Death and Green Consciousness__Selena Quiros December 2015.docx

In our current Western society, there seems to be an obsession with fearing death. As Plumwood states in her article Tasteless, "There is a Western duality war of life vs. death." Since there is a continuing battle against death, our society is living what Plumwood calls a "medicalized material life." A "medicalized material life" can also be understood as merging technology with natural forms of living, such as preserving brains and bodies so they can transcend death. Some symptoms of a compulsively death-fearing society are cosmetic surgeries. Women are the biggest consumers of this industry due to the stigma associated with aging women, who are the ultimate signifiers of death and decay. Death and decay signifies imperfection and a lack of progression, which goes against the industrial paradigm that thrives off the continuation of colonialism of animals, the Earth, and groups of people that are deemed as "other", usually Black, Latina/o, Native, or Asian.
Max More, in his Letter to Mother Nature believes that while Mother Earth has given us some great things like a complex brain, she has ultimately failed due to compelling us to age and die. He also thinks she has failed us because some of the sharpest senses have been given to other animals, not us, the supposedly superior species. Plumwood understands this "Western death narrative" that has "inherited human exceptionalism and hyper-separation that propels the environmental crisis" (Tasteless). In More's seventh amendment he states that "we will not limit our physical, intellectual, or emotional capacities by remaining purely biological organisms. While we pursue mastery of our own biochemistry, we will increasingly integrate our advancing technologies into ourselves." Amendment seven shows a deeply engrained fear of death, to the point of needing to become less human and more robotic. The less original forms of existence there are, equates to more destruction of the natural Earth environment, a mere means to an end for humans' technological appetites. However, what is not directly apparent in More's Letter to Mother Nature is a fear of becoming food for other species. Plumwood theoretically delves into the connection between food and death, which the worldview denies "that we are also food and that through death we nourish others" (Tasteless). If we were to merge technology into our bodies, how could we ever be food for the Earth or various species?
If we do not understand how we are food in the cycle of death, we are lacking a sense of reciprocation towards the Earth. However, this concept is not easily understood by any human raised within an industrial society, which is reliant on being apart from nature in order to survive these Western concrete jungles. Plumwood describes this disconnect in her story of Being Prey. In this story, she describes almost being torn to pieces by a hungry crocodile. During the actual experience, she could not comprehend what was happening or why, only that this crocodile should go away and leave her alone. However, this crocodile was existing as part of the water, their home. Therefore, the crocodile was completely justified in trying to find a meal, as Plumwood eventually admits. "Crocodiles and other creatures that can take human life also present an important test of ethical and political integrity. The colonizer identity is positioned as an eater of Others who can never themselves be eaten, just as the unmarked gaze of the colonizer claims the power to see but not to be seen" (Being Prey). What Plumwood means by this statement is that humans often eat animals in mass amounts due to the for-profit industry of factory farming. Hunting animals has become a masculinized sport rather than an aspect of a sometimes meal. Humans who condone and contribute to the mass slaughtering of animals are the colonizers. The "others" are the animals being tortured and eaten by the colonizers. Colonizers never believe that anyone has more power than themselves, which is why it is so important to brutally murder any animal who dares to attack a human to eat them. The reality is that humans are food for animals just as animals and plants are food for humans. However, the way the industry of factory farming is currently run is completely unjust, and therefore, disallows genuine reciprocation with the Earth and the animals inhabiting Earth.
Human exceptionalism, as Plumwood describes, is when humans are "exceptionalised as both species and individual; we humans cannot be positioned in the food chain in the same way as other animals" (Tasteless). The film industry reinforces this assumption through the various movies, often horror movies that are about other species eating, killing or trapping humans; this exemplifies an internalized fear of being part of the food chain. After surviving crocodile jaws Plumwood discusses how she "still had to survive contest with the cultural drive to represent such experiences in terms of the masculinist monster myth: the master narrative" (Being Prey). The media wanted to portray her experience as the crocodile being a monstrous villain who was being interpreted like a "sadistic rapist." However, Plumwood discusses towards the beginning of this article that the species of crocodiles were dwindling due to commercial hunting. Therefore, it is no surprise that a crocodile would be more than willing to eat a human perceived as a threat, or maybe just for a midday meal. Interestingly enough, she was involved in helping save their habitats, although she was soon to become compost for that same habitat.
Due to the split between humans and nature, we have "denied our kinship to other life forms and our shared end as food for others" (Tasteless). More's second amendment seems to echo this denied kinship by seeking to "exceed the perceptual abilities of any other creature and to devise novel sense to expand our appreciation and understanding of the world around us." If our abilities are better than other species, than maybe we have a less likely chance of being eaten. More's statement shows the jealousy towards many species of life that have acute senses of the environment and themselves that we do not. Maybe this same jealousy is the reason for the factory farming industry that punishes animals for daring to be as wonderful as or even more wonderful than we are. All the colonizer can do is to colonize those perceived as threats, such as indigenous people, working class people, people of color and any other group who acknowledges the power of their knowledge and the power of Mother Earth knowledge.
Rather than see death as a void, Plumwood argues that we must adapt to the planet (Tasteless). Furthermore, "attempts to excessively prolong or immortalize human life are attempts to steal the library book and cheat the Earth community, to take nurturance from others but not to give it back." Unfortunately, cheating the earth community is exactly what well-renowned trans-humanist More wants to do by "pursuing new forms of excellence according to our own values, and as technology allows." By becoming individualistically robotic and choosing to not recycle our bodies to the Earth, as is currently practiced through concrete coffins, is tasteless. It is tasteless because it is lacking the acknowledgement of the flavor-filled interconnected relationships with the Earth and all living beings. If we view the essential element to living as consciousness, then of course death will be viewed as an end that is apart from and opposed to life (Tasteless).
Western society has a difficult time accepting being compost for the Earth after death or being prey for any species, or even the Earth. The Earth, who is generally viewed as Mother, will ultimately fuck you over if you fuck her over. The cycle of transformation, being life, death, and re-birth, will continue despite More's transhumanism. No white elite men are stronger than the Mother. Although they have, do, and will continue to rape and disrespect her, she will continue to fight back. Death, as Plumwood describes it to be, must be understood as recycling, and life must be understood in circulation, as a gift from a community of ancestors (Tasteless). The fear of death will stop once reciprocation to the Earth begins, and when it is realized that through death one can feed the Earth, as well as through being prey. We must not transcend, but instead, we must go below into the dark realm of the earthworms and become their food. So mote it be.




Selena
Response Paper 2
Articles used: Tasteless, Being Prey, A Letter to Mother Nature