Every living thing on our planet grows in some way shape or form up to a certain point before slowing as the organism matures, at which point they begin to operate in ways that could be considered to be more responsible, to prolong their life and even ensure the survival of their offspring in a better world.
Yet over the past few hundred years, us humans have become obsessed with the notion of growth, endlessly seeking it in all the endeavours we pursue. While growth is a natural part of life on this planet, the only thing that never stops growing is cancer, which will continue to grow to a point where it eventually kills its host…is that really something we should be aspiring for?
I’ve often heard people compare humans to a cancer on earth, slowly killing it, but humans have existed for thousands of years, living in harmony within these ecosystems for a vast majority of it. Humans inherently aren’t a cancer, but this belief in endless growth that western society has cultivated, is.
The idea of endless growth on a finite planet that capitalism relies on in order to function allows for the perpetual enclosure of resources by private capital and subsequent appropriation and extraction of those resources, as well as the labor, community and cultures of the places they come from, in order to minimize costs and increase profits, and this system is the root of not only vast inequality, inequity and deeply racist patriarchal colonial structures around the world, but rampant ecological destruction, biodiversity loss and the climate crisis itself. At what point in the life cycle of society do we stop growing, and even shrink to a sustainable level?
Perhaps we can take a que from nature to evolve our idea of ‘growth’ and recognize that maybe it’s time for us to mature as organisms and a society, to be more responsible in all that we do on this planet to live lives of quality instead of consuming quantity, to ensure the survival of our offspring and everything else we rely on to survive…because if we keep acting like a cancer, eventually, we’ll end up killing our planet and thus, ourselves.
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