Teraga

ABOUT HUMAN PRIVILEGE

Improving our relation to animals to improve our society.

Despite widespread oppression and injustice, it can be generally argued that humans benefit from belonging to the human species. This condition can be defined as human privilege.

As a matter of fact, we live in a world shaped by our needs, perceptions anddiscourses, where decisions and actions reflect human interests*.

In the name of humanity, we routinely oppress, exploit and kill non-human species.

I believe that the oppression of non-human animals is at the root of the current environmental crisis and the cause of immense, avoidable suffering. Our entitlement to use other species (both animals and plants) can be seen as the maximum expression of anthropocentrism.

Anthropocentrism can be considered a "Humans First!" way of thinking that places humans and their needs at the centre of social, economic and political life.

Anthropocentric thinking is deeply embedded in most societies and may explain our unwillingness to critically question our treatment of non-human animals.

Scholar and activist Robert Lucius (2015) writes about a "culture of denial and silence" concerning the oppression of nonhuman animals. Paraphrasing McIntosh's take on white privilege, Lucius also writes that "humans are taught not to recognise human privilege".

Given the current climate crisis and the increased attention toward other species, being/becoming aware of the consequences of anthropocentric and speciesist thinking is crucial to prompt societal change towards an improved coexistence with what is perceived as the other.

If privilege is seldom recognised by those who benefit from it then challenging human privilege can be quite complicated. However, we may want to start "small", for example by identifying and challenging everyday expressions of anthropocentric behaviour, from the language we use to our way of relating and interacting with non-human animals.

Turning ourselves from oppressors to allies would not only improve the lives of other animals, but it could also improve our society and heal our skewed relationship to the natural world.

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*but not always the interest of all humans.

Reference: Lucius, Robert (2015), "The Oppression of Non-Human Animals as a Crisis of Social and Ecological Justice" (draft).

This post was originally published on the (now closed) blog "Anthropocene Notes".