So, what I have gotten from Alien Phenomenology thus far, after re-reading just the introduction, is that OOO (Object Orientated Ontology) interprets that everything exists equally, ultimately putting ‘things’ (‘things’ relating to both living and inanimate objects) at the centre of being. This philosophy I understand. You cannot have the chicken without the egg, the extended extendable thumbs (which science have predicted us humans shall soon have) without the Game Boy and the Iphone.

Although I commend OOO’s decentralisation of man in its argument against anthropocentrism, I do question whether its emphasis on the importance of stuff is consequential to our society’s fixation on consuming… Philosophy progresses and is reliant on the discourse of its prior history. In the same way that the Modernist era gave wind to the Expressionists, perhaps speculative realism (as “an event rather then a philosophical position” pg 5) and its demand to reject correlationism falsely glorifies the importance of ‘stuff’ due the glistening diamonds of 21st century consumerism.

Personally, I think I identify with environmental holism where “all beings are given equal absolute value and moral right to the planet – so long as they are indeed living creatures” (pg 7). I think this is due to my believe that ‘we’ (living organisms of the world) could continue to survive without ‘stuff’ but not without the food chain and circle of life of one another. I do acknowledge and have no doubt in my mind that ‘our’ (living organisms) interaction with ‘stuff’ (inanimate objects) have consequences and therefore effects the way in which the world progresses – I think this is demonstrated in the diverse abilities of a Baby Bloomer on a Ipad vs a 2 year old, and the affects of global warming on the planet). However, I think that by prioritising such ‘stuff’ to the point that it becomes equals to that which is living, it credentials the inanimate objects of the world with too much ‘power’.

However again, this being said the internet – which would be classified as ‘stuff’ – has achieved an unprecedented level of education regarding minorities and activism, which has allowed our society to perform a much needed gender revolution and progression into a ‘new future’…