What is Wetiko?

 

I have mentioned the word wetiko throughout this blog many times and finally decided to devote a specific page to it to describe specifically what it is so that I can then simply refer to this page from here on out. There are other words such as Wendigo or Wendego or Windigo which refer to this same concept. Please feel free to search for this word (wetiko) in my blog to see what it refers to and/or the context I have used it in. The predicament of ecological overshoot which is mentioned or referred to in practically every article I have written here is caused by technology use, which is a behavior that has been chosen. This choice has been indoctrinated into most of society through this wetiko psychosis, also known as colonialism. Another way to describe wetiko is what Paul Levy calls it: malignant egophrenia.

Few people see this, or even can see this, because wetiko masks itself. Think of wetiko like a gambling addiction - the illusion provided by the visualization of the winnings keeps a person enthralled despite the damage being done with every loss incurred. At the same time, the gambler cannot see all the different ways that this addiction is taking away his or her freedom. The amount of money being spent to continue the addiction, the time lost being a more productive member of society, and time spent away from family and friends causes mental degradation as the desire for more gambling constantly steals more time, money, and energy that could have been spent doing something more rewarding over the long haul. These are the classic signs of every addiction, and yet, society ignores our collective addiction to technology which threatens our very existence. 

I often discuss our lack of agency due to the Maximum Power Principle (MPP), which, as a biological imperative, predisposes us to wetiko as soon as we come into contact with technology because technology helps us harness far more energy and resources than we ever could without it. This makes life easier, more convenient, and frequently more leisurely for us in the short term, so it is VERY attractive and more or less sells itself as soon as one sees it in action, so to speak. As such, it is also very addictive. Most people, unfortunately, don't look beyond the surface to find out the infrastructural platforms that make it all possible (including civilization itself) and provide the energy and materials for these technological devices so they don't realize the destruction taking place in their name (for their use of this technology). Little thought is given to the eventual consequences of continuing to employ technology use. Most people see no other alternative to continuing civilization. 

An excellent book about wetiko is Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism from Jack D. Forbes. Once one understands the precepts contained within the book and what wetiko is all about, one is changed forever by being able to detect it. 

Paul Levy has written many books on this subject and one such book is The Quantum Revelation: A Radical Synthesis of Science and Spirituality. Another source of information by Paul is Wetiko: The Greatest Epidemic Sickness Known to Humanity. Part Two of that article is here.

An article by Alnoor Ladha and Martin Kirk, Seeing Wetiko: On Capitalism, Mind Viruses, and Antidotes for a World in Transition, explains how wetiko is bringing us to the brink of extinction, quote: 

"What if we told you that humanity is being driven to the brink of extinction by an illness? That all the poverty, the climate devastation, the perpetual war, and consumption fetishism we see all around us have roots in a mass psychological infection? What if we went on to say that this infection is not just highly communicable but also self-replicating, according to the laws of cultural evolution and that it remains so clandestine in our psyches that most hosts will, as a condition of their infected state, vehemently deny that they are infected? What if we then told you that this 'mind virus' can be described as a form of cannabalism. Yes, cannibalism. Not necessarily in the literal flesh-eating sense, but rather the idea of consuming others - human and non-human - as a means of securing personal wealth and supremacy."

Because wetiko masks itself, I'm not certain that there is any real way out of this (the primary reason for this blog in the first place). I look at society today and wonder why people don't bother to look up facts - most people just follow the herd and buy into "what everybody else is doing." I would argue that the fact that so many people consistently look for change to occur externally is a symptom of wetiko. Independent thinkers like me might be able to figure out how to short-circuit wetiko and the MPP, but I seriously doubt that most people would ever follow in these footsteps because of human aversion to loss and the sacrifice required. It requires being able to become a giver and not just a taker and becoming more reciprocal, not just to other people but to nature as well.

The Priests of the Golden Bull is a song by Buffy Saint-Marie about wetiko. 

