth’s ability to house us. Our species is another matter entirely. Our species is quite capable of living and thriving here without destroying. Many peoples did, until they were over-taken.

We keep trying to save the world with this terrible belief in our own toxicity hanging around our necks. Relinquishment, easier said than done. It’s time for us to let go of our own guilt, fear and shame. We are not bad or wrong. We must free ourselves from our belief in the destructiveness of humanity. We are, as far as we know, a unique and marvelous species in the universe. We owe it to ourselves, our children and the universe to find our path back from the brink.

We don’t know how much time this culture has left to survive, but we need to destroy it as soon as possible. Every moment matters to the web of life. Our changed mindset is an important place to begin. Our culture is devouring the Earth, but we Earthlings are better than that. We have been swept along by the current of our culture, it’s time to imagine a better way.

What does it take to change a culture? A lot of work. It is the work of changing minds and building communities. It is the work of love, compassion and acceptance. There’s no room for worrying about the ease of this work. It must be done for us to survive.