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The Anguish of the Age: Emotional Reactions to Collapse
We live amidst multiple crises -- economic and political, cultural and ecological -- that pose a significant threat to human life as we understand it.
There is no way to be awake to the depth of these crises without an emotional reaction. There is no way to be aware of the pain caused by these systemic failures without some experience of dread, depression, distress.
To be fully alive today is to live with anguish, not for one's own condition in the world but for the condition of the world, for a world that is in collapse.
Though I have felt this for some time I hesitated to talk about it in public, out of fear of being accused of being too negative or dismissed as apocalyptic. But more of us are breaking through that fear, and more than ever it's essential that we face this aspect of our political lives. To talk openly about this anguish should strengthen, not undermine, our commitment to political engagement -- any sensible political program to which we can commit for the long haul has to start with an honest assessment of reality.
Here is how I would summarize our reality: Because of the destructive consequences of human intervention, it is not clear how much longer the planetary ecosystem can sustain human life on this scale. There is no way to make specific predictions, but it's clear that our current path leads to disaster. Examine the data on any crucial issue -- energy, water, soil erosion, climate disruption, chemical contamination, biodiversity -- and the news is bad. Platitudes about "necessity is the mother of invention" express a hollow technological fundamentalism; simply asserting that we want to solve the problems that we have created does not guarantee we can. The fact that we have not taken the first and most obvious step -- moving to a collective life that requires far less energy -- doesn't bode well for the future.
Though anguish over this reality is not limited to the affluence of the industrial world -- where many of us have the time to ponder all this because our material needs are met -- it may be true that those of us living in relative comfort today speak more of this emotional struggle. That doesn't mean that our emotions are illegitimate or that the struggle is self-indulgent; this discussion is not the abandonment of politics but an essential part of fashioning a political project.
I would like help in this process. I've started talking to people close to me about how this feels, but I want to expand my understanding. By using the internet and email, I am limiting the scope of the inquiry to those online, but it's a place to start.
My request is simple: If you think it would help you clarify your understanding of your struggle, send me an account of your reaction to these crises and collapse, in whatever level of detail you like. I am most interested in our emotional states, but any exercise of this type includes an intellectual component; there is no clear line between the analytical and the emotional, between thinking and feeling. An understanding of our emotions is connected to our analysis of the health of the ecosystem, the systems responsible for that condition, and the openings for change.
Because I may draw on this material in public discussions and for writing projects, please let me know how you are willing to have your words used. Your writing could be: (1) "on background," not to be quoted in any forum; (2) "not for attribution," permission to be quoted but not identified; or (3) "on the record," permission to be quoted and identified. If you don't specify, I will assume (2).
My plan is to report back to anyone interested. If you would like to be included on that distribution list, let me know. Please send responses in the body of an email message, not as an attachment, to robertwilliamjensen@gmail.com.
Whether or not you write to me, I hope everyone will begin speaking more openly about this aspect of our struggle. If there is to be a decent future, we have to retain our capacity for empathy. Most of us can empathize with those closest to us, and we try to empathize with all people. The next step is to open up to the living world, which requires an ability to feel both the joy and the grief that surrounds us.
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67 Comments so far
Show AllThis hits the nail on the head, as far as I am concerned. Jensen is absolutely right that any possible solutions to our problems must be grounded on a hard and honest look at reality. Yet reality is chilling, even numbing, for most people. The scope of the crisis currently faced by humanity puts most people who honestly recognize it into a state of paralysis, in which they quickly retreat back to the great trivial octopus Joe Bageant has cogently identified as the Hologram. As activists, the most important thing we can do just might be to help figure out a way to address the drastic, dire truth from a position of, if not hope, at least active engagement, instead of cowering fear.
Briggs Seekins
briggsseekins.wordpress.com
Thank you Robert Jensen. I hope you receive a massive response to this post.
Briggs Seekins' comment re the need for an unflinching "hard honest look at reality," magnifies the significance of what you are initiating.
If the only reality we see is what is fed to us under the guise of information gathering, and our reaction is to become paralyzed or even bravely to continue fact finding and disseminating the information to whoever will listen, then we are already fallen prey to the selective narrative that is focused only on the causes of the collapse, which like a lot of attention and demand their story be told again and again and again.
