It really only struck me a few days ago how devoid of hope our predicament actually is. I was having a late breakfast, scanning the online pages of the Straits Times, Melbourne Age, and Washington Post. I had just spent 20 minutes on a live cross to a breakfast show on New Zealand television speaking about the political and commercial agendas that are being rolled out under the smokescreen of COVID-19. I was also provoked into reflecting on other events that signify a deterioration in the conditions needed for humanity's enduring moral advancement.
Among the questions I have come to accept as routine was the inevitable one: Richard are you optimistic about the future? And, as usual, my answer to that kind of question was: It depends on whether you are referring to the future of the planet, or the future of our civilization.
I am not sure whether I turned to the online journals as light relief or as a futile attempt to find some real news. In any case I found almost every article, editorial, and advertisement reinforced normalcy. My deepest concerns about the future were not being contradicted - just reframed as a part of a pattern that would not ruffle feathers, cause excessive anxiety, or spread theories that contradicted the official narrative - unless outrage was intended.
This is a crucial element in many of the existential threats we are facing. Our narratives are enmeshed within a cocoon of coziness requiring business-as-usual to prevail and to remain unchallenged.
We do not take kindly to imposed change. The thought of extinction is ridiculed or dismissed as inconceivable in spite of the fact that history teaches us otherwise. Change of any kind inevitably sets off warning bells. It signifies loss, inviting dread and resistance. The thought of calling a temporary halt to economic growth in order that people a world away might benefit from a slightly higher quality of life is simply incomprehensible to most of us who live and work within the confines of a predatory economic paradigm.
Preferring to hide in ignorance or history, where answers were invariably found to the issues of the day (even though many of them were shortsighted, unwise, and barbaric) we continue to patch up the present as best we can, absorbed by repetitive and delusional routines from which we take comfort, including a lot of pointless work, and all the while encouraged by a belief that life will improve, technology will remain a panacea, and that a "new normal" is bound to be found.
Commentators tell us to remain optimistic, ignoring the massive failure of imagination and emotional gridlock from which we suffer. My own critics constantly tell me not to harp on the bad news, or to be so negative. This will only repel your audience. People need to hear good news, they insist, concerned about my state of mind if I continue to delve into the shadowy side of human nature.
But what if business-as-usual, and even good news, which is there if we know where to look, just gets in the way of hearing a truth we need to hear. What if our nostalgia for normalcy is impeding the decisive actions we must take concerning the really intolerably bad news?
The truth that hardly anyone dares utter is an unthinkable and unlivable reality. Our society is in a state of collapse - precipitated by a predatory disregard for nature. This is probably most evident in the abusive and divisive ways we treat each other. We are one species. Almost everything we cherish is at risk. Yet still we seem unable and unwilling to escape the urge for self-destruction.
It is possible there is no way out of the mess we have made of the environment. Although there is a plethora of solutions available, particularly in terms of regenerative agriculture and drawing down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but we are not deploying them at the scale and speed necessary to avoid catastrophe. Advised to prepare for the worst by many leading scientists, we are not even up to that task.
In these circumstances it is difficult to refrain from deriding others, attacking their motives, drawing attention to their many shortcomings, and calling out their banality, incompetence, ideological leanings, or lack of courage for the situation in which we now find ourselves. But hate and derision are a part of the problem. Attacking others might fill us with a false sense of self-importance. But it is pretentious and will ultimately make matters far worse.
We need all our energy to focus on how to get out of this mess. Censuring incumbent leaders for lacking the wisdom we ourselves could not muster if we were in their shoes is misguided and akin to the vituperative murmurings of a madman. Individuals are not to blame. Like us they are trapped in a prison of our collective invention. It is called capitalism. It is fuelled by growth. And it is killing us.
If we are to step back and look objectively at the causes for our contemporary predicament we can identify systemic flaws embedded within our shared worldview. Looking for validation to scientists like Richard Dawkins and his selfish gene proposition, some claim that these so-called flaws, like the impulse to compete, for example, are just human nature. My response is invariably the same: if we find it impossible to modify those qualities, even if they do happen to be integral aspects of what it means to be human, which is highly questionable, then we have already signed the death warrant for our species. In that case our fate will, and deserves to be, extinction.
