Today’s post comes from ‘The Age of Consent‘, George Monbiot’s 2003 manifesto for a new world order.

In his novel Atomised, Michel Houellebecq writes of the ‘metaphysical mutations’ which have changed the way the world’s people think.

Once a metaphysical mutation has arisen, it moves inexorably towards its logical conclusion.  Heedlessly, it sweeps away economic and political systems, ethical considerations and social structures.  No human agency can halt its progress – nothing, but another metaphysical mutation.  (Michel Houellebecq. 2001 Atomised. Vintage, London)

These events are, as Houellebecq points out, rare in history.  The emergence and diffusion of Christianity and Islam was one, the Enlightenment and ascendency of science another.  I believe we may be on the verge of a new one.

Throughout history, human beings have been the loyalists of an exclusive community.  They have always known, as if by instinct, who lies within and who lies without.  Those who exist beyond the border are less human than those who exist within.  Remorselessly, the unit of identity has grown, from the family to the pack, to the clan, the tribe, the nation.  In every case the struggle between smaller groups has been resolved only to begin a common struggle against another new federation.

Our loyalties have made us easy to manipulate.  In the First World War, a few dozen aristocrats sent eight million men to die in the name of nationhood.  The interests of the opposing armies were identical.  Their soldiers would have been better served by overthrowing their generals and destroying the class which had started the war than by fighting each other, but their national identity overrode their class interest.  The new mutation will force us to abandon nationhood, just as, in earlier epochs, we abandoned barony and the clan.  It will compel us to recognise the irrationality of the loyalties which set us apart.  For the first time in history, we will see ourselves as a species.