I distinctly remember the moment I realized that our culture was omnicidal and I was unwittingly contributing to the destruction of our biosphere. I had just watched Chris Martenson's Crash Course. It was devastating at a visceral level. And crippling because I had NO idea what to do about it. Then, I read the book Deep Green Resistance and it was the first time everything started to make sense on a political and social level. I understood why everything was falling apart and what we CAN do about it. That was in 2011.
Then, in 2012, my younger sister and I were both first diagnosed with breast cancer - then again in 2015 - which started a series of major setbacks that I'm only now recovering from after 9 years.
Throughout those years I tried many things despite my life being a mess and realized just how much human beings rationalize our destructive behaviour, and specifically our lack of adequate response to out existential threat. Cultural trauma is what we're up against and it's getting so much worse. Human beings aren't lazy or weak. We've just had the fight beaten out of us.
This is now my mission: to restore the resilience and fighting spirit of people in my community. I can't fight alone but I can help inspire others to see and face the coming collapse with fire in their hearts and love for our children.
We've all been dehumanized over the past 4 years. It's time to reclaim our humanity. Thank you for inspiring me and so many other people, Max. Know that you are making an impact. 💓🫂🙏
Thank you for sharing your story with me, and with all the other readers. I completely agree that we've had the fight beaten out of us (and propagandized out of us, etc).
Good stirring of the topics, Max... and the interrelated-ness of 'out there' and 'in here'. To riff the well-known phrase: Think nonlocal, act local; what quantum physicists call “nonlocal “ energy—the ability of any being to instantaneously know about or communicate with another being no matter the distance or time difference. Or according to Black Elk, Oglala Lakota, in the book The Sacred Pipe: “The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”
I really appreciate this analysis. Changing entire systems is an inherently, deeply, conflictual process. I hope - I believe many of us hope - that the conflict can be as nonviolent as possible, but there is no avoiding sustained, strategic conflict to create that better, freer world. My thinking on this has been shaped by reading anarchists, and reading and listening to people in other countries, right now, especially in Gaza. I'm pretty old, and I've seen a lot of "demonstration projects" come and go. We need to scale up, not fear losing our "purity" (which was never that pure, anyway).
Someone recently commented on a post of mine, saying that most effort to block/sabotage imperialism result in the good guys getting killed/imprisoned (or sued!). What would your response be to that? Is there evidence that these activities have achieved lasting victories? (Hoping for a "yes"!)
I'm laughing as I read this, Andrea! I wish I had a simple answer.
I'm reminded of a few things. One is another quote from Chris Hedges, who once said, "We don't fight fascists because we're going to win. We fight fascists because they're fascists."
Another quote is from a 2023 talk from Norman Finkelstein, where he talked about how revolutionaries and radicals in his era understood that being a revolutionary means sacrificing, ending up in jail, and possibly ending up dead. That's the reality of doing this work at a very serious and high level. I don't think we should fight or bury this reality. Instead, we should accept it and honor those who do the work regardless.
This is one reason why I am committed to both fighting like hell, and to living the hell out of my life — having fun, falling in love, finding as much beauty as possible.
When we fight, we can win. But if we surrender, we will certainly lose. There are millions of people who have made the world a better place through action and sacrifice. Just a few who come to mind: Mandela, Rachel Carson, Dr. King, Malcolm X, Subcomandante Marcos, Andrea Dworkin — and victories: Cherry Point, SNWA water grab, Wilderness act, Jordan Cove LNG, thousands and thousands more. Yes, things are getting worse, but they'd be far, far worse if not for the incredible efforts of many, many people.
Dear Max Wilbert -- My heart kept beating faster as I read this after getting a recommendation from Substack Reads for what you posted as "the need for organizing and direct action." I put out a standing offer of $100 to point me to any person or auspice scheming about how, in timely fashion, like now, to bring about system change where we go from rugged individualism to a mutuality where we care about each other as much as we care about ourselves. I loved what you wrote, saying yes yes yes to this: "You can’t make a new way without observing what has come before."
But then there was no scheming , but a mentorship program. What are you teaching people in a world where we are stuck and don't know how get out of it?
I'm going to cross-post this to my couple thousand subscribers as such a valuable observance of what has come before, with this comment I'm making to you about where to from here. I hope that will include us linking up. Also hoping your intelligent commenters will link up, too.
Hi Suzanne, thanks for the comment, it's good to hear from you! And thanks for sharing this piece. That means a lot to me!
I'll back you up on the $100 idea. A mass shift in consciousness is, as you've written, something that people have been attempting to work towards for at least 50 years. And yet, of course, the mass media and corporate power are actively working in the opposite direction (I wrote this piece on the topic earlier this year: https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/how-journalism-protects-elites-and).
The truth is, I don't have all the answers. I know that industrial civilization is destroying the planet, that people are isolated and confused and scared and disempowered, and that when we take collective action from a place of healing (another topic I covered recently: https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/first-responder-trauma-a-new-framework), we can create positive change in the world.
I'm also someone who has studied social movements, rebellions, liberation movements, and revolutions throughout history. Among my conclusions is that there is no substitute for the hard work of organizing. I've been a community organizer for 20 years and am involved in a number of different campaigns and efforts (most recently: https://www.protectthackerpass.org/). For the past 15 years, I was part of a grassroots, radical environmental movement with a strategic vision for the future. I left that group early this year over some differences, but I still believe in a similar strategic vision. I'm currently working with a team of about 15 grassroots activists from around the world to build a replacement organization. We'll be announcing that at some point in the coming months. My educational work, like writing and mentorship and trainings, etc., is all aimed at reciprocally strengthening radical grassroots people's movements.
Late to this post, but wanted to say the issue is that people have already tried what you are suggesting here and lost. ELF, ALF, and all the other eco-'terrorists' who died in prison or are still rotting away there. It's a bit idealistic imo to list all the things that are preventing organized direct action, and indeed *already did so* decades ago, as if we have a chance because we still have our souls?
"The US military is running special operations and drone campaigns throughout the world. The CIA is clandestinely toppling governments and the FBI is undermining movements for change. The World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund are waging economic warfare against poor countries. Mass media corporations are brainwashing hundreds of millions of people with advertising and sophisticated public relations campaigns."
You say the first step of permaculture is to observe reality. Well unfortunately, the honest truth is that we lost the fight somewhere between the 70's and 90's if I had to guess. We are deep behind enemy lines, hell the war is long over and we are just straight up citizens of the occupying nation now. Taking whatever few left that are smart, daring, and caring enough to realize this stuff and act on it, and saying "dash and break yourself on the rocks of Global Capital" (or even just, "Hey, go to this protest that will get stamped out and then legally papered over afterwards anyway, you can put yourself on a list and get a nice criminal record to boot too") seems like a huge waste of the miniscule resources left available.
