ABSTRACT
In Chapter 3, we introduced you to the ideas of centric thinking and value hierarchized thinking within a logic of domination. We argued that, as members of a Western industrial culture, especially one that has a Eurocentric history, we have inherited a way of thinking and seeing the world that begins from the (often unconscious) assumption that a “hierarchy of being” is natural; that is, that life is naturally ordered within a ranking of value. Using a complex system of language and meaning that is constantly in exchange, this means that we learn to relate to one another and to the more-than-human world as if superiority of some members over others is just the way it is. And, as inheritors of this paradigm, we continue to live in ways (that is, within institutions and ideological systems) that reflect the assumption that some simply deserve to have more authority, more status, more resources, and more decision-making power (ultimately about who lives and who dies) than others. But does that make sense? Where did this system of belief come from? Who actually benefits from that set of assumptions? And who ultimately loses?
