It’s their religious fervour, and their love of culture, that XR/UK can teach the US green movement, writes Zhiwa Woodbury
Another interesting Medium essay from the eco-psychologist and XR activist Zhiwa Woodbury (he’s written for us recently). His theme is Climate Trauma (see this 2019 paper), which he’s been exploring with XR circles for the last year or so.
It’s the end of what Zhiwa describes as “a seven-year integrated research project that began with me walking away from a successful, decades-long legal career defending wildlife and wild places, determined to get to the root cause of our collective dis-ease with the natural world”.
His point here is to communicate to his colleagues in the American environmental movement just how different the XR phenomenon is - which he identifies (among other factors) as their “religious” and “aesthetic” dimensions.
As he relates in the essay:
There was a seismic shift in American environmentalism that occurred at Standing Rock (Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) Indian Reservation which, apart from gifting us AOC, we long-time, non-native eco-activists have yet to really integrate.
The climate equivalent of Standing Rock’s Water Protectors is Earth Protectors. And just as water is sacred, so is Earth. And this is not just a matter of cultural appropriation! There should be nothing unique or exclusive about this idea to Indigenous culture.
Earth is a living organism. Just as with climate science, this is no longer really a matter of serious contention. What began as the “Gaia Hypothesis,” scientist James Lovelock’s gut reaction to seeing the first iconic photo of Earth rising over the Moon’s desolate landscape, is now generally accepted across all disciplines, and referred to as the Gaia Theory. Just as we don’t refer to Einstein’s “hypothesis” of relativity, so we should no longer refer to the Gaia Hypothesis.
Gaia is alive. Since Gaia is the source of life, and out of respect for the innate wisdom of Indigenous traditions, we think of her as feminine. She is encapsulated by a thin membrane, our atmosphere, which is permeable — one of the basic definitions of life. She breathes. She has a heartbeat. She even has a voice! Go ahead and follow thse links if you are at all skeptical.
So it naturally follows, does it not, that if there is anything in this big, wide world that we humans should have religious feelings and attitudes toward, it should be our natural connection to the world itself. This Living Organism! Gaia Gaia Gaia!
But the self-aware Environmental Movement in America, organized according to the corporate, hierarchal (and competitive) model, has at least since the first Earth Day been afraid of being perceived as a religious movement.
I believe this is precisely what sets XR apart from the American Environmental Movement, which — like scientists — has largely proven to be incapable of transforming the way Americans think and feel about our climate in crisis.
And this, too, is why the Ecopsychology Movement is so critical of the mainstream psychology profession — for not stepping out of their professional roles and being more of an advocacy force in society for sane relationships between humans and the natural world.
But let’s stick to the religious issue for now.
What is religion, after all? The first definition to come up on Dictionary.com describes religion as being characterized as follows:
A set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe…
(substitute “our world” for “the universe” here, since most religions believe our world to be unique in the universe)
…especially involving the concept of superhuman agency…
(Gaia is by definition super (above) human. As she is a complex organism, we are mere cells in that body of life; and, she has agency, since it is her self-regulation processes that prompted science to recognize her as a living organism in the first place
…which often contains a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
Ah—there’s the rub! As we have not yet woke to a generally accepted awareness of Gaia as living entity—unlike Indigenous/First Peoples everywhere around the globe, who still honor their connection to Mother Eart —we still lack the requisite moral code that Gaia awareness would otherwise give rise to.
And that is the void which Extinction Rebellion has stepped into and filled.
The first demand made by XR is to honor truth. That is the heart of the religious feeling. In the West, there is “logos,” or the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form. My own religion, Buddhism, is premised on the dharma, which translates quite literally as truth — the way things really are, as opposed to the way they appear to be.
Of course, as we see in America, truth is under a grave assault by entrenched patriarchal power structures precisely because of its causal relationship with reconciliation. Truth & Reconciliation is part and parcel of restructuring our moral relationship with the world we are part of, and achieving the requisite social justice for climate recovery, and has always been closely associated with religious figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The core vision of XR is very much in keeping with the idea of a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs:
A world where we build thriving connections within our society and environment, bringing hope and enabling us to decide the direction of our lives and futures. An inclusive world, where we work consciously to ensure fair processes of collective decision-making, where creativity is prioritized, and where our diversity of gifts are recognized, celebrated and flourish.
As for “religious fervor,” which if you think about it is the spirit that fuels any successful rebellion, what I find so striking about XR is that it was founded by a core group of very successful professionals from various fields of endeavor who have left their careers behind in order to devote their varied talents to the success of a necessary social movement.
Scientists, lawyers, teachers, journalists, even doctors — and yes, some environmental professionals as well — coming together at great cost personally to do whatever they can to shake society awake to what is happening in the world right now and what the future holds for us if we do not undertake radical change in our lives, both personally and politically.
I’m still not seeing this component in the newly forming American chapters of XR, though it is still early, we have a fiery political campaign awaiting us after the impeachment trauma passes, and Sunrise Movement is actively planning mass actions for the Spring. With 2019 having been the year of our awakening to the climate crisis here in the U.S., and in the wake of the devastation down under, we may well be standing on the cusp of an ‘American Spring’ in 2020.
Zhiwa also points out how XR’s artistic innovations also matter
One other quasi-religious aspect of XR that needs to be mentioned is the central role that music and dance, beauty and art play in XR’s public displays, as with the Furies, or Red Rebel Gang, depicted above.
This is, in itself, an expression of the awe and wonder that we all feel in the thrall of Gaia’s loving embrace. It is important that these same deep feelings infuse our actions, because in doing so we strike harmonious chords in the collective psyche that have the effect of waking sentiments in the public sphere that have for too long been repressed, suppressed, and oppressed.
It is just as important, I maintain, that we make room for Gaia’s presence in our planning, our affinity groups, and our actions. To fail to welcome her input should be seen as a matter of planetary appropriation in the same way we think of cultural appropriation. She is demanding our attention and fealty.
What is religion, after all, without the indefinite continuation of life on planet Earth? Is this not, then, the ultimate religious concern?
If there was ever any time in the human course of events that justified religious fervor, now is that time. As to any criticism that this is all too “woo-wee” and “new agey,” which is bound to be expressed in the cynicism that permeates American culture, I recommend that anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof, pick up a copy of Pope Francis’ luminous encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home.
The religious sentiment - that this living organism we are part of is worthy of the kind of respect Western Civilization has never really accorded it - cuts across all boundaries of religious belief.