TWH – Recently, The Wild Hunt discussed with the Rev. Kirk Thomas how the Pagan virtue of reciprocity can elucidate the crisis in the recycling industry. Thomas follows the Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF) spiritual path. He said, in that path, “practitioners form reciprocal relationships with the Gods and Spirits, just as we do with each other.”
Rev Kirk Thomas [courtesy]
He explains that, as the Pagan maxim tersely puts it, “The gods are not vending machines.” Those ancient relationships had their basis in “mutual trust and understanding.” Thomas argued that “until recent times, [hospitality] was a critical part of reciprocity.”
Thomas believes, “The open-hearted, and sincere, offering of reciprocity has been the basis of human society down the ages. Our ancestors used it to form relationships with the Gods, Goddesses, and Spirits, with their tribes/cities/nations, and with each other.”
What is virtue ethics?
The ancient Greeks began the development of virtue ethics, as we currently know the field. In “Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics”, John Bowin described virtue ethics as having “an eye to living well through managing one’s character.” Becoming virtuous has the goal of achieving “eudaimonia,” usually translated as happiness or well-being. Aristotle argued that, as humans are social and political animals, eudaimonia can only occur in a social setting. Ethics has no meaning for an isolated individual. Aristotle rejected the concept of an afterlife.
While sometimes related, morals and ethics differ. Thomas said, “Morals are ideas a person has [that are] shaped by their environment, upbringing, and sometimes beliefs. These ideas shape a person’s understanding of right and wrong.” Morals motivate people to do the right thing, as they understand it.
According to Thomas, ethics, a set of rules for a person to follow, may be related to someone’s morals. Ethics, however, can be independent of morals. For example, professional associations develop ethical codes. Those ethical codes govern their activities and keep their members out of legal trouble.
Moralistic approaches generally stress correct behaviors. As a result, someone can simply comply with the moral injunction. That compliance requires no belief in, or understanding of, that injunction. In contrast, an ethical approach generally requires active involvement in understanding the situation. It also requires the application of good judgment in that particular situation.
Individual and group levels of reciprocity
Reciprocity occurs at both individual and group levels. According to Thomas, “The rules are all the same. We give so that others may give in return.” He stressed that this was not a transactional “quid pro quo” relationship. Instead, he said, “In the spirit of reciprocity, understanding, and tolerance of the other is the bare minimum we need in order to cooperate.”
Groups can choose to engage in cooperation, avoidance, or conflict. When groups have grossly unequal power, domination, and exploitation can replace choice.
Reciprocity involves effort. Thomas said, “someone needs to make overtures to the other side. It may not work, the other side may not be ready for this, but offerings … are good in and of themselves.”
Reciprocity and the current recycling crisis
The West has exported its cast-off materials to China for recycling. These shipments included large amounts of contaminated material. In short, the West was exporting its pollution to China. In 2017, China announced that it would no longer accept those shipments of cast-off materials. Other Asian countries followed suit. When Asian countries rejected these Western exports, the recycling industry collapsed.
Image credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Thomas considers the whole international recycling industry to be a failure of reciprocity. Thomas said, “The entities involved resorted to merely transactional relationships. The companies valued profit above all else.
This failure of reciprocity occurred on two levels: corporate and governmental. In addition, it occurred against a background of imperialism, colonialism, and racism.
On a corporate level, Thomas said, “The agreement was to send ‘clean’ plastics to China, and the other SE Asian countries. The companies involved on the one side didn’t make sure that the plastics were clean, and therefore usable. Greed was the overriding concern here. So, the reciprocal relationship never really existed at all.”
On the governmental level, Thomas said, “The US and European nations allowed this to happen. Getting rid of the ‘trash’ was the highest priority since environmental laws were making it harder and harder to dispose of it in our own dumps. ’Let the Chinese deal with it,’ seems to have been the motto.”
On an ethnic level, Thomas said, “In China, there was a good recycling business, but dirty plastics cut down on how much they were able to do. In the US, at least, dumps and environmentally damaged and spoiled places are often very, close to where racial minorities are living. So, in one sense, sending the trash to China was helpful for the minorities here [in the US], since it didn’t end up in their backyards, but instead, it ended up in the backyards of the Chinese people.” Once again, social “goods” and social “bads” divide along the color line.
On an ecological level, Thomas said that humans share the planet with other creatures, gods, and spirits. He said, “By continuing to create so much trash we are, essentially, defecating in our own yards. We are destroying the environment on which we all depend, driving multiple species to extinction, and if we don’t start seeing the world in a reciprocal manner, instead of a transactional one, we may well join them” in extinction.
Thomas suggests that the Pagan virtue of reciprocity could become the basis for a Pagan concept of social justice. Thomas said that social justice resolves ‘inequality between the elites and the rest, which often means people of color, sexual minorities, etc. But it should also include the inequality between the people and the planet.”
Focusing on recycling’s problems, Thomas explained, “The easy way out is to blame politicians and corporations, and yes, they all certainly are responsible in many ways. But most of the blame for this lack of reciprocity with the earth must surely be on our own heads. We love to buy disposable packaging, taking our groceries home in plastic bags, and consuming like there’s no tomorrow. Who is responsible for putting their dirty plastics into the recycling bins anyway? We all are! In some cases, it may be due to ignorance, but in others it’s due to the fact that cleaning up after ourselves is too inconvenient. Just like with wearing masks in a pandemic, people see it as unnecessary and against personal freedom.”
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