In the Gospel of Doom we refer to hope as hopium – a drug-like state where no matter the reality of a situation, one finds a glimmer of hope and then smokes it for all it’s worth. In the Gospel of Doom there is no hope and no need for hope. We have accepted that Mother Nature does not negotiate and that hope is nothing more than a bargaining chip that will promptly be ignored. In other words, we are doomed because we cannot see beyond hope.
The idea of human extinction is a subject that most brush off as ludicrous. After all, other species go extinct, not us.
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The good news is the planet will go on just fine without us. The bad news is not everyone in our species (let alone all others) has earned the plight of an early, enforced exit from life. Some within our species are simply collateral damage to our living arrangement which destroys everyone and everything. The idea of human extinction is a subject that most brush off as ludicrous. After all, other species go extinct, not us. In reality, we are sending other species to an early extinction and the consequence will be our own early exit from Planet Earth. Our very existence depends on other species and though other species do not depend upon us they are still forced to pay the price for our insane living arrangement; an arrangement which – for its survival – requires environmental destruction, hoarding of resources, continuous violence, murder, and mass species extinction just to be maintained.
Civilization is a living arrangement that has come to dominate our species. We import our goods and services and we divide our labor to do so. A series of institutions become powerful enough to create both privilege and therefore poverty. We add fossil fuels to the mix and our population explodes. Currently, population overshoot (about 238,000 people added per day, births minus deaths) means we’re devouring the natural world at an alarming rate. Production is our version of progress which has led to climate change. We are now experiencing Abrupt Climate Change and the result will be our near-term extinction. There’s that word again; extinction. That little voice in our heads that we call ego just said, “that’s crazy, not us… not yet.” “We’re different!” “We have technology!” How near term are we talking here? Most likely the person has already been born who will be the last of our kind. Sooner than expected is gospel.
Therein lies our predicament as civilized human beings. We don’t believe what’s actually already in motion. The evidence of abrupt climate change is not tangible to many of us because we are shielded by our immense privilege (for the moment). In the West we continue to hoard resources so the impact isn’t felt as deeply, if at all. In other regions of the world, where civilization has a dire impact, collapse is just part of everyday life. When the impacts of abrupt climate change finally and inevitably affect us personally, the shock value will be immense. We are currently clueless about what is upon us.
Our demise grips even tighter when we come to understand that there is in fact, no solution to our predicament. Hope will become an epidemic and many will die with fairy dust still glimmering in their eyes. We will throw everything we have at what we perceive as a problem. The predicament is; we’re the problem. We continue to try to produce solutions from a living arrangement that creates the problems we are trying to solve. It’s a vicious circle, and there’s no way out of a circle.
The impacts of abrupt climate change include war (possibly nuclear), nuclear energy use that will become unwieldy, progressively unsafe and eventually uncontrollably lethal, disease (eventually the pandemic variety), sea level rise, drought, starvation, mass migrations, terrorism, and countless others. It seems that almost daily we come across another repercussion that could be fatal to our species. The net of our predicament widens.
The gift that the Gospel of Doom offers is acceptance. With acceptance comes liberation..
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The Gospel of Doom is often misunderstood by those who view it from the outside. If you haven’t personally faced it, digested it and fully assimilated the true reality of our collective circumstance then the response to it can appear to be apathetic when in fact it’s profoundly empathetic. When people hear that the gospel offers no hope they lose their collective minds. When they hear the gospel offers no solutions they dismiss it completely. The gift that the Gospel of Doom offers is acceptance. With acceptance comes liberation. The journey towards liberation can be agonizing and heart-rending. It can literally kill you. Not everyone agonizes the process but most do. Even many who read the gospel on a regular basis still struggle with acceptance and therefore never reach liberation. The spend their days in a quagmire of despair and replace hopium with their new drug of choice; doom.
There is a fine line between staying in a state of eternal grief and moving towards the exit of it. This is where the gospel can trap us. We never finish the book to then find where it ultimately leads. I don’t mention this to be verbose or to express superiority. I have not reached liberation but I am moving closer by the day.
