Some say that we've never had it so good
That technology and free markets have brought us endless progress
And that, together, they will vanquish the threats our civilization faces
But whose progress is it?
Not the billions who don't earn enough for adequate nutrition
Not the Indigenous peoples whose traditions have been ravaged
Not the nonhuman populations that have been devastated and face extinction
Our civilization is rapidly accelerating toward a precipice of climate breakdown, ecological devastation and gaping inequalities
Can we turn it around in time?
If so, what would it take?
And what is the part you have to play in this epic human saga?
EXPAND CHAPTER TO READ MORE
Chapter 13. weaving a new story of meaning
Robin Wall Kimmerer recounts how, during dark winter nights in the Great Lakes region, sitting around the fire, Ojibwe children would be told the terrifying tale of the Windigo monster that might come stalking them. The Windigo was a ravenous ten-foot giant, with yellow fangs, putrid breath, and a heart made of ice, that roamed greedily across the snow looking for humans to devour. If you became one of his hapless victims, you suffered a fate worse than death—one bite from a Windigo and you would become one yourself, doomed to roam the plains with insatiable hunger, cannibalizing your own species, tormented by a need that could never be fulfilled. This was the defining mark of a Windigo: the more they consumed, they more ravenous they became, and the more voraciously they rampaged through the land seeking their next victim.
As Native American tribes suffered the ruthless onslaught of European settlers, some saw a striking resemblance between the Windigo and the rapacious European drive for conquest. Ever since the fifteenth century, when Europeans first ventured to other continents, they carried with them a Windigo-like infection of relentless consumption, ravaging the local inhabitants and natural abundance of the places they conquered, never satisfied, forever seeking new ways to devour even more. When they encountered the silver mountain of Potosí in modern-day Bolivia, they extracted every last grain, enslaving an estimated eight million Indigenous workers to mine its riches over three centuries, beating them into submission until their agonizing deaths, poisoned by the mercury used to extract the silver. When they discovered that crops such as sugar or cotton could profitably be exported back to Europe, they initiated the horrifying slave trade, transporting twelve million Africans to be used mercilessly as chattel for increasing the wealth of white landowners.
Legalized slavery has passed into the history books, but the Windigo infection has erupted into an uncontrolled pandemic, instilling in those it infects an unrelenting desire for more. In the United States, beginning in the early twentieth century, it took the form of an insatiable consumerism that has since spread across the world. Like the Windigo, our global economy relies on continual growth for its sustenance, but is never satisfied, always needing further growth to avoid disaster. In recent decades, the infection has found its way into new areas previously off limits to its implacable appetite, as neoliberal ideology incorporated human endeavors such as education and sports into the market economy, even turning nature itself into a balance sheet item by redefining it as “natural capital.”
As Native American tribes suffered the ruthless onslaught of European settlers, some saw a striking resemblance between the Windigo and the rapacious European drive for conquest. Ever since the fifteenth century, when Europeans first ventured to other continents, they carried with them a Windigo-like infection of relentless consumption, ravaging the local inhabitants and natural abundance of the places they conquered, never satisfied, forever seeking new ways to devour even more. When they encountered the silver mountain of Potosí in modern-day Bolivia, they extracted every last grain, enslaving an estimated eight million Indigenous workers to mine its riches over three centuries, beating them into submission until their agonizing deaths, poisoned by the mercury used to extract the silver. When they discovered that crops such as sugar or cotton could profitably be exported back to Europe, they initiated the horrifying slave trade, transporting twelve million Africans to be used mercilessly as chattel for increasing the wealth of white landowners.
Legalized slavery has passed into the history books, but the Windigo infection has erupted into an uncontrolled pandemic, instilling in those it infects an unrelenting desire for more. In the United States, beginning in the early twentieth century, it took the form of an insatiable consumerism that has since spread across the world. Like the Windigo, our global economy relies on continual growth for its sustenance, but is never satisfied, always needing further growth to avoid disaster. In recent decades, the infection has found its way into new areas previously off limits to its implacable appetite, as neoliberal ideology incorporated human endeavors such as education and sports into the market economy, even turning nature itself into a balance sheet item by redefining it as “natural capital.”
Consistent with the Windigo’s cannibalistic impulse, our society seems prepared to devour itself rather than curb its manic obsession for growth. Even as we face an existential climate emergency from greenhouse gas emissions, companies find new ways to extract fossil fuels from the earth, demolishing pristine forests in Canada for their tar sands below, and injecting poisonous chemicals deep underground to frack rock formations for methane. Driven by our Windigo mania, our civilization seems caught up in what UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called a “global suicide pact.” |
That is not, however, the message we get from our daily media. And of course, it’s not something Uncle Bob would readily accept if you sat down with him one more time over tea to discuss the state of the world. In fact, if Uncle Bob had spent an hour or two casually perusing opinion pieces on these weighty topics, he would have picked up some pithy retorts to the whole Windigo critique.
Turning to you with an ever-so-slightly smug expression, Uncle Bob might say: “For all your doom and gloom statistics, the truth is we’ve actually never had it so good. You might talk about inequality, but thanks to development around the world, the rate of people suffering extreme poverty is lower than it’s ever been.”
Now Uncle Bob’s on a tear. He’s feels he’s done his homework. “Just look at the rise in material prosperity over the past couple of hundred years,” he exhorts. “A poor person today enjoys choices in clothing, food, and transportation that even the wealthiest couldn’t have dreamed of in the past. In health, in education, in just about every field, the progress we’ve made has been enormous. And that’s largely because of capitalism, which has proven itself as the best system for innovation and progress.”
Uncle Bob sips his favorite tea which, he hastens to add, he can enjoy so cheaply because of the globalized system of commerce that delivers it to him for next to nothing. “Let’s face it,” he declares, “a rising tide really does lift all boats. People might be envious of the billionaires, but they deserve their riches because they’ve succeeded in giving us what we want most efficiently. And for all your griping about climate change and the environment . . . well, haven’t you heard of ‘green growth’? Thanks to entrepreneurs, business is finding ways to keep growing while using fewer materials. Every time you doomsayers say a problem is insurmountable, technology always finds a new solution.”
Now Uncle Bob sits back, content. “And if you don’t like the system, what’s the alternative anyway? They tried communism—that didn’t go so well, did it?”
You’ve probably heard statements like this; if not from Uncle Bob, then from the multitude of articles written over decades that provide Uncle Bob, and millions like him, with the soundbites that, taken together, form the dominant story of our age. However, the sheer quantity of these articles doesn’t make them right. In fact, most of what you just heard coming from Uncle Bob’s mouth has been shown to be demonstrably false.
In this chapter, we’ll explore some of the most consequential issues facing our world today. We’ll dig below them to investigate their underlying causes, and project them out to trace their possible trajectories. It’s a sobering undertaking: its findings are nothing short of terrifying. But it’s also one that can be energizing, exhilarating—even inspiring. We’ll find that, if we dig deep enough, we can identify the foundations for building a different kind of civilization, one that is free from the Windigo infection. And by chapter’s end, you may be prepared to turn to Uncle Bob and see him in a new light—someone who, deep down, is afraid of the same things as you. Perhaps you might even help inspire him to join you—along with millions of others—in weaving a new story of meaning for the flourishing of humanity on a vibrant, healthy Earth.
Excerpt from The Web of Meaning, Chapter 13. Purchase: USA/Canada | UK/Commonwealth