Why I am not on the Epstein list

jembendell

On the 11th September 2012, Melanie Walker of the Gates Foundation introduced me, on email, to Jeffrey Epstein. Previously I’d been discussing whether to apply to the Gates Foundation for funding to work on alternative currencies. Bitcoin was just 3 years old and stimulating some interest in a field that had hitherto been marginal. It didn’t seem that their Foundation would fund work on it, and so I received an introduction to a billionaire philanthropist who was prepared to host and fund gatherings of experts, including a group of ‘Young Global Leaders’. That’s the network the World Economic Forum (WEF) established to connect emerging leaders of the world’s largest corporations with emerging leaders in politics and other walks of life. I had engaged with that network for a few years until 2017, as I had been seeking to continue to influence action on environmental problems at scale.

I don’t recall much from the one Skype call I had with Epstein, apart from that he was in the tropics, and at some point, when I was making my best effort to sound intelligent, he interjected to say: “Well Jem, you know, I just want to have fun.” I remember being flummoxed, not knowing how to help billionaires have fun.

After that video call, I Googled him. I vaguely remember reading that he had been found guilty of using underage prostitutes. Now, ten years on, I know that prostitution is the wrong word for what was happening. Instead, paedophilia and, most probably, blackmail, are better descriptions. But back then, when reading about that, did I simply cut off? Unfortunately, not. I decided to send him the proposal that he had requested. But I explained that due to his notoriety, none of the events he might fund could occur on any of his properties and that he could not be a host, only a guest.

I never heard from him again. Maybe he was insulted by my stipulations. Or maybe he was having too much ‘fun’. Or maybe his aim had been to get compromising images of leading experts and ‘Young Global Leaders’ for future blackmail. If the latter, then that would indicate a very sophisticated approach, as cryptocurrencies were years away from becoming a major issue in global finance.

Looking back, I wonder what I was doing. I had been prepared for him to fund work I believed in, just so long as I managed the reputational risk. I had rationalised that promoting a different approach to monetary systems was paramount. I thought I was driven by principle, but I wasn’t even thinking about how there might be victims of his actions. And I was also too easily influenced by others, such as the people who introduced us, or the many recipients of his donations in the world’s top Universities. 

I mention this now as an example of how people who believe in themselves and what they are doing can make really bad choices when they are so convinced of their need to make the world a better place. Those people who associated with Jeffrey Epstein, despite his known crimes, provide an extreme example of how the desire to succeed through working with elites is what helps to maintain destructive systems. Many people today seek the attention, favour or finance of people who have been involved in even worse crimes than Epstein. For instance, people who lied to the public to start illegal wars that killed a million people. It is this deference to power, even admiration of it, no matter how destructive or disgusting, that enables it to continue.

If you read my book, Breaking Together, you will know that I don’t believe there is an evil cabal that coordinates everything in the world. Instead, there are powerful systems that maintain ways of living that are destructive to each other and wider nature. We could all do more to resist and replace those systems. So, we can start with ourselves and our own forms of compliance. It means I have far greater respect for the people who have refused to collaborate with elites or officers of the establishment and instead focus entirely on grassroots organising. It’s why I mentioned this strange episode in my life, and criticised my past self, in my speech to launch my new book.

I had this in mind when, last year, I was approached to appear in a documentary series for Netflix about major world crises. During a call with the producer and editor, it became apparent to me that the series would present the ideas of Bill Gates as the answer to every issue they looked at, from combatting diseases to addressing climate change. I explained I didn’t want to be just the guy explaining the threat of doom before ‘SuperGates’ comes to the rescue. Somewhat annoyed, I mentioned when Gates Foundation staff introduced me to Jeffrey Epstein. Immediately the video of the producer’s screen went black. The director kept chatting for a while about some limits on how pro-Gates their show would be. Neither a goodbye nor a follow up email came from the producer.

