perceiving one's self

 At the beginning of Chapter 12:

"We are Earthseed

The life that perceives itself

Changing."

This excerpt is baffling to me for a number of reasons:

- Who is Earthseed, sorry? Is it the collective of all the people who follow the religion Earthseed? If so, maybe "we" should be rephrased "I". Otherwise, perhaps it's the human species. In that case, maybe the name "Earthseed" refers to humans and our potential to grow and cultivate power structures, tools, items, ideas, and societies. But...

- Self-awareness isn't limited to Lauren, if the former is correct, or humans, if the latter is correct. Plenty of animals perceive themselves. But I guess I'm forgetting the last line, which with the second makes: 

"The life that perceives itself changing."

...Okay, this was supposed to be a blog post about how this makes no sense, but I think I figured something out here. Know how a lot of people in Lauren's community are in denial about the problems in the world? (*cough* Joanne *cough*) And actually, the chapter that follows this verse starts with the Garfields leaving for Olivar. The denial capital of Southern California, in my opinion. Well, if they could see themselves and their relationship to the world changing, they could see how powerful change is and how they shape change and change shapes them, and maybe they might even see that God is change... and so, Earthseed does mean the collective of all people following Lauren's religion, but it's not limited to Lauren. Lauren is the only one (as far as we know) who calls her beliefs "Earthseed", but anyone out there who also believes in the power and omnipotence of change is de facto part of Earthseed. I can also see Lauren wanting to spread her religion so that Earthseed can refer to a group of people who Understand and Perceive the world like her.

Comments

  1. L. MoffittMay 20, 2021 at 9:31 AM

    The ideas of Earthseed puzzle me a lot. I mean, they make sense (some of them), but they also don't give me much to hold on to. It seems like a flimsy thing to base a community, much less a future society on Mars. But Earthseed is supposed to be all about change, so maybe the idea is the beliefs change as they need to?? I dunno. Great blog posts throughout, regardless.

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