A Simple Way to Cut Through the BS and ‘Get’ Our WEIRD Reality

I’ve been biding my time since Charlie Kirk was publicly murdered. I’ve refrained from commenting, writing about it, or analyzing it. Instead, I’ve been watching, listening, and reading what others are writing. And now, I’m ready to say something.

But it’s (mainly) not about Charlie Kirk, his assassination, the toxic divide between left and right, or any other facet of this hate-filled political moment. It’s all too easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment and lose sight of the big picture. When my mental ‘camera’ zooms way, way out and looks back at our current reality, here’s what I see:

I see a vastly undereducated populace struggling to comprehend and deal with deepening, accelerating collapse — on almost every level.

I see the outward signs and symptoms of multi-level collapse intensifying and spreading around us.

I see a delusional world where our human population keeps increasing and capitalist-style ‘consumerism’ keeps spreading and metastasizing and all the resulting, out-of-control ecological, social, and psychological effects keep multiplying.

I see a world and many societies in the throes of intensifying collapse, yet simultaneously, there is almost universal denial about it. Instead, people wallow in delusion and ignorance, refuse to see what’s right in front of them, and try desperately to maintain ‘business as usual.’

And the biggest denialists are the fervent ‘conservatives’ who think Charlie Kirk was some kind of patriot-saint who was offed by Satan-loving, democracy-hating ‘libtard’ scum. He wasn’t a saint — not even close — and the accused ‘liberal lunatics’ didn’t even do it. Yet right-wingers are filled with murderous rage against the left and want to cast Kirk as a full-fledged conservative ‘martyr.’ Yikes. WTF!?

Sorry, but I’m not leaping into that insane fray. There are much bigger fish to fry.

We’re caught in an accelerating ‘polycrisis’

Sadly, we Americans and the rest of the world have much bigger problems than the latest shooting or political dogfight. In a sense, I’d even say that all the political venom and conflict are a convenient distraction from our factual reality. They keep us narrowly focused on culture war ‘battles’ and hoped-for, tiny ‘wins’ — while our world is collapsing around us.

In the end, all the hype, argument, and partisan hate surrounding the Kirk murder mean almost nothing. The entire furor is just a passing blip in light of the big picture. And the big picture is this: the powerful forces arrayed against humanity today are formidable and unstoppable, and the worst part is that they are almost entirely our own doing.

Whether we’re talking about climate disruptions, the rise of fascism and autocracy, the accelerating ‘insect apocalypse,’ rising racism and hate, the decline in effective public education, or any number of looming catastrophes, the unpleasant truth is that ALL of these intractable issues and problems are human-caused and human-created.

The truly overwhelming, mind-crushing aspect of our current ‘reality,’ however, is that all of these problems and crises are happening and intensifying simultaneously. That’s exactly why many experts and scientists now refer to our situation as an accelerating ‘polycrisis.’

The rise and reign of the ‘ denialists’

But most of us — except for so-called ‘doomers’ — willfully refuse to follow the clues, signs, and facts to their proper and inevitable conclusion. That conclusion, for those brave enough to face it, is that humanity, our societies, our technologies, and our overall destructiveness are now totally out of control.

There’s an ancient saying, “As above, so below,” but in light of our current dire situation, I’d amend that to “As goes the world, so goes humanity.” Many vital aspects of our planet’s ecology and animal and plant kingdoms are collapsing or disintegrating, and that collapse and disintegration process includes humanity, the human mind, and human morality. We and our societies are not separate from nature, and we are not immune to all these disastrous trends — nor can we somehow avoid or stop them.

We ourselves have set all these crises in motion, and now it’s simply too late to curtail or sidestep them. But, of course, the ‘denialists’ simply deny, deny, deny that any of these trends and events are even happening. For them, I suppose that ignorance provides some temporary bliss. (No, not really.)

