Brief Thoughts on Animism

I don’t find it strange that the further back in human history we go, the more obvious the animism and pantheism is in human religion. I look at the world around me, and I see everything moving. The sky breathes, wind rushing around me. The world sleeps and wakes. Small things crawl upon every surface. Everything changes.

I think a more interesting observation is how hard modern civilization must work to convince people that the world is not alive. This is necessary work for Empire. It is hard to justify our exploitation of the earth if it is a living thing. If we are simply one part of a larger whole, then our actions as Empire are monstrous. The world must be a corpse for our actions to reasonable. And so we attempt to convince ourselves that the world is dead. And Empire set about the task of making this actually true.