Why say this? Well, because as you allude to in your post, the system, the machine, this great beast is already dying. Killing itself, in fact. The machine is bleeding to death, and most of us are trapped inside it. Which is good, because it is eating everything in sight. But the time will come, and soon, when it topples over and is dead for good. Climate change is already wrecking global agriculture and projected to really ramp up before this decade is out even. Peak oil, or 'peak net energy extraction' now, is beating at the door and will no longer be staved off with superficial band-aids like shale and fracking. Even now, the system is fracturing into smaller pieces, parts breaking off and turning on each other, as the machine's many stomachs go empty and its multiple heads start tearing at itself.
Will there be anything left when it is over? I don't know. Either the machine dies in time and there is something left, or it does not and there is not. But I can tell you that the old world is not coming back. What comes in the future, whether shepherded in by the survivors or springing up in a million years from the ashes, will be something new and different. Something changed, flexible and adaptable, like Life itself.
The point being, there's a few commandos, or really just motivated guerillas, still hanging on despite it all. Throwing them away on a fight that is long over is worse than futile. The point of these alternative system shouldn't be to lead by example and hope the masses will come over, its to outlast it all and spring up in the cracks like weeds, ready to start again. The best thing we can do is hang on a little longer, and wait to start the world anew.
Thanks for the comment. Broadly speaking, I agree with you. But I see a critical role to be played by resistance as the collapse continues to accelerate. We don't know how long these systems will manage to hang on in the face of ecological collapse. But the longer they do, the more rivers, mountains, forests, and ocean areas will be destroyed by industrial projects. That means every single delay or stoppage of a project that we can achieve is very significant, because if we can hold them off for a relatively short time, it could mean stopping the project and protecting certain areas forever. And every bit of the living world matters. So in that sense, I think resistance is critical. I don't think that our resistance is likely to undermine the entire system. But in concert with what it is doing to itself, we can have really significant impacts. And that's not to be overlooked, despite the sacrifices involved.
You’re not wrong, and braver individuals than I are still doing holy work these days, despite the risks (in Minecraft). But that being said, my point is more that they could be better used elsewhere. Climate change is already going to wreck the whole globe, and unmitigated collapse will as well as various parts of the system die off.
There are a few handfuls of these kinds of people around the world. If you have an audience, you could be directing them to create something that will ripple throughout the course of future human societies. We need these people practicing resilient permaculture and indigenous horticulture with collapse in mind, not sacrificing themselves to take pawns when the game is already won. And beyond the human world, guerilla rewilding around urban places, assisted migration of threatened species to nearby natural areas, etc can all change the course of life itself in the millennia ahead.
But again, I largely agree with you. I just think if the game is already over, the responsible thing to do is coordinate pieces in a way that has the greatest long term impact, and even carries over to the next game.
My perspective is that unfortunately, it’s far from over. Industrial capitalism could easily survive and trundle along for decades or more, and the whole point of this essay is that while alternative cultures are not enough, they are important. Resistance is the path that I prioritize, personally, and encourage others to as well.
I see where you are coming from. If you thought the timeline was much shorter, and we were much further along, would that change your perspective on what moves should be made at this point in time? It might change those alternative communities from holdouts to lifeboats, if they were planned appropriately.
Even the UN IPCC says that 2C of warming will be catastrophic for civilization. They also say that the risk of ‘multi-breadbasket failures’ (aka global famines) is untenably high should we pass 2C. We are on track for passing 2C around 2030, and that is ignoring all of the feedback loops in effect such as the Amazon carbon bomb (currently collapsing to savanna) or the amoc shutdown (which even the MSM is starting to squawk about).
Here are several links about how climate change is already heavily disrupting global agriculture and will only ramp up from here:
Additionally, even the oil journals are talking about peak oil (which is now called ‘peak net energy extraction’) in 2025, which is must faster than even I expected. Now granted, we both know there is a lot of waste and “slack” in the system, but the point is that after 2025 we are on the downslope and moving rapidly.
So perhaps this may change your mind about what moves to make. If we’ve struck the iceberg and the the ship is already sinking, do we waste time fighting the ship’s officers and trying to sink it ourselves? Or do we make for the lifeboats and start cobbling together more out of the buffet tables and pool chairs?
Thanks for your passion and the historical survey of the European genocide of the Americas, but you lost me at the condemnation of what I believe the single most important action we can take today to make any progress in saving life on the planet: individual action and CONTRACEPTION. All of the horrendous travesties you catalog are the direct result of massive European, African, and Asian overpopulation and emigration into already fully occupied "New (?) World". Malthus was thinking about the rapid population growth in America when he wrote his "Essay..." in 1798, as was Franklin observing the DOUBLING of the American population every 25 yrs. for two generations.
I am a survivor of the "Days of Rage" in Chicago in 1969, when I was attempting to set-up the National Headquarters of the Student Health Organization and publish a nationwide journal, "Encounter", of which only the first issue was printed, with Che Guevara's photo on the cover. 31 well meaning (?) SDSers proceeded to break windows in expensive retail stores and where shot when they engaged the Chicago PD.
That was the end of any appeal to violence that I had entertained to that point and I recommend that anyone, especially passionate youth like yourself, forgo violence in their/your quest to right the many wrongs of this dying world. I, too, am a student of Native American and all indigenous cultures. The US DOS made the mistake of sending me at the end of my medical/psychiatric training to Bangkok to fill the vacancy of Medial Director of the Youth Treatment Center, a facility set-up by the DOS to "treat" American teenage heroin addicts. Long story short, I was introduced to Buddhism and the concept of compassionate regard for all things and people, which I continue to practice and which was a core element of my 42 yr. psychiatric/addition medicine/stress management practice.
I'm 79 now, retired, and the author of the FREE online e-book PDF, "Stress R Us", which I recommend to anyone reading your passionate post here. It covers much of what you are saying about Hunter-Gatherers and indigenous cultures. We are 3,000 times more populous today than were our H-G ancestors, who were the last of us to live in an ecologically balanced and sustainable lifeway. Massive human overpopulation and overconsumption is our dear Mother Earth's main problem, and we AS INDIVIDUALS can solve it by not bringing another innocent life into this dying world. More at Greeley's Newsletter here on SubStack. Thanks, again, for your courageous effort.
Hi Greeley, thanks for the comment, and for your lifelong commitment and work. I'm inspired to hear about your work on addiction issues. On that note, did you read this piece I wrote recently? I'd be curious on your professional perspective: https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/first-responder-trauma-a-new-framework
It truly means a lot to me to have elders of the movement participating in the discussions here. A few thoughts.
First, I completely agree that overshoot and overpopulation are fundamental issues. I wrote about population recently here, which you may appreciate: https://x.com/MaxWilbert/status/1755282691677925588 . It's a critical issue that's often overlooked, buried, made taboo, and the conversation is shut down.
