Rapid Unraveling And The Demise Of Adolescent America

[GliderGuider]

Carolyn Baker speaks my thoughts:

Rapid Unraveling And The Demise Of Adolescent America

Well here it is folks-the great unraveling so many of us have been forecasting during the past five years as we've read the tea leaves and researched the unprecedented convergence of myriad natural, political, economic, and environmental realities.

What those of us who comprehend collapse must understand as we navigate the daunting days ahead is that what is happening to America and the human species is an initiatory experience similar to those which have been structured and honored by indigenous peoples for thousands of years. ... The current planetary initiation differs from the traditional, tribal initiation in that the former is involuntary and unwanted, whereas the latter is perceived as essential for the well being of the initiate and the tribe.

What I want to reinforce for all of us is how imperative it is in the days ahead for us to walk consciously, cautiously, and compassionately through the fires of this long, protracted initiation. Beyond our physical, financial, and logistic preparations, we must continuously work-and it will be work-to open our hearts and minds to the larger purpose behind the ordeals. We must ask ourselves what each particular experience wants to reveal to us, how it comes to us to open our eyes and cleanse the doors of our perception. We will be incessantly reminded that civilization has come to all this-depletion and exhaustion of the earth community and all of the suffering that attends that. In a sense, I believe, we are fortunate to be living in this time and on this planet because something greater than our finite human egos is delivering a message with unmistakable clarity: Living estranged from the earth community as if we are the only and the most important species on earth does not work, and collapse wishes to make certain that we understand unequivocally and irrevocably that our only survival and our only serenity will be found in living as if we and the earth are one.

As I have been writing in recent months, I hold a vision of possibility-the potential for small pockets of survivors to create local outposts of conscious community in which individuals can live compassionately, practicing out of necessity and choice, those behaviors that sustain themselves and the earth. Those who have already begun this process may have an advantage, but none of us will be immune-nor should we be, in my opinion. It appears that this momentous initiation is the only way in which humans can fully and finally comprehend the toxicity of civilization.

More at the link, from a woman who IMO truly understands what's happening.

[Oleladylib]

1. Wow..just read the whole article...amazingly on target...THANKS!

[eShirl]

2. reading it and keep asking myself,

"Shouldn't this be in the Religion forum?"

[GliderGuider]

3. Perhaps

But it's hard to separate your understanding of the crisis from your response to it.

[bananas]

5. No

The religion forum is where people argue over definitions.

[tinrobot]

4. Global consciousness shift.

It's going to happen whether we like it our not.

[kristopher]

6. Her view is weighted too heavily towards a small part of the whole

http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Harris/present/CULT1/index.htm

[GliderGuider]

9. Is it not possible for disruptions in one or two critical sectors to destabilize an entire culture?

Other sectors will react to compensate of course, but if the failing sector is critical to many of those other sectors, is is it not conceivable that their attempts at compensation might be insufficient?

Many of us think that fossil fuels are in precisely that position.

[kristopher]

10. Her metaphysical quest doesn't provide a sound basis for inderstanding

either what is happening, or what will happen. If you don't have an effin clue about what is actually happening (vs seeing confirmation of biases in every tealeaf at the bottom of a cup) then you really don't have an effin clue about what the consequences of current events might be or how they will play out.


"...Beyond our physical, financial, and logistic preparations, we must continuously work-and it will be work-to open our hearts and minds to the larger purpose behind the ordeals. We must ask ourselves what each particular experience wants to reveal to us, how it comes to us to open our eyes and cleanse the doors of our perception. We will be incessantly reminded that civilization has come to all this-depletion and exhaustion of the earth community and all of the suffering that attends that. In a sense, I believe, we are fortunate to be living in this time and on this planet because something greater than our finite human egos is delivering a message with unmistakable clarity: Living estranged from the earth community as if we are the only and the most important species on earth does not work, and collapse wishes to make certain that we understand unequivocally and irrevocably that our only survival and our only serenity will be found in living as if we and the earth are one...."

Her hit and miss retreat to "tribal" models is so sporadic as to mark her analysis as nothing more than fiction. The future she envisions proceeding from our "initiation" is naive - no other word suffices. Such a structure guarantees two things - all available fossils will be exploited and the rate of reproduction will skyrocket as it becomes economical to breed children for their labor value.

[GliderGuider]

11. No, but it's a perfectly reasonable personal response to the apprehended crisis

Suppose a person has concluded that: the current direction of global industrial civilization is unsustainable; there is no reasonable prospect for a technological mitigation of our trajectory; sufficient opportunities for self-reliance are unavailable to most of the world's urban-dwellers; and that the inflection point is coming sooner rather than later. In that case what are the useful avenues of personal response? Baker outlines one of them -- a turning towards personal consciousness raising and spiritual development, along with an emphasis on moving towards smaller, well-bounded communities. It's certainly a healthier reaction than the depression, despair and resignation that is another very common response.

Now, another perception of the situation could be that things are just not that dire, that personal efforts will bear fruit and that our civilization will adapt with little serious dislocation. If that's what you believe, then the domain of your responses will be quite different -- especially if you're a technocrat or have great faith in human ingenuity and adaptability.

Rejecting a considered personal response as being generally illegitimate simply because you don't share the assumptions that drive it isn't helpful.

[losthills]

7. Too much melodrama.

I think this woman has been watching too much television. I live in America and I don't see what she thinks she's seeing. Everybody's grumbling about the price of gas, but there is no shortage of it and I don't see people changing their behaviors to any significant degree. I don't see the unemployment level rising either.

Civilization is not collapsing. It's evolving. We all get up each morning and do the best we can, and at the end of the day we have a couple of beers and go to bed. The sun always rises the next morning....

[hunter]

8. I thought people at the gas station today looked *scared*

It was the first time I've seen that.

Before it was like, "Wow, four dollar gas!"

Today it was like, "Oh shit. I can't keep doing this much longer..."

I think there's a storm coming. A really bad storm.

[jpak]

12. Many Canadians underestimate America's spirit and ability to confront adversity

my thoughts

[GliderGuider]

13. Au contraire, mon frère

I have no doubt at all that -- along with the rest of the people of the world -- Americans have plenty of "spirit and ability to confront adversity". IMO Carolyn Baker's article is evidence of precisely that. It's just that her implementation of of that "spirit and ability to confront adversity" may not exactly match yours.