Not only is the broadest collective dialogue needed but also narratives of those who can clear enough dust from the rubble to allow the stories of those who are truly suffering from the fallout to be heard.
We used to think "if only people knew," but anesthetized and hypnotized and polarized people have difficulty finding the warp of the collective narrative.
So yes, we need to be aware and keep clearing the rubble of all that we have allowed to collapse, but only to make way for the stories of those who have found that warp and added their thread to the tapestry so that they can help us see where our thread goes in this shared narrative.
Reality is despair. One needs courage to look at reality.
Anyone got a drink?
For those who want to learn more about what Jensen appears to be speaking about just read the book by Alvin Toffler called Future Shock. Toffler describes future shock as a psycho-biological condition where the edges of reality blur resulting in mental distress, a mental collapse of sorts.
To function in a world of speed, chaos, and uncertainty one must reform one's mind. As Buckminster Fuller famously wrote, "I seem to be a verb." We are moving through a great cauldron of change where each of us will face the fires of reality. It is a kind of purification that focuses minds collectively and makes them fertile for change. It is both an end and a beginning.
In the Spirit world view where prophecy is voiced by many including the Mayans, and Cherokee, we find a common solar calendar convergence on the year 2012. The pyramid at Kulkulkan, with it's rattlesnake descending the steps in shadow is a stone alarm clock. The Cherokee Rattlesnake Prophecy is an alarm clock in the stars, both signaling a great change. When the planets in our solar system line up with the center of the Milky Way massive transformative energies are anticipated. We are being warned to prepare for these times. The purification of the end times has already begun and will continue to accelerate as we approach Decenber 21, 2012. We are already experiencing these accelerative energies and their effects in nature and people.
Minds are being prepared to accept the new energies of change and transformation. We are experiencing a fundamental human paradigm shift. Many hardships are ahead. Remember however, after the purification of the end times, a rebirth will begin.
The actions of presidents and kings will be of little use in these late days. The understanding that this life is not linear but circular will become increasingly apparent as what we have inflicted upon others will rapidly return and be inflicted upon us. It will be as if our lives will flash before us and we will not escape the suffering. Anticipate it, accept it, prepare for it. Cleanse your minds and hearts and hold fast in prayer and ritual. The Universe is speaking. Listen carefully.
Actually, we are already in the thick of this shift, right here and now.
The prophesies Stone mentions were given as a warning - they do not necessarily need to happen as long as a threshhold number of people make the shift in the near future.
I would not recommend feeding precious energy into "end times" thinking. Those of us who have learned to match the higher frequency are done with the preparation (read: inner transformation and waiting) phase of our lives and now need to actively match and magnify that higher frequency so that it's easier for others to "catch the wave."
The current challenge is to stay in the present, and live in that higher frequency as much as possible and wherever we are.
If enough of us do this, we will be in a better position to compassionately hospice the outdated, destructive systems, and midwife the new emerging systems.
The world of Spirit sustained Amerindian Peoples for fifteen thousand years. Science is young by comparison and has the Earth on the brink of destruction after just a few centuries. The two world views are different. I understand how being raised in the scientific world view that you feel the way that you do. For your information the Mayan 260 day calendar and the Cherokee 260 day calenders correlate, even the month names are the same. Have you studied Kulkulkan and it's relationship to the solar calendar? Do you know what the steps represent? Do you know what the rattlesnake with the seven light and six dark diamonds represent?
Do you know what happens when the Cherokee rattlesnake becomes a winged serpent in the stars represents? No, it is not mumbo-jumbo, and you will know soon enough.
Kulkulkan, aka Quetzequatl, 'The Feathered Serpent' is the god who brought agriculture, law, mathematics, medicine and culture to the ancestors of the Aztec and Maya. When depicted as human in all of those cultures he is invariably white skinned, red haired and bearded, and is recorded as coming from the sea, to which he returns when he is betrayed, but promises to return in the time of greatest need. Ascribing him to the still *very* theoretical black hole at the center of the galaxy would astound and anger the priests of those cultures once you explained the concept to them.