Also, to be clear, I don't think individual action is unimportant. I think it's vital, hence the title of this piece: "beautiful and important." But I do stand by my assertion that it's not enough. I think we need organized political action in concert with individual action. And I don't think that action needs to, or should be, violent. Strikes, boycotts, mass non-violent action, etc. can all be incredibly effective (however, I think they should be tightly organized, which I believe is still a "militant" in the dictionary sense of being aggressive and confrontational. However, I don't reject violence completely; for example, the violence of the anti-apartheid movement, of indigenous communities against settler-colonialists, and the tactical defensive use of force by the Deacons for Defense are all, in my view, completely morally justified. Violence is a very dangerous thing, and can become a drug. But I'm not an absolutist on that topic. Rather, I think we need to look at the context.
Thanks for your reply, Max. I wrote a reply to your "first responder..." essay you may wish to read. I will have nothing to do with anything the South African white supremacist Elon Musk produces, including the absurd "X". Very best wishes to you and yours, Gregg (an "elder")
Dear Greeley, a warm hello and thanks from Australia. Just an aside point: I am laughing because my only regular contact with biocentric people outside this household is via much-maligned (and rightly so) Twitter, which is also an excellent connection database for all its flaws. It thankfully has a block button I have literally employed thousands of times in under three years with the good effect of cleaning up the experience remarkably so that I can now enjoy it.
Did you ever have a sociopathic teacher? I did. It was great fun passing surreptitious written notes to each other in such a classroom. Since the Elongated Husk has bought Twitter for his billionaire plaything our little social online circle has had even more fun subverting the platform to connect, support each other practically and emotionally, share DIY/anti-consumer tips etc - all the very things the platform is designed to prevent. And we freely discuss what we think of people like him, and I have never yet been censored for it.
Our group consists of geographically and socially isolated people from all over the globe who wish we lived in a village together or at least had a TARDIS to allow regular face to face time. But it's a wonderful thing to have these people at all and has been good for mental/emotional health and motivation. In the absence of the physical village we would all like, it is good to have a supportive virtual village and the chance of maybe connecting enough people IRL so some physical villages may eventually happen...
The people are more important than the dysfunctional structures designed to contain them.😉
Thanks for your wonderfully written reply and I wish you and your virtual community all the best. Keep building your network, about which you are obviously skilled and a great example for others. However, I still ain't touchin' anythin' the Musky man has touched. ( :)) Have a blessed day!
Thank you again.🖤 I loved your posts BTW and was hoping you'd not feel nitpicked by my little anecdote. I am sure if the Elongated Musk had owned Twitter back in 2022 it would have kept me away as I too am highly allergic to such entities. But as I was already on it when he bought it, it was like when the Death Eaters took over the Ministry of Magic - we stayed and fought. He's lost megabucks with his little ego/influencing project and earnt the scorn of many in this village square, but most importantly our little community can as yet still connect and interact largely unharassed - thanks largely to the block button Apple et al haven't let him remove despite his expressed wishes.😉
This is excellent. And I am wondering if there is anywhere biocentric people in Australia can communicate about communal living. We are stewarding 50ha of remnant sclerophyll woodlands and heathlands using >30,000yo Indigenous techniques that are essential for maintaining its existing biodiversity and completely ignored by mainstream culture. Also we are planting wildlife corridors back into cleared pasture and doing permaculture food growing, but there are only two of us and one has to work in an office to pay the mortgage we needed to be able to get the land title (for what it's worth, this is unceded Noongar land but we wanted to protect it from "development") so things are super stressful trying to get everything done and of course, so much more could be done here.
You'd think it was easy to find people to want to join us as we have existing accommodation for 4 more people already in our ex eco-farmstay wing, but we need serious people with a biocentric ethic and those are not easy to locate with standard channels. If anyone knows of a grapevine we could use or of people who would like to try us out then please let us know...
Sorry Max to ask this here but I don't know many people with this ethic and many I personally know are overseas and have the same problem: One or two people got a land title to try to protect land and are now on their own when they would like to be a small village - and the ones interested are unable to join in as living in another country. It would help tremendously if people like us were effectively connected to like-minded people who are looking to live communally. Especially we are aware that young people now mostly don't get a look in besides renting suburban boxes and we would so welcome such people.🖤
We could really use some sort of international biocentric message board or social connection platform... any tech people out there interested in helping set something up?
I fear the reaction of, first and foremost, US Empire, whose 'leaders' seem hell-bent on taking all life to the grave, rather than give up their power, which they are already losing across the globe. As a totally naive 19-year-old, I thought it would only be a matter of months before I was holding a rifle behind a barricade. As I near 75 and look around me, the only people who seem willing and able to meet fire with fire, to resist the repression that is already intensifying and could well reach unseen heights in the years to come are wearing red hats and directing their righteous anger at all the wrong targets. Please tell me I'm missing something!
You're right, John. The right is far more organized and aggressive, and has done far better at building a base. One of my goals for this publication and community is to work to build a community and base that is biocentric, radical, organized, and ready to take action.
No purportedly prefigurative lifeway has any chance of making a difference. Whether ignored, dismissed, tolerated, subsumed, ridiculed, satirized, or swept away as needed — none of it matters: the megamachine proceeds apace. Any such “choice” we make about how to live is purely aesthetic; yet another rehearsal of our “individual freedom;” deployed as proof of the flexibility and benevolence of “liberal democracy” and the “free market;” diversionary; a retreat; a soporific compromise.
Thinking strategically about how to stop a meme, a social agreement, a lifeway that *is us* — is nigh on to impossible. Hell, it’s hard enough to even name and describe it, much less fight it. The few who hear us find us curious at best. Mostly we’re hardly worth the trouble of working up even some passing derision.
Okay, I’m ready to hear how the above is hyperbolic, much too dark, just dead wrong. I’m also ready to be patted on the head. And to be ignored.
Thanks for writing, Henry. Personally, I do think alternatives have a role to play. For one, I think living in alternative ways can free up activists and revolutionaries to have more time and energy to dedicate to revolutionary struggle. And second, I think that when the collapse truly begins to hit certain areas, the alternatives suddenly become far more than a curiosity — they become the most essential blueprint.
No worries! Mother Earth is on the case. She will, one way (collapse of industrial civilization) or another (climate totally uninhabitable), reassert her Laws of Nature, which humans have been doing everything in their power to ignore, distort or break. Perhaps a few of us will rediscover the evolutionary instincts that allowed us to succeed until the deadly 'Dawn of Civilization' shoved us down the Road to Perdition on which we are presently travelling.
And a letter I wrote for people like yourself. I was perhaps in a bit in a honeymoon period when I wrote it and have since learnt that doomers are people with huge flaws too, but this is still a letter I wrote for those of us dealing with the terrible realities and wanting to fight for nature and each other regardless.
You just told me what's missing from my book. What little i had about resistance, my literary agent encouraged me to remove, in the interest of being focused. Well, I'll have to see what I can do about it.
I'm certainly not against active resistance; I just think it is futile.
As long as human civilization is on a fossil-sunlight high, change will not be possible.
I'm not big on hope. But I am heartened to know that phase-reversals tend to be coincident. The end of the age of fossil sunlight is imminent, with the decline already beginning. It can only accelerate, no matter how much technology we throw at it.
