Tag: breaking together

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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How do I sustain myself in these times?

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In recent Q&As, I have been asked how I sustain myself in these times. To understand my reply, you would need to understand my outlook on the future. I think a process of the collapse of modern societies has begun, and that catastrophic loss of life will occur on all populated continents in the years to come. If I live another twenty years, I would be witnessing that disaster unfolding. That is the context for my choices over the past five years.

I think I can’t plan to realistically avoid societal collapse myself but can try to avoid some of the early pain. That involves choices about where and how to live (moving to Indonesia). I also want to help soften the crash in the area I intend to live (through an organic farm school and other projects). I no longer believe I can contribute much to systemic changes that would reduce harm at scale (which was the motivation of my previous career). But I don’t want to give up on that entirely, due both to my sense of responsibility, as well as my relevant skills, experience, professional status, and network (so I wrote a book, and still blog and teach). Aside from these matters of personal security and contribution to society, I have felt a strong desire to live more lovingly and creatively than I did in the past, which has led to me becoming a musician and meditation retreat leader.

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Keeping your job at the end of the world (as we know it)

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In an era of constant disruption and even collapse, are there any ways back to feeling at peace, or even happy, about one’s current employment? Many people I meet express unease, because their job feels like a distraction from an environment and society that is beginning to break around us. For some, their employer is even making matters worse. Although it is painful to pay attention to a world in crisis and collapse, the pain is clearly made worse by living out-of-step with that awareness. For many people, conforming to the preoccupations and performances of their profession now means living a lie. But feeling out of integrity with who we are and what we know to be unfolding would not be our fault – it’s the result of being trapped in a system and culture that is dying. Stuck in such a way, people are losing crucial time to discover how they might live in greater integrity with their values in this new era. Meanwhile, others are quitting their old work to ‘go wild’ with entirely new ways of using their time on this glorious Earth (as I’ve described before). But many people, perhaps like you, will have responsibilities they want to maintain, at least for now, which requires keeping their current income.

Do you think it reasonable to find a way of earning a living without lying to yourself and others? I do. Because it should not be too much to ask that we can meet each other with greater honesty in our professional lives. In this essay I want to tell you about the variety of ways I have learned that people are integrating their collapse-awareness into their lives while continuing with their existing employment. I hope it might help you to make, or affirm, your own decisions.

I’ve met enough people discussing ‘deep adaptation’ over the last five years to know that the truth can set us free from the pain of pretending. There are options if we need to keep working in the same job or sector for now. In a previous post, I described the new openness in some organisations to begin discussing how to better prepare staff, stakeholders, and the organisation for a new era of polycrisis due to a process of collapse. To support such discussions, I offered an eight-step approach to deep adaptation in organisations. But most people don’t have roles in organisational development, and won’t be working in an organisation that has an enlightened leadership or possibilities for significant change. With that in mind, I reflected on the other ways I know collapse-aware people have been responding when not quitting their job or career altogether. What follows is a summary of what I’ve learned.

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What’s to blame for collapse?

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Although I’ve been immersed for years in the news and scholarship on the unsustainability of modern societies, it is difficult to keep all of that information at the forefront of my mind. Not only is it a ‘heavy’ topic, it uses a specific part of my mind, and perhaps my body and soul, to critique, synthesise and communicate on such issues. So after doing a dozen podcasts and talks since my book came out, I paused to make more time to develop my organic farm school and play music. I’ve also been enjoying teaching again, both online (join me?!) and in person (including the Bay Area in October). Looking back at the various interviews, I think the first one I did to mark the launch of Breaking Together is the one to watch. Dave Derby of Lowimpact invited a focus on what is most at fault for driving the collapse, as a starting point for discussing what we can do to soften the crash – for ourselves and others. That meant we explored the role of an expansionist monetary system, and alternatives to ‘green’ authoritarian panic as the science darkens and societies are disrupted. You can watch us discuss that here. But as many people prefer to read, I’ve checked the transcripts and compiled them into one document in this blog post.

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The Professional Implications of Collapse: Deep Adaptation in Organizations

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As modern societies experience further disruption and decline, how can our work in organizations help more of us ‘break together’ not apart?

Once people reach the conclusion that societies are not just being continually disrupted but that we are in a situation of actual breakdown, not everyone can quit their job and do something new. After doubt transitions into shock, grief, and anger, not everyone can ‘go wild’ like many ‘doomsters’ do. Nor would we want everyone to! How to integrate an acceptance of societal collapse into one’s professional job in a large organisation is therefore a huge issue. However, until now I did not find anyone in the field of organisational development who could try that. This intransigence even existed amongst experts on ‘sustainability’ and so moved me to write an article last year that summarised the ways they were maintaining their denial. However, five years after the Deep Adaptation (DA) movement took off, it appears that the situation is opening up a bit, as I noted in the latest DA Review. The recent engagement with both DA and my new book ‘Breaking Together’ by world-leading sustainability advisors and trainers R3-0.org, is another indicator of change. Some management consultants may prefer to speak of a polycrisis of ongoing disruption, rather than the unfolding collapse of industrial consumer societies – but an opening has appeared, nevertheless. Therefore, in this essay I will offer some initial ideas for how to work on societal collapse risk, readiness, and response, within organisations.

