This posting comes from Nicole Stratis ’17, and was originally presented in her “Colonialism and Identity” class
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To colonize something is to take ownership and control of it (person, land, resource, etc) without permission from them in order for the colonizer to gain something, typically resulting in a burden or complete oppression of the colonized. Humans do this to other humans all the time (ie: Europeans colonizing the Americas and not asking permission of the Indigenous peoples). When we take a step back, we humans colonize Earth to its extremes; so much so that the Western Identity is based on the oppression, objectification, and lack of true compassion for our relations with the natural world. Perhaps our colonization of the limited resources on Earth, and unlimited resources that have become scarce due to our domination, was the precursor to humans colonizing other humans. When we do not acknowledge the interconnection of all on Earth, including humans-humans and humans-land and land-humans, we end up hurting all in the long-term. It will take a paradigm shift that not only respects and empathizes with all beings on Earth, but also engages in a healthy relation with all, to save us and all on Earth from humans’ abuse of the Life Force.