Humans are the only species on Earth that can spend its entire lifetime without having to consciously interact with other organisms. We may eat other species or walk by them on our way to work, but most of us see other life forms not as beings, but as objects that are part of the urban landscape. Humans are becoming “organism blind”: from the trees along our street to a pack of tomatoes purchased at the supermarket, organisms are no longer actors, but single-use props in the virtual movie set of human civilisation.
But the objectification of organisms within the necrocapitalist matrix is almost as dire as the objectification of the humans inhabiting it. Organism blindness is only a symptom of a much deeper, systemic disease that affects all senses. The tree on the street is a piece of our history: it has seen generations of humans walk past it, and dozens of governments rise and fall. The pack of tomatoes you bought is the result of thousands of years of cultivation, domestication, and conversation between human civilisation and the tomato plant. We have stopped having these conversations long ago, ever since our relationships with other beings became automated, anonymized, and financialized.