No, I get it. Humans are capable of such destruction on unimaginable scales, just by living our lives. Governments and corporations are such huge structures of diffuse accountability that often, we are unaware of the extent of the harms done by humanity. This video feels like an act of resistance to that. A whole team of divers take the time and resources (air) to help this little octopus that was a victim of human existence. It doesn’t erase the harm done by humans, and it would devalue the act if we pretended that it would be possible to balance the scales in this way.
It’s a powerful gesture precisely because it’s so insignificant. There are many humans who are also being harmed by the ruthless machinery of human society, and taking the time to be present and compassionate something that can be hard. Watching the video made me feel more human, because it highlights that I don’t think that humans are inherently the problem. Some humans are assholes, sure, but most of the problems are because we’ve made a lot of dispassionate systems that are far bigger than we are. I often think that it’d be easier to fight these things if we could make space for our humanity.
The ability to create dispassionate political systems is, in nature, a uniquely human ability. Wolves and ants have political systems, but the systems rely on direct and intentional involvement, at least as much as anything an ant does can be intentional.
Ants don’t have recessions, or gas chambers, or nuclear bombs, or greenhouse gas pollution, or strip mining, or seafloor dragging. That’s a human invention.
Ants don’t have recessions, or gas chambers, or nuclear bombs, or greenhouse gas pollution, or strip mining, or seafloor dragging. That’s a human invention.
No, I get it. Humans are capable of such destruction on unimaginable scales, just by living our lives. Governments and corporations are such huge structures of diffuse accountability that often, we are unaware of the extent of the harms done by humanity. This video feels like an act of resistance to that. A whole team of divers take the time and resources (air) to help this little octopus that was a victim of human existence. It doesn’t erase the harm done by humans, and it would devalue the act if we pretended that it would be possible to balance the scales in this way.
It’s a powerful gesture precisely because it’s so insignificant. There are many humans who are also being harmed by the ruthless machinery of human society, and taking the time to be present and compassionate something that can be hard. Watching the video made me feel more human, because it highlights that I don’t think that humans are inherently the problem. Some humans are assholes, sure, but most of the problems are because we’ve made a lot of dispassionate systems that are far bigger than we are. I often think that it’d be easier to fight these things if we could make space for our humanity.
The ability to create dispassionate political systems is, in nature, a uniquely human ability. Wolves and ants have political systems, but the systems rely on direct and intentional involvement, at least as much as anything an ant does can be intentional.
Ants don’t have recessions, or gas chambers, or nuclear bombs, or greenhouse gas pollution, or strip mining, or seafloor dragging. That’s a human invention.
No… but they got colonial slavery down pat.