Human Exceptionalism (episode)

Discussion of The Arrogant Ape, and how almost all of the characteristics which we human beings have claimed distinguished ourselves from our kinfolk have eventually been found in other species. Perhaps most importantly, she explains how this culture of arrogance is learned by young children somewhere around the age of 4, who before that do not discriminate between humans and other species, meaning we could very swiftly learn to enjoy the kind of relationship with the more-than-human world that seems to come naturally to us.

Human Exceptionalism

• Western culture has inculcated a belief in human supremacy over the natural world. This value system of human exceptionalism tricks us into believing humans are special.

Transcript: Rachel Donald I think it fits in with a lot of what you’re writing and oh within the first few pages I was like thank god someone has written this book this is wonderful this is exactly what needs to get Into the mainstream conversation really why is it that we think that we are entitled to behave towards the world as if we do have dominion over it as if we do have mastery over it as if other Living beings lives are less important than our own. And Christine lays it all out, explaining that we have a value system of human exceptionalism, which allows us to trick ourselves into believing that humans are special by virtue of Certain characteristics, such as language or religion or art. And as Christine explains, most of the things of history that we have used to distinguish ourselves from other animals have actually been shown to exist in other animal communities As well, just FYI. But that all of these things together package a superior being. Christine calls this speciesism, and she says it is at the root of the ecological crisis. The first half of this interview, we walk through a lot of the book, revealing different examples of human exceptionalism, the age at which human beings present this belief, (Time 0:01:44)

Human Exceptionalism

• Christine Webb argues that the belief that humans are the most important species is at the root of the ecological crisis.
• This worldview intersects with many other crises we face today.

Transcript: Christine Webb I’ll just jump right in instead of giving all these caveats that howard’s a complicated question my argument in in the book is that human exceptionalism, this belief that humans are The most important and intelligent and virtuous species in existence, is at the root of the ecological crisis. So I’m arguing that a worldview, a cosmology, a story about humans, and a story that humans tell about themselves to other humans is at the root of the ecological crisis, which intersects With, you know, many of the other crises in the Pali crisis we’re in today. And I use the phrase at the root and not the root of the ecological crisis. So I say this belief is at the root I don’t think of the answer to your question as being singular, like root systems are complex, right? And they are interconnected with other causes. (Time 0:04:52)

Human Exceptionalism Defined

• Christine Webb differentiates human exceptionalism from human uniqueness; exceptionalism implies being more advanced or morally superior.
• Human exceptionalism pertains to distinctive features deemed more important than those of other life forms.

Transcript: Christine Webb And that I chose the term human exceptionalism because I wanted, first of all, to differentiate what I was talking about from just pure human distinction or uniqueness. There’s something normative about exceptionalism that suggests like more advanced than more morally worthy than, right? So the book does not argue that humans are not unique. I think humans are unique. I think all species are unique. What makes something human exceptionalism and not human uniqueness is that human exceptionalism pertains to things that are distinctive features of other life forms or of humans Compared to other life forms that are somehow deemed more important or advanced. So I think that term kind of captures that combination of difference, right? Uniqueness, but also superiority more than a term like human uniqueness or human supremacy. (Time 0:06:55)

Learning Human Exceptionalism

• Christine Webb argues human exceptionalism isn’t explicitly taught but is learned through observing and internalizing behaviors.
• This belief emerges as children in Western societies become inculturated.

Transcript: Christine Webb And others have argued that human exceptionalism is not a belief that is explicitly taught so it’s not something i mean in some cases i’ve had students tell me no no that’s something That i learned in you know sunday school going on that’s something that i was taught but for the most part it’s not something that you go into the classroom and the teacher goes up to the Chalkboard and draws a pyramid and puts humans at the top and then explains all the ways why humans are better and more deserving of our moral attention to other species. That’s rarely what happens. Instead, I think human exceptionalism is learned by observing and internalizing the behaviors of others in the world around us so this time when when this belief and these biases these Species as biases start to emerge coincides with when children (Time 0:14:50)

Implicit Learning of Human Exceptionalism

• Human exceptionalism is learned implicitly by observing and internalizing the behaviors of others.
• Children witness justifications for consuming animal products and cruelty, internalizing these biases through enculturation.

Transcript: Christine Webb That’s rarely what happens. Instead, I think human exceptionalism is learned by observing and internalizing the behaviors of others in the world around us so this time when when this belief and these biases these Species as biases start to emerge coincides with when children in these so-called weird or Western industrialized societies are becoming inculturated. They’re entering this world and they’re seeing other people around them. They’re seeing the behavior of strangers. They’re watching their parents or their family members consume animal products and listening to their justifications. They’re sort of bearing witness to animal and let’s say just cruelty towards the living world and having to make sense of that in some way. And so I guess I think, you know, for everybody, a different trajectory depending on where you’re from and, you know, who is in your immediate surroundings. But the main point is that I think it’s something that’s implied and implicit in other people’s behavior and not necessarily something that you’re taught directly. (Time 0:15:21)

Instrumentalizing Language

• Rachel Donald appreciated Christine Webb pointing out the phrase ‘natural resources’ because she also refers to it in her own book.
• It’s a commodifying and instrumentalizing term that contributes to how we look at animal, plant, and Earth bodies.