This entire bullshit mystique about 2012 and the Mayan Long Count Calender is the result of bad translation and wishful thinking by Armageddonist Christians who needed external validation of their escapist suicide fantasies. They made no effort to understand the legends or culture, let alone the mathematics of the culture. Most of the attribution about recent astronomical discoveries and 'how on earth could these primitives know this?!' is due to New Age writers flakier than filo pastry, who again did little or no actual research into the culture in question.
If you do even a moderate amount of research into Mayan culture you discover a culture obsessed with time keeping and celestial movement, coupled with dedicated long term observation of the heavens.
You should know that the Milky Way is known to be about 100,000 light years accross, not "hundreds of millions of light years". Even the entire local group of galaxies isn't close to that big - the Andromeda galaxy being just 1.5 million light years away. This calls into question any other thing you may say about astronomy.
Actually, it is very specific political movement of imperilaism, malitarism, and hyper capitalism, served by brainwashed populace, that have me in poor mental and physical health, not any sort of "future shock".
The rest of your piece is just so much new-age mumbo-jumbo.
Please do not mistake new-age mumbo-jumbo with Amerindian beliefs and prophesy.
Native Americans are generally apalled at the way bouurgeois white poeple fawn over complete mischaracterizations of their religions and beliefs. While some see it as a big money-making opportunity (new-age tours to Maccu Piccu, Yucatan, Honduras, etc.), many first-nations poeple consider it a just another form of white-man's racism.
Could you comment of this Shadow Dancer?
Right on! What we need more than hope, self-exploration, spirituality or prophesies, is MASSIVE COLLECTIVE ACTION against the ruling class. Anything that gets in the way of that, including the Pollyanna-ish thinking that SaboCat criticized, is not only counter-productive it is counter-revolutionary.
There are ways of solving this dilemma. One is through mass murder of hundreds of millions of people -- at least. This would lead to a brutalization of humanity to such an extent that it is reaonable to question whether or not it would be better if the human race dies out. This is, however, the course being taken by the elites currently in control of our country. They (conveniently, for them) have convinced themselves that human nature is such that we are incapable of taking the collective steps that Mr.Jensen refers to. They (conveniently, for them since they have perfected the art) assume that everyone acts only in their narrow self-interest.
People who live in the West and hold such beliefs will want the apocalyptic violence to happen sooner rather than later because we in the West are currently militarily dominant. Therefore they encourage the wanton consumption of resources that will lead to resource wars sooner rather than later. This is a logical, although monstrous, position.
As Mr. Jensen mentions, there are other potential solutions. They involve a voluntary, drastic reduction of our standard of living and our population and a renunciation of warfare.
I cannot prove that humanity is capable of the kinds of actions that are necessary to divert us from our path to oblivion. No one is capable of defining human potential. Only time can tell.
I can, however, by my actions demonstrate that it is possible to live life consuming far less than the affluent society I live in. I refuse to contribute to any project to prevail in resource wars. I refuse to contribute to the survival of a race of monsters.
Trouble with solving stuff through political engagement is you can't fight stupidity or human nature. Make a list of all the leaders who were Bush-like or Gandhi-like. How many do you have in your Gandhi column?
Throughout history we've have intelligent people coming up with technology like nuclear weapons, who turn it over to the idiots to use. We have always chosen to be ruled by sociopaths and/or idiots.
the "choice" is an illusion
I faced reality last spring. I filled notebooks with ideas, trying to come up with some way to help, as if I could solve it all with some great invention or insight. All I had at the end was one idea circled six times: "build orphanages".
No one person can benchpress the sheer stupidity of humanity off of our chests. We have to form groups and the groups have to grow together until we can do it together.
The core issue we humans can not deal with is our mortality and death. Our inventions are supposed to buffer or eliminate that dreaded fact. Gold will make us live forever. Stainless metals and plastics show no sign of aging, as we do. And with all actions based on denial, that which we try to suppress will rear its head with amplified vigor. Because of our inability to accept death, we pursue energy sources that will kill us. As our bodies age, we add another cylinder to our engines and move even faster through our environments. Hardly anyone gazes at the pristine face of a newborn with horror, as they would at the wrinkles of a 100 year old. We condemn the earth, the dirt beneath our feet to toxicity, for we know, subconsciously, that we will join it as dust, soon enough. In my opinion, a world in which death would be accepted, inventions would not have to be lethal, for they would not have to point towards a lesson not learned.
