Capitalism: The Dominion Minions

Capitalism and the belief in man’s dominion over nature have profoundly shaped the trajectory of civilization — guiding its technological, economic, and moral development — but also driving it toward ecological collapse. This worldview has turned nature from a living system into a commodity, and the Earth from a home into a resource to be extracted. The climate crisis is the direct consequence of this centuries-long narrative.

The Ideological Foundation: Dominion Over Nature

The root of this worldview lies in Western religious and philosophical traditions, particularly the interpretation of the Biblical passage in Genesis that grants humanity “dominion” over the Earth. This was not merely a theological statement — it became a civilizational framework:

• Nature as subordinate: The natural world was seen as other — inert matter meant for human use.

• Human exceptionalism: Humanity was separated from ecology, positioned as a ruler rather than a participant.

• Moral justification for control: Exploitation of land, animals, and people was framed as progress and divine will.

When this theology merged with Enlightenment rationalism and industrial capitalism, it evolved into the mechanistic worldview — the idea that the Earth operates like a machine to be studied, dissected, and optimized for production.

Capitalism and the Industrial Machine

Capitalism operationalized the dominion worldview. It transformed the Earth’s ecosystems into a market economy based on extraction, profit, and growth.

1. Nature Becomes Commodity

Forests became timber. Rivers became hydropower. Coal and oil became “resources.”Under capitalism, value shifted from ecological balance to monetary gain. Land no longer had intrinsic worth — it had exchange value.

2. Infinite Growth on a Finite Planet

Capitalism depends on perpetual expansion, which inherently conflicts with ecological limits.

• Extraction fuels production.

• Production fuels consumption.

• Consumption fuels waste.

This cycle requires constant exploitation — of nature, labor, and time — with no mechanism for balance or regeneration.

3. Colonial Expansion and Global Inequality

The doctrine of dominion justified colonialism as a “civilizing mission.” Capitalism expanded by conquering and privatizing land, enslaving labor, and externalizing environmental costs.

The wealth of the Global North was built on the ecological and human exploitation of the Global South — a pattern that persists through global trade, fossil fuel dependency, and industrial agriculture.

The Ecological Consequences

1. Carbon Civilization

Industrial capitalism runs on fossil fuels — coal, oil, and gas — that transformed ancient sunlight into profit. This has created a “carbon civilization,” where everything from transportation to food is tied to burning the past. The result: atmospheric CO₂ concentrations higher than at any time in human history.

2. Mass Extraction and Extinction

Forests, oceans, and soil are being consumed faster than they can regenerate. The planet is now in the sixth mass extinction, caused not by natural catastrophe but by industrial activity and land-use change.

3. Alienation from the Living World

Urbanization and consumerism have detached humans from direct experience of ecology. Nature is no longer a partner in survival but a backdrop for economic activity — seen through screens, consumed as products, or visited as “wilderness tourism.”

Capitalism’s Spiritual Crisis

The climate crisis is not only ecological — it is a crisis of meaning.

By reducing the world to measurable commodities, capitalism has stripped it of sacredness. In place of reverence, it offers ownership; in place of belonging, consumption.

The result is existential alienation — a civilization that exploits the planet because it has forgotten it is part of it.

Toward a Regenerative Civilization

Reversing this trajectory requires more than technology or policy; it requires a shift in consciousness — from dominion to participation, from extraction to reciprocity.

• Ecological economics must replace profit-based growth with balance-based regeneration.

• Biomimicry and localism must guide design and governance toward harmony with ecosystems.

• Anthropological understanding must re-root civilization in community, reciprocity, and respect for the living world.

Only by re-sacralizing nature — seeing it again as a living organism of which humanity is one part — can civilization evolve beyond capitalism’s death spiral.

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Anthropolis: The Polis Reborn

The Anthropolis project arises as a counter-myth — a reawakening.

It calls for a civilization no longer organized around domination and profit, but around participation, reciprocity, and ecological governance.

An Anthropolis is not a city in the industrial sense, but a living polis — a village-scale organism that breathes, grows, and evolves with the land it inhabits.

Here, architecture is grown, not imposed. Food is cultivated, not imported. Governance is participatory, not corporate.

Residents are not consumers but co-creators — citizens of both human and ecological communities.

The Ecological Polis

In the Anthropolis model:

• Economy becomes ecology. Production follows the laws of regeneration, not extraction.

• Governance becomes kinship. Decision-making includes the needs of soil, water, and non-human life.

• Technology becomes biomimicry. 3D-printed structures grow like coral, formed from local materials and bound by propolis-inspired resins.

• Culture becomes ceremony. Festivals mark the cycles of growth, decay, and renewal — not the fiscal year.

Each village forms part of a greater planetary network — an archipelago of autonomous, cooperative communities grounded in shared ecological ethics.

From Extraction to Regeneration

To move beyond the climate crisis, civilization must abandon the capitalist myth of infinite growth. The Earth is not a ledger to be balanced — it is a living system to be restored.

Anthropolis proposes a new covenant:

that every human settlement must give more life than it takes.

• Cities must become forests of culture and biodiversity.

• Economies must circulate energy and matter like ecosystems.

• Education must teach ecological literacy as civic duty.

The polis of the future will not measure its success in GDP, but in soil fertility, species diversity, and collective wellbeing.

The Renewal of Civilization

The path forward is neither a return to the past nor an escape into technology — it is a re-rooting. Humanity must re-enter the web of life as participant, not overseer.

When we build with the rhythm of ecology, when we design with reverence for biology, and when we govern as one species among many, civilization will cease to be an instrument of domination and become an expression of life itself.

The true revolution is not industrial — it is ecological.

The new polis is not built upon fossil fuel — it is built upon understanding.

Anthropolis is not a utopia — it is a return.

A return to belonging.

A return to stewardship.

A return to the living Earth.