The bad-ass act of being hopeful
It probably has something to do with my background in social science, but this question keeps intriguing me:
"How is it possible that we are collectively facing an existential threat but don't act?"
We know things are not heading in the right direction -a climate and ecological crisis threatens our very existence as a species- but we don’t (all, unitedly, undeniably, immediately) take action. Of course some of us are on the barricades. And others may not yet be convinced all that stuff about icecaps and polar bears is even true.
But I think there is huge group of people -myself included- somewhere in between: who want to do something, and do their best (eat more vegan, fly less, buy less) but also feel they should do more. Who feel inadequate, stuck, and at times: full of shame.
How can we sit here and watch Netflix while we should save the world for our (grand)children? How come we did we not yet start an anarchistic eco-village in rural Spain? How?
And this is the tricky part. Everybody who benefits from the status quo (let's say the 0.01% richest individuals—who now hold about 11% of the world's wealth - and maybe they feel shame as well, let's not assume they don't) benefits from us feeling this way. Because shame tends to make us feel like shit. It makes us feel helpless and hopeless, like it does not make sense to even try.
Matavenero, one of Spain’s abandoned village-turned-eco communes
What happened to us? How did we even get here? I am pretty sure there are many reasons but I think this is one of them.
What happened to us is that we learned to look at ourselves more and more as separated from nature (some say this direction started roughly 12.000 years ago, when we invented agriculture). We went from: seeing ourselves as part of nature to: 'stewards' of nature, taking care of it, to: 'standing above' nature. We see ourselves as rational, super-humans to whom the laws of nature do not apply (sure, we still die, but we are working on that as well).
And with this 'inflated sense of self' we look at these immensely complex problems (of life on earth destroying that very life) and we think we should be able to fix this: if we think hard enough, we can come up with a perfect solution, by ourselves, ideally tomorrow. And of course, we can't. We are paralysed by perfectionism. We suffer from fear of failure.
While if we would see again, and truly believe, that everything is connected, that we are part of a bigger whole (like not only many religious and philosophical traditions imply, but also science is increasingly convinced of) things look quite different. If everything is connected, literally every, even the smallest act will have some result. Every positive behaviour will have some sort of ripple effect. Everything we do will somehow matter. In the smallest way maybe, but it will make a difference.
I am not saying this as an optimistic, touchy feely belief. I am saying this as it simply makes sense. Sometimes it feels like the grown-up, rational thing is to be cynical. If you are informed, if you understand what is going on, if you understand how complex it is to change powerful systems, you might not even try anymore. But I think it is the other way around. The wise thing to do is to see we can have an impact.
And I think with this, I reasoned myself right into this quote from Paul Kingsnorth, that has always stuck with me:
"The crisis we are going through - the ongoing collapse of the natural world that we have created, and the likely collapse of the culture that we are in as well, over the next 100 years or so as a result of that - at it's core, it's a spiritual crisis."
In the documentary Tegenlicht the self-proclaimed ex-activist and writer says:
"We got to be one of the only cultures or societies or civilisations that ever existed, that don't have something sacred at the core of them... part of the myth of progress that we believe in is the notion that we are evolving beyond religion. That there is something primitive about that sense of something sacred... The gods in the sea, the gods in the stones, the spirits of the air, I don't know how you would put it, but if you can't recognise this web of life that we are part of is anything more than a source that you can understand and harvest, then you are doomed".
I think the wisest ánd the bravest thing we can do is see that we can all do something. The way Kingsnorth puts it:
"For me it comes down to the work you have to do on yourself, what values have you got, what kind of person you want to be, how can you use what few skills you have got, to do what you need to do, plant tress, cut the grass, whatever you have the skills and the ability to do".
Image front page: painting "Everything is connected" by Maria Esmarara