Transcript: Rachel Donald Bits I loved when you point out is even the way of talking about earth’s body as having natural resources because that’s a phrase I come back to in my own book that I’m writing at the moment Because I am speaking about how earth’s body is appropriated but I was still like god I do need to find another term for this that speaks to the things that we’re appropriating and extracting, But also doesn’t just offer up this really, not dehumanizing, but like de-bodifying term, essentially. Yeah, a commodifying term, in a way. Christine Webb Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. An instrumentalizing term. Rachel Donald And this is what’s so interesting about human exceptionalism, is that it (Time 0:17:40)

Limits of Language

• Language allows us to communicate complexity, but it’s also a learned behavior influenced by culture.
• Communicating with beings without shared language fosters rawness, softness, and profound honesty.

Transcript: Rachel Donald It’s no longer our bodies that mediate our experiences, but it’s screens or it’s technology. And language is such a wonderful tool, obviously. Look at what we’re doing now. We’re able to communicate and share complexity and intimacy and all of these things. But there is still an element of it being, as you said, a learned behavior. There is still the inculcation of culture in how we choose to communicate. But there’s something about that relationship with a being that you can communicate with, but you can’t speak to, or that manages to speak back to you, isn’t using your language, that Just seems to hit a little bit differently, fall into a different place that allows for a rawness and a softness, and I think a sense of profound honesty as well. I don’t know how to lie with my body. I know how to lie with words. I know how to make something sound good with words, or bad with words, or manipulate with words. We all know how to do these things as languaged beings. I don’t know how to do that with my body. Never been taught that. And so it’s like there’s nothing there’s no helene scary writes about how language is essentially a tool of world building and that it’s by virtue of being in (Time 0:32:16)

Human Exceptionalism Impact

• Human exceptionalism hurts the environment and other humans because it targets those who don’t fit the norm.
• This highlights the link between us and the non-languaged world, impacting empathy and our understanding of ourselves.

Transcript: Rachel Donald And it definitely doesn’t negate what they can offer to the world and to other people by having a relationship. Something that I’ve tried to look at as well is this idea of like human exceptionalism essentially pointing to a couple of key characteristics that we think only we will ever have such As complex language or religion well what happens when there are human beings that don’t have access to that and if you look at how human beings have been treated you know especially Sort of like the last 500 years are a particularly ugly period I think of of human history programs of eugenics genocides you know mass slaughters massacres and who is it that is targeted It’s people that do not fit the norm that do not speak either to this religious ideal of you know the the heterosexual or the the human exceptional ideal of the fully rational fully languaged Fully abled body and it’s those bodies that are raised as well because they kind of, in following this human exceptionalism logic, suggest that, oh, no, maybe there is a link between Us and everything else. Maybe we are part of this other non-languaged world as well. And so this work on human exceptionalism is so important at this point, because not only is it about expanding our understanding in order to have (Time 0:34:57)

Dehumanization as Animalization

• Understand the interconnectedness of speciesism, racism, sexism, and ableism without equating them.
• Recognize dehumanization strategies often mirror animalization, reducing humans to instinct and denying culture.

Transcript: Christine Webb But we should be able to talk about them simultaneously without comparing them or ranking them but trying to understand the ways in which they are interconnected and stand from common Roots and yeah this idea of of who gets to be of who gets to be human and this sort of false opposition between human and animal. And all that entails, right, coming back to this idea of like bodies and minds and who is rational, who gets to have language, who is considered to have culture. And, you know, how so much of the discourse and the sort of strategies of dehumanization are actually strategies of animalization. It’s like animalizing other humans, reducing them to pure instinct, to having unintelligible languages, to not having complex cultures or abilities to relate to each other and to Innovate, right? These are very, very similar mechanisms that humans have historically separated themselves from other animals. And we do it within humankind all the time still today. So I think actually there’s sort of a reticence to talk about things simultaneously because of the fear of comparing them directly or acquitting the very unique and different experiences Of each of the victims of these different forms of discrimination. (Time 0:37:42)

Feeling of Intractability

• Christine Webb identifies with the feeling of intractability when facing entrenched systems built on violence.
• She argues that despite feeling overwhelmed, there’s no other choice than to continue trying to change the system by addressing its flawed worldviews.

Transcript: Christine Webb And I can identify with this feeling of intractability. And then at the same time, I’m like, but what choice do we have? Like, we can’t just, that doesn’t mean we throw our arms up in the air. We still are trying to change these systems in part through changing the cosmologies and pointing out the flaws in the world views and, and the assumptions that, that underpin them. But no, I, especially given the news and the last few weeks, last few days in particular, what’s going on in Gaza. It feels particularly like what is it going to take? Rachel Donald Yeah. (Time 0:45:13)

Think Globally, Act Locally

• Christine Webb suggests ‘thinking globally, acting locally’ as a motto.
• She believes imagining a different future requires undoing the Western industrialized world’s influence.

Transcript: Christine Webb Globally acting locally as you were alluding to is definitely my motto to some extent. But it feels like there’s so much that is being undone right now. And that maybe until that undoing happens, and I’m talking about like the undoing of basically the western industrialized world until that undoing happens then we’re not even going To be able to imagine a different future like we’re so in it right now and again who do I mean by by we I don’t necessarily even mean you and me we’re fortunately spared from some of the worst Effects of this culture demise and sort of last attempts to assert itself yeah in (Time 0:48:20)

10sec Snip Transcript: Christine Webb Very important way of thinking about our physical and mental health right is being able to be in right relationship with the life around us it’s a whole other topic but i’ve (Time 0:56:18)