Imagining Equality, Shifting Human Consciousness Toward Ecological Sustainability

Abstract

My thesis explored the idea that inequality is a human-made perspective that has been informed concurrently through social and metaphysical structures. My intent has been to show how inequality as a learned man-made system of consciousness has played a pivotal role in justifying the exploitation of other cultures and the environment in the name of progress, advancement and human destiny. I have explored the idea that anthropocentrism and ethno-centric patriarchy has been woven so deeply into the fabric of modern perception that we are largely unconscious of its existence, even while we reap the results in both environmental and social degradation. My thesis has argued that a metaphysics, which supports equality, would result in a different value system that would prioritize diversity of life above and beyond human advancement, and emphasize cross-species interconnectedness thereby reducing the risk of exploitation inherent in the existing globally driven capitalist system.