In ecology, competition dominates in high energy biomes, like the tropics, while in low-energy situations, like alpine and arctic biomes, cooperation dominates.
This is the part that heartens me.
In the Great Depression, there was a great deal of sharing going on. In the coming Greater Depression, it's not too much to ask that we help each other.
I note that the competitive examples provided in this excellent article are all cases of what William Catton called "take over": gaining energy by conquering the energy of others. But they were still net energy gains.
It will soon not be advantageous to take over your neighbour's garden when neither of you have access to fossil sunlight. It will naturally be better to collaborate in gardening in a low-energy situation.
Or maybe not.
But I'm sticking wath a positive outlook on what seems to others to be a completely negative situation. Although perhaps 7/8th of us must "go away", we can only benefit as a species from the collapse of fossil sunlight and the inevitable return to living within our budget of sunlight collected by photosynthesis.
There are things you can do. Grow food. Get away from cities. Grow food. Get by with as little fossil fuel as possible. Grow food. Join with others of like mind. Grow food. Build a passive solar earthen home. Grow food.
Did I mention "grow food"? Especially if you haven't. A lot of people who will wait until they have to before they gain the necessary skills are going to be hungry.
As John Michael Greer puts it, "Collapse now! Avoid the rush!"
Thanks again, Max, for raising the essential questions and most necessary points for discussion that most people who are concerned about Earth-protecting seem to miss. I like your emphasis on the fact that both ecotopian creativity and direct action are much needed. I would just like to suggest that creating alternative life-protecting, regenerative, eco-communities can also possibly be a form of effective resistance or direct action, especially if such communities are non-monetary and succeed at providing all of their material needs outside of the mainstream corporate supply chain. Non-participation in the global, military-industrial-technological system, if engaged in by enough people, can potentially become such a powerful form of resistance that it greatly accelerates the inevitable collapse of modern civilization. Of course, since most people have no idea how to live without money and in a reciprocal relationship with Earth, these ideal communities should be intentionally educational, as a form of outreach. Considering all of this, especially the certainty of the collapse of unsustainable civilization, we might want to re-think or expand our definition of "the frontlines of resistance."
I also think that we (especially us old 60's era "peaceniks") need to rethink and discuss the possibility of appropriate use of violence, especially against material infrastructures or in defense of life. Not an easy topic, I know, but i suspect that it will soon be an urgent issue, and proactive preparedness is better than flailing reaction.
(Sorry I just got around to reading this article and the helpful comments almost two weeks after it had escaped most attention spans, but I decided to toss in a comment here just in case we can keep the discussion going, and since I figure at least you will probably see it. This seems to be a pattern for me, probably because I spread my energy out a little too thin.)
I understand being spread thinly, George! I agree, in large part, but I think we're so, so far away from the "if engaged in by enough people" part that it's functionally not part of the calculus of power at this time. At least, that's what my research and my gut tells me. But that could change over time as increasing ecological disasters (see Helene, for example) make it increasingly difficult to maintain industrialism. But I'm wary that capitalism is so adaptable and population growth so rapid that the strength of an effective boycott is lost in the sea of it all.
I've been considering a piece exploring the topic of violence more deeply on this site. We'll see. Hope you're well!
I think that the "enough people" part of the equation will probably only manifest post-collapse of industrial civilization. The reason that it will likely not happen before then is that people will remain in a desperate quest for other, more palatable or acceptable solutions within the intact civilizational structures until it becomes painfully obvious that such "possibilities" do not exist. Since I don't actually know when mass awareness of that reality will occur, I can't completely rule out that it might happen before collapse--so I keep communicating about this, just in case.
Glad you got to see my "late to the party" comment and many thanks for your reply.
Max, have you seen Paddy Le Flufy's book, 'Building Tomorrow'? It has some amazing ideas that actually change systems. I've been meaning to reread it to see what I can do in my community. https://paddyleflufy.com/building-tomorrow/
The other thing I think, and I've been noticing this, is that we all need to keep doing what we're doing, and taking it up a notch if we can, and seeing what emerges that we can get behind. I recently read that fully 1/3 of the global population is boycotting Israel. That has to be having an impact.
I also think we need to keep educating each other, so that we're getting accurate information about what's going on in this propaganda saturated world we live in.
I know it's not much, but it's all I can think of to do right now.
Anyways, as the folks from the Dead Dog Cafe would say, 'Stay calm, be brave, and wait for the signs'.
Take care, Max, and thanks for caring. I do too, and I wish I had some answers.
Thanks for the comment, Diana. That book looks interesting, I hadn't heard of it before but will see if I can get a hold of it. Of course, my reading list is approaching infinity so we'll see if I get to it... hope you're well! Stay calm and be brave, indeed.
Well written, thank you. This addresses a misgiving that’s been nagging at me for a while. The us-and-them approach still feels a little off to me; I think it’s important to stop the assaults but not to demonize people, or we’ll end up perpetuating suffering. Every individual has something unique to offer.
Thanks for the comment. In general, I agree. There's far too much of this across the political spectrum, and it's profoundly dangerous. I do think a class-based approach is essential in political organizing. We shouldn't dehumanize or demonize our opponents, but we have to understand their motivations, drives, political orientations, and moral positioning. We can oppose, organize against, and even fight against others without demonizing or dehumanizing them — and in fact, I think this is essential to ensure that ant conflict that is done is approached as wisely and ethically as possible.
"If you think there's good in everybody, then you haven't met everybody."
As I got older I lost the rose-tinted glasses on how love could save everyone and everything. It will not save those without a heart and I am no longer interested in working out how to fix heartless adults. Whatever the reasons for their affliction, it is too destructive for everyone and everything else for me to give it energy anymore and I have instead redirected this portion of my energy to protecting the beings they victimise (with much better results and also giving me better mental/emotional health).
Another useful saying while we're on those: "You can eat any mushroom. Some only once."
I agree about not trying to fix people and about having good boundaries. Where I hesitate is with how we determine who’s bad or not—and who “we” is. Everyone has done things that could be considered bad by some people’s definition, from which point all kinds of harm are justified. It’s something to be very careful about.
Always love your writing Max.
I distinctly remember the moment I realized that our culture was omnicidal and I was unwittingly contributing to the destruction of our biosphere. I had just watched Chris Martenson's Crash Course. It was devastating at a visceral level. And crippling because I had NO idea what to do about it. Then, I read the book Deep Green Resistance and it was the first time everything started to make sense on a political and social level. I understood why everything was falling apart and what we CAN do about it. That was in 2011.
Then, in 2012, my younger sister and I were both first diagnosed with breast cancer - then again in 2015 - which started a series of major setbacks that I'm only now recovering from after 9 years.
Throughout those years I tried many things despite my life being a mess and realized just how much human beings rationalize our destructive behaviour, and specifically our lack of adequate response to out existential threat. Cultural trauma is what we're up against and it's getting so much worse. Human beings aren't lazy or weak. We've just had the fight beaten out of us.
