The Algonquin Concept of Wetiko

I've just found out about a concept I sorely needed, in order to account for the state of our planet, where 8 men own half the wealth, and the very ecosystem is in peril due to human greed. It's the Algonquin concept of wetiko (also called wendigo or windigo).

"Wetiko is an Algonquin word for a cannibalistic spirit or thought-form driven by greed, excess and selfish consumption. It deludes its host into believing that consuming the life force of others for self-aggrandizement or profit is a logical and morally upright way to live."

The wetiko, or windigo, is like the hungry ghost in Chinese tradition: always starving, never sated. It's continually looking for new victims. Whenever a windigo devours another person, it grows in proportion to the meal it has just consumed, so it can never be sated. What a metaphor for capitalism, with its insane imperative for continual growth in a context of finite and almost exhausted resources.

Some native traditions believe that humans who become overpowered by greed can turn into wendigos, and that environmental destruction and insatiable greed are caused by wendigos:

"Every time someone is seen justifying the destruction of life for profit—it is wetiko.
Every time compassion is vitally missing during a time of suffering—it is wetiko.
Every time a privileged person uses another as a “throw away” toy—it is wetiko.
Every time, in every way a community or country is impoverished so that others can be rich – it is wetiko."

Externalizing a mindset by personifying it in this way helps draw our attention to our own behaviour. That's if you think this is a metaphor. Maybe it's literally true, and wetikos are out there, taking over peoples' minds and causing them to indulge in mad destruction. Personally, I don't have a better explanation for what's happening.

You can read a searing account of the mindset of colonization as wetiko, in Columbus and Other Cannibals, by Native American author Jack Forbes.