The definition of ANIMISM:
1
: a doctrine that the vital principle of organic development is immaterial spirit
2
: attribution of conscious life to objects in and phenomena of nature or to inanimate objects
3
: belief in the existence of spirits separable from bodies
- according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
(As animism has been around for a while, well predating the time of Jesus Christ, it may vex the blog-reader to find this blog-entry to start things off on such a familiar and ancient note. But I think it needs a reiteration.)
There may be a time in our lifetimes when apologizing to a tea-kettle after absent-mindedly complaining about its boiling too slowly, will be a norm. Why, pray tell would we be animistically apologizing to inanimate objects someday? For one, practice. It will be a big pile of hooey, but some people will justify such behavior by saying 'we are just practicing to be good and loving with everything, including our kitchen appliances'. These objects might even be imagined to possess some rudimentary level of consciousness. Subjectivity will reign. The idea of the metaphor will probably squeezed out of existence, as every object viewed will be an extension of oneself. We will see ourselves in everything. Much the same way we identify with heroes (or villains) in the movies. They are someone we want to be, they are someone we could possibly be - they are us!! The act of looking at a movie and making these kinds of assumptions will similarly be held in daily life. Just as movies also animate objects - such as in an animated feature like "Beauty and the Beast" or some such - so too will we see our daily objects as quiet, stunned animals. Some mystic taxidermy summoning porcelain from a vulcanic pit to preserve the pre-being; now, 'object'-ified. Animals preserved in formaldehyde bottles, as much as live animals, would be tantamount to a cup of tea with your favorite friend, your tea cup.
I'm reminded also of Buddhism. I once had the chance to see Buddhist monks in action on the news, gingerly removing the worms from a newly dug hole, preserving them and keeping them from some sort of misplaced and cruel death. They believe in reincarnation of course. But oddly, they have nothing against self-immolation, such as was practiced to demonstrate against the Vietnam War. So a worm's life is more valuable than one's own. And, so too, I think objects will come to mean and carry more 'life', more 'spirit' in them than some of us, so that a car, a diamond ring, a gun, and so on will be treated and held in popular and major esteem higher than the spirit of a man or woman.
Of course, animism might never take hold of people as I'm guessing it will. And it shouldn't be too harmful if we attribute human characteristics to inanimate objects, especially if this is helping people be kinder and more humane to each other, as I suggested above. The real worry comes when the opposite comes true in tandem with the animism - the accompanying belief that we humans don't actually possess souls; that souls don't exist. Especially when the self-assured smugness of a tea-kettle that boils too slowly seems to focus on you regularly -- its inferior now, in many ways, -- and makes one see in the void of its spout, as Auden put it, "a lane to the land of the dead".
