The systems we exist within are pathological. Our politics, media and judicial system largely serve an economy that has put us on a highway to extinction and is founded on the destruction of communities across the world. Our diseased culture and individual psychologies have been infected by the poisons of a worldview that normalises greed, inequality, consumerism, and extractive relationships with our family in the global South.
Simple, human-made rules – such as corporate laws that prioritise shareholders’ profits over life and wellbeing; or interest-bearing debt that requires extractive cancerous economic growth – have built an economy that is dominated by psychopathic actors (banks, oil companies, billionaires, corporations peddling false solutions) that are prepared to see the world burn and unravel just so their obscene profits can keep rolling in.
Indigenous Algonquin-speaking people from Turtle Island (their name for North America) have a name for this pathology which is Wetiko: a cannibalistic spirit that can take over people’s minds, leading to selfishness, insatiable greed, and consumption as an end in itself. Wetiko has many other names, for example Yurugu in Africa, Rakshasas in Hinduism, the Hungry Ghosts in Buddhism, and vampires and zombies in our culture.
Esta historia es de la edición August 05, 2024 de The Independent.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición August 05, 2024 de The Independent.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Uefa's voyage of discovery is a mystery tour for fans
It isn’t so much how the new-look Champions League is going to work as will it work at all, writes Miguel Delaney
No same-sex couples leaves routines looking flat-footed
This year’s Strictly’ cast is without any same-sex pairings. Ellie Muir mourns the loss of them and explains why they’ve made for some of the best choreography in recent history
'Everything I ever worked on is coming together now'
Conceptual artist, painter, mentor to the YBAs, overnight success at 55. On the eve of a Royal Academy retrospective show, Mark Hudson interviews Michael Craig-Martin
BACK TO SCHOOL
This season sees designers leaning into the old trades of tailoring and ladies’ occasion wear, as previously outdated modes of dress are revamped. The kids are suiting and scrubbing up, writes Joseph Bobowicz from backstage
Seductress of the century
Femme fatale Pamela Harriman was able to change the course of history by captivating leading political figures from Churchill to Clinton using a legendary kingmaking’ technique to devastating effect, as explained by Sonia Purnell
World news in brief
Billionaire back on Earth after walking in space
Seven dead as 'catastrophic' Storm Boris floods Europe
Month’s worth of rain in 24 hours hits several countries
Here's how Harris wins the swing state of Pennsylvania
Scranton’s first female mayor has lessons for the presidential hopeful, ahead of her visit to the must-win state this week
Navalny ally calls on West to invest in Russia's next generation to beat Putin
‘The vast majority of anti-Putin, anti-war Russians are not changing their minds, Leonid Volkov tells Tom Watling
Home news in brief
Tributes paid to mother and children killed in triple murder