Next week I will share the second part of my essay on the benefits of collapse acceptance. One of those benefits is discovering a new impetus for acting on one’s sense of personal power and privilege. In this essay I want to delve into this topic more substantively. I want to address the rhetorical question “why bother fighting for social justice if everything is collapsing anyway?” I also want to address the very real concern that it is only people with financial means who are able to begin to prepare for the breakdown of world systems. I will do that through sharing my notes on questions put to me by Silvia di Blasio in a recent interview for Gaia Education. Born in Argentina and based in Canada, Silvia has been exploring the concepts and practices of resilience for decades. She interviewed me in her role as a course manager and facilitator for Gaia Education, which offers courses and spaces for people to explore community-based initiatives to face climate change and the combined crises. As someone who offers my own online course on similar issues, I recognise the value of such education. The question of power and privilege came up not only because Silvia is attuned to such issues but because new waves of people with relative riches are seeking to ‘live the good life’ with homesteading and ecovillages as they realise how modern societies are breaking down. It is no longer the anti-consumerists and hippies driving the ecovillage movement. What does that mean for its ability to help wider societies?
Continue reading “Power and Privilege in the Face of Collapse – discussion with Silvia Di Blasio of Gaia Education”