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Beyond Saviourism
No, you can’t ‘save the planet’. Instead, intra-action invites us to reshape our perceptions and relationships with the world around us.
Our world is in trouble, and many of us wait for, or want to be, the charismatic hero sweeping in to save the day.
I know I have. For the longest time, I thought it was up to me to change the course of the Earth — or at least to play a significant role in it. I not only made it my career choice, but would also not stop talking about it.
The idea that we can save someone or something is the age-old story of heroism, a narrative deeply embedded in our culture. It’s this story that shapes our relationship with the environment: we want to save it.
And that’s how we pursue environmental action.
Yet, in our quest to ‘save the planet’, we tend to adopt a perspective of saviourism — a mindset where we see ourselves as the primary agents of rescue and restoration. However, this view is fundamentally flawed. It traps us in a cycle of dominance and control, assuming that the Earth’s complex systems are helpless without human intervention. Such a narrative oversimplifies reality and fails to recognize any agency of the more-than-human world. Moreover, last time I checked, this narrative didn’t get…