Human empathy and morality give way to hate and violence

Now, to return to the latest public furor and ‘politicized’ bullshit: as ecological and societal collapse intensify, we can confidently expect that human craziness, hatred, conflict, and violence will intensify in parallel. And given the devastating nature of the threats and unsolvable issues we face, along with our persistent denial, we can expect mass irrationality, anti-science and anti-truth nonsense, racism, ethnic hatred, and mounting violence to keep accelerating — sometimes explosively.

The awful truth is that humanity as a whole totally blew it. Our industrial and technological ‘progress’ has come at a terrible cost, and we’ve allowed the human population and manic ‘mass consumption’ to balloon completely out of control.

We’ve breached several crucial ecological ‘tipping points’ already, and more dominoes are about to fall. Humanity is now caught in a burgeoning and unsolvable predicament.

. . .

So, in light of all these devastating truths, what are we to do? How can we respond and ‘deal with’ all this craziness and destruction?

I’ve concluded that there is no political… or technological… or societal… or even psychological ‘solution.’ We’ve entered a time of accelerating chaos, disruption, and violence. In the US, we may be entering a time of protracted civil conflict, politically-motivated terrorism, and mounting interpersonal and partisan violence.

Cultivating ‘collapse acceptance’ and preparedness

This is all to be expected in our current circumstances. Since there is little we can do to stop these awful trends — because we are still busily creating them — the sanest, most rational way forward is to cultivate collapse acceptance and purely local politics. I know it’s hard, especially for committed social activists like myself — unbelievably, astonishingly hard — but these days, nothing else makes sense.

We’re not going to ‘heal the world,’ nor are we going to heal and transform our society. It’s already too late for that; the die is cast. All we can really do is focus on loving, supporting, and healing ourselves, our immediate social circle, and our close-by, local community. That’s it. And going forward, we’ll just have to learn/recognize that this is enough — and in fact, it’s all that most of us are ever able to accomplish, anyway!

The corollary that naturally arises out of ‘collapse acceptance’ is inner and outer preparation. Awareness and acceptance do not imply total despair and impotence. Rather, they provide a strong impetus to prepare on every level: mental, emotional, spiritual, economic, and physical. The time has come for deep inner preparation as well as moderate outer preparation. I say ‘moderate’ outer preparation because obsessive ‘disaster prepping’ and ‘survivalism’ tend to shrink and harden our lives and our attitudes. I, for one, have NO desire to spend the rest of my life hoarding stuff and grimly ‘protecting’ my stash.

No, our most intensive ‘prepping’ should take place on inner levels and in our innermost hearts.

Some outer preparations — such as storing 1–2 months’ worth of food, water, cash, candles or oil lamps, matches, etc. to help us weather coming emergencies — are sensible and, indeed, crucial. Learn to garden and grow some vegetables (we grow ours in pots, so open land isn’t needed).

Just don’t go overboard, because the truth is that nothing is going to fully ‘save us’ anymore. All we can do is make our downward slide less painful and more tolerable.

Dance, sing, and play as if there’s no tomorrow

One more thing: as E.F. Schumacher expressed it in the title of his influential and wonderful 1973 book, we need to relearn that “Small is Beautiful.” Forget all the grand plans and idealized visions of a ‘wonderful’ tech-driven future or a truly egalitarian society. They’re not going to happen — at least, not anytime in the next few decades.

Instead, enjoy your friends and relationships. Enjoy your local family or community while you still can. Take walks, go hiking, go swimming, smell the roses, and marvel at a magnificent sunrise or sunset. Play with your children, dog, cat, or pet raccoon. Dance, sing, and play as if there’s no tomorrow.

Because tomorrow isn’t looking good — at all. Our future is turning to… shit.

. . .

End Note: Despite everything, I am still a firm believer in the growth potential of some human beings. I strongly believe in the inherent dignity and latent wisdom within us — if we will just learn to tap into it. Though I have little hope for our society or the larger world, in the short term, I am optimistic about the individual potential for personal and spiritual growth — because I have experienced it firsthand in many different ways. Radical honesty and individual (and interpersonal) transformation are the way forward.

—

This post was previously published on Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs.

***