Once again, that experience reminded me that the power of money to distort humanity’s view of our situation only works because human beings prostitute themselves to corporations, billionaires and foundations. Whether it’s Epstein, Gates, Musk, Theil or any of the rich American men who like playing with machines and doing maths, it’s the rest of us who are giving them far too much airtime on issues they shouldn’t have any influence on. Unfortunately, they also own platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and suchlike, so can manipulate what we do or don’t see from our peers. But they can only do that because staff in their companies choose to implement policies and procedures that are dangerous to our human rights and democracies. So, if you know anyone who works for the biggest companies of the world in media, finance, and technology, then ask them why aren’t they rebelling inside those companies, to make it less easy for rich white men to fuck up people or planet? That’d be far more powerful than going on a protest or tweeting about someone on Epstein’s list.

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Mainstream media hasn’t been digging into the evidence in the released documents that suggests Jeffrey Epstein was generating material to blackmail world leaders. For a look at that evidence, see: https://public.substack.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-ran-sex-blackmail

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Geopolitics 101 for the 2020s

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The ‘information ecology’ of people living in the English-speaking world is collapsing as fast as, if not faster than, natural ecosystems. On the one hand, mainstream corporate and state media now regularly mislead us about our health, economy, environment and society, whenever that protects the established order. Even ‘progressive’ media institutions muddy the waters about ongoing imperialist exploitation and violence. On the other hand, most non-traditional media in the form of celebrity pundits and independent journalists, don’t have the capacity to do more than react critically to news from the mainstream, and often spin simplistic or sensational narratives to gain attention. For people who have the time to find independent expert voices on various topics, such as war, economy and public health, then there is much available. But most people don’t have the time for that. Therefore, I have noticed a rise in the number of people who have distorted views of what is happening in the world, even if they work on matters of common concern. Combined with the widespread use of moral psychology in modern media, whereby differing opinions are made out to be disgusting or dangerous, this can lead to some awkward interactions in-person and online. That is why I am so relieved that Brave New Europe regularly produce well-informed left-of-centre analysis of European and global affairs. You can read my past essays with them, mainly on climate issues, here. But what caught my eye last week was their summary of geopolitical shifts during 2023, written by Mathew D Rose. It provided a synthesis rarely, if ever, found in Western media, whether mainstream or not. Mathew focuses on the major shift in global power that is underway – something largely hidden from the citizens of the West. I recommend you take time to read it below, and then browse other articles from them.

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Climate Hoax Questions and More Besides

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A new video is out, where concerns about climate change being a hoax designed to control the public were addressed by a panel of environmentalists. The event occurred in the English town of Glastonbury, which hosted a number of discussions on this topic in 2023. One trigger for this focus was probably a speech at a council meeting by the campaigner Sandy Adams back in March. She argued against the “15 minute city” agenda, with claims that ‘climate change’ is a hoax to excuse draconian controls on our lives. The freedom she was talking about was the driving of cars, rather than walking, cycling or bussing around. As people can cycle across Glastonbury in less than 15 minutes, and the local government had no proposals on ‘15 minute cities,’ the councillors of this small town were somewhat perplexed by Ms Adams. Nevertheless, the video of her speech went viral, with the claim that resistance works! It appears that targeting non-existent proposals is the ‘secret sauce’ for this kind of instantly gratifying campaigning. 

Many local residents of Glastonbury had other ideas. A group of them decided to host a conference on the more troubling news about climate change – what to do if we can’t stop it disrupting our communities through direct and indirect impacts. During a hot afternoon in June, a panel took questions from the audience. Reflecting the arguments promoted by Sandy Adams’ viral video, the first question was about whether the mainstream narrative on climate is incorrect – and being used to control us. The Green Party Mayor of Glastonbury, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, two podcast hosts and myself, a Professor in the field of sustainability, offered our reflections on this issue. You can see the discussion, alongside a range of other topics, in a video of the Q&A, below.