For the record,
When our top scientists or those that get on TV are looking for an escape from reality through a "Wormhole", I see that as a good sign.
Like when I see the War economy in Collapse, it makes me feel better because it is all natural.
I kinda have givin up hope and it makes me feel better. I don't have to hope anymore, I see a better world coming.
No hope is a step in the right direction. Here's a link I enjoyed reading: 'A case against hope'. Take a look. http://boycott2008.livejournal.com/
Yes, a good read and the art is fine too.
I like the quotes:
Einstein was quoted saying: "We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
He also said: "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe."
One of my favorites from Einstein:
"Common sense is the deposit of prejudice laid down in the mind before the age of eighteen."
Kurt Vonnegut's last words of advice about the future: "Join a gang"
From the first moment's of awareness beneath the mother fig tree in my back yard as a 3 year old, I could sense, hear, feel the earth crying for us to be in balance with her. This life so short has been one of constant existential shock at the potential hidden within the stories of the end times... meanwhile knowing that if we shift our energies to other things there is hope.... But hope must always be placed in the realm of the realistic. We must look clearly and widely at our actions, our consumptions, our awareness in and of itself, the package we live in, our bodies. I like what is said here... I know that the human race is waking up to the first battle of the spiritual warrior, death... to confront this reality as a species, we may, just may, get the clarity to change the course of our evolution and balance this with our need to dominate and destroy. It is not just emotional, it is all consuming now in these times of change. May we walk through the eye of the needle, knowing the dark and the light.
It is so true that people do not want to contemplate worse-case scenarios that could possibily happen. For instance, we could be at the beginning of a long slide into a Dark Age.
Come to think of it, events like the Gulf Oil Disaster (which could be an irreversible tipping point) could shorten that slide considerably.
Now, try to imagine the president of the US and other world leaders talking such straight talk and initiating a dialogue, an omnilogue, between all the people of earth on the subject of the total obsolescence of our present way of life. Hard to imagine.
I agree. Our leaders do not engage in dialogue. They prefer saturation. Saturation is a one-way communique.
Anguish and/or Aspirations:
practical aspects:
live simply
understand the commons and the public good
build institutions that nurture these
get to know some one new in your community!
international agreements:
A basic understanding of how corporate control and a myriad of competing power relationships are the key players on the global stage and are exercising power in such a way so as to enhance dysfunctional environmental and social outcomes; the lose lose or zero sum power games that cause most of us so much anguish.
international trade agreements that are based on ‘fair trade’
support for agreements that are not dictated by the power of money or existing power relationships
full corporate accountability; no corporate personhood; rewrite the basic corporate existence contract to include social responsibility prioritized to profit
no limited liability
externalities of a procedure or new technology are included in the cost of a product to worst case scenario.. funding for
tax on speculative transactions
regs to prevent offshore tax havens
no tax benefits for donations to think tanks
general:
an understanding of semantics; the power of words to influence behavior and shape values eg: how the MSM may be framing the debate.
All countries should gradually relax immigration restrictions
borders and national identity need not consume each other... ie French Canada
public awareness of the profit that is built on the public commons.
personal:
re-evaluate what makes up your identity
What aspects of your life do you treasure most?
What will be the impact of your actions on the environment and the community?
How will you be remembered?
(sorry for the verse addiction!)
Gaia’s Tribe empirePie June 22cnd, 2010
It’s time to nurture Gaia’s tribe.
Aren’t we all one tribe?
The code of good behavior is universal.
Blood letting does not right a wrong.
The alter sacrifice don’t make groups strong.
Martyrdom is for history’s closed vault.
The circle of life and the seeds of life don’t dwell on fault.
Glendon Wayne
This is a timely essay. My emotions range around positive self-regard for doing something everyday to try to inch the political mind of America out of its inertia. But I also experience fear, as well as shame that my efforts are trivial and part-time. I also experience the anger of frustration and exasperation, that the vast bulk of US public resources and political focus continues to be fixated on war, war, war, and more war. We are in the full-time business of destroying and dominating, when we should be creating and cooperating. We are told that the BP cleanup bill is now approaching $2 billion, a massive amount of money. But the US spends that much per weak on war and weapons, year in, year out, for decades.
