We find our way out of the climate crisis by seeing the world as an interconnected web of which we are a part.
We find our way out of the biodiversity crisis by seeing the world as a web of which we are a part.
We find our way out of the pandemic by seeing all humans connected in a web of which we are a part.
Each node of a web is special and sacred, but no more special and sacred than any other node. Pyramids, though...in pyramids the nodes at the top are more special, right?
Webs sound great, as does addressing climate change and ending the pandemic, but here's the thing - a web has no "top" and no "bottom".
A web is not a pyramid.
More than that, a true web can't even incorporate pyramids within itself.
You can't fully join an ecological web but hold on to privilege in a gender pyramid, for instance. Here I am, a node in a web of relationships with other species, but superior to women of my own species. Nope.
Just like, as so many Black feminists articulate, you can't be a feminist without grappling with whiteness.
It's not just rejecting one pyramid, it's re-organzing your map of the world into a map without pyramid. And acting from that.
Maps, it seems, are package deals. Is the world a web or a pyramid? Really choose. What do you believe? And if you choose web, there are implications. What positions in pyramids do you need to climb down from?
On the other hand, if you think the nature of the world (ecologies, cultures, human interactions) truly is web-like, staying in pyramid formation just prolongs all the crises, doesn't it?
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