Meme #1 - Non-Binary

In Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake writes: 

The mycelium of many fungi can fuse with other mycelial networks if they are genetically similar enough, even if they aren’t sexually compatible. Fungal self-identity matters, but it is not always a binary world. Self can shade off into otherness gradually. (pp.36-37) 

When faced with a forked path, fungal hyphae don’t have to choose one or the other. They can branch and take both routes. (p.45) 

One tip becomes two, becomes four, becomes eight - yet all remain connected in one mycelial network. Is this organism singular or plural, I find myself wondering, before I’m forced to admit that it is somehow, improbably, both. (p.45) 

Mycelial coordination is difficult to understand because there is no center of control…[It] takes place both everywhere at once and nowhere in particular. (p.50) 

Gender identity is currently a hotly debated topic. Many individuals (especially young people) are simply refusing to choose what they consider to be an artificial dichotomy (male vs female) and declare that their lives are too fluid to be tied down to one term or the other. To them, it’s obvious that gender identity is not an “all or nothing” proposition. Instead, it is a spectrum upon which it’s easy to slide back and forth. They are allowed to entertain these thoughts because 1) modern medicine has made the transition between biological poles more convenient and affordable and 2) sizable social groups have relaxed guidelines on what is an acceptable variation from the norm. Previously, this sort of behavior would likely have been considered "degenerate" by most people and those who participated in it viewed as deviants who needed to be marginalized. The current Culture War is being fought between those who still hold this view and those who are pushing for change.  Conservative voices argue that this new, relaxed attitude has convinced many young people to become Trans because it’s now the “cool” thing to do - that our impressionable youth are being corrupted by nefarious, outside forces. But I think it’s more likely that the same amount of people who would experiment with this type of variation has remained unchanged throughout the years but now it’s safer medically, socially, and legally to do it. Open territory naturally becomes filled when boundaries are reconfigured. 

But gender is only one aspect of humanness, and the current hand wringing around the topic leads me to consider other dichotomies we might breach to fashion a more fluid lifestyle. For instance, Black vs White, human vs animal, life vs death, are all determinations that appear self-evident, but upon deeper reflection, it becomes clear that these distinctions are often superficial, which needlessly sentences us to never-ending conflict. It is a clumsy way of operating that ignores all nuance and promotes prejudice. For instance, a person with black skin may have a White parent and grow up in a predominately White neighborhood while a person with white skin may have a Black parent and grow up in a predominately Black neighborhood. But normative society will place both individuals into groups based entirely on the colors of their skin. It is this kind of demarcation that perpetuates conflict because if I’m part of “this group” and you’re part of “that other group,” then of course we can never completely trust each other. We have too many competing interests and spend our days scratching away at the same finite resources - even though fundamentally, we all play for the same team and are being artificially defined and boxed in by external traits. 

It seems to me that a helpful resolution would be to take a page from the fungi playbook and “be everywhere at once and nowhere in particular,” flowing along a spectrum between extremes and learning to readjust the lens of our collective focus. Limiting ourselves to a single perspective is dangerous because the current pace of societal and technological change is overwhelming our ability to chart an intelligent, linear course. We can’t keep using narrow, outdated categories to make sense of what’s happening to us. But how do we develop a more fluid and integrated way of thinking? Interestingly, guidance to pursue such a proposal may be found in (of all places) Hasidic philosophy, known in Hebrew as Hasidut. (My apologies for this seemingly sharp turn, but this is an example that illustrates the exact point I'm wanting to investigate. In fact, it might be said that this type of intellectual "left-turning" is quite in line with our desire to be more fungi-like because it branches suddenly and homes in on a related topic).

The Hasidic movement developed during another time of great change - Eastern Europe of the 17th and 18th centuries. Millions of Jews were swept up in this revolutionary transition away from the historical, religious power structures of the Jewish community and many innovations to normative practice were developed. One good example is related to the fundamental question, “How do we (as finite beings) connect to an infinite God?” The Hasidic answer was quite different from the traditional point of view and created the fluid, integrated way of thinking we are interested in here. Hasidut taught that we should relate to the Creator in two different ways. The first way is to relate to God as the Ruler of Heaven and Earth. This is the aspect of God that provides all the rules by which we should live by - what is permitted (kosher) and what is forbidden (treif). It’s simple, stay inside the lines and you’re good. Go outside the lines and… The second way is to relate to God as Everything. This mystical perspective teaches that, in truth, creation has no real distinctions because they are all just various aspects of the same source. At this higher level, “All is One” but we experience differences because each facet of creation absorbs and transmits only a particular slice of the Infinite. Things look separate, but really, they’re not. 

To operationalize this mindset for the everyday adherent, Hasidut taught that we should mainly live our lives according to the binary distinctions mandated by “God as Rule Giver” - choosing what is kosher and rejecting what is treif - but that three times a day we should meditate on the fact that “God is Everything.” In this way, we can live according to the rulebook, while at the same time, we can also internalize the conditional nature of surface reality. But to live according to the Way of Fungi, I propose that it would be better to do the exact opposite. That is, we should mainly live our lives according to the truth that underlies the “Unity of All Things,” focusing on fluid relationships between entities - and how these connections are embedded inside a never-ending web of other relationships - rather than on the entities themselves. All is truly One. But three times a day we should meditate on the fact that our world also contains meaningful distinctions. There is much to be learned from the close examination of seemingly closed units if we don’t forget that their boundaries are permeable and that they are indispensable parts of the surrounding environment. This would create a more fluid and integrated way of living that meets the demands of a more fluid and integrated world.