Webs we have spun

American anthropologist Clifford Geertz noted that “Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun.” As a Muslim, for example, one lives by the webs of significance the Islamic community holds as truth. French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre drew the paradoxical conclusion that German occupation in World War II offered Frenchmen their greatest opportunity to be free. It nullified what they held as truth and led them to search for new truths amid new realities.

Americans today are suspended in webs of significance such as the radical individualism (self-centeredness) of neoliberalism, the hubris (tribalism) of nationalism, and the salvific apocalypses of ancient Hebrews and early Christians (sectarianism) which fail to illuminate the current ecological crisis and may even contribute to the demise of the planet—our end of times. As French occupation nullified traditional truths, so ecological disasters challenge American (and global) traditions, prompting search for economic and moral philosophies that sustain humans, animals and plant life, the planetary order, and creation under difficult circumstances.

Until consensus on new constructs emerge, Sartre noted, “Man can count on no one but himself; he is alone … with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.” Societies without communally accepted truths experience what he called the “anguish of freedom,” an era of uncertainty, anxiety, and division. Others have experienced and survived this, but until now none have been armed with nuclear weapons globally, nor assault weapons locally. Success will take global collective genius. DAVID SIXBEY

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