Category: deep adaptation

Should the UN just sod off?

jembendell

If we conclude that current difficulties are aspects of an unfolding collapse of societies around the world, what might we want to see from officials in the United Nations system?

That was a question posed to me recently by an initiative which recognizes something of the scale of the challenges faced and wants to communicate that to professionals involved in international affairs. They include not only international civil servants, but also governmental officials in foreign relations, international development and environmental issues.

Having worked in the UN system in various research roles, as well as with international NGOs, I recognize the conclusion that because we have global problems, we need globally coordinated action. Since the 1990s, I wrote a lot of published papers with that in mind, including some reports for the United Nations. But years later, I now see the hope people have in the UN system in contrast to the reality of its ineffectiveness and the growing suspicion that parts of it, such as the WHO, have been hijacked by a global managerial elite (who have bad ideas on most things). I have come to see that although many international civil servants do important work on the ground in some countries, many of them in the headquarters are involved in a deadly charade, where their status, income, and emotional stability lead them to lie to themselves and to the public about our planetary predicament, its causes and what to do about it. This is exemplified by their continued lie that ‘sustainable development’ is possible, despite years of data now proving the critiques from decades ago that it was capitalist-friendly ideological tosh. For one year I discussed and corresponded with various professionals in the field of sustainable development about why they continue the charade and heard what I described as their ‘deadly sins of denial’ in an article for Brave New Europe.

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No More Warnings Needed – an intransigent managerial class must be sidestepped

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Six hundred and seventy-four scholars from 53 countries, believe that “Only if policymakers begin to discuss this threat of societal collapse might communities and nations begin to prepare and so reduce its likelihood, speed, severity, harm to the most vulnerable, and to nature.” Each signatory, with doctoral degree, endorsed a public warning on societal disruption and collapse due to environmental change. They cover more than 20 major academic disciplines, including ecology and climatology, thereby conclusively demonstrating that preparations for societal collapse are being taken seriously by experts from around the world. The announcement of the final list of signatories concludes a 3-year initiative to promote awareness of the scientific basis for exploring how to reduce the damage from societal disruption, breakdown, and collapse, due to environmental change.

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Expressing ourselves and trying to help, without it mattering

jembendell

Beyond Mattering
Do I matter?
Is that my driver?
If I matter, then I matter,
With no question, no trying.
To accept I matter, without condition,
Is something I could feel from within,
But can I?
Perhaps with the help of a mantra,
On losing my need to matter.
So, let’s make it now:
I shall not need to matter
But it’s welcome when I do
And I won’t need to have mattered
But it’s welcome if that’s true
Neither will I need to be heard to know
Or known for who I am
For that would be joining a very pointless queue.
But there go those bells from the temple
Durga doesn’t quite agree
She’s sending me some edits
To this mantra on feeling free.
So, let’s try again:
I really won’t matter much
But it’s welcome when I do
And I haven’t mattered much
But it’s welcome if that’s true
I won’t be heard that much
Or much known for who I am
For that’s an endless queue.
I write these words to clarify
And remind my future self
But will I share these words somewhere?
Or leave them on the shelf?
Oh, this need runs deep
To matter
To matter
To ‘share’ to matter
But Durga’s bells remind me
that sharing can be okay
Because, after all
It just won’t matter.
Not much, anyway.
(June 2020, edited June 2023, by me)

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Volunteer for our Regenerative Farm School, Remotely or in Bali

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It’s crazy how fast things grow in the tropics! When we founded Bekandze Farm in early 2023 we thought we could make a small but meaningful contribution to local food security and environmental care, by promoting and supporting the development of regenerative agriculture in our small patch of Bali. Sixteen months later the infrastructure is in, the garden is thriving, and the training is in full swing. But it hasn’t just been the plants that have been growing – our vision for the project has been growing too!

