Holobiant Living

‘A knife gripped by one hand, slips and cuts the finger of the other hand. Metal and skin, move with air, join with skin, then leave skin. Patterns of cells and molecules move towards cells, splitting cells. Knife-hand moves air, makes bloodhand. Blood cells reach across the split. Holding on, tissue forms. Pulling the divide closer it heals itself. Is this body mine? is this body yours?’ – Indigo Leveson-Gower (2023)

With all the unfaithful offspring of the sky gods, with my littermates who find a rich wallow in multispecies muddles, I want to make a critical and joyful fuss about these matters. I want to stay with the trouble, and the only way I know to do that is in generative joy, terror, and collective thinking’ –Donna Haraway (2016)

The Muddle Of Life

I grew tired of inhabiting my own small world. Eagar for some companionship, however slight, I travelled to work in the public library. It is here that I find myself. I am now sat in a chair that most likely has seen a thousand others sit upon it, working on a desk that many busy arms have typed at. On a rainy day like this to exist within a space with no monetary contribution to the establishment is a rarity. I examine the library goers surrounding me, each here conducting their own investigations and pursuits. I ponder what knowledge is consumed and what thoughts have passed through, our worlds exist together in this space. Individualism is at the forefront idea of capitalist western ideology (Siedentop, 2014). A pillar of the American Dream and the nuclear family. Economic principles are wholly centred on the rational individual, with only its own goals in mind. The landscape of western cities reflects this: the apartment blocks, the terraced house, the semi-detached house. The goal in this landscape, seemingly, is the detached house; the dream of removing oneself completely from the surroundings. We are living together in cities yet isolated from one another into our own units.

This entire ideological landscape hinges on us as individuals, independent from others. There is an inherent tension between the individual and the collective. The focus on the individual away from the common good, through the privatisation of space and ideological change, has contributed to environmental destruction. As Vandana Shiva argues in her book Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace (Shiva, 2015), this mindset has led to overconsumption and competition between individuals, which in turn has led to the depletion of natural resources. Of course, the idea of the individual has key importance in contemporary human rights ethics but can have we gone too far with individualism? And how can we be more sensitive to the ‘other’ and the collective good of the earth?

Collective Porosity

I argue, Scott Gilbert tells us, ‘we have never been individuals’ but should view ourselves as Human ‘Holobionts’; an assemblage of humans and nonhumans living together and forming an ecosystem (Gilbert et al, 2012). The first pitfall of individualism is that we are over 50 percent ‘other.’ Each human body is made of 30 trillion human cells as well as 39 trillion microbial cells. These govern our mood, digestion and immune system. (Greshko, 2016) This begs the question, who are we? If our very existence hinges on their existence, how do we separate ourselves? To extrapolate this idea is to

134 Composting is so hot understand our existence in a world system and to shatter the illusion of the individual.

In his book The Ethics of Authenticity (1991), Charles Taylor proposes that modern individualism has led to a kind of ‘malaise’ in which individuals are cut off from larger social and cultural contexts, leading to a sense of disconnection and alienation. He speaks on the ‘porous self,’ open to the world and able to be shaped by experiences and interactions with others, and the ‘buffered self,’ self-sufficient and less susceptible to external influence. Taylor argues that in contemporary society we have become ‘buffered’ selves. The ‘porous’ individual is grounded in matter, it does not separate itself from the physical that the ‘buffered self’ would see as external to themselves Could collective living practices and a revaluation of the capitalist ‘nuclear family’ lead to a more ecological and understanding mode of living? Could new ‘kinships’ and chosen families arise?

Alternative Histories

We have not always lived so separately. William Morris discussed the faults of this individualistic ideology in his works such as News from Nowhere (1890) (Waithe, 2006). Writing during the Victorian era in the industrial evolution, he proposed that society could learn from medieval society’s ideas of collectivism and care. This era saw a rise in enclosing and privatizing land, concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a few, which still effective in our society today. Morris discussed the medieval concept of the ‘commons,’ communal grazing lands and forests ensured that members of the community had access to essential resources. Hospitality and kindness to strangers was also common practice, travellers and strangers were welcomed into homes and given food and shelter, regardless of their social status. This was seen as a as a duty and a way to demonstrate one’s Christian charity. Monastic living practices common in the medieval period are interesting examples of collective living that transcended the self, prioritising collective good. The ‘Beguines’ were people who lived in communities of religious women in Europe during the 12th to the 16th centuries. They lived in ‘Beguinage’s’ which allowed them to step out of traditional and controlled societal roles of wives and the subjugation of women. Through mutual care and common resources, wealth and status was transcended. The Beguines had a fraught relationship to the Catholic church, due to their nonhierarchical structure they lay outside of the church’s organizations. This eventually led to the dissolution of the Beguines, however other forms of monastic living still exist today, and the non-hierarchical, collective living methodology with a common goal could be an influential narrative (Bowie, 1992.)

Common Practice

‘Commoning’ may be an essential component to a new form of living that encourages collective living practices. To ‘common’ is to foster shared ownership of spaces, pool resources and responsibilities, and encourage collective living patterns. Commoning transcends individual identity, collectively governed and inclusive (Stavrides, 2016). To be effective in addressing ecological concerns it must have specific intentions. An ecological ‘commoning’ process would not only transcend human identity but also non-human identity. Common spaces created would value and make room for all. The intentional sharing of resources and space amongst humans and non-humans alike would counteract the depletion of these resources, bringing to the forefront the impact actions have and guarding against them.

The concept of the ‘human holobiont’ challenges the idea of the individual and reminds us that we are made up of both human and non-human, making us interdependent with the environment around us. Ecological ideas must understand this wholly and take it into account.