This is now my mission: to restore the resilience and fighting spirit of people in my community. I can't fight alone but I can help inspire others to see and face the coming collapse with fire in their hearts and love for our children.
We've all been dehumanized over the past 4 years. It's time to reclaim our humanity. Thank you for inspiring me and so many other people, Max. Know that you are making an impact. 💓🫂🙏
Thank you for sharing your story with me, and with all the other readers. I completely agree that we've had the fight beaten out of us (and propagandized out of us, etc).
Great comment. Sending best wishes and much love.🖤
Good stirring of the topics, Max... and the interrelated-ness of 'out there' and 'in here'. To riff the well-known phrase: Think nonlocal, act local; what quantum physicists call “nonlocal “ energy—the ability of any being to instantaneously know about or communicate with another being no matter the distance or time difference. Or according to Black Elk, Oglala Lakota, in the book The Sacred Pipe: “The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”
What a beautiful and powerful quote. Thanks for sharing, Mankh!
Glad you appreciate, Max.
I really appreciate this analysis. Changing entire systems is an inherently, deeply, conflictual process. I hope - I believe many of us hope - that the conflict can be as nonviolent as possible, but there is no avoiding sustained, strategic conflict to create that better, freer world. My thinking on this has been shaped by reading anarchists, and reading and listening to people in other countries, right now, especially in Gaza. I'm pretty old, and I've seen a lot of "demonstration projects" come and go. We need to scale up, not fear losing our "purity" (which was never that pure, anyway).
Very well said, Janet. I completely agree.
Someone recently commented on a post of mine, saying that most effort to block/sabotage imperialism result in the good guys getting killed/imprisoned (or sued!). What would your response be to that? Is there evidence that these activities have achieved lasting victories? (Hoping for a "yes"!)
I'm laughing as I read this, Andrea! I wish I had a simple answer.
I'm reminded of a few things. One is another quote from Chris Hedges, who once said, "We don't fight fascists because we're going to win. We fight fascists because they're fascists."
Another quote is from a 2023 talk from Norman Finkelstein, where he talked about how revolutionaries and radicals in his era understood that being a revolutionary means sacrificing, ending up in jail, and possibly ending up dead. That's the reality of doing this work at a very serious and high level. I don't think we should fight or bury this reality. Instead, we should accept it and honor those who do the work regardless.
This is one reason why I am committed to both fighting like hell, and to living the hell out of my life — having fun, falling in love, finding as much beauty as possible.
When we fight, we can win. But if we surrender, we will certainly lose. There are millions of people who have made the world a better place through action and sacrifice. Just a few who come to mind: Mandela, Rachel Carson, Dr. King, Malcolm X, Subcomandante Marcos, Andrea Dworkin — and victories: Cherry Point, SNWA water grab, Wilderness act, Jordan Cove LNG, thousands and thousands more. Yes, things are getting worse, but they'd be far, far worse if not for the incredible efforts of many, many people.
Dear Max Wilbert -- My heart kept beating faster as I read this after getting a recommendation from Substack Reads for what you posted as "the need for organizing and direct action." I put out a standing offer of $100 to point me to any person or auspice scheming about how, in timely fashion, like now, to bring about system change where we go from rugged individualism to a mutuality where we care about each other as much as we care about ourselves. I loved what you wrote, saying yes yes yes to this: "You can’t make a new way without observing what has come before."
But then there was no scheming , but a mentorship program. What are you teaching people in a world where we are stuck and don't know how get out of it?
I'm going to cross-post this to my couple thousand subscribers as such a valuable observance of what has come before, with this comment I'm making to you about where to from here. I hope that will include us linking up. Also hoping your intelligent commenters will link up, too.
Where you're looking to do mentoring, I'm "Looking for a committee to think with for a conversation to save the world" https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/looking-for-a-committee-to-think.
Hi Suzanne, thanks for the comment, it's good to hear from you! And thanks for sharing this piece. That means a lot to me!
I'll back you up on the $100 idea. A mass shift in consciousness is, as you've written, something that people have been attempting to work towards for at least 50 years. And yet, of course, the mass media and corporate power are actively working in the opposite direction (I wrote this piece on the topic earlier this year: https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/how-journalism-protects-elites-and).
The truth is, I don't have all the answers. I know that industrial civilization is destroying the planet, that people are isolated and confused and scared and disempowered, and that when we take collective action from a place of healing (another topic I covered recently: https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/first-responder-trauma-a-new-framework), we can create positive change in the world.
I'm also someone who has studied social movements, rebellions, liberation movements, and revolutions throughout history. Among my conclusions is that there is no substitute for the hard work of organizing. I've been a community organizer for 20 years and am involved in a number of different campaigns and efforts (most recently: https://www.protectthackerpass.org/). For the past 15 years, I was part of a grassroots, radical environmental movement with a strategic vision for the future. I left that group early this year over some differences, but I still believe in a similar strategic vision. I'm currently working with a team of about 15 grassroots activists from around the world to build a replacement organization. We'll be announcing that at some point in the coming months. My educational work, like writing and mentorship and trainings, etc., is all aimed at reciprocally strengthening radical grassroots people's movements.
Late to this post, but wanted to say the issue is that people have already tried what you are suggesting here and lost. ELF, ALF, and all the other eco-'terrorists' who died in prison or are still rotting away there. It's a bit idealistic imo to list all the things that are preventing organized direct action, and indeed *already did so* decades ago, as if we have a chance because we still have our souls?
"The US military is running special operations and drone campaigns throughout the world. The CIA is clandestinely toppling governments and the FBI is undermining movements for change. The World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund are waging economic warfare against poor countries. Mass media corporations are brainwashing hundreds of millions of people with advertising and sophisticated public relations campaigns."
You say the first step of permaculture is to observe reality. Well unfortunately, the honest truth is that we lost the fight somewhere between the 70's and 90's if I had to guess. We are deep behind enemy lines, hell the war is long over and we are just straight up citizens of the occupying nation now. Taking whatever few left that are smart, daring, and caring enough to realize this stuff and act on it, and saying "dash and break yourself on the rocks of Global Capital" (or even just, "Hey, go to this protest that will get stamped out and then legally papered over afterwards anyway, you can put yourself on a list and get a nice criminal record to boot too") seems like a huge waste of the miniscule resources left available.
Why say this? Well, because as you allude to in your post, the system, the machine, this great beast is already dying. Killing itself, in fact. The machine is bleeding to death, and most of us are trapped inside it. Which is good, because it is eating everything in sight. But the time will come, and soon, when it topples over and is dead for good. Climate change is already wrecking global agriculture and projected to really ramp up before this decade is out even. Peak oil, or 'peak net energy extraction' now, is beating at the door and will no longer be staved off with superficial band-aids like shale and fracking. Even now, the system is fracturing into smaller pieces, parts breaking off and turning on each other, as the machine's many stomachs go empty and its multiple heads start tearing at itself.
Will there be anything left when it is over? I don't know. Either the machine dies in time and there is something left, or it does not and there is not. But I can tell you that the old world is not coming back. What comes in the future, whether shepherded in by the survivors or springing up in a million years from the ashes, will be something new and different. Something changed, flexible and adaptable, like Life itself.
