Ginny Battson © 2017

I recently presented Fluminism as understanding of the interconnected universal narrative ~ there is flow to and from all dimensions, including ones we are yet to understand. The complexity is endless, the minutiae beautiful.

To be a Fluminist involves not only understanding and acceptance, but promotion of it as a combined consequentialist and deontological environmental ethic, whereby compassionate actions contribute to continuation of dynamic flows of interconnectedness, to nurture them and to protect them towards a mutual end, whereby all life has opportunity to flourish, rather than to harm or prevent.

Consequentialism ~ that morality of action be judged by consequence.

Deontological ~ that morality of action be judged by virtuousness of the deed.

The consequence of Fluminism is good, in that the universal narrative is one of parity with a biosphere conducive to the flourishing of intrinsically valuable, existential life. The deontology of Fluminism is good, in that suffering is reduced to a minimum, and all species are empowered. In these ways, our moral community extends deep beyond the human, and yet the value of empiricism is maintained (despite what we do not yet understand and what may always remain a mystery).

For example, the allowance of primary and secondary succession, plus the planting of indigenous vegetation, equates to Fluministic action, in that woodland ecological interconnectedness is nurtured through time and space, and for constituative individuals to flourish within the spectrum of their usual, self-willed life patterns (food chains et al). To actively prevent all succession and planting by soil-sealing (e.g. concreting), is the opposite.

Long-term or permanent breaks in the flow are destructive, and the accumulation of many breaks, or stops, becomes detrimental to the existence of life in the form of tipping points. Examples are many, generated largely within the sphere of unsustainable human development, anthropogenic climate change, pesticide use, socio-political and economic doctrines promoting unlimited growth, inequality, and so forth. The moral alternative is active Fluminism.

However, there may be pauses that are Fluministic, in that they may appear to prevent flow, such as ‘natural disasters,’ but which are temporary or cyclical (e.g. volcanism), in time and space. Another example is the cultivation of land for food, but only where there is an integrated effort to nurture the dynamic flows of non-human life alongside (e.g. permaculture), the success of which may be assessed empirically.

Fluminism is a powerful form of love.

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