While it might seem counterproductive, the extension of ‘rights’ to non-humans, including landscape elements, in an effort to bring them into the circle of human ethico-legal protection, will also not be in the spirit of the sumbios (living together) and the Symbiocene. This is because ‘rights’ have their origin in exploitative and manipulative modes of human decision-making arising from the need for secular wealth and property to be protected from the privilege and power of the Church and the Crown (MacIntyre 1984, Albrecht 1994).

The possession of rights depends on the idea of the autonomous individual (personhood) as the bearer of rights in a contestable social context. Moreover, a hierarchy of rights emerges where, for example, males and their power structures preference masculinist rights over all others (see Salleh 1984).

Rights are wrongs and we do not need them in a non-hierarchical world of permeable and porous intersections of interest. Sumbioethics is the application of Symbiocene principles to the pursuit of a good life. Within ethics and law there will need to be a new concept for ‘rights’, one that takes into account symbiotic interconnectedness within the Symbiocene and the human sumbios.

Perhaps ‘ghehds’? A replacement term for ‘rights’ where instead of a hierarchy of competing rights, assuming autonomous individuals or entities in a contested domain, ‘ghehds,’ are the entitlements of passage, movement and flow within organically and symbiotically unified wholes. The good of the whole is guaranteed by the protection of the ‘ghehds’ that symbiotically connect and hold things together. Rights assume division, ghehds assume unity.

Ghehds may also have many areas of overlap with traditional indigenous knowledges, however, given that many of the discoveries in symbiotic science involve that which was formerly unknown and invisible, no past culture has been able to incorporate many aspects of micro-symbiosis into past lore. Now, emergent hybrid knowledges enable such incorporation as the basis for new lore and law.

I see ghehds as similar in function to the song-lines and ‘yarning’ of Australian Aboriginal people, they help educate people to live successfully on land or ‘how to do the right thing’ by it. Ghehds also provide guidance on how human communities ought to live within a new communitarian ethos as outlined within the concept of the Symbiocene. We can now move seamlessly from regenerating those relationships that have been symbioviable in the past to symbioemergent novelty in the future.

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[‘Ghehd’ (to unite) is an old root word in Indo-European languages and has meanings linked to Old English and Germanic words such as ‘together’, ‘to gather’ and ‘good’.]

For more, see: https://glennaalbrecht.wordpress.com/2021/03/19/the-extinction-of-rights-and-the-extantion-of-ghehds-2/

Image of Glenn Albrecht by Doug Gimesy.

The generations produced by the Boomers, and now, their own children (Gens X, Y and Z), are labelled as vague, directionless tribes in the Anthropocene, but now is their time in history to unite and fight for a cause that is without peer … themselves and their own future. In Australia, in late 2018, the school children (Gen Z) are now leading the opposition to ecocide and climacide.

The artistic tribes have already moved in this direction and I am buoyed the emergence of Symbiocene art in the last few years. The idea of the Symbiocene, and the need for Generation Symbiocene (collectively to be known as Gen S) to become tribal champions for positive Earth emotions, are their guideposts. Symbiocene principles form a coherent and unifying manifesto. The Symbiocene and its positive Earth emotions give generously of directionality in life. They both say go in the direction of increasing symbiotic unity and diversity. They both give expression to good Earth emotions that must fight climate warming and the extinction of species.

The application of Symbiocene principles will also ensure that a sumbioregional focus returns to human industry and agriculture. They will respect the nuances of place in situ, the world over. In essence, I am hopeful that a new form of human community can arise out of the current identity crisis of all the post-Boomer Gens and other people already emplaced at small scale all over the world. They will use their own inner distress, the scientific critique of homogeneous gigantism and its toxic legacy, and climate chaos, plus sumbiophilia and tribalism, to create the Symbiocene. In addition, the Symbiocene just might be the de-colonising agent needed to address the de-contextualising and homogenisation of the Anthropocene.

The inertia of others will be unblocked by positive Earth emotions based on the understanding of the symbiotic revolution in science and the overwhelming appeal to be a part of a mentally and physically strong Generation Symbiocene.

See: Earth Emotions: http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140104119890

Key Foundational Symbiocene Principles (SP) are:

SP 1 Regeneration: complete regeneration or biodegradability of all symbiotic inputs and outputs;

SP 2 Safety: socially just forms of safe and renewable bioenergy;

SP 3 Integration: complete integration of human systems with biogeochemical systems at all scales;

SP 4 Renewal: use of the renewable resources of place and bioregion;

SP 5 Bioproduction: organic materials from life to replace extraction of raw materials;

SP 6 Biotechnology: the foundation of all forms of production, consumption and enterprise;

SP 7 Respect: all species, great and small, having their biocommunal properties respected;

SP 8 Harmony: order is maintained and conflict is recognized as a sub-set of grand-scale cooperation;

SP 9 Protection: existing symbiotic bonds between and within species must be maintained, and,

SP10 Creativity: active creation of new symbiotic human-non-human relationships.