Tnx, Robert Jensen, for opening up this subject, and for opening up yourself to interactive communication on it. REALLY important issue.
I think a lot of us humans feel pain in the body and mind, as the struggle and overstretch between Nature and Culture takes place inside our bodyminds - i.e. in the dismissed or denied physiomental spaces of structures experienced as "I" and "me".
Alex Grey (www.alexgrey.com) images these structures well. But the real treat is to meditatively collect and focus attention into a ball varying flexibly in size from a pea (inside the head) to a golfball (in the body), and attention-travel around 'looking'/sensing all the events, emotions and sensations going on in this psychophysical space of bodymind dismissed-denied by offical culture.
We humans are the connecting link and tissue between Nature (including our own biological nature) and Culture (including our own mental cultural knowledge). We know we live in unlimited consumption-strategies in a limited biosphere. That means the unbearable - literally - span between Nature and Culture happens, takes place, goes on inside all humans affected by the biosphere and cultural consumption. That's everyone, though some acknowledge it more, better and/or stronger than others.
This is on the record, in every sense. I'll send you an email with this. - Gotta take a rest first, due to some overstretch...
Thanks again.
No species prospers without something limiting it's population. Oppression, peak everything, decline, disease, and finally something worldwide that looks a little like pre-industrial China mixed with a ruling class living with as much power and tech as they can muster. It will be interesting to see how organized Christianity fares when widespread fear and world-weariness spur a rebirth of revolutionary spirituality.
Feelings?: Hope because I don't believe that technology is necessary for the moral or spiritual advancement of the species, and fear because I can't imagine how we become a better society without free communication, cheap books and stable communities. Of course that sounds contradictory, fear and hope always are.
Hale-Bopp
I sure hope so. But, if not the comet, then any decent sized asteroid would do.
When you stare into the Abyss, the Abyss stares back.
We are faced with the single greatest challenge of human history. Simple survival.
But what do we save? Art? Drama? Literature? Gold? Seeds?Trivia?
Do we resurrect the myth cycles of old, and relearn the skills and lifestyles of the past? Or do we go out in one last blaze of self indulgent glory? Do we keep the advances of technology, or only those which will ensure our survival?
So much of human society has to be jettisoned just to stay alive. Liken it to being in a lifeboat: Do you keep the food? Or the water? Do you attempt to save the gravely injured person? Or as soon as they have perished, slip their body into the water for the fishes? Do you wait for rescue? Or strike out for the land visible on the horizon?
One last question: Do you honestly trust those in power to act in your best interests?
No. We're on our own.
Robert Jensen needs to *read* Derrick Jensen. I don't really trust professors....they tend to profess too much.
I think that about says it all.
This brings to mind some of the recent discussion on CD. IMO, the culture of "progress" is blind to tragedy and that blindness is a fatal weakness. Much of the ongoing anguish is the anguish of being stuck in a nightmare without the ability to experience the cathartic process of tragedy, part of which is the acknowledgment of death (as commenter nickynicky points out.)
Now, this wouldn't make sense to those steeped in the now clearly psychotic world view of progress, no matter how they may criticize it from the inside. It is a closed system.
Anyway, I think it is time to pull out of the system, build a culture that provides meaningful life to its members and a system of community help in all aspects as needed (economic survival, care of the infirm, etc.) The time of transition will probably be rugged in the extreme as the established culture tries to bring us down with it. But we can't play the usual game anymore. The consequences of continued participation can be seen in living technicolor. To use an old term, the consequences are upon us, "clear and present".
For the knee-jerk types...I guess I should make it clear that I'm not saying disengage and let the chips fall where they may. Anyone who has been reading my comments for awhile knows that I strongly advocate aggressive action against the system of capitalism (at the heart of the idol of progress) and its manifestation in corporate capitalism. But it should be in defense of *our* system. That's where I may differ somewhat from others. I think we are on the short line to oblivion, and it's time to get over the hand-wringing and build what is needed. We're all going to die individually anyway. That is not a great revelation. So, what are we afraid of?