The point being, there's a few commandos, or really just motivated guerillas, still hanging on despite it all. Throwing them away on a fight that is long over is worse than futile. The point of these alternative system shouldn't be to lead by example and hope the masses will come over, its to outlast it all and spring up in the cracks like weeds, ready to start again. The best thing we can do is hang on a little longer, and wait to start the world anew.
Thanks for the comment. Broadly speaking, I agree with you. But I see a critical role to be played by resistance as the collapse continues to accelerate. We don't know how long these systems will manage to hang on in the face of ecological collapse. But the longer they do, the more rivers, mountains, forests, and ocean areas will be destroyed by industrial projects. That means every single delay or stoppage of a project that we can achieve is very significant, because if we can hold them off for a relatively short time, it could mean stopping the project and protecting certain areas forever. And every bit of the living world matters. So in that sense, I think resistance is critical. I don't think that our resistance is likely to undermine the entire system. But in concert with what it is doing to itself, we can have really significant impacts. And that's not to be overlooked, despite the sacrifices involved.
You’re not wrong, and braver individuals than I are still doing holy work these days, despite the risks (in Minecraft). But that being said, my point is more that they could be better used elsewhere. Climate change is already going to wreck the whole globe, and unmitigated collapse will as well as various parts of the system die off.
There are a few handfuls of these kinds of people around the world. If you have an audience, you could be directing them to create something that will ripple throughout the course of future human societies. We need these people practicing resilient permaculture and indigenous horticulture with collapse in mind, not sacrificing themselves to take pawns when the game is already won. And beyond the human world, guerilla rewilding around urban places, assisted migration of threatened species to nearby natural areas, etc can all change the course of life itself in the millennia ahead.
But again, I largely agree with you. I just think if the game is already over, the responsible thing to do is coordinate pieces in a way that has the greatest long term impact, and even carries over to the next game.
My perspective is that unfortunately, it’s far from over. Industrial capitalism could easily survive and trundle along for decades or more, and the whole point of this essay is that while alternative cultures are not enough, they are important. Resistance is the path that I prioritize, personally, and encourage others to as well.
I see where you are coming from. If you thought the timeline was much shorter, and we were much further along, would that change your perspective on what moves should be made at this point in time? It might change those alternative communities from holdouts to lifeboats, if they were planned appropriately.
Even the UN IPCC says that 2C of warming will be catastrophic for civilization. They also say that the risk of ‘multi-breadbasket failures’ (aka global famines) is untenably high should we pass 2C. We are on track for passing 2C around 2030, and that is ignoring all of the feedback loops in effect such as the Amazon carbon bomb (currently collapsing to savanna) or the amoc shutdown (which even the MSM is starting to squawk about).
Here are several links about how climate change is already heavily disrupting global agriculture and will only ramp up from here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/anarcho_primitivism/wiki/index#wiki_climate_change
Additionally, even the oil journals are talking about peak oil (which is now called ‘peak net energy extraction’) in 2025, which is must faster than even I expected. Now granted, we both know there is a lot of waste and “slack” in the system, but the point is that after 2025 we are on the downslope and moving rapidly.
https://jpt.spe.org/plummeting-energy-return-on-investment-of-oil-and-the-impact-on-global-energy-landscape#:~:text=Various%20studies%20show%20that%20oil,%2Fd%20(Delannoy%20et%20al.
So perhaps this may change your mind about what moves to make. If we’ve struck the iceberg and the the ship is already sinking, do we waste time fighting the ship’s officers and trying to sink it ourselves? Or do we make for the lifeboats and start cobbling together more out of the buffet tables and pool chairs?
Here's some inspiration, as well.
https://images.app.goo.gl/fgSkP6P33J5T6dDV7
7 years later: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3233788/Incredible-photographs-abandoned-shopping-mall-covered-snow-rain-overgrown-weeds-succumbs-changing-seasons.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/asia/fukushima-wildlife-intl-scli-scn/
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/how-chernobyl-has-become-unexpected-haven-wildlife
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2023/february/rare-look-at-the-wildlife-thriving-in-north-koreas-dmz.html
Thanks for your passion and the historical survey of the European genocide of the Americas, but you lost me at the condemnation of what I believe the single most important action we can take today to make any progress in saving life on the planet: individual action and CONTRACEPTION. All of the horrendous travesties you catalog are the direct result of massive European, African, and Asian overpopulation and emigration into already fully occupied "New (?) World". Malthus was thinking about the rapid population growth in America when he wrote his "Essay..." in 1798, as was Franklin observing the DOUBLING of the American population every 25 yrs. for two generations.
I am a survivor of the "Days of Rage" in Chicago in 1969, when I was attempting to set-up the National Headquarters of the Student Health Organization and publish a nationwide journal, "Encounter", of which only the first issue was printed, with Che Guevara's photo on the cover. 31 well meaning (?) SDSers proceeded to break windows in expensive retail stores and where shot when they engaged the Chicago PD.
That was the end of any appeal to violence that I had entertained to that point and I recommend that anyone, especially passionate youth like yourself, forgo violence in their/your quest to right the many wrongs of this dying world. I, too, am a student of Native American and all indigenous cultures. The US DOS made the mistake of sending me at the end of my medical/psychiatric training to Bangkok to fill the vacancy of Medial Director of the Youth Treatment Center, a facility set-up by the DOS to "treat" American teenage heroin addicts. Long story short, I was introduced to Buddhism and the concept of compassionate regard for all things and people, which I continue to practice and which was a core element of my 42 yr. psychiatric/addition medicine/stress management practice.
I'm 79 now, retired, and the author of the FREE online e-book PDF, "Stress R Us", which I recommend to anyone reading your passionate post here. It covers much of what you are saying about Hunter-Gatherers and indigenous cultures. We are 3,000 times more populous today than were our H-G ancestors, who were the last of us to live in an ecologically balanced and sustainable lifeway. Massive human overpopulation and overconsumption is our dear Mother Earth's main problem, and we AS INDIVIDUALS can solve it by not bringing another innocent life into this dying world. More at Greeley's Newsletter here on SubStack. Thanks, again, for your courageous effort.
Hi Greeley, thanks for the comment, and for your lifelong commitment and work. I'm inspired to hear about your work on addiction issues. On that note, did you read this piece I wrote recently? I'd be curious on your professional perspective: https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/first-responder-trauma-a-new-framework
It truly means a lot to me to have elders of the movement participating in the discussions here. A few thoughts.
First, I completely agree that overshoot and overpopulation are fundamental issues. I wrote about population recently here, which you may appreciate: https://x.com/MaxWilbert/status/1755282691677925588 . It's a critical issue that's often overlooked, buried, made taboo, and the conversation is shut down.
