Homo sapiens – or homo stupido??
This week, a group of pilgrims walked the Walk of Wisdom to reflect on their relationship to the earth. In doing so, they dealt with one of the great questions of our time. A reflection by Damiaan Messing, pioneer of the route.
According to many, we live in the era of the “Anthropocene”: homo sapiens rules the earth. Homo sapiens means “wise man”. A noble title. But do we deserve it? I think man is smart and wildly successful, but wise? We are soiling our own nest: the earth, ruthlessly exploiting other species and killing many others – I will not mention how we behave towards our own species. Is that homo sapiens, wise man?
There are two souls living in my breast. Some shudder at the plastic soup, the melting ice caps, the shocking global income inequality. The other is reminded of the unspeakable suffering that we have spared each other over the centuries thanks to medical advances and enormously increased prosperity. I grew up in a paradisiacal country where the average homeless person on benefits has more to spend than the average Dutch person in 1950 (1). While many a ten-year-old was beaten up in a factory in the 19th century, today marble pots are bricked into the street furniture of some new housing estates for the same rascals.
The human being who is capable of so many beautiful and subtle things in such a short time can also organize his own household – the economy – in such a way that life on earth is good for everyone, while at the same time there is room for what calms almost every person: nature. Flowers and green views, hills and valleys with centuries-old trees, fluttering birds, a troop of wild boar or a spindly deer, hidden among the ferns…
Homo sapiens – methinks! There is still a lot to be done before we are worthy of that title. But take heart, change is coming. Even the liberal and politically neutral NRC Handelsblad fulminated in an editorial this summer:
We all know it – but do we want to know? In the newspaper we read about melting Antarctic ice and about irreversible global warming, and then we eat our steak, order a funny gadget on alibaba.com and plan our holiday to Thailand.
This cognitive dissonance cannot save us from concluding that the facts gathered by scientists mean that we will have to change our lifestyles […]
But we don’t do it?!
“Cognitive dissonance” is fancy language for actions that go against your own beliefs. Stupid rather than wise, of course. A wise person reconciles actions and beliefs. According to the NRC, that means eating less animal products, flying less and buying less stuff. There is more, but anyone who accepts the science of climate change and does not adapt his behavior to it is, after all, a homo stupido rather than homo sapiens. (2)
Let me not start swearing – that would not be wise. What I like about the Walk of Wisdom is that you first look at yourself and only from there at the world around you. In what touches you lies what you value, and if you have your values clear, you can adjust your actions accordingly.
Speaking for myself: “cognitive dissonance” in abundance. I am convinced that I appreciate meditation and repentance, and moderation of consumption, but I often indulge in dates and work, eating a lot of sweets at that. I can adjust my beliefs, but they are persistent so until I live by them, I feel a bit homo stupido.
Other than that, I’m a good guy. I am touched by a group of ten pilgrims who walk for five days to think about their relationship with the earth. I like the fact that one of them doesn’t try to buy new stuff for a year, while another experiments with a vegan lifestyle and goes to the market with cotton bags to buy groceries. I thought it was the latter, but also interesting. And yes, today I bought a carton of soy milk for the first time out of conviction…
Let’s not judge each other to what extent we are wise or stupid. But let’s also not wait to inspire each other to organize our lives in such a way that they fit into the era of the Anthropocene. An age in which the wise man does not rule over the earth, but manages it. From a long-term vision and with great respect for the glowing range of species that is life and from which we ourselves have emerged.
Each of us who comes to that realization and adjusts his or her behavior accordingly is one step towards the moment when we are worthy of the title homo sapiens – wise man.
Damien Brass
pioneer Walk of Wisdom
(1) Rutger Bregman, Utopia for Realists, 2017, p.2.
(2) NRC Handelsblad editorial: “we have to change our lives” – 26 June 2018, link
Photos: Thomas Hontelez. Pilgrims on the Walk of Wisdom, summer 2018.
