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intro to anti-humanism
December 21st, 2019
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This phlog post will describe antihumanism, more specifically how I define and utilize the term.

Antihumanism is the idea that humans are not in any way separate from other animals.
This is a simple concept, but its implications are, to say the least, wide-reaching.
Under an antihumanist reading of the climate collapse, for example, "solutions" such as colonization of other planets, making minimal adjustments to things like industry and capitalism, everyone moving closer to the poles as the globe heats, etc are all completely unacceptable.
If humans have no more value than the common rat, an eradication of rats to reduce carbon output is an immediate no-go.
This encourages solutions that benefit all forms of life on the planet, things like rewilding, anti-industrial action, reverting to pre-agricultural lifestyles.

Recognizing that humans ought not be more important than other animals also helps wash away a lot of the assumptions that upholds civilization and its values.
"Oh, what about the massive decrease in the (human) population!" is completely invalid when you can then say "But the current (absolutely massive and unsustainable) human population is threatening other animals, both directly and indirectly through the things done to maintain the population. The pollution output by the factories used for things like food production is poisoning the land and any animals within the vicinity. What about the oceans, and how there's inconceivable amounts of garbage pumped into it every day?"
This transforms the conversation from a blanket defense of upholding the status quo to one discussing the much more interesting idea of the tradeoff civilized life introduces in its tendency to destroy things to persist.

I'd go so far as to say any social project that prioritizes humans over other animals (humanist movements) inevitably causes harm to every ecosystem that it could possibly cause harm to. This has been the case repeatedly throughout history, and only in pre-history (and ways of life that haven't changed much since pre-history) can you find ways of life that do not cause this harm, partially because they do not believe are superior or separable from nature.

Consult the previous phlog if you'd like to comment on this article or have something to say to me about it.