I’ve been very fortunate to have an incredible support system. My family are not necessarily doomers but support the choices I’ve made. I’ve also had the opportunity to live with Dr. Guy McPherson and to pick his brain on a daily basis. He is the voice that has brought consciousness to the topic and reality of abrupt climate change with its consequence of Near Term Human Extinction. I co-host a radio show with him where we explore our civilized predicament. The most dependable support I’ve received is from my wife. She is a liberated doomer and one of only a few I know of. She is the reason I know I will reach liberation from the mental giant that is hope without reason. Finally, I wrote a book (due out later this year) that took about 8 years to complete. The writing has been therapeutic. It served as a tool to work out the conundrums in my head. Through it all I have come out the other side happy, content and more able to let go of everything I used to try and control.
Today the Gospel of Doom has brought me to a community of folks who reached acceptance decades before I ever contemplated the notion. It’s been the greatest gift one could receive. They don’t need to talk of doom, human extinction, collapse, or abrupt climate change. Their actions speak volumes. I have found my people and I have found my land base. They will be my support for years to come. I will continue to grow, learn and move towards the exit of this insane living arrangement of civilization.
The Gospel of Doom is merely the acceptance of death on all levels. We will die and our species will die.
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Death is a funny thing for many of us. We have separated it from life like it doesn’t exist. There is no life without death. The Gospel of Doom is merely the acceptance of death on all levels. We will die and our species will die. The truly tragic part is we were born into a living arrangement (civilization) that has accelerated our extinction and the extinction of so many other species. It has brought unnecessary suffering and continues to be justified in the name of a subversive version of progress. One doesn’t have to be inundated with data to develop a lens from which to see the madness. All one has to do is observe our behavior and look at the results.
If you decide to delve into this particular gospel it will take you to a place you never imagined. The place I speak of isn’t necessarily physical (although it can be) but rather emotional. Moving beyond our emotions is our greatest challenge. We spend so much time in our heads that we miss the connections in front of us. We once lived in accordance with the natural world (which we are part of) and honored what it meant to be a specie amongst countless other species. Today we have unilaterally placed ourselves atop of all earthlings. It has brought only doom and that’s not a fatalist cult-like prognosis but a dagger through the cult of civilization – a cult we were born into and have mistaken for life itself.
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Somehow passive, fatalist, resignation is the new masculine? Somehow it is now masculine to lie down and welcome the death of our species? This is not masculinity, it is cowardice. And rather than thinking in the exclusive polarity of masculine or feminine, maybe it’s time to see how we can unite both genders (and all genders across the gender spectrum) to bring about the change we need. Our future depends on our imagination and vision to manifest the reality we desire. While imminent human extinction is a possibility, maybe even a likelihood, resigning to it only makes it more likely.… Read more »
Not my headline (editors finalize them) and I never mentioned masculinity in my piece. Accepting death is part of life. Hope is nothing more than waiting for someone else to miraculously do something. I suggest we move beyond it and chase a different carrot.
The two men who changed my life were Mike Ruppert and Guy McPherson. I have altered the direction of my life considerably after listening to them. My ambition in life is to live a life with passion, live as self-sufficiently as possible, and to try to help others on an individual basis without being attached to the outcome. When you realize that the end is near it’s amazing how what mattered before holds little importance to you now. Mother Nature is full of rage and is fighting for her life, and she will take all of us out. She doesn’t… Read more »
Excellent article – thank you! 🙂 I have very limited support around me – too much hopium! The main things that stifle my liberation are my children.
Mike, Like you, I’ve been dealing with this for years on a personal level–and have met and, too briefly, talked with Guy. And, like him, have a past in the university world as teacher. Below is one form of my ongoing search for a broad grasp–a kind of collective book review/essay. The part that is directly relevant to your post is in the last paragraphs. Is this sort of cognitive sharing appropriate to your posts? My greetings to Guy. In Last is First. – Connections. Emerging Systems. Alarms. Increasing numbers of books share alarms on similar subjects but from different… Read more »
Well written, thoughtful, concise. Thanks Mike. Now if only I could ensure everyone in my circle of family and friends reads it, understands it and takes it to heart. Then, I wouldn’t feel so utterly alone.