THis is an inteesting and valid point. This "blind to tragedy" state you refer to is what the great neo-freudian psychologist Robert Lifton calls "numbing". As in you are in a horible situation so you mind numbs you to the tradgety so you can survive the tradgety itself.
Lifton documents how this is a significant factor in cultures that perpetrate things like war crimes and genocide.
I'm gonna go watch "Avatar" for the seventh time....
"Avatar" is the movie equivalent of a green-themed amusement park ride. Find somethnig more constructive to do with real people.
Reading these comments, most so dismissive of the present age, I get the feeling that some people construct their entire identities from rejecting every element of society. Most seem like old men and women, forever bitching about the world or else young people who got alienated from everyone else for reasons that vary from heartfelt angst to severe personality disorders. Everything that is wrong with the world stems from capitalism, no matter that people have been mistreating each other for millennia, long before capitalism was ever invented. Environmental catastrophe is not new to the world with the present age either. The once fertile fields of Greece and Turkey are wastelands due to plowing and irrigating land improperly for the past two thousand years. Most people posting here have no sense of history: Indigenous people did not live their lives in a fairyland of goodness and justice; there never was a Golden Age, never. In fact, in so many ways, life has never been so good. That is what you learn when you study history. How about a broader perspective, everyone? And how about trenchant, to-the-point criticisms of what we do as a people? Not more of how "stupid" everyone is. Or how malevolent they are. It's wearing me out.
"Most seem like old men and women, forever bitching". I guess I never should have said that I was 60 years old. :-)
drosera you have a huge blind spot. Capitalism is the manifestation of ignorance that is taking us to hell, that is ruining the biosphere, causing a great extinction, etc. It is not relevant that people have always been mistreating each other. You don't treat cancer by focusing on an old injury that's giving you some trouble.
You are also ignoring the effects of the cult of progress on human psychology, effects which are well-documented in psychological and historical studies. (I'm not sure what history you are reading.) You are also ignoring the effects of technology (in an acquisitive culture) on the landscape, on manipulation of the psyche and diminishing of consciousness, on the environment. I could go on...let's see, you are also ignoring the perception of death, for example, throughout history and much of what you consider elements that make life better than ever are elements that would be meaningless to someone not steeped and marinated in the juices of modern culture.
We do have some points of agreement. It is silly to talk about a Golden Age, but it is not silly to talk about how the human psyche has "bifurcated" (a common term if you have read much social and psychological history) which has arguably brought us to the cataclysmic state we are in.
Yes, let's definitely get beyond "everybody is stupid", but if you don't see the systemic problems, you won't get much further than those who can't get beyond that phrase.
I would have to disagree with most of this response. There's a little bit of truth in it, but most of it makes no sense to me.
The author refers to "the effects of the cult of progress on human psychology, effects which are well-documented in psychological and historical studies. (I'm not sure what history you are reading.)" I was an academic psychologist for roughly 30 years, and never heard much about this so-called "cult of progress" and nothing about its associated studies. I've also never heard of the "bifurcation" of the human psyche. Although the commenter claims is a common term, it sounds like psychobabble to me. These may be limitations on my part, but I don't think so.
Similarly, the history that Drosera seems to be referring to is the same history I've been exposed to - many tribal communities and large populations have inadvertently destroyed key aspects of their environments and thus themselves. (See Diamond's work "Collapse: How societies chose to fail or succeed". Perhaps more important, the notion that "It is not relevant that people have always been mistreating each other" seems completely backwards to me. If within- and between-group aggression is part of our human nature, and there's all kinds of legitimate research indicating that it is, then to ignore it is making a huge mistake.
What bothers me the most is the level of conformity (e.g., groupthink) evident in many CD comments. Alternative views are relatively rare, and when one is offered it is usually attacked. This kind of closed-mindedness fits well with the pervasive "everyone else is stupid" attitude. I appreciate the generally polite tone of this response, but am sad to say that it is consistent with the remarkablly narrow-minded CD discourse. Drosera is right in asking for a broader perspective.
The "cult of progress" is my term, so it is not likely you would heard of it. What I was saying is that there is quite a library of books and studies on the effects of the cult of progress, which is true. Certainly as a psychologist you know that the social and economic structure of a society is not unrelated to psychological structure. How that structure works in a society that focuses on "progress" to the detriment of other social and psychological elements is widely studied, if not always defined in precisely those terms.
