Why Reciprocity Matters

Western civilization is in the process of an evolutionary transition. It is moving from its post-World War II one-sided addiction to the Dominion paradigm—which has run its course and is in collapse—towards an emergent re-activating of and balancing with the Reciprocity paradigm—essentially, the enactment of a natural law. Reciprocity’s re-emergent presence represents an inherent characteristic of the human psyche that has been historically depotentiated by Western culture’s progressive addiction to Dominion.

Evolutionary pressure and the laws of Nature are forcing a dialogue between the Dominion aspect of psyche that threatens our species’ survival and the Reciprocity aspect of psyche as a compensation for our addiction to Dominion. Reciprocity is indispensable since it recognizes the state of interdependence between all beings and life forms. At the same time, Reciprocity alone is not sufficient; it needs the synergy of Dominion’s creativity and power. In addition, it is crucial to avoid binary thinking in this regard, i.e. Dominion “bad,” Reciprocity “good.” Both dynamics are intrinsic characteristics of psyche and neither can or need to be eliminated.

Recognizing that there exists a natural balance between Dominion and Reciprocity—an inherent psychological dynamic which currently begs for reawakening Reciprocity—represents a hope in the face of our Ecocide Crisis. This is poignantly underscored by the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that states we have at best until 2030 before Global Climate Change results in changes to the atmosphere over which we can have little to no influence. Ultimately, Reciprocity matters because without it our species risks bringing about tremendous and unprecedented disruption to life on Earth.