When we started Bekandze Farm – Regenerative Training Center we knew there was a need, but we had little idea how great that need was. Nor did we realise how vast is the opportunity to have a positive impact on how food is grown here, not just in Bali but throughout Indonesia. When we advertised for staff we attracted applicants from all over Indonesia hungry for an opportunity to develop their professional skills in regenerative agriculture. When we promoted our first free farmer training program we fielded enquiries from isolated farmers on far flung islands throughout Indonesia eager to take up the opportunity to connect learn from regenerative farmers in other parts of the country. And when we were approached by one of only two vocational high schools still teaching agriculture in Bali to help them stop the hemorrhaging of students out of agricultural studies into tourism, we knew for certain that we were on the cusp of something far greater and more impactful than we had envisaged.

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Predicting Financial Collapse (and what to do about it)

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Many people ask me about how to insulate themselves from a financial collapse of some kind or another. I am not a financial advisor, and my focus has always been on collaborative resilience, whereby collectives of people might cope better. But when pressed by friends on what they could do to protect themselves a bit, what I typically recommend is to lessen one’s dependence on goods and services traded within a corporate market place, participate more in an economy of locally-produced goods, try to own some of the basic necessities like a bicycle, and if having some savings then put some of that into crypto (like Ethereum, which does not require massive amounts of energy), gold or silver (in physical possession), or other items that are likely to maintain their value and utility over time. I also recommend not postponing things like elective surgery or house repairs. Further than that, I suggest people no longer assume that their financial savings will give them spending power in the future and instead that they look to nurture other kinds of ongoing productivity with that money. In my own life, these considerations combined with my wish to promote collaborative resilience, so that I funded the launch of an organic farm and farm school in a country where I could afford to do that without debt. But financial resilience is not my field. Therefore, I asked my colleague Matthew Slater to explore this issue with me. In the following guest essay, Matthew writes as one who has been devouring financial collapse narratives since 2008 and studying the phenomenon of money, as well as building alternative means of exchange. He explains that the quick fixes for financial security through gold and crypto that are often promoted by both the financial press and popular YouTubers are a distraction from substantial efforts towards collaborative resilience. In addition, he reminds us of the oppressiveness of the global monetary system, which invites our resistance. His writing is philosophical and colourful but he also does more concrete work based on his analysis, which you can learn about at matslats.net
Thx, Jem

(World Trade Center, 1995)

Predicting Financial Collapse (and what to do about it) – Also available as an audio narration from Matthew Slater).

The failure of our system of money and debt is inevitable and possibly imminent, according to numerous unofficial narratives likely to be labelled ‘disinformation’. Some financial collapse narratives focus on the danger of leverage, or on possible triggers of the next crisis; others on how neoliberal policies are constructing a system that exacerbates social tensions and will explode in revolution; others on the inherent unsustainability of exponential growth on a finite planet. Are such stories just fake-news-clickbait, agitprop, or even psyops? What can we learn from them?

This essay is not to warn or convince you about the risks to participants in that system: chapters 1 & 2 of Jem’s recent book, Breaking Together, do that well enough. This essay attempts to digest the diverse narratives out there, to share an analysis that is guiding my own decisions, and hint at the direction of possible useful action for others. I am not a financial advisor, and I do not advise you to look to finance to save you.

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Greens will return to freedom and democracy

jembendell

Most leaders of the Green movement and profession in the West who I talk with, or read from, don’t want to recognize either the validity or significance of a public backlash against senior experts and authorities on matters of public concern. Nor do they want to admit their own role in contributing to that distrust and backlash. Perhaps they don’t want to recognise how they helped to amplify the damaging pharma-defined authoritarian and pseudo-moralizing narratives and policies promoted to us during the early years of the pandemic.

They prefer to regard any concerns about eco-authoritarianism as being fanciful conspiracy theories dreamt up by opportunistic YouTubers. While it is true that some influencers appear to be so out-of-touch and attention-seeking that they ignore the suffering of millions of poor people from climatic change to instead warn, without evidence, that the WHO will initiate ‘climate lockdowns’ [1], that does not mean there are not valid concerns about creeping censorship, propaganda, and authoritarianism. It does not mean some of that anti-democratic creep has been supported by environmental leaders, including those in power in Germany and elsewhere.

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Oath to the Future – by supporting young farmers

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Young people must live into the future that is likely, resulting from the damage to our planetary home, not the future that some adults pretend might still be possible. Therefore, one of the reasons I went to the COP climate summit in Egypt was to announce a scholars’ oath to the future. That’s where we committed to give greater attention to helping young people adapt to an increasingly disrupted situation because of environmental degradation and a breakdown of industrial consumer societies. 

