Shit, Philosophy, and Ecology

Zizek offers an interesting insight into the philosophical undertow of how we all deal with our shit. These philosophical presuppositions underline every characteristic of human living. The method that we use to dispose of our shit is quite significant to our lives as human beings. For example, the gallons and gallons of water that we Americans (English-Zizek’s categorization) use annually is a waste compared to other more environmentally responsible ways of disposing of our waste.

This is not singularly related to our excrement, but in other ways that we humans beings interact with our natural environment. Zizek identifies the defining characteristic of our society as economy. Shitting in a toilet bowl full of water is a pragmatic and economic way of disposing of our waste. We can also identify other economical ways that we interact with our environment. Although I may be taking a leap here, it is these economic ways of living that E.F. Schumacher argues against, in Small is Beautiful, as the greatest contributing factor to the social and environmental crisis of modernity.

It seems, as Schumacher points out, that it will take a change in our cultural point of view, the way we treat our shit, in order for their to be any concrete change in environmental ethics and policy. Where to begin?