Systems Collapse - Is There Really Anything We Can Do?
Despair is always an option, but meaningful action is more satisfying
Dear Human of Planet Earth,
It’s 2024.
One of my early conversations this year went like this:
My friend: The system is collapsing.
Both of us together: It’s already happening.
We laugh.
Not because it’s funny, but because our friendship is like that. We’re as different as two people can be, but our views on most things are either radically different or remarkably in sync.
How many people believe collapse is inevitable? I don’t.
I do sense collapse is happening. But I don’t know enough to have the conviction complete collapse is irreversible or certain. I might be wrong in thinking it’s begun at all.
My first-ever letter to you dear humans laid out three destinations:
The Sixth Extinction
Civilisational collapse
A sustainable future
I continue to believe that though a sustainable future is the goal, human extinction and civilisational collapse are entirely possible. We haven’t dodged those bullets yet.
I’m including that first letter here if you’re curious. It was sent twenty months ago, so many of you may never have seen it:
What happens to people who believe system collapse is inevitable, or even in progress?
Some of them change nothing. Why bother if nothing will make a difference?
Some despair, weighed down by grief, fear and disappointment.
Others try to be prepared.
But the preppers aren’t all the same.
Some of them are preparing for themselves. Their plan roughly resembles some mixture of this:
get some land in a part of the world with resilience to climate change
build bunkers, learn to live without technology, learn to grow your own food
get obscenely rich now to enable your future survival,
invest in the technology that will allow you to freeze your brain, upload your consciousness, become transhuman and be part of the movement to colonise other planets.
Never heard of these guys? Lucky you!
Douglas Rushkoff’s written a whole book about them and he can’t stop laughing. At the moment he’s laughing at how their thinking has progressed from ‘Save me and mine’ to, ‘To survive we’ll need others’.
Genius, huh?
But how can they ensure the loyalty of these ‘others’?
Their answer: We’ll create city-states and the people we need will belong to our states as citizens, and therefore be willing to defend us because that will mean defending their turf too.
Sound familiar?
As we folks of more modest income observe, and Douglas Rushkoff says it himself, the multi-billionaires are best positioned to invest in long-term solutions for everyone. But no, they’re investing in their own future instead - including how best to defend themselves against everyone else taking the scarce resources they’ve decided they will be entitled to.
So prepper #1 thinking runs something like this:
Invest for the collective? Are you mad? That’s socialism.
Hoard for ourselves? Is there any other way? It’s every man for himself!
But there’s another kind of prepper. She’s learning to collect rainwater, repair her clothes and live off the grid. She doesn’t believe capitalism will survive system collapse. She believes the only human communities that will survive are the ones that are practising ‘community’ now.
Her philosophy sounds like this:
Time to skill up and get to know your neighbours.
Circumstances determine consciousness.
Maybe if prepper #2 had access to insane wealth she’d behave like prepper #1.
Or maybe she’d be like prepper #3. Jem Bendell is a fine example of prepper #3. He wrote a book about surviving collapse. It’s called ‘Breaking Together.’
When he’s not writing books, he’s supporting farmers’ return to sustainable farming practices in Indonesia. He laughs at the idea that he’s teaching farmers anything. Nope. He says they’re just going back to the way things were done before ‘highly-intensive, highly-commercialised, highly-dependent on artificial fertiliser’ monocultures replaced traditional farming. He gives them the finance and infrastructure they need. I’ve put some podcast links at the end so you can hear Jem’s story and philosophy directly from him.
Prepper #3 is using his resources to re-introduce practices that will increase survivability for the entire human family. Unlike Prepper #1, be believes in the synergy of community and collaboration. To borrow Douglas Rushkoff’s framing, he’s on Team Human.
Can we have some optimism around here please! This newsletter is supposed to be inspiring, not depressing!
Sorry. I’m not telling you to believe that collapse is certain. I don’t believe it is. But I don’t dismiss the possibility either.
What I’m saying is that believing in collapse has an impact on your behaviour. The gamut runs from despair and depression to positive action.
Positive action requires acceptance. Acceptance allows for peace. Peace creates space for creative and constructive action. In the absence of acceptance, action will be inspired by fear. Fear provides an infinite energy source for fascism, but I digress …
Believing there could be a way forward, even in the face of collapse, gives you the energy to find it - and finding it gives you purpose and restores meaning to life.
Introducing Leevan
Leevan is a young man who’s experienced collapse of a different kind. Unlike civilisational, economic or climate collapse, it’s personal to him. It hit him with immediate effect and without warning. Leevan was diagnosed with bone marrow failure.
I’m raising funds for Leevan Solomon to have a bone marrow transplant. He’s a friend of my family. We need to raise an awful lot but we know it’s possible. We know if enough people chip in and share his story, we can raise enough money.
Here’s a little about how healthy bone marrow works: our blood is full of elements that are replaced regularly. This renewal is cyclic, like so much else in nature. Healthy bone marrow does the work of replenishing worn-out blood cells and works extra hard to do this when there’s been blood loss or an infection. We don’t have to think about it.
Leevan lives in Trinidad and Tobago, a country where bone marrow transplants aren’t available but Leevan hasn’t given in to despair. Leevan knows if he can raise enough money, he can have that transplant somewhere else.
This is one system collapse you can help prevent.
Please read Leevan’s story here and give what you can:
https://gogetfunding.com/leevan-needs-a-bone-marrow-transplant-give-a-little-save-a-life/
https://medium.com/@plaintalkbadmanners/help-leevan-get-his-life-back-this-year-e7c7f7850d49
To follow Leevan’s progress and the progress of his fundraiser, please join the Facebook page: A Bone Marrow Transplant for Leevan Solomon. We’ve got all the fundraising links on the Facebook page as well.
There is a way forward for Leevan, but he needs our community support to help him get there.
Leevan’s faith and optimism inspires me to root for him. I hope he’ll inspire you too. Join me on this fundraising journey.
Give a little, save a life.
With bone marrow failure, time isn’t a luxury. The clock is always ticking.
Jem Bendell talks about his work in Bali, his journey from academic to advocate for preparing for collapse, and the philosophy behind ‘Breaking Together’ on Novara Media and Douglas Rushkoff’s Team Human.
This seems like a perfect time to introduce you to OkDoomer, and here’s a great article to get started: What Do I Do With Collapse Awareness? (okdoomer.io)
Rebbeca Solnit says Doomers are part of the problem. I say we’ve got nothing to lose from building more resilient communities. What do you say?