Draw the Circle Wide

~7 min read

There is a song sung in church that goes, 

The song refers to the community of people who share a worldview and have shared values. Everyone in the circle agrees on some fundamental beliefs (like a shared religion) and agrees to live in harmony with everyone in the circle. They also share in being of the same species, specifically Homo sapiens.

A Moral Circle

There is a concept of a Moral Circle that encircles all those things that we consider worthy of our consideration. There is a movement pushing us to reconsider the boundaries of our Moral Circle and expand the boundaries (Moral Circle Expansion: A promising strategy to impact the far future, Jacy Reese Anthis, Eze Paez, 2021). For some the circle includes family and community. For many it is much larger. Moral Circle Expansion is becoming important. This means we expand the boundary of the things we consider worthy of our concern. The drivers for expanding our Moral Circle are not only altruistic. There are personal benefits to including many in our circle.

The concept can also be used for evil. If there are people to be marginalized and discriminated against, they can be declared sub-human. This has the effect of removing them from our Moral Circle. There are so many examples of this being done that it almost seems to be part of human nature. To quote examples is to give the process the legitimacy of exposure. It is the opposite of draw the circle wide. To know of the process of excluding people is to be mindful of it and to guard against it.

If we also include caring for the wellbeing of animals, this will increase the health of the ecosystem, the world where we live. Increasing biodiversity will contribute to the stability of the biosphere. We are part of the biosphere and survive only because the biosphere survives. The barrier to living on extraterrestrial bodies is that none of them have a biosphere. Studies looking at terraforming the Moon or Mars are trying to figure out how to create a biosphere on those bodies.

Our Moral Circle should include all sentient beings, those with the capacity to have experiences of their environment. The goal should be to reduce suffering everywhere, including all beings who can suffer. 

The Inhabitants of our Circle

I became peripheral to a group discussion of how to humanely kill animals on family farms (not ours). The outcome of the discussion was that there was no way to kill an animal for food that did not cause distress to the animal. My only contribution to the discussion was to suggest that one way to reduce the distress was to stop killing animals. This resulted in a deep silence and the end of that conversation. A common response I have heard is that people will not give up their steaks. Part of the destruction of the Rain Forest is to provide pasture to raise animals for food. Replacing a carbon sink (Rain Forest) with a field of carbon generators (pasture for herds) contributing to the generation of greenhouse gases strikes me as counterproductive.

In the US, 99% of farmed animals live on factory farms, subject to varying levels of confinement and suffering. In the same country, 87% of people believe animals can feel pain and discomfort. And yet only about 5% of the population identify as vegetarian. There must be some fervent rationalizing going on to make this make sense. There are over 100 billion animals living on factory farms on Earth. The field for suffering is immense. 

The time has come for us to Draw the Circle Wide not just for friends and family or for those we agree with. We should draw the circle wide to include all sentient beings. If something is sentient, it can suffer. While we can’t eliminate suffering, our goal should be to reduce it. To borrow a term from Radiation Protection protocols, we should make suffering as low as reasonably achievable. 

The Biosphere and Mother Earth

As we learn more about how the world works and about the members of our own biosphere, perhaps the circle could be expanded to include all living things. There is evidence that even plants can feel distress (see, for example, Zoe Schlanger, The Light Eaters). While there is little evidence of plants being sentient, contributing to the well-being of plants can only benefit us.

When I draw my personal circle, it is very wide, perhaps wider than could be expected of society overall. Anything we can do to draw our circles wider will help us to survive on the planet. In my own meditative practices, I consider the goal of being at-one with all living things on the farm and, by extension, to all living beings on Mother Earth. My experience has been that this exercise has caused me to be more mindful of all living things. This is one of the tangible outcomes of a meditative practice. 

If Moral Circles were to grow larger, it might make it easier to go to a restaurant and find things to eat that don’t involve meat. Go into almost any restaurant and look at the menu. Eliminate those things that are made of meat, and you will find the selection is very sparse. It’s an uphill battle.