The residents invited discussion of a wide range of topics, arising from a workshop that used the updated Deep Adaptation framework. That includes a 5th R on the ‘reclamation’ of our power in the face of societal disruption and collapse. Rachel Donald (Planet Critical) spoke of reclaiming the power of contribution by leaving behind security to build a community. Amisha Ghadiali (All That We Are) spoke of reclaiming beauty as divine, not trapped in a sanitised aesthetic. Gail Bradbrook (Extinction Rebellion) spoke of reclaiming pride in one’s own psychological patterns and capabilities. Indra Donfrancesco (Mayor of Glastonbury) spoke of reclaiming her town for positive environmental actions rather than just protests. I spoke of my personal reclaiming of my ‘OK-ness’ with aiming small, despite my cultural conditioning to strive to succeed at scale. 

Discussions ranged from caring for loved ones to whether localisation needs a complementary effort at international political influence. It demonstrated what a wide, compassionate and creative agenda can emerge from accepting the gravity of our ecological crisis. However, I also welcomed a couple of questions about whether the UN, IPCC and others might be hoaxing us on climate. That’s because I am part of a growing movement of freedom-loving environmentalists, who object to the corporate capture of the climate agenda. As one questioner alluded to, during the early years of the pandemic, we were poorly served by an old guard of green leaders and commentators, who kowtowed to the big corporate agendas that were masquerading as sensible policies on public health. Unfortunately, that lack of green leadership means the ‘medical freedom movement’ has become an easy target for infiltration by the oil lobby, who are sowing doubt about our changing climate. As I argue in Breaking Together, just because some globalists have bad ideas about responding to a climate crisis which they helped to create, doesn’t mean there isn’t a major problem for us to address with urgency.

Whether we are interested in freedom or the environment, or both, we can help each other escape the false narratives coming from corporate influence on those issues. The false narratives can be appealing, as they distract from the painful reality of a global and uncontrollable ecological disaster. However, time will demonstrate both the extent of the ecological predicament, and the futility of those responses favoured by corporate elites. I believe the sooner people move beyond distractions to explore how they wish to live in this era of societal disruption and collapse, the better it will be for themselves, others and wider nature.

The discussions prompted by the series of events in Glastonbury led me to write a public letter entitled “Dear Freedom-Loving Friends! We need to talk about your recent scepticism on climate change,” which referenced the science in my book (you can listen to the chapter on climate without a fee). 

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The Q&A was part of an event that featured talks by Jem Bendell and Gail Bradbrook, and a performance of poetry by Rachel Donald. It launched the book Breaking Together, including the release of a free epub version. A more in-depth Q&A about the book was hosted separately by Low Impact.

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Visions of a post-doom world

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Was Jesus Christ a Buddhist monk? That is the subject of a few books and films which focus on the many years between childhood and the time of his preaching that are recorded in the Bible. The BBC documentary featured evidence from a Buddhist Temple that mentioned a famous teacher from afar, with the local name for Jesus. Learning from different wisdom traditions makes a lot of sense. So perhaps ‘the son of God’ might have explored that as well. I mention this speculative history because both Christianity and Buddhism have been important to my own experience and understanding of the world. In more recent times, I have focused more on learning from Buddhist insight, partly because it has been new to me. This is reflected in the name of our farm school, which is the Sanskrit word for healing through transcending separations: Bekandze Farm. The word features prominently in the Medicine Buddha Mantra, which is one of the oldest and most popular. This was the background to why I was delighted to appear in the podcast series “Buddha at the Gas Pump”. I wrote some reflections about that discussion with Rick Archer, and posted them as an article on LinkedIn. In the pod we discussed the question of whether or not we need, or benefit, from a vision of a better future, in the material realm, including humans or wider life on Earth. Below I cross-post the article. For it I used the JemBot to summarise a few of the ideas in my book Breaking Together. If you want to go deeper into any of these ideas, then studying with me is possible, twice online and twice in person, during 2024.

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My other past writings on LinkedIn are here.