We are not speaking of relevance in the same terms. I don't deny the human propensity for mistreatment, but the structure in which this unfortunate characteristic plays out is of primary importance, and capitalism, it seems to me, leaves the field wide open. What is relevant is structuring a culture that checks the propensity.
Now, why are my opinions "narrow-minded"? Why is it groupthink?.
(Honestly, you haven't heard of the great bifurcation which became radical about the 15th century or so? It is very relevant to drosera's views of science gleaned from other posts. Science isn't "bad". It has just become separated from the rest of the psyche.)
For drosera...Off the top of my head, how about reading Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, Neil Postman, Christopher Lasch, Jacques Ellul. For your particular (from my point of view) misunderstanding, I'd start with Morris Berman - the whole series, beginning with "The Reenchantment of the World". I personally disagree with some of his minor conclusions, but I think he is definitely on the right track. It is also important to read the books listed in his citations and bibliography...many historical works. Same with Lasch.
Then if you want to have a little peek into my own mind, beyond the authors listed, and understand a little of why I don't think modernism is peachy-dory, check out Edward Abbey.
Thanks. I rarely get to all the discussions or even half of them. I'll take a look.
I'm 49, and I've come to believe that my natural mortality will occur concurrent with many others on this planet because like yeast in a bottle of wine, we are simply not built to act on predictions of apocolypse, no matter how well backed up by fact. While I've been reading folks like Heinberg, Orlov, Greer and Kunstler for a few years, as well as searching for proof they're all crack-pots, it just "made sense" that us humans are using up the planet faster than the planet can support us. I'm a drug addict with over 20 years clean, and I know all about using up my future and farting out lame excuses. I promised myself an honest life to stay clean, and the double-edged sword is that I started seeing just how much our culture swims in denial.
I have hope. But I don't have any hope in a "political solution". My best friends merely tolerate my warnings. I gave up trying to convince anyone a couple years ago. I don't usually get excited or angry over "little stuff" unless I'm caring about one of 2 kids I've fostered (24 and 17yo). After all, the planet's melting, my country's economy is about to make the Soviet collapse sound like a musical comedy and it's the elephant no one points at. Not at work. Not my local friends, not the guys I got clean with.
So I've gone local. I don't live in NYC anymore. I live in Massillon, OH pop 40,000 built along the Ohio-Erie Canal where it crosses the Old Lincoln Highway. The next county over is mostly Amish. I work from home, but drive a Prius. I have a collection of bikes and can repair them. I don't eat meat. I have 1200 sq ft of raised bed garden and berry patches, and just planted 5 apple trees and 3 walnut trees. The geothermal furnace set me back a bit, but I have no gas bill and my electric is between $80 and $140 a month. But while I love electricity, I don't trust it. I'll be installing more insulation, fireplace inserts and a wood stove in the basement this year. If 2011 is still "prosperous", there will be solar panels on the roof. When asked, I gladly share that this IS my retirement plan, as the dollars stored in banks' computers are just a collective dream and the alarm clock's about to go off. But few listen. My HOPE is that the skills I'm picking up by preparing for the future will help those around me
enough that they will want to keep me around, even as I age.
But that's just a summary of my physical reaction to this dire state of affairs. Short of a headlong jump into national advocacy, it's enough to keep me from being ashamed.
My "struggle" is to remember that I need to act on the beliefs I've formed by looking where my culture is headed instead of what my culture would have me believe. It's a struggle to love and respect the vast majority of those who know me and like me "anyway" even though any serious talk about "the way things are" gets them running for the exit. I need to accept the virtual split personality I need to write software for a point-of-sale retail service company while spending my money on preparing for the collapse of globalization. Heck, like playing the lottery, I still contribute to my 401K -- isn't that insane? After all, it nags at me: "What if I just have a personality disorder to seek out bad news and magnify it. Sure there are problems, but nothing like what I worry over. Relax and go to Disney World!"
