Article from last Sept: "It’s time to talk honestly about collapse–no matter how others may respond"

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:




“In the Face of This Truth”
It’s time to talk honestly about collapse–no matter how others may respond.

by Robert Jensen
posted Sep 17, 2010


We live in the midst of multiple crises­—economic and political, cultural and ecological—posing a significant threat to human existence at the level we have become accustomed to. There’s no way to be awake to the depth of these crises without emotional reactions, no way to be aware of the pain caused by these systemic failures without some dread and distress.

Those emotions come from recognizing that we humans with our big brains have disrupted the balance of the living world in disastrous ways that may be causing irreversible ecological destruction, and that drastically different ways of living are not only necessary but inevitable, with no guarantee of a smooth transition.

This talk, in polite company, leads to being labeled hysterical, Chicken Little, apocalyptic. No matter that you are calm, aren’t predicting the sky falling, and have made no reference to rapture. Pointing out that we live in unsustainable systems, that unsustainable systems can’t be sustained, and that no person or institution with power in the dominant culture is talking about this—well, that’s obviously crazy.

But to many of us, these insights simply seem honest. To be fully alive today is to live with anguish, not for one’s own condition in the world but for the condition of the world, for a world that is in collapse. What to do when such honesty is unwelcome? .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/a-resilient-community/in-the-face-of-this-truth

[villager]

1. Another reason the Democrats are no real alternative: They don't dare have this conversation

The Republicans are psychopaths and the Democrats are house servants.

"Third way" will soon come to mean something entirely different, but who will articulate it on a national level?

[CleanGreenFuture]

2. Article never mentions what the underlying issues are that have brought

us to this point.

Otherwise, it's a good insight into what people are thinking.