Our extreme overpopulation is possible because we are living
in a temporary bubble of abundant energy.
Unsustainable industrial agriculture can produce far more food than the
unsustainable muscle-powered farming of earlier times. But the days of cheap energy are behind us
now, which means that the outburst of unusual growth and prosperity will wind
down, stop, and reverse. Sooner or
later, industrial civilization as we know it will run out of fuel and
collapse. Industrial agriculture will no
longer be possible. The next 50 years
are going to be radically different from the last 50 years.
We’ve spent our entire lives living in a massively
unsustainable, planet-killing way of life.
So did our parents and grandparents.
To our minds, this way of life seems perfectly normal, and we expect it
to continue forever. Actually, it’s a
bizarre accident in the human journey, it’s moving into its final stages, and
it can never happen again, thankfully.
A huge obstacle to the healing process is our perception of
history. We’ve all been taught that our
industrial civilization is nothing less than a miracle. It’s always getting better, and the best is
yet to come. Does this sound like a
problem that needs to be fixed? Well,
what it sounds like is a history that has little relationship with
reality. Bogus history provides us with
a false identity, and it enables self-destructive thinking and living.
Thus, a primary task in the healing process is deliberately
unlearning bogus history. We mistakenly
assume bogus history to be the truth, because it has been repeatedly hammered
into our brains during many years at school.
It becomes the foundation of our worldview. Bogus history hides the enormous problems of
progress under the bed, and presents us with glorious myths of brilliant
achievement.
If we gaze in the mirror and see the reflection of a being
lucky to be living at the wondrous zenith of the human journey, then the notion
of genuine sustainability is purely absurd, and not worthy of
consideration. But what if we see the
reflection of someone who has had the misfortune of inheriting a hideous
treasure of mistakes and illusions from 300 generations of well-intended
ancestors? In this case, genuine
sustainability takes on the appearance of the antidote, the cure, something
precious — a lifesaver.
Unlearning bogus history is like taking a powerful laxative
that vigorously cleanses us of our false sense of identity. Happily, this process has begun. A growing number of radical thinkers are seriously
questioning the value of domestication, agriculture, civilization, and
industrial society. They are coming to
appreciate the intelligence and virtues of nature-based societies.
The doddering drooling defenders of the mainstream work hard
to keep these new thinkers safely locked away in the lunatic fringe cage, but
their efforts will fail. These new
thinkers are displaying the first signs of powerful wisdom to emerge in the
entire history of civilization. They
announce that our way of life is a mistake, and it’s rapidly destroying
us. Comprehending this essential idea enables
and encourages clear thinking, intelligent change, and great healing —
beautiful breakthroughs long obstructed by the idiotic old myths of progress
and perpetual growth.
We must have history.
We cannot live with vision and power if we don’t know who we are, and
where we came from. After we’ve thrown
bogus history overboard, we’ll need new histories that have deep roots in
reality. At the foundation of the
healing process are learning, thinking, discussing, simplifying, and exploring
nature (rewilding). This work can be
pursued at low cost, with greater freedom, outside the realm of formal
institutionalized education, by people who want to make meaningful
contributions with their lives.
Once upon a time, Carl Jung said, “I am not what happened to me,
I am what I chose to become.” This is
why many nature-based societies encouraged people to discover their calling via
vision quest ceremonies. Living with a
vision provided us with a direction and purpose in life, and helped us avoid
getting lost and wandering aimlessly.
Societies also need a vision to live well. In nature-based societies, vision was
provided by the time-proven traditional culture. The way to a good life was to carefully
follow the path of the ancestors. In
today’s disaster-based societies, the guiding vision enshrines perpetual growth
— a dead-end path of infantile excess that fuels catastrophic ecocide, and
pandemics of mental illness and degenerative disease.
Our disaster-based culture is bloated with fantasies of
unsustainable science fiction futures, like the Jetsons, Star Wars, or colonies
on Mars. Nature exists outside the walls
of these bleak humans-only prisons. We
dream that tomorrow will be a technological wonderland — robot-driven electric
cars, smart highways, smart grids, high-speed trains, Internet everything,
windmills and solar panels, and on and on — nothing sustainable, and nothing
that is necessary for a healthy and enjoyable life. This vision has no future, because the
temporary bubble of abundant energy has no future. Perpetual growth on a finite planet is
impossible, and pursuing it is insane.
It’s time for a new vision.
To be continued.
2 comments:
"You turned Injun, didn't you?" ~Sergeant Bauer
Expect to be treated with contempt, as was Dances with Wolves, because most people would rather die, or turn at least transform their landscape into a desert, than live anything close to harmony with nature.
Brian, I'm not writing to the herd at large. I'm writing to a wee group of independent thinkers that drink upstream from the herd - folks that don't follow the leader.
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