We are experiencing a worldwide psychological breakdown in the face of extinction.

[skip fox]

Why is there a rise of far-right governments and citizens?
Why are they increasingly rabid?
Why are conspiracy theories widely popular?
Why has our country experienced election deniers, science deniers, and even Covid deniers (one on his deathbed dying of the virus)?
Why is racism on the rise around the world?
Why are democracies and democratic institutions under threat?
Why? Why Why?


Because we, as a whole, know that we are threatening our species (and thousands of others) with extinction by changing our environment:climate change. And even though many of us are fighting against that possibility and are willing to face and address world-wide environmental dangers, the collective psychological effect on the overall population has been to trigger a species-psychosis, a worldwide mental breakdown


As much as I detest Trump, the lying leaders of the Republican party, white supremacists, and the greater parts of several nation-wide news outlets, it's important to see them as symptoms, not the cause.


Does this analysis help with what might be done in the future? (Can, if fact, anything stop this run-away train of insanity?) Maybe not.


But it suggests that our leaders (politicians. professors, ministers, et al.) who are, although realistic, optimistic about our possible future and who can convey that optimism are in the best position to attack our current cultural-psychological situation.


(I didn't begin this post thinking of Biden, but he sure comes to mind right now.)



What do you think?

[KT2000]

1. Fear

All that you listed has its basis in fear. I believe it is a generalized fear stoked by RW politicians. They can turn anything into something to be fearful about. Fear makes people vulnerable and unstable. Biden is not serving up fear and for that I am grateful. I hope people who are living in fear can hear him.

[Hortensis]

7. +1000. Anxiety, uncertainty about the future, fear.

I suspect worry about extinction is one of the more extreme responses, thus the real thing only for a few.

But fear and rejection of change is the normal reaction of many, especially conservative types, even in normal times. And with the pace and degree of change, and news always full of alarms, people can't look into the future and reassuringly see at least parts of the familiar past enduring.

[Fullduplexxx]

8. Fear... fuck everything and run

[-misanthroptimist]

2. I doubt that extinction is in the cards

However, there will be a decrease in the human population -and many other species, too. How severe is impossible to figure out at this point and depends on too many random factors and interconnections that we don't understand.

That said, civilization as we have known it for the last few centuries is doomed in all likelihood. What will take its place is also impossible to say with any accuracy. That will also depend on many factors, perhaps the most important of which is how dramatic and how rapid the population reduction occurs. My personal guess (and it is very much a guess) is that the global human population in the year 2100 will be in the neighborhood of one billion.

All that said, your basic point is at least partially correct imv.

[skip fox]

3. You're right. I was going to put "possible extinction" in the subject line

but for a number of reasons left it off.

After all, I thought, the focus is the psychological effects of facing such a crisis, not whether such a crisis is inevitable.

In fact the last few lines presume a hope for our survival if we try.

But I assume your perspective is that even if a very bad outcome occurs, it wouldn't mean extinction of the species. I hope you're right because on my bad days I think in terms of worst outcomes freequently. You are saying modern life as we and several generations of humans in given places have known it, will never be again, but life is tenacious as are humans, so 10-20% may well survive.

I've considered that at some length, and though I know many others feel the same and I hope it may be true, my bad days say otherwise.

But regardless of whether we collectively believe we are headed for the cliff or are headed toward what-may-be-the-cliff, those beliefs (often subconscious) must have a devastating psychological impact.

[-misanthroptimist]

5. I think that the primary psychological response about CC is denial.

Many deny it is happening at all, despite the indisputable evidence. Many more simply deny that it will have a big impact or they don't think about the ramifications at all. Deep down, they might know it's a problem, but that probably won't get expressed.

I think a (perhaps the) major factor in the rise of authoritarian tendencies in liberal democracies is alienation in a system that no longer rewards people for working. When globalists negotiated trade treaties and kept labor from having a seat at the table, things began going south for working people. Life has gotten better and better for corporations while most people are treading water or slowly sinking. I think that simply including labor in some of these agreements will right the ship quickly.

[ananda]

4. It's been looking that way to me for awhile.

A long time ago (in the late 70's I think) I read an
article by some authority (anthropology/psychology)
maintaining that population density leads to chaos
and psychosis on some level.

It has to do with the way people/animals act in
crowded conditions. It made a lot of sense to me,
and it often comes back to me with all the chaos
and psychosis going on now.

Just the tolerating of it means something too...
as another form of psychosis, just giving in to it
the way we have for the last twenty plus years.

It basically comes down to talking it to death
instead of actually forcing change.

[Baked Potato]

6. Bannon spewed his far-right bile across Europe. He knows Psyops.

The Movement is a Brussels-based right-wing organization founded by Steve Bannon of the United States to promote conservative and economic nationalist groups in Europe that are opposed to the EU and supra-nationalist political structures of Europe.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

9. Interesting idea, but I think most of the recent insanity...

... in the USA is the sense among many white Americans that we're no longer in the land of milk and honey economically, but they blame the wrong things. This country was one of the few industrialized countries with infrastructure that was largely unscathed during WW2, for starters, but that advantage doesn't exist now.

I've often wondered if the threat of a nuclear holocaust in the 50's and 60's, when it was more in people's faces, caused much of the social upheaval that happened later.

I still remember when nuclear weapons were first explained to me by my family when I was a preteen, and my worldview was completely changed at that point. My reaction, after I realized they were serious about it, was basically...

[Kaleva]

10. Climate change is coming and many refuse to address the need to prepare to adapt to it.

Folks who don't or can't may well face extinction.

Biden's ambitious proposal seeks to slow the approach of the worst of climate change.