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Talking Collapse at Christmas

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[a version of this post went to 5k subs of my biannual bulletin]

What are you going to talk about over the coming holiday period? There is a lot of sad stuff going on in the world, which seems impossible to either influence or ignore. There is the temptation to utter platitudes about peace on Earth, or hoping it will be better next year. But you are reading these words. So we both know you are made of sterner stuff than that. How about trying a different tack entirely? Something like: “It appears to me that all this terrible news is part of a pattern. Modern societies are crumbing and the elites are causing more damage as they try to hold on to their power. These are aspects of societal collapse, and we need to start accepting it, so we can discuss what to do about it. It looks like we need to change our hopes and plans for the future.” Yes, the time has come for you to be a ‘party pooper’ …but at least one with purpose.

For a few years I didn’t want to poop any parties. I felt apprehensive about promoting my views on collapse, as I knew how emotionally unsettling it can be to realise the tragic and dangerous situation we are all facing. Instead, I thought people who were already aware of the situation would benefit by hearing from people who were responding to their collapse anticipation, or acceptance, in positive ways – and so I hosted 30+ guests in the Deep Adaptation Q&As. Over the years, my reticence to speak out has changed. That is because, although societal collapse is still taboo in mainstream media and politics, a huge proportion of the general public already experience how normal life is unravelling and that the ecological situation is unavoidably frightening. I want to help more people make sense of this situation and consider their options. As the initiative ‘Just Collapse’ often repeats, it is time to talk about societal collapse. That is why this year I released the book Breaking Together and began to #TalkCollapse in a variety of podcasts and some interviews in mainstream media. In this post, I’ll sum up some of that audio and video from the past year. It will give you a number of options of what to share with people you talk about collapse with in the coming weeks, months, and beyond.

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Approaching the 5th Anniversary of the Deep Adaptation Forum

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On the one hand, it feels like yesterday. On the other hand, like a parallel universe. I could be talking about many things, but this time, I am reflecting on the formation of the Deep Adaptation Forum. It’s almost 5 years since I created a Facebook group for people who wanted to discuss their own ‘deep adaptation’ to societal collapse. Soon after that we launched a website (using Ning), for people to connect with each other more deeply than one can do on Facebook. Those were two of the first steps in the creation of the Deep Adaptation Forum (DAF), as a network that facilitates dialogue and collaboration on reducing harm in the face of societal collapse. I left the organising team over three years ago but have watched it evolve through the enthusiasm of volunteers from around the world. Recently, I was asked to offer some short recollections and suggestions. That request came from the current team who are stewarding DAF into a new phase of service of the people around the globe who want to be their best selves as societies become more disrupted due to environmental change and related impacts. What follows below are the thoughts I shared with them…

“My initial motivation for founding the Deep Adaptation Forum (DAF) was to connect together the people who were reaching out to me after reading the Deep Adaptation (DA) paper, released in 2018. The diversity of people and questioning was huge, and reflected how the collapse of societies affects everything imaginable. I resisted requests from some potential funders for it to become a think tank or lobby group, and instead advanced ways of gathering for open-hearted, open-minded and meaningful dialogue. Emotional support was a key part of that, but not the only intention. Fortunately, some individuals with a little bit of cash agreed, so that I could begin to consider hiring some freelancers to collaborate on the project.

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Deep Spirituality in an Era of Collapse

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Reverend Stephen G Wright

[This essay is available as an audio, narrated by Jem Bendell]

As a follower of the contemplative-mystic Way for many decades, and written about it, guided others in it, even set up a School to ‘teach’ it, in recent years I’ve taken the idea and community of Deep Adaptation into deep discernment – to consider its impact upon my spiritual life and that of others. The unfolding ecological disaster, and its implications for our societies, is something I observe and experience from that contemplative-mystic approach to life. I have come to believe that deep adaptation will be spiritual or there will be no deep adaptation at all. By which, I mean that there will be no softening of the collapse of societies, for people or wider nature, unless more of us discover and prioritise our own spiritual response to this predicament. That is not a summons to fluffy feel-good spiritual experiences to keep the horrors at bay. It is a summons to fierce and profound inquiry, a deep plunge into the joypain of existence, and a wholly (holy!) different perspective on reality and what it is to be human in that reality. Such a Way lifts (or sinks) us into an utterly different relationship and perception of life; of self and that which is beyond the self. Without that we shall persist in limited perceptions of what it is to be human and part of all of life. Without it we would continue deploying our good intentions and rearranging bits and pieces of ordinary reality without fundamentally changing our relationship to that reality.