Also, to be clear, I don't think individual action is unimportant. I think it's vital, hence the title of this piece: "beautiful and important." But I do stand by my assertion that it's not enough. I think we need organized political action in concert with individual action. And I don't think that action needs to, or should be, violent. Strikes, boycotts, mass non-violent action, etc. can all be incredibly effective (however, I think they should be tightly organized, which I believe is still a "militant" in the dictionary sense of being aggressive and confrontational. However, I don't reject violence completely; for example, the violence of the anti-apartheid movement, of indigenous communities against settler-colonialists, and the tactical defensive use of force by the Deacons for Defense are all, in my view, completely morally justified. Violence is a very dangerous thing, and can become a drug. But I'm not an absolutist on that topic. Rather, I think we need to look at the context.
Thanks for your reply, Max. I wrote a reply to your "first responder..." essay you may wish to read. I will have nothing to do with anything the South African white supremacist Elon Musk produces, including the absurd "X". Very best wishes to you and yours, Gregg (an "elder")
Dear Greeley, a warm hello and thanks from Australia. Just an aside point: I am laughing because my only regular contact with biocentric people outside this household is via much-maligned (and rightly so) Twitter, which is also an excellent connection database for all its flaws. It thankfully has a block button I have literally employed thousands of times in under three years with the good effect of cleaning up the experience remarkably so that I can now enjoy it.
Did you ever have a sociopathic teacher? I did. It was great fun passing surreptitious written notes to each other in such a classroom. Since the Elongated Husk has bought Twitter for his billionaire plaything our little social online circle has had even more fun subverting the platform to connect, support each other practically and emotionally, share DIY/anti-consumer tips etc - all the very things the platform is designed to prevent. And we freely discuss what we think of people like him, and I have never yet been censored for it.
Our group consists of geographically and socially isolated people from all over the globe who wish we lived in a village together or at least had a TARDIS to allow regular face to face time. But it's a wonderful thing to have these people at all and has been good for mental/emotional health and motivation. In the absence of the physical village we would all like, it is good to have a supportive virtual village and the chance of maybe connecting enough people IRL so some physical villages may eventually happen...
The people are more important than the dysfunctional structures designed to contain them.😉
Thanks for your wonderfully written reply and I wish you and your virtual community all the best. Keep building your network, about which you are obviously skilled and a great example for others. However, I still ain't touchin' anythin' the Musky man has touched. ( :)) Have a blessed day!
Thank you again.🖤 I loved your posts BTW and was hoping you'd not feel nitpicked by my little anecdote. I am sure if the Elongated Musk had owned Twitter back in 2022 it would have kept me away as I too am highly allergic to such entities. But as I was already on it when he bought it, it was like when the Death Eaters took over the Ministry of Magic - we stayed and fought. He's lost megabucks with his little ego/influencing project and earnt the scorn of many in this village square, but most importantly our little community can as yet still connect and interact largely unharassed - thanks largely to the block button Apple et al haven't let him remove despite his expressed wishes.😉
Wishing you a wonderful day and sending love.🖤
This is excellent. And I am wondering if there is anywhere biocentric people in Australia can communicate about communal living. We are stewarding 50ha of remnant sclerophyll woodlands and heathlands using >30,000yo Indigenous techniques that are essential for maintaining its existing biodiversity and completely ignored by mainstream culture. Also we are planting wildlife corridors back into cleared pasture and doing permaculture food growing, but there are only two of us and one has to work in an office to pay the mortgage we needed to be able to get the land title (for what it's worth, this is unceded Noongar land but we wanted to protect it from "development") so things are super stressful trying to get everything done and of course, so much more could be done here.
You'd think it was easy to find people to want to join us as we have existing accommodation for 4 more people already in our ex eco-farmstay wing, but we need serious people with a biocentric ethic and those are not easy to locate with standard channels. If anyone knows of a grapevine we could use or of people who would like to try us out then please let us know...
Sorry Max to ask this here but I don't know many people with this ethic and many I personally know are overseas and have the same problem: One or two people got a land title to try to protect land and are now on their own when they would like to be a small village - and the ones interested are unable to join in as living in another country. It would help tremendously if people like us were effectively connected to like-minded people who are looking to live communally. Especially we are aware that young people now mostly don't get a look in besides renting suburban boxes and we would so welcome such people.🖤
Best wishes from Sue & Brett
We could really use some sort of international biocentric message board or social connection platform... any tech people out there interested in helping set something up?
I fear the reaction of, first and foremost, US Empire, whose 'leaders' seem hell-bent on taking all life to the grave, rather than give up their power, which they are already losing across the globe. As a totally naive 19-year-old, I thought it would only be a matter of months before I was holding a rifle behind a barricade. As I near 75 and look around me, the only people who seem willing and able to meet fire with fire, to resist the repression that is already intensifying and could well reach unseen heights in the years to come are wearing red hats and directing their righteous anger at all the wrong targets. Please tell me I'm missing something!
You're right, John. The right is far more organized and aggressive, and has done far better at building a base. One of my goals for this publication and community is to work to build a community and base that is biocentric, radical, organized, and ready to take action.
I would hope to make some kind of contribution to such efforts, while admitting and accepting my limitations.
No purportedly prefigurative lifeway has any chance of making a difference. Whether ignored, dismissed, tolerated, subsumed, ridiculed, satirized, or swept away as needed — none of it matters: the megamachine proceeds apace. Any such “choice” we make about how to live is purely aesthetic; yet another rehearsal of our “individual freedom;” deployed as proof of the flexibility and benevolence of “liberal democracy” and the “free market;” diversionary; a retreat; a soporific compromise.
Thinking strategically about how to stop a meme, a social agreement, a lifeway that *is us* — is nigh on to impossible. Hell, it’s hard enough to even name and describe it, much less fight it. The few who hear us find us curious at best. Mostly we’re hardly worth the trouble of working up even some passing derision.
Okay, I’m ready to hear how the above is hyperbolic, much too dark, just dead wrong. I’m also ready to be patted on the head. And to be ignored.
Thanks for writing, Henry. Personally, I do think alternatives have a role to play. For one, I think living in alternative ways can free up activists and revolutionaries to have more time and energy to dedicate to revolutionary struggle. And second, I think that when the collapse truly begins to hit certain areas, the alternatives suddenly become far more than a curiosity — they become the most essential blueprint.
They become the only 'choice,' and that, in a weird way, is a good thing.
No worries! Mother Earth is on the case. She will, one way (collapse of industrial civilization) or another (climate totally uninhabitable), reassert her Laws of Nature, which humans have been doing everything in their power to ignore, distort or break. Perhaps a few of us will rediscover the evolutionary instincts that allowed us to succeed until the deadly 'Dawn of Civilization' shoved us down the Road to Perdition on which we are presently travelling.
Definitely, John. I hope, for the sake of all life on Earth (including us), that it's the former.
Dear Henry, sending love.🖤
And a letter I wrote for people like yourself. I was perhaps in a bit in a honeymoon period when I wrote it and have since learnt that doomers are people with huge flaws too, but this is still a letter I wrote for those of us dealing with the terrible realities and wanting to fight for nature and each other regardless.
https://sue.coulstock.id.au/love-letter-to-the-doomers/
You just told me what's missing from my book. What little i had about resistance, my literary agent encouraged me to remove, in the interest of being focused. Well, I'll have to see what I can do about it.
