We as human beings look down on other species in terms of their worth, their intelligence and in some cases their very right to exist as living entities. This species supremacy that we harbor has come about because we do not understand our own attachment and place within the natural world, and we have subsequently become hostile towards it through our own self generated alienation. We have tried to create our man made world within nature, instead of creating our home as human beings within nature.
And so we marvel at our technological achievements our developments in travel and communication. Instead of marveling at the world that was able to help us develop these things, we’ve placed ourselves at the top of the hierarchy of all existence. We have asserted our dominance over every living thing. This isn’t to write off rational thinking and technology. Rather it is to look at the thinking and end results that have influenced the path that humanity has chosen and how it uses rational thinking and technology as opposed to both representing the problem. 
Whilst there is differing beliefs in the philosophical study of human nature and seemingly mindless amounts of time that could be spent exploring these positions. It seems fair to say that if there was no such a thing as collective human action that none of the human world would exist, equally so if human beings were not creative, inventive and intuitive the situation would be the same.
Opposition to Industrial civilization
Many look at modern industrial civilization as the pinnacle of humanities collective effort in the world. I would disagree with this and say that industrial civilization exists for the interests of capitalists, banks and industrialists. Up to now it has been a convenient method of social control, containment and appropriation of resources. Not to mention the ecological damage carried out in the name of industrial civilization such as the depletion of natural resources and the wholesale extinction of many plants and animal species and our changing climate. We have yet to see a world where we fully flex our collectivism, creativity and intuition. This is the world that many of us are trying to build as industrial civilizations begins to disintegrate and fall. The groundswell of action in terms of people developing a more just and low impact world has been immense. There are communities popping up all over the world that have reclaimed food and other resources just by simply coming together. They are connecting and using human creativity and intuition to pull ourselves away from the grinding repetitive barbarism of industrial civilization. 
Permanent cultures
The task of bringing about the future where we are able to be who we are in terms of our ideas and practices begins in our minds. Then it goes outside of the mind and into our homes, then beyond our homes into the world of work and interaction. We must on a very basic level reclaim our own human nature and take it back from the forces that seek to control and exploit it. Until we can break free from the iron cage of industrial civilization and offer people and planet an alternative based on well being and abundance. We will carry on pissing in our own drinking water, and we will carry on basing our relationships and interactions on personal gain.
Steve