You're viewing as a guest. Sign in to save progress and pick up where you left off.
Step 6 of 6~8 min read
Reflection: Your Place in the Mesh
Sit with the uncanny reality of ecological entanglement.
Prompts to consider
- Morton says ecognosis is not comforting, it is vertiginous. Pick one everyday object (a meal, a garment, a device). Trace as many strands of its entanglement as you can, biological, chemical, historical, political, geographic. How does it feel to follow those threads? Does awareness of the mesh change how you relate to the object?
- Morton and Merchant both reject the domination of nature, but they frame the alternative differently: Merchant calls for partnership, Morton calls for coexistence within a mesh that has no outside. Which framing feels more honest to you, and which feels more capable of motivating action?
- Dark ecology insists there is no away, every externalized cost returns through the mesh. Think of something in your life that you have treated as 'away', a form of pollution, a social cost, an ecological impact. What would it mean to genuinely reckon with that entanglement rather than externalizing it?
Write at least a few sentences, then you can request feedback or mark this step complete.