Tag: breaking together

The Politics of Collapse: uncommon conversations for unprecedented times

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“Are you leaving just before the election in case there is trouble?”

I was asked this a couple of times in San Francisco, during the week before the US election. That told me of the anxiety that some people were feeling in the run up to the vote. Nearly every time my conversations turned to politics, I heard people express their incomprehension about others supporting a candidate that they do not. I did not hear merely a concern about different priorities. Rather, I heard the belief that other people are stupid or bad. The anti-Trump voters focused on the bad things about him and ignored the real grievances that were motivating people to vote Republican. The pro-Trump voters focused on the bad things that the current US administration has done and ignored the real concerns about the former President. In both directions there appeared to be a belief that they had superior information, intelligence and ethics. When I noted that people are demonising those they disagree with, in ways that ignore real concerns, everyone I chatted with agreed that such negativity towards fellow citizens is not helpful, and that the political situation in the USA is depressing. That got me thinking about how more of us need to be if we are to develop new forms of politics suited to an era of societal disruption and collapse.

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Not Sweating on Others Waking Up – thoughts after a Temazcal

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The analysis and message of Breaking Together has been resonating with some people who work closely with indigenous leaders across Latin America. That is one reason we published it in Spanish as Cayendo Juntos. Due to their work with indigenous elders, my hosts organised a Temazcal, or spiritual sweat lodge, for my birthday. It was led by Don Alvaro, a cofounder of the Elders of Teotihuacan. That’s the area where he and his ancestors have lived, which is famous for its Aztec Pyramids. My experience that day helped me to realise I still have a long way to go in ‘letting go’ of attachment to the impact of my efforts, and the importance of such letting go for my future in this era of collapse.

Don Alvaro’s comments before we entered the sweat lodge may have been influenced by the fact it was October 12th, the day when Columbus first stepped foot in the Americas in 1492. Some call it ‘Invasion Day’. Don Alvaro explained some of the basic ideas of his culture that have been suppressed in the 500 years since then. Such as the obvious fact that we are part of nature and not in charge of it. Plus, the reality that the natural world is itself sacred, rather than just parts of it, or those aspects that we imagine to be separate from nature. 

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Latin America for a softer, fairer collapse

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Bishop Romero is a hero of mine, as are many of the liberation theologists of across Latin America. As the global hegemonic order breaks due to smashing through ecological limits, so its institutions become ever more illogical, oppressive and violent. That’s Empire trying to prop itself up as its foundations crumble. I believe a significant movement for a softer and fairer collapse of modern societies will emerge from anti-imperialists across the Majority World. Therefore, I am delighted to be launching the Spanish version of ‘Breaking Together’ in Mexico in a few weeks. If you have friends, family or colleagues in either Monterrey or Mexico City, please send them this page.

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The Nine Lies of the Fake Green Fairytale

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Essay shared to coincide with my speech at the 2024 Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

Self-deception is rife within the environmental profession and movement. Some denial or disavowal is not surprising, due to how upsetting it is to focus on an unfolding tragedy. But our vulnerability to self-deception has been hijacked by the self interests of the rich and powerful, to spin a ‘fake green fairytale’. Their story distracts us from the truth of the damage done, that to come, and what our options might be. Indeed, their fairytale prevents us from rebelling to try to make this a fairer disaster, or a more gentle and just collapse of the societies we live in. Averting wider rebellion might be why the fairytale receives loads of funding for books, awards, feature articles and documentaries, as well as videos for popular YouTube channels. That’s why, like me, you might not have realised for years that it is a fairytale. In this essay I will explain the nine lies that comprise this ‘fake green fairytale’ before explaining how much damage is being done to both people and planet from the dominance of this story within contemporary environmentalism.

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S’effondrer ensemble – Breaking Together in French

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Publié par Good Works de l’Institut Schumacher, S’effondrer ensemble: Vers l’écoliberté écrit par Jem Bendell,  est désormais disponible. Yes, the French version of ‘Breaking Together’ is now available, published by Good Works, of The Schumacher Institute. 