See also this post by Tom Murphy.

See also this video by Middle Nation. While this reflects more of the scenario within the United States, wetiko is more of a Western/European phenomenon.

This post by John Omaha titled Shamanic Spirituality is reprinted here by permission, quote:

"Shamanism is a spiritual practice; it is not a religious practice. A distinguishing characteristic of contemporary shamanic spirituality is atheism. Religions—Christianity, Hinduism, Islam—are theistic; they believe a god or gods created the heavens and earth. Creating a god allows humans to project their most destructive impulses onto their god, as when Genesis declares that god gave humans dominion "over all the earth." The god man created in his own image is cruel and murderous.

Contemporary shamanic spirituality believes in a scientific description of the origin and evolution of every living thing. Some "living things" are animate and some are inanimate. The animate living things comprise everything from bacteria to bison, whelks to whales, rhododendrons to redwoods. The inanimate living things are rocks and water, glaciers and geysers. All originated from elements created in an unfathomable Big Bang and the ensuing innumerable supernovas. Shamanic spirituality accepts that the origin of whatever exploded in the Big Bang is presently unknowable and so shamanic spirituality is essentially a Mystery tradition.

Arising from its holistic world-view, shamanic spirituality is free of the arbitrary distinctions—us versus them, Christians versus infidels, Israelis versus Palestinians, Russians versus Ukrainians, Republicans versus Democrats, capitalists versus socialists—that are the cause of wars and genocides. Creation of an "other" taps into a vicious violence arising from the deep human unconscious. Shamanic spirituality has never perpetrated a genocide; it has not murdered thousands of children or razed entire cities. Shamanic spirituality would not invent nerve gas, nor would it invent and then use nuclear weapons to incinerate hundreds of thousands of human beings.

Religion has spawned derivatives, most notably capitalism. Capitalism is a destructive offshoot of the us versus them dichotomy. Capitalism relies on the distinction between owner and worker, which gives rise to poverty versus wealth and rich versus poor. In the contemporary world, poverty is associated with sin, and the wealthy are given dominion over the impoverished. Work is the creation of religion and capitalism. Industrialization and the concept of property are creations of capitalism. The very concept of time itself is a creation of capitalism. Timekeepers (clocks) are necessary to capitalism's functioning assuring that people work during work hours and then worship the system of domination and control during their "time off" from work. In a shamano-spiritual society, collaboration is the highest value, and ruinous competition does not exist.

Misogyny is yet another derivative of religion. Women are othered in contemporary male-dominated society. Their opinions are devalued. They do not make as much money as men for the same amount of work. They are abused and raped. In a society founded on shamanic spirituality, women and men are equals. Women hold positions of power. As in indigenous cultures, the grandmothers have an final say on important matters.

The values that animate a shamanic-spiritual society are fundamentally kindness, cooperation, and a deep transpersonal connection with every living thing. In the capitalist world-view, a tree is merely a profit potential. In shamano-spirituality, the tree is a fellow living being worthy of respect for its contribution of oxygen for all our relations to breathe. In spirituality a human will sit in mediation with a tree, opening to communication with the tree. Shamans bless a tree before cutting it down and express gratitude to the tree for its giveaway of wood for a fire and warmth.

Reflect on your thoughts as you read this essay. Did you find yourself dismissing the possibility of an alternative to religion and capitalism? Did you judge negative the vision offered by shamanic spirituality? What emotions came up for you? Your answers to these questions expose the degree to which religion and capitalism have infiltrated your thoughts. Did you hear a small voice wishing the world of shamanic spirituality could be real? Well it can be. We can collaborate with each other to grow our food. We can design a social system that will produce doctors and engineers who are motivated by kindness and cooperation. We can climb off the hamster wheel of capitalism and reclaim our lives for the purely human pursuits of spirituality and mutuality. We can realize the dreams of humanity rising, which will always materialize if we work for them.

A'ho Mitakuye Oyasin"