I struggle to accept my own mortality, and to know any attempt to build a legacy and help "the future" is good but will only be used as "the future" wishes, not me. I'm going to die. Then I take that stuggle to "I live in a culture that is going to die. Soon. Dramatically." Maybe I'll be one of the victims. Maybe I'll witness it before my breath stops. But I need to accept that "stuff like this" is as certain as my own personal death. Just like my death, it's just a matter of when. I struggle with hope in the face of all this. (Have you listened to Derrick Jensen bash hope yet? I downloaded a dozen versions of the same speech he gave a few years ago. Well worth letting him grind away false hope.) I need to accept my death before my hope has any basis in reality. I hope my life is acceptable before God, whatever God is. I hope my actions have meaning and that I'll be able to do the next right thing, whatever that is. I hope that my urge for comfort doesn't destroy others. Then I take that "acceptance before hope" and apply it to the world as I see it. I hope "we" change our ways without too much help from the horsemen. I hope the best and useful that we've discovered during our fossil-fuel party isn't completely lost. I hope that we can find comfort without destroying others.
Well, you've got dozens more emails to read. I think you see where I'm going with this. Sorry if it's sappy, especially mentioning God, my favorite imaginary friend. But "the answers" aren't going to be "good ideas". They will be changed attitudes. Gotta start with me, and be ready to share as the dream wears off.
'TimB': I'm your age group. I liked your well-written piece and can very much relate. Including "My best friends merely tolerate my warnings." I feel with you.
"My "struggle" is to remember that I need to act on the beliefs I've formed by looking where my culture is headed instead of what my culture would have me believe." - Neatly put. That's how we all need to think now.
Stick in there, you're on the right track. Keep on surviving. Stay an example. Even when that's not your main intention.
God I don't know. So many messy understandings of that word. I only know I don't come from me (subjectively speaking, as opposed to all I've been told and learned since I learned language). Yet that my consciousness doesn't come from itself or merely molecules described to me, tells me a lot - God or not, there's someone even more personal than 'me' in here. Good reasons for hope. Though for what, I don't know.
While I Have Been Happy
All at once I realize
as I pull the little seedlings out
thinning the beets
that the moon is already in the sky.
Little purple stems
sown too thickly.
My hands work quickly.
In the basil as well I'll have to pull
out the crowded fragrant
little leaves.
Gardening. Even now.
*
The stars have their time to arrive.
The oily smear of nebulae;
the horses in the wide wide sky.
My last gasps in love.
I save the worst news for bad dreams.
I barely believe I belong to the species
and adopt the starry ponds of night animals,
beavers and otters, as home for hope, but no
I am one of them. One of them:
*
the oil is so thick the reeds and beds
turn brown for miles.
I don't need the company's permission
to take these pictures
My mind has receptors
a satellite dish for the lost black flight
of birds and turtles
No one need pretend I cannot imagine
that terror.
*
The first real night storm of the season
beautiful flashes and crashes
through the dark house
I cross to where my lover lies
in the sound of rain
All of this will have to end
when it ends.
But we hold on.
*
The little lacy leaves of Mizuna emerge
even now. Indigo spikes of viper's bugloss
a weed to some
make the yard a place for bees.
When there are bees.
*
When there are egrets
the waters call them home
when there is water.
I am not sure how to cry for this.
Something ends
Some things simply change.
I've cut my hair close to the bone.
I've found a friend to walk with.
I ignore the news. No matter.
The president is still dumb with it.
How did this happen
even while I have been happy?
www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
Because there IS another way of taking care of our resources and ourselves, that will be based on justice and fairness for all the world's people. Go to the website, watch the videos, read the premises.
Half a million strong already and with chapters in almost every country in the world.
That's pretty lame. It uses undefined fuzzy words like emergent.
It also contains those crazy contradictions yu always find in the arrested developement egalitarian types.
like the clasic: All ideas are equal accept my idea that all ideas are equal which is far superior to all other ideas.
or stated in the zeitgeistmovement way:
So they "know" what is possible and not possible. One of the many things they claim to "know" is the falseness of belief systems that claim to "know" things.
" Writing project?"
You mean book deal.
Another troller in the water trying to catch some good ideas? This is scam stuff, all the foundations are doing it. "Give us your best ideas and we give some toys."
Leave us alone and let us die in peace.
Bong Hits 4 Jesus Brigade