Go Shodo, go!
I'm certainly not against active resistance; I just think it is futile.
As long as human civilization is on a fossil-sunlight high, change will not be possible.
I'm not big on hope. But I am heartened to know that phase-reversals tend to be coincident. The end of the age of fossil sunlight is imminent, with the decline already beginning. It can only accelerate, no matter how much technology we throw at it.
In ecology, competition dominates in high energy biomes, like the tropics, while in low-energy situations, like alpine and arctic biomes, cooperation dominates.
This is the part that heartens me.
In the Great Depression, there was a great deal of sharing going on. In the coming Greater Depression, it's not too much to ask that we help each other.
I note that the competitive examples provided in this excellent article are all cases of what William Catton called "take over": gaining energy by conquering the energy of others. But they were still net energy gains.
It will soon not be advantageous to take over your neighbour's garden when neither of you have access to fossil sunlight. It will naturally be better to collaborate in gardening in a low-energy situation.
Or maybe not.
But I'm sticking wath a positive outlook on what seems to others to be a completely negative situation. Although perhaps 7/8th of us must "go away", we can only benefit as a species from the collapse of fossil sunlight and the inevitable return to living within our budget of sunlight collected by photosynthesis.
We're in for a bumpy ride, Jan...
There are things you can do. Grow food. Get away from cities. Grow food. Get by with as little fossil fuel as possible. Grow food. Join with others of like mind. Grow food. Build a passive solar earthen home. Grow food.
Did I mention "grow food"? Especially if you haven't. A lot of people who will wait until they have to before they gain the necessary skills are going to be hungry.
As John Michael Greer puts it, "Collapse now! Avoid the rush!"
Thanks again, Max, for raising the essential questions and most necessary points for discussion that most people who are concerned about Earth-protecting seem to miss. I like your emphasis on the fact that both ecotopian creativity and direct action are much needed. I would just like to suggest that creating alternative life-protecting, regenerative, eco-communities can also possibly be a form of effective resistance or direct action, especially if such communities are non-monetary and succeed at providing all of their material needs outside of the mainstream corporate supply chain. Non-participation in the global, military-industrial-technological system, if engaged in by enough people, can potentially become such a powerful form of resistance that it greatly accelerates the inevitable collapse of modern civilization. Of course, since most people have no idea how to live without money and in a reciprocal relationship with Earth, these ideal communities should be intentionally educational, as a form of outreach. Considering all of this, especially the certainty of the collapse of unsustainable civilization, we might want to re-think or expand our definition of "the frontlines of resistance."
I also think that we (especially us old 60's era "peaceniks") need to rethink and discuss the possibility of appropriate use of violence, especially against material infrastructures or in defense of life. Not an easy topic, I know, but i suspect that it will soon be an urgent issue, and proactive preparedness is better than flailing reaction.
(Sorry I just got around to reading this article and the helpful comments almost two weeks after it had escaped most attention spans, but I decided to toss in a comment here just in case we can keep the discussion going, and since I figure at least you will probably see it. This seems to be a pattern for me, probably because I spread my energy out a little too thin.)
I understand being spread thinly, George! I agree, in large part, but I think we're so, so far away from the "if engaged in by enough people" part that it's functionally not part of the calculus of power at this time. At least, that's what my research and my gut tells me. But that could change over time as increasing ecological disasters (see Helene, for example) make it increasingly difficult to maintain industrialism. But I'm wary that capitalism is so adaptable and population growth so rapid that the strength of an effective boycott is lost in the sea of it all.
I've been considering a piece exploring the topic of violence more deeply on this site. We'll see. Hope you're well!
I think that the "enough people" part of the equation will probably only manifest post-collapse of industrial civilization. The reason that it will likely not happen before then is that people will remain in a desperate quest for other, more palatable or acceptable solutions within the intact civilizational structures until it becomes painfully obvious that such "possibilities" do not exist. Since I don't actually know when mass awareness of that reality will occur, I can't completely rule out that it might happen before collapse--so I keep communicating about this, just in case.
Glad you got to see my "late to the party" comment and many thanks for your reply.
Max, have you seen Paddy Le Flufy's book, 'Building Tomorrow'? It has some amazing ideas that actually change systems. I've been meaning to reread it to see what I can do in my community. https://paddyleflufy.com/building-tomorrow/
The other thing I think, and I've been noticing this, is that we all need to keep doing what we're doing, and taking it up a notch if we can, and seeing what emerges that we can get behind. I recently read that fully 1/3 of the global population is boycotting Israel. That has to be having an impact.
I also think we need to keep educating each other, so that we're getting accurate information about what's going on in this propaganda saturated world we live in.
I know it's not much, but it's all I can think of to do right now.
Anyways, as the folks from the Dead Dog Cafe would say, 'Stay calm, be brave, and wait for the signs'.
Take care, Max, and thanks for caring. I do too, and I wish I had some answers.
Thanks for the comment, Diana. That book looks interesting, I hadn't heard of it before but will see if I can get a hold of it. Of course, my reading list is approaching infinity so we'll see if I get to it... hope you're well! Stay calm and be brave, indeed.
Sounds a lot like my reading list. Good luck with it all, Max.
We need both.
Agreed.
Once again I appreciate your clarity on these topics
Thank you, my friend!
Well written, thank you. This addresses a misgiving that’s been nagging at me for a while. The us-and-them approach still feels a little off to me; I think it’s important to stop the assaults but not to demonize people, or we’ll end up perpetuating suffering. Every individual has something unique to offer.
Thanks for the comment. In general, I agree. There's far too much of this across the political spectrum, and it's profoundly dangerous. I do think a class-based approach is essential in political organizing. We shouldn't dehumanize or demonize our opponents, but we have to understand their motivations, drives, political orientations, and moral positioning. We can oppose, organize against, and even fight against others without demonizing or dehumanizing them — and in fact, I think this is essential to ensure that ant conflict that is done is approached as wisely and ethically as possible.
Just a little useful saying you might like:
"If you think there's good in everybody, then you haven't met everybody."
As I got older I lost the rose-tinted glasses on how love could save everyone and everything. It will not save those without a heart and I am no longer interested in working out how to fix heartless adults. Whatever the reasons for their affliction, it is too destructive for everyone and everything else for me to give it energy anymore and I have instead redirected this portion of my energy to protecting the beings they victimise (with much better results and also giving me better mental/emotional health).
Another useful saying while we're on those: "You can eat any mushroom. Some only once."
I agree about not trying to fix people and about having good boundaries. Where I hesitate is with how we determine who’s bad or not—and who “we” is. Everyone has done things that could be considered bad by some people’s definition, from which point all kinds of harm are justified. It’s something to be very careful about.
And I agree we should be careful about it, but not so careful that we effect nothing.