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A climate of trauma

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The unfolding environmental tragedy arose from collective human trauma and the response to it has been shaped by that trauma – including COP28. Fortunately, there is a wave of activity emerging to help.

An audio narration of this essay is available.

When I first heard someone explain that the climate crisis is a result of our collective human trauma, I was a bit confused. ‘Speak for yourself mate,’ I thought. I hadn’t been feeling particularly traumatised about life – just worried about the damage we are doing to the environment. Surely the climate crisis is a pollution problem which our political and economic systems aren’t allowing us to respond to properly, I thought? So how could people’s emotional injuries be involved in such systemic problems? It didn’t make sense to me. Over the years, as I have learned more about what is meant by collective trauma, and what is at the root of the destructiveness of modern societies, I changed my tune. I have come to understand what people mean when they say the climate crisis, like the ecological crisis more broadly, results from our collective trauma. By that, I mean the subtle and lasting psychological wounds that most of us have from growing up in societies that maintain stories of reality that generate fears about ourselves and each other. Therefore, a trauma-informed approach to the climate crisis can open up new areas for individual and collective action, as the climate becomes more unstable. This trauma lens can also help explain why the response to the environmental crisis has been so inadequate, and even why environmentally-useless climate summits have become so popular. As the world’s climate professionals turn their attention to COP28 in Dubai, highlighting the subtle but pervasive role of trauma in influencing our behaviours can bring wider attention to this important topic and open new arenas for meaningful action on the environmental predicament. That is why I am pleased to participate in the trauma-aware Climate Consciousness online summit that runs in parallel with the deathly programme in Dubai.  

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Repurposing blockchain for societal collapse

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Matthew Slater is the audiobook narrator for Breaking Together. But when he is not reading books out loud, he works on the design and implementation of community exchange systems – also known as community or local currencies. I recently wrote about how expansionist monetary systems drove societal collapse. If you don’t fully understand that, then I recommend asking the new JemBot to explain things, as it draws from my book. But once we accept such an analysis, it can leave us a bit stumped about what to do about it. That’s why in Chapter 12 of my book on positive responses amongst those experiencing societal disruption or preparing for societal collapse, I mention a few initiatives that include a monetary aspect to their local resilience efforts. It is a fast moving field, and one that is now attracting attention from those with experience in the rather less community-focused arena of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Therefore, I am delighted to publish an essay on these trends from Matthew Slater. It is a rather technical topic, but an important one, which I believe is set to grow. Thanks, Jem

Jem Bendell’s book Breaking Together emphasises how the destruction of life on Earth is driven in part by an expansionary monetary system, which also shapes our behaviours towards each other and nature. He holds little hope of any meaningful reform at the national and international levels. Rather, he points to local initiatives that practice alternative forms of exchange, with alternate currencies, in a context of building community resilience.

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Engage the book “Breaking Together” with an AI chatbot

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The chatbots that use artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the way some people research and write. I have not yet used a chatbot to help me write any of my scholarly texts, which is probably why I remain rather verbose! The tech took off too late to affect my research process for Breaking Together, although I squeezed in a quote from a dialogue on freedom that my colleague Matthew had with ChatGPT. But there is an interesting new way that such chatbots can be used – as interfaces with specific publications, or collections of works. For instance, ChatPDF has been launched so people can interrogate academic articles with a chatbot. Some publishers are now looking at providing chatbot interfaces to some of their books. So when I heard that the awesome nonprofit Servicespace.org is helping to create chatbots for some authors, I decided to create one for people to engage with my new book. Consequently, JemBot was ‘born’.

News of JemBot within the Deep Adaptation Facebook group generated a range of reactions. Some people see AI as the latest creation of a doomed techno-obsessed culture. Some see it as endangering societal systems. They might be right, but that doesn’t mean we don’t deploy it for straightforward and positive reasons. As with all technology, the key issue is ownership, intention, use and governance. 

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