Whenever I try to talk to other people about the coming economic and environmental collapses, people quickly want to change the subject. They are well aware and agree that such collapse is a distinct possibility. But they seem to think it’s too much to actually discuss it. The very thought is too frightening to contemplate. However, we need to realize that there is much greater joy when we embrace the coming collapse. We need to understand why we are alive in this pivotal movement of human history. We need to dedicate our lives, in our own ways, to understanding and embracing our role in this new reality.
Disrupted creatures of habit
These days, human beings are creatures of habit. We get used to our daily routines. These routines have remained largely unchanged through most of our lives. We get up, go to work, and attend to our chores, bills, our own needs and perhaps that of our families’. The identical day-to-day nature of these tasks make it much harder to see the changes in our world. These routines leave us so tired that we have little energy left to contemplate and address the changes that are going on. We might or might not notice these changes, but unless the change is sudden and disruptive, we aren’t going to be affected by it.
There are, of course, many who, in fact, have been deeply affected by these changes. They may have had to accept major cuts in pay or who lose their jobs. This is largely because of the weak foundation of the global economy that has existed for decades. There are a growing number of people who have survived wildfires, floods, and storms that are caused, in part, by climate change. Many people have lost everything. More and more lives will be continued to be disrupted in this way.
The joy and challenges of reality
Consider the possibility that embracing the coming collapse could provide comfort when we realize that we don’t have to face these realities alone. Quite bluntly, we simply can’t survive in the silos most of us have been living in over the past 150-300 years of industrialization. Homo sapiens didn’t survive this way prior to industrialization. And we won’t survive that way after our industrial world collapses.
Such cooperation won’t be easy, though. We have to learn new ways to communicate and co-exist in order survive together. It is noteworthy how so many futuristic dystopias imagined in books, movies and games assume a grueling contest between people for survival. This actually could happen, especially in North America. In the early 21st Century, Westerners have less experience with cooperation than many other peoples around the world. But the Western heritage of democracy has also inspired new experiments in governance. Such examples including cooperatives of various shapes and sizes, Quaker consensus, and experimental intentional communities. Adoption of one of these forms of governance and conflict resolution are not, in and of themselves, guarantees of better self-governance. But they are a starting point from which to learn and improve upon.
On being here and the reasons why
Depending on whether we are living in early in the early 21st century or in later centuries, we face challenging and probably difficult times ahead. But consider the possibility that we are here on this planet at whatever moment in time we are living in for precisely for that reason. We are facing what we are facing precisely at this moment because humanity needs to learn from our experiences.
This blog is an attempt to begin adapting to the new realities of the emerging world. I invite you to read, offer feedback, and embrace the coming collapse in the world to come, rather than hide away in fear.