Right now, making this point on the evening television news would invite outrage - stirring up apprehension in those who cannot bring themselves to face such an outlandish proposition. It would be irresponsible. In any case, the media’s propensity to coat everything with honey, glossing over anything that smacks of an existential nature, would result in such a topic being normalized for mass consumption – by being placed amidst excerpts from the latest Marvel movie or yet another faux celebrity scandal.
Although some of the drivers of human behaviour etched into our shared worldview could constructively evolve into others, love and cooperation replacing hate and division perhaps, it is not simply these factors that are at fault, but the overarching narratives we use to design systems that then reinforce those values. Currently the most insidious of these is materialism - explicitly the addictive cycle of desire and consumption to which we submit daily.
In 1945 the planet felt empty. Only 2 billion humans inhabited Earth. In the space of 75 years the population burgeoned to 7.8 billion people – all seeking a better quality of life under the auspices of free market capitalism. Unimaginable stress was put on systems essential for our mutual well-being and prosperity. Not designed to cope with such numbers they began to fail. Back then we barely noticed, distracted by our newly-acquired wealth and seduced by the power that wealth brings.
Unaware of potential consequences we were urged to follow the credo of economic growth. And we did – buying new goods and seeking novelty as though our lives depended on it. Our compulsion became pervasive. We threw away stuff with causal nonchalance as easy credit and inbuilt obsolescence conspired to replace the old with the new. Materialism spread to become a global faith.
Even as the materialist indoctrination took hold things started to go wrong. And when they did we got angry. Aided and abetted by the corporate media’s ability to generate indignation and outrage we found an easy target for our rage. We blamed others. Perhaps they did not look like us. Possibly they prayed to different gods, or just spoke an unfamiliar language. But the insidious nature of loathing quickly became socially corrosive. Fear turned to apprehension in the minds of individuals. Anxiety and depression quickly followed. Eager to hide this mental fragility we resorted to Prozac, junk food, sugary drinks, opioids and alcohol, along with more financial debt. We tried everything. Nothing made us happy. Suicide rates continued to climb.
The illusion is perpetuated today through the manipulative tactics of the marketing industry. Our apprehension, discontent, envy and anxiety can be cured, we are told, just by consuming more and more stuff. Wealth will make us happy again. Far happier than before. The reality is that increased spending has led to increased pressure on the systems that are now in a state of collapse. Meanwhile we continue to blame others for this predicament of our own making.
Thus, the cycle of desire and consumption is now an incurable addiction. It intoxicates the human mind, deceiving us into believing that materialism is a solution. It is the problem and there is no solution in sight. It is also the reason we cannot blame individuals for our plight. That course gets us nowhere and exacerbates the cycle, making our exit even more difficult.
There are other equally destructive cycles that follow a similar course. Unending conflict and war leading to the further fracturing of humanity. An obsession with unrestrained economic growth resulting in environmental destruction. The tacit pact that allows wealth to translate into power and that eventually leads to a few individuals owning most of the world’s wealth.
None of these cycles are sustainable. They can all be traced back to an overarching narrative of self-righteousness and hubris that animates them. It is this narrative that must change. We can do the easy stuff now. We can connect the dots between events and outcomes. We can experiment and prototype a range of alternatives. We can, with great effort and persistence, put aside prejudices, stepping into different design ontologies to craft systems that work effectively for village farmers in the developing world as well as shareholders in our wealthiest nations.
But in order for these new systems to endure they will need to be generative and restorative. That is impossible if we are unable to step into new epistemologies of understanding and to reframe what it means to be human. For that to happen humans need to take a giant leap of consciousness: to see ourselves for who we are in order to see the world differently. Creating a generation with a generative collective consciousness is the next step in human evolution. But as I keep pointing out, and being shouted down, such a leap of consciousness depends upon human nature changing its most fundamental impulses.
This is the greatest challenge of our time. At this point anything else is a distraction. I am told repeatedly that it cannot be done. That human nature is what it is...
But please do not ask me to inspire hope or to be an optimist every time I get up to speak or write an article. Do not plead with me to look on the bright side or to ignore science. I prefer to face the truth – even if that truth is an intensely heavy burden. That said, I still believe we will eventually come to our senses. I do have faith in the young generation. And I do believe we will be wise enough to survive our own success. But not tomorrow. Pain and catastrophe will come before we feel compelled to act.
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