(Nimue)
The language we use informs how we think and feel. This means that changing language norms can help create cultural shifts and political perspectives. If this is an area of interest for you, then the key term to look up is ecolinguistics. There are books and courses available.
A great deal of the mistreatment of animals is underpinned by the idea that animals are basically just objects for use. When a creature is an it, a thing, or a unit of production, it is easier to present it as not really mattering. When a creature is presented instead, as a being who has feelings, we are more readily persuaded that they are worthy of respect. The language shift itself demands a different kind of conversation.
The same thing happens with trees. If we label it as lumber, then a tree is just a thing out of which we can make other things. Describe a tree as someone who has a different kind of life from a human but who is very much part of a community, and everything changes. We are now getting research into plant consciousness, but you have to imagine consciousness could exist before you might start looking for real signs of it. After all, we spent long enough trying to tell ourselves that animals do not feel pain.
At the moment we do not consider landscapes conscious. We do have evidence of consciousness in woodland. Interesting things happen when you don’t use objectifying language for landscapes. If a mountain or a river becomes a who, rather than a what, our perspectives shift. Who was your first mountain? Whose watershed do you live in?
Capitalism reduces everyone, people included, to resource status. We can use language to repersonalise the world and to shake off the crushing grip of commodification. If we can understand the world as living, inhabited, and inspirited, this opens the way to more care and less exploitation.
Changing the pronouns we use is easy enough and it’s a good place to start.
Druid Life 