One last thought on human relationship with nature and each other
The unique ability of Homo sapiens that gives me hope as we kick-off a new year
My last article kicked-off a couple of interesting discussions on LinkedIn and offline regarding comparisons of how humans function versus how the rest of nature functions. I got some pushback against the idea that nature isn’t a gift economy when I questioned whether nature is more mutualistic than pure gift based. And whether this translates to human behavior.
Many of us who have naturalist, biologist and anthropologist leanings try to draw insights from nature to explain and inspire human behavior.
My good friend Siddarth Shrikanth shared a reflection with me after reading the article that is one that I think is worth us all reflecting on.
Yes, many organisms are mutualistic, but there are also many organisms that are parasitic.
Humans are nature.
We are capable of and complete acts of both mutualism and parasitism.
Many have pondered the question whether humans are inherently evil or whether we are inherently good. Whether humans are mutualistic or parasitic. Well, just like the rest of nature, I think it’s clear that we are both. We are good and evil.
This morning, I decided to do yoga instead of helping my hosts cook breakfast and ate that breakfast without contributing at all even when they were also juggling a sick child - I was a being parasitic, selfish.
The night before, I offered to pick up food for that breakfast on my way home - I was being mutualistic, contributing to the wellbeing of another out of gratitude for them hosting me.
I bet any of you reading this could think of both an example where you were parasitic and an example where you were mutualistic in the last 24 hours.
But the beauty of Homo sapiens, is that 99.9% of us have the ability to reflect on the nature and impact of our actions and use those experiences to guide our next action. Humans are self-aware. And while we may unconsciously act out of mutualism and out of parasitism, we also have the ability to reflect and discern whether a previous action was one of mutualism or parasitism. And, sometimes, we even have the ability to reflect in the moment before an action is taken and decide whether to continue to act as a parasite or change our behavior.
Humans have the unique capacity to choose whether we want to be mutualistic or parasitic.
And I don’t know of any other organism that has the capacity to make this choice.
This is what gives me hope for 2025 and beyond. That if made aware of our choices, and socially supported in those choices, that vast majority of us will choose mutualism.
And we’ll find humanity and the planet we call home on an entirely different trajectory than the one we are on now.
Happy New Year.
- Eric
Image for post ©Isabel Castaño. www.behance.net/saibel
Original article: https://naturexclimate.substack.com/p/reflections-on-our-relationship-with
I appreciate the reflections and insights, Eric. Completely agree that if we can see ourselves as nature and cultivate a mutualistic relationship with nature, we would be less inclined to bite the hand that feeds us and instead return the abundance of offerings.
My mind goes straight to the Tragedy of Commons, though. Do you think people are aware that they are acting parasitically in these scenarios? And if so, how can we persuade people to trade the short-term gains of parasitic behaviour for the long-term gains of a sustainable and mutualistic relationship? After all, parasitic behaviour eventually kills the host...