Initialement sur Amazon, il sera disponible sur d’autres plateformes et dans les librairies d’ici novembre, et sera disponible en tant qu’epub gratuit au début de 2025. Je présenterai le livre fin octobre à Grenoble et/ou Genève. Initially, on Amazon, it will be available on other platforms and from book shops by November, and will be available as a free epub in early 2025. I will give a talk about it in Grenoble and/or Geneva in late October. 

N’hésitez pas à partager ce blog avec vos amies et collègues francophones. Please share this blog with your French speaking friends and colleagues. 

Je suis reconnaissant à une équipe de traducteurs dévouée, ainsi que les dons d’argent et’de temps  qui ont rendu ce livre possible. Plus d’information sur leur contribution suivent le résumé du livre. I am grateful to a dedicated translation team, as well as donations of time and money to make this book possible. Further information on their effort follows the book description:

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Internationalize the collapse conversation with me

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Thank you for following my blog. In the spirit of “if you don’t ask you can’t get…”

If you would like to see wider communication of the analysis and ideas of deep adaptation and ecofreedom, then I want to ask for the following help. Here are some things that I believe would have significant impact and I can implement efficiently:

  • Audio Book of Breaking Together in French – that will help reach French, Canadian and African audiences. The French book is out next month, and will be available as a free epub early next year. Funding required: 3k usd.  
  • Audio Book of Breaking Together in Spanish – will help reach Latin American audiences. The Spanish book is out in October, and will be available as a free epub early next year. Funding required: 3k usd.   
  • Translation of Breaking Together into Russian. For sale and also free epub release in 2025. Funding required: 8k usd.
  • Scholarships for activists from all corners of the world to attend the “Leading Through Collapse” courses with me for free. Funding required: 400 usd per person.
  • Design and delivery of an online course on collapse readiness from a collaborative and non-defensive perspective. In English with a ‘freemium’ model of participation. Funding required: 10k usd.
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Staying Curious During Collapse

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On this day 6 years ago, I released through my university the ‘Deep Adaptation’ (DA) paper on climate chaos. Since then, I’ve been experiencing a range of emotions that arise from my view of the situation and the reactions of other people to that – and learning how to be OK with that. I’ve also been experimenting with ways of living differently as my old sense of self broke apart. These two themes were the focus of a new documentary about my life that was shown on Dutch TV a few weeks ago. The filmmakers made it beautiful and so I recommend watching below on YouTube or Odysee.

The emotional side of researching, communicating, and educating on collapse has been colourful and, at times, draining. I made and lost friends. I gained allies and enemies. I lost and gained a way of life. I wonder whether I could have learned anywhere near as much about psychology and spirituality without the emotional roller-coaster of becoming public about collapse risk and readiness. 6 years after the release of the DA paper, I want to share some reflections on the conflictual side of me coming out as a ‘doomster’.  

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Real allyship in an age of collapse – supporting anti-imperialism

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A year ago, the co-founder of the activist group Extinction Rebellion joined me in Glastonbury Town Hall to mark the launch of Breaking Together and put it in the context of a liminal space that environmental activism had entered. A year on, an edited version of Gail Bradbrook’s talk is featured in the May/June issue of Resurgence Magazine. In that time, have been impressed by how Gail has been exploring forms of international solidarity for an era of disruption and collapse. That is because it can be easy to turn inward, either by arguing over agendas that will probably never win power in the West, or trying to prepare one’s own community for further decline and disruption. I don’t disparage such a focus, but it can lead to a lack of attention to the wider world, and how we influence it. Or might do if we tried. Therefore, I’d like to share with you a recent blog from Gail where she offers reflections on solidarity with the revived anti-imperialism movements in Africa. Comments are welcome below. Thx, Jem

The leadership able to bring about a “Just Transition” – how we join our global family to unplug the death machine. By Gail Bradbrook.

As Europeans, MEPs and movement founders, we are honoured to have been invited to support a delegation study visit to the Alliance of Sahel States (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger). We have found common cause with our family in the Sahel; here’s why we believe this matters immensely to you too.

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A Year of Breaking Together

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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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