That is why I am pleased that at Bekandze Farm we have launched our internship programme for Balinese high school students to learn regenerative farming methods. We have partnered with the State Vocational High School of Petang, which is one of just 2 government schools in Bali that teach agriculture. Together, we are helping to train the next generation of Balinese farmers. Our 12 week internship program gives students from Years 10, 11 and 12 a solid grounding in organics, permaculture and other regenerative farming methods that they would not otherwise receive through their standard curriculum. Our first intern, Ngurah, began last month. In the photo above you see him with our head trainer Pak Edi on the left, himself a graduate of the school. 

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A Year of Breaking Together

jembendell

Wow, it has been a whole year since my book Breaking Together came out. 

To mark the occasion, I want to share with you an in-depth discussion I had about the book’s themes, with the filmmaker Michael Shaw. 

If you haven’t seen his film yet, I really recommend it. ‘Living in the Time of Dying’ sensitively covers a very difficult topic through discussions with folks far more interesting than myself.  Alternatively, you could watch the Q&A which he hosted with me in Byron Bay, last March (video below). It was a full house, with a lot of resonance amongst people who have already been adversely affected by a destabilised climate. Their experience and expertise is why I expect important international leadership of the collapse-readiness and response agendas to be emerging from Byron Shire. 

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Was this the most expensive degree in the history of Universities?

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Ten years ago today, the first payment of public university fees in Bitcoin was processed – and live on stage at a festival in Paris. Bitcoin is currently around 60,000 dollars each. Back then, on May 7th 2014, it was around 430 dollars each. Would that make it the highest fee ever paid for a degree? Is the Bitcoin worth 400 or 60000? That’s a philosophical argument one could debate forever – or at least in a PhD thesis.

The payment of 1 BTC (as an instalment for the full course fee) was made live during a panel on the future of currency. The PhD student was Leander Bindewald (on the right in the picture above) and he went on to complete his thesis on the discourse of money (see below for a close up of the payment screen).

I was Leander’s supervisor, and had arranged for the University of Cumbria to be the first public University in the world to accept cryptocurrency for payment. One can only wonder what might have been if the University had decided to retain the Bitcoin rather than convert it immediately into pounds. At least I’d have met my income target (finally). At 6 BTC for a graduate certificate (see below), that would be 360,000 dollars at current market rates. Wow… although studying with me might have been priceless 😉 Today I am happy to keep teaching a similar course after leaving academia (quick plug: ‘Leading Through Collapse’ happens online in September and in person in California in October).

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Sacred Pessimism – a talk to mark 5 years of a new movement

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In March 2019, we launched the Deep Adaptation Forum (DAF) as a mechanism for people to collaborate with each other as their best selves in the face of societal collapse. It was my main response to the explosion of interest in the ‘deep adaptation’ paper. The aim of the new Forum was not only to connect people, but also to catalyse and promote initiatives around the world. We served that goal with a small grant and a team of part time freelancers, with the understanding that ‘deep adaptation’ would be shaped by its participants and take myriad forms around the world. Consistent with that bottom-up ethos, I left the Forum in October 2020 and observed from afar as it evolved – and continues to evolve. Last year I was contacted by one of the many national groups that make this movement real-in-place and we discussed the idea of marking the 5th anniversary of the start of this movement. The group is in Hungary, which had emerged as the largest and most active group in the world.

That is why in April this year I visited Budapest to celebrate the dynamism of ‘Deep Adaptation Hungary’ and launch the Hungarian translation of Breaking Together. The draft text of my talk to open the World Adaptation Forum, which they organised, follows below. I focused on the fact that people are making hugely significant and positive changes in their lives due to their acceptance of societal collapse. That doesn’t mean things won’t be tough, or there aren’t many more things that could be done… rather, it’s time to recognise that many people are becoming their best selves because they are not lying to themselves anymore. It is thanks to Balazs Stumpf-Biro and Krisztina Csapó, since 2019, that Hungarians have been finding each other to explore that.  

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