Homorbidity & Anthropathy: From Diseased Human to Human Disease
Disenchantment and the Bitter Seeds of Nihilism: Part Two
A Thousand Cuts
In the previous essay we explored the reality of a slow but inexorable decline and fall of global civilisation, and how a sophisticated ‘web of convenience’ insulates us from that unpalatable but perilous state of affairs. We looked at how our quality of life in the West and the web of convenience exist in symbiosis. In maintenance of our convenience-optimised lifestyles, and their concomitant support networks, an inefficient and profligate consumption of resources not only continues but accelerates. This exploitation only serves to drive a remorseless degradation of the biosphere; it is planetary death by a thousand cuts.
We touched on how, despite knowing or intuiting that our civilisation is marching towards a precipice, the web of convenience abstracts and obfuscates. It maintains a false sense of security, made worse by the ineptitude and apparent fatalism of government, and their failure to meaningfully address these increasingly insurmountable problems (anyone would think climate change is the only problem in town when arguably others - such as plastic pollution - are far more pressing.)
Finally, we briefly touched on how the web of convenience promotes a different kind of reality altogether; a false overlay that ultimately leads to ennui, disconnection, vacuity, rootlessness, incomprehension, narcissism and, finally, nihilism. It’s most obvious technological expression is the all-pervasive internet, but the ambitions of the fourth industrial revolution will only further disassociate humankind from the mortal world.
So it’s now time to reflect on the impact all this has, and will have, on those downstream: the current and future generations whose inheritance is a world where Nature is polluted, crippled and denuded; a poisoned chalice that cannot be repudiated. We’ll look at two major vectors impinging on their health and wellbeing: 1) the environmental fallout from short-termist and exploitative strategies driven by private enterprise; and 2) a pervasive culture of technological determinism.
The Diseased Human
In a previous post I briefly discussed epigenetics, the study of how specific environments can modify the way genes work. It was once assumed that an understanding of genes would reveal everything there is to know about organisms. But gene function can be altered by more than just changes in sequence. Environment is, in fact, just as important: we are constantly taking our environment in, and it is transforming us; we wouldn’t be us without it. Environment also persists down the ancestral line, incorporating factors such as diet, drugs, pollution, stress and even trauma; individuals who experienced childhood abuse have displayed elevated stress levels in later life. These ‘ancestral burdens’ in turn shape our future by influencing our decision-making processes.
It should therefore concern us all that a wide variety of emerging illnesses, behaviours, and other health indicators already have some level of evidence linking them with epigenetic mechanisms, including cancers of almost all types, cognitive dysfunction, and respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive, autoimmune, and neurobehavioral illnesses. Known or suspected drivers range from heavy metals, pesticides, exhaust fumes, PAHs and PFAs, to hormones, radioactivity, viruses, and bacteria.
Major culprits include the highly toxic (and now banned) chemicals known as DDTs (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), which disrupt the endocrine system of glands that generate hormones and enable communication between cells and organs in the body, potentially driving ADHD behaviours and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).
Unbelievably, just eight years ago plastic microbeads were common in exfoliant scrubs and toothpastes. Now,150 million tonnes of plastic choke the world’s oceans, with a further 8 million tonnes being dumped annually. Microplastics have been found in all deep ocean trenches, including the Mariana Trench at 11,000 metres. Many contain DDTs. In a recent study, microplastics were found in every human placenta tested. Plastic contamination of the human body has been linked to stroke and heart failure: food merely in contact with plastic may significantly increase the risk of reproductive harm, cancer and heart failure.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of synthetic chemicals present in countless consumer products, from non-stick cookware to water-resistant clothing. And they have contaminated water sources across the planet. One pathway into the food supply chain is pesticide use: 14% of all active ingredients in pesticides are PFAs, intentionally added to improve its effectiveness and longevity. Incredibly, PFAs are now found in the blood of 98% of Americans, and in breast milk.
The epigenic impact of a polluted environment applies to all species, not just humans. Pollution is present in every level of the food chain, from plankton – who mistake microplastics for food – upwards. Babies are now born pre-polluted. The genetic impacts of air pollution, plastic pollution, food pollution, soil pollution, water pollution – will be passed down to our children, and theirs, on and on through the generations, their impact becoming cumulative. Allergies, asthma, cancers, neurological conditions, heart issues, fertility reduction, pregnancy complications, birth defects; these are our descendants’ inheritance. ‘Homorbidity’ describes this poisoned chalice: the diseased human.
We’re already seeing the epigenetic consequences of our poisoned world. Incidences of lung cancer amongst those who have never smoked is rising, as is bowel cancer amongst people aged under 50. Meanwhile, epigenetic modifications in bacteria, as a result of the widespread misuse of antibiotics, has led to antimicrobial resistance. A world decimated by untreatable infections doesn’t bear thinking about.
Epigenetics is an emerging area of research, but we shouldn’t be surprised if many more links are established in future between our increasingly toxic environment and a panoply of physical and mental health conditions.
The Human Disease
An area only slightly better understood is the social and psychological impact of the internet, particularly on the young. For all its obvious benefits, the internet has created a culture of consumption defined by self-presentation, narcissism, social isolation, and various pathologies and addictions. For ‘internet-native’ generations, it has essentially displaced the ‘real’ physical world, in favour of a disembodied realm saturated with extreme imagery that habituates and desensitises. This so-called ‘reinforcer pathology’ creates a numbness and dislocation where all imagery is reduced to mere content to be consumed, and where empathy and moral discernment are blunted.1
Some ethnographers have argued this remapping of neural circuitry leads to nihilism and an internet-native sadism. Just one example is the exposure of the sickening global monkey torture ring, where baby macaques endured deliberate and gratuitous suffering of the most debased kind. Another is the rise of catapult Whatsapp groups where users - predominantly children - share videos of dead and dying animals. Yet another is the slaughter of millions of migrating birds ‘just for fun’, the videos shared on TikTok. Yet another is the livestreaming of UK hare coursing to China, on which thousands of pounds of bets are waged. Social media’s toxic combination of anonymity, monetisation and camaraderie enables a kind of zoosadist simpatico, where extreme behaviour is normalised and encouraged, fragmenting into even darker niches such as hurtcore and crush fetish. The facilitation of extreme transgression is the most baleful consequence of the ‘web of convenience’, where suffering is exchanged for ‘likes’.
Are you angry yet?
It might be argued that the roots of this type of zoosadism lies in speciesism: the deeply-rooted (Western materialistic) belief that humans are in every way superior to all other species; that animals are simply a means to human ends, and may legitimately be used for experimentation, or as food, clothing, and entertainment, despite their own desires, needs, and complex lives. It sounds like a relic of another age, but speciesism remains deeply embedded in capitalist and consumer systems and continues to be widely and vociferously advocated, particularly amongst humanists. Naturally, indigenous and animist perspectives are routinely ignored or denigrated.
However, the tide may be turning as a result of philosophers such as Peter Singer and Tom Regan, amidst a general sense that the exploitation and annihilation of species and habitats is not merely unjustifiable but self-sabotaging. Humans are therefore inevitably transforming into the enemy; agents of evil inflicting hell on other beings. There is a growing disgust at humanity, and a relative cheapening of human life, given the parlous impact of eight billion souls on the biosphere. You might say that we are just about intelligent enough to realise how stupid we are, and this realisation fosters a toxic self-loathing. We have become the ‘anthropathy’ - the human disease.2
Yet this misanthropy poses its own acute problems, particularly when coupled with technology, and an emerging pessimism and nihilism in the face of impending environmental catastrophe. Things will get bleaker still when we explore the occult intersections of this existential disenchantment in the next essay.
