We had some interesting discussions in the first Metacrisis Meeting, on the politics of collapse, with 27 joining for the first session, and 35 for the second. The first session was more participative, whereas the second session had more space for a Q&A with Richard Hames from Novara Media. We were delighted to be joined by people from around the world, including academics, artists, activists, therapists, medics, consultants and local government leaders.
The Metacrisis Meetings are a salon for discussion of ideas, with no recordings or formal outputs, and under ‘Chatham House’ rules. That means that afterwards, participants can share what was discussed but not claim who said what. The next meeting is on October 6th – and you will receive the background essay for it will be out on September 6th. Read on if you want to have a glimpse of our discussions… (To keep this blog focused on substantive commentary, future summaries of the meetings will only go to members of the metacrisis meetings initiative).
The questions that framed small group discussions were the following:
- Do you recognise the collapse-tinged narratives or sub-cultures that Richard Hames pointed to, and do you think it is a force in politics that will grow? If so, what to do about that?
- Are you finding that the metacrisis, or collapse, or the threat of collapse, in general, or in part, is influencing your own conversations about political issues and if so how? Is that helping you to discuss ideas for political agendas and actions, or not at all?
- What needs to be worked on for a freedom-and-solidarity-infused politics for an era of disruption, decline and collapse? Can we do some of that ourselves?
Some questions posed by members of the initiative to Richard Hames included the following:
“Do you have any sense of how aware of and open to talking about ‘collapse’/’metacrisis’ the UK’s ‘Your Party’ central organisers are?”
“I think that ‘the left’ and the ‘climate movement/s’ have failed (so far) to create truthful and helpful collapse narrative and we are now thoroughly on the back foot. What’s your thoughts?
“Would we (and the subcultures generally) all agree that oligarchy underlies the onset and unraveling of collapse? A culture of mistrust and nebulous judgment is being cultivated, deliberately or not, by big money’s most engaged strategists. No?”
“What do you think about working “below the radar” on regenerative land use, for example, and/or local currencies – as means of surviving collapse and also forging a foundation for different institutions, ways of life, and relationships with other beings, human and beyond human?”
“Do you think it is possible to get a mass movement of people to move away from the current meta crisis and take responsible collective action?’
“I feel like people are psychologically incapable of comprehending/accepting collapse and unless that is addressed, no progress can be made politically and otherwise. While this may be a mental health aspect, wondering if there is any way we can integrate in this element in a political movement, thoughts?”
“If the left came from universalism, where did universalism come from?”
“Can we not redefine universal flourishing so it is not dependent on the infrastructure that is furthering collapse?
“Is not deep personal transformation not only possible through agency, but/and also a profound spiritual awakening into a deeper reality?”
“And if there’s a deeper reality, does that mean that without embracing it, all we keep doing with our systems of whatever sort is keep moving around bits and pieces of ordinary reality and never touching into the depths of other possibilities.
Two online boards of participants’ thoughts on this agenda were created, on the topic of what a freedom-and-solidarity politics responding to collapse might involve:
Metacrisis Meeting #1a board / Metacrisis Meeting #1b board
Interestingly, on areas for international political action, the matter of Palestinian rights was voted to the top of the agenda.
Each meeting ended after time given for participants to share what they are working on and what is alive for them at this moment on the topic of metacrisis or collapse.
At the start of the meeting I explained what this online salon is, and is not, which is also covered in the “small print” document about the initiative.
So that you can leave your thoughts or relevant information and links, the comments facility is open on this blog post.
The topic, time and sign up process for the next metacrisis meeting will arrive in your inbox on Sept 6th.
If you joined these first two sessions of this new initiative – thank you, it is happening because of you!
Thx, Jem
PS: meetings without a membership fee remain available at the Deep Adaptation Forum
Previous posts related to this meeting:
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