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It’s a big world out there (beyond the limits of English media)

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The fact that so much of the world now speaks English has made it convenient for me, as a British man, to interact with people around the globe. Last week, for instance, I was with over 100 climate professionals and activists from across Asia, and the whole retreat (here in Bali) was in my native tongue. The prevalence of the English language means that I can learn about the experiences of people from different parts of the world. In addition, they can more easily learn from each other. But as we enter an era of societal disruption and collapse, the prevalence of English reflects a dominance of systems and cultures which is unhelpful. In Breaking Together, I describe this as Imperial Modernity: “the interlocking set of political, economic, and cultural systems that shape our everyday lives to favour the accumulation of power by elites.” It is why I am interested in learning more about responses to environmental change from outside English-speaking countries, and the ‘West’ more generally. Although living in Indonesia helps, my desire to engage beyond my usual circles is one reason why I am travelling on a book tour this year. 

I lived the majority of my adult life outside the UK, where I was born. Over the years I have noticed that people from English-speaking countries are more likely than people from elsewhere to assume that their framings of philosophies, politics, problems, and suchlike, are both ‘common sense’ and universal. They are also more likely to express an opinion on what is right or wrong in other countries. However, my view is that just because the world speaks English does not mean the English-speaking world contains or defines everything that matters in the world. 

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Speed matters more than size, when considering impacts of climate change

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“But the world’s climate was as hot as this in the past.”

Do you hear this a lot? I do. The obvious answer is “sure, it was especially hot when our planet was just a chunk of molten rock spun out from the Sun. But back in terra logica, the main issue for ecosystems and agriculture is the SPEED of climate change.”

The problem with this issue of the speed of change is that consensus in climate science moves very slowly. The more funding that went into climate science, the greater was the amount of research and people to find consensus amongst. That meant the key signals, like the 2017 paper predicting 1.5C by 2025, went largely unnoticed by institutional climatology – and was certainly not acted upon.[1] 

In a 2021 chapter with Dr. Rupert Read and a top German climatologist, who chose to remain anonymous, we explained the limitations of mainstream climatology for telling us the real situation. We pointed to how, in fast moving crises with high hazards, there needs to be an ability to identify salient information rapidly. This even has a name: post-normal science.[2] 

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Watch the Blessing Ceremony at Bekandze Farm School

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I made (very) short film about the resilient and regenerative farm school that we recently launched here in Indonesia. The film focuses on the spiritual side to farming in Bali. The script of the voiceover follows below the video. The crowdfund is an essential part of the effort to become a catalyst in the local area. Please consider helping by learning more here.

For most of us, food is the tasty, or tasteless, substance on our plate. Something we need to quell an ache from hunger, or to provide us a moment of pleasure. Some of us buy fresh ingredients and cook. But even then, food is still about consuming. Therefore our food stories aren’t stories that involve a divine living world that is nurturing us within itself. 

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Major life changes become the least risky option

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Last month, I spoke with the participants in a course hosted by the American cultural commentator Daniel Pinchbeck. The course was all about regenerative attitudes and initiatives. Before a Q&A, I was asked to share four key ideas that would be relevant to the lives of the participants. As I’ve talked about it so much already, I decided to skip the evidence basis for taking societal collapse seriously, and spoke about the changes I am seeing in myself and others, and how that might inspire them. The four things can be summarised as:

  • You don’t escape this
  • You have permission to go wild
  • You can’t avoid losing things
  • You can gain what’s most important.
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Stubborn optimism in an era of collapse

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The weak but well-funded arguments for techno-optimism in the face of climate chaos have kept on coming. The latest were a series of articles in mainstream press about a book that claims renewable energy will sustain societies while stabilising the global climate. Brazilian researcher Claudia Gasparovic, offered a rapid debunking of the book’s arguments, in a post on LinkedIn. Similar arguments were put to the book’s author by journalist Rachel Donald for Mongabay. The weakness of techno-optimism on climate change was something I explored in my book Breaking Together. If you read Chapter 3, you will know that the idea modern societies can maintain current consumption patterns by switching to entirely renewable energy is one founded upon blindness to material dimensions of energy generation and storage. If you read Chapter 4, you will know that energy and carbon dioxide are two issues within a far broader problem of the ecological overshoot by modern societies. If you read Chapter 5, you will know that the momentum of change in our oceans and atmosphere, coupled with the dramatic loss of cooling aerosols and cloud-seeding forest cover, means we are already within a scary situation with climate. 

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