You said "psychos" which is correct, it is a shortened version of "psychopaths" meaning exactly the same thing. With the slow death initiated by introduction of plastics, most life will be in severe decline in 2-3 generations, including stupid humans. This can't be remedied.
Stan made a good catch. I had "psychosis" in that subhead initially.
Yes, there are studies out there tying plastics to infertility in men and falling birth rates. It's interesting to ponder all the extinction level forces in play today to say the least.
I replied here because my comment is too long for SubStack:
“This very modern, literal, dangerous mental illness is preventing the herd from acknowledging, comprehending and adapting to a 100% normal and recurring event which it is not the sole or primary driver of. Therefore, the prognosis for survival of the species is, most assuredly, not good.“
Yes, we are in a polycrisis of our own making, and yes our reaction to it is mentally ill if we consider delusion mental illness. A small percentage of the population controls information, peddling delusion for the health of their bottom lines. We are well into overshoot, and those novel entities like plastic you mention are not even on the radar as the inadequate conversation we have focuses on climate change.
Our "mastery" of the world has led to a blind arrogance likely to take us down. My writing almost always comes back to the behavioral component. Technology will not save us.
The liberals pushing the green economy are deluded at best, building such a thing is not possible with EROI on fossil fuels about to crash. The conservatives are even worse. The only sane action would be taking to heart The Limits of Growth, published so long ago with such predictive accuracy.
Now however, we have waited for too long. Greenland and Arctic melt for instance are baked in guaranteeing release of more CO2 into the atmosphere than we've managed to put there already.
The economic breakdown, climate migration, crash of agriculture and social unrest we are moving into is going to be horrifying.
Psychosis could possibly be worse than Psychopathy, but only very briefly before the offending 'Psychosis' was carted off to the Psyche Unit. However Psychopathy is on balance worse because 'Psychops' are able to resist sectioning and therefore capable of inflicting sustained and terrifying damage to societies. It's surprising how many Psychops are out there going about their daily mad business, seemingly normal in appearance and activity. But underneath the horror exists as explicitly demonstrated by the Yellow Haired Man.
Humanity…the American type, at least…seems to be intent on proving that we cannot hold two big thoughts in our heads at the same time. I see too many comments like, “Well, let’s just get through the 2026 midterm election and then we can focus on climate change.” No. Bzzzzt! Wrong answer. Game over. We’re in a position like the Swiss village just erased by a glacier. If we don’t get on with things the end will be swift and unpleasant.
Those who think we can kick the can down the road some more have been grossly under and ill-informed by the mainstream media. How surprising. They also haven't figured out the other party with a handful of notable exceptions is part of the scam.
Good luck to us getting warnings in time to evacuate impending disasters with the ongoing trashing of NOAA. Much of that is science on the ground at the local level and getting cut to shreds. That Swiss village got days of warning to evacuate. I doubt we will have that "luxury" for much longer.
Rome is burning, and the rich ones sing and play the lyre....But this time Rome is bigger, it's the whole world...We are definitely at the crossroads prophecies talk about, and imo the choice is an intimate one, to change things at the global level we need to change within. The road ahead seems long and arduous, but we can each do our part. Thank you for the important reminders and a big hug to you Geoffrey.
Thank you for your kind words, I am definitely in a hug deficit. : ( Yes, we are at the crossroads whether we believe that through prophesy or science, and you're right, it's much bigger this time with the technology and population explosion that has occurred since Nero allegedly fiddled. The modest community I have built here strengthens me, and in turn hope strengthens you.
Yes! We need to find each other and support each other. Like we did before when humanity failed in their choice. I dont know if you believe the old myths, but I feel them in my bones, this is not the first time we are here as humans. We didnt learn much yet it seems, but some survived, and brought civilization forth with them. That's the best we can do, us the visionaries, the ones who see. Oh and yeah, hugs and lots of mutual support :)
You are welcome to share your old myths with me. Truth and wisdom can be found in information rewritten by the conquerors. Anecdotal evidence should not be dismissed out of hand.
Geoff, we've been thinking about you and the difficult situation you are in. Having been faced with moving parents into assisted living, cleaning out houses, and dealing with estates, I know how stressful this can be. You are a good man for taking on this responsibility. Please remember to take care of yourself, too, even if it means letting some things wait until later.
It has been exhausting and disruptive, but sometimes life hands us situations we must rise to. There is more to do, but I believe I am through the worst part, and can now better focus on my work again. Thank you.
Welcome back, Geoffrey! Sorry about your mom and dad. That’s a lot to get through in a short period of time. Hopefully, your splendid writing will help to energize you.
I’ve been reading about the new Chinese nuclear power plant construction. The technology (abandoned by American scientists in favor of uranium based plants) uses Thorium. It sounds promising and it’s very preferable to uranium from what I’ve been able to absorb. Would love to get your reaction to the news.
Walt, always great to hear from you. A consistent writing schedule again would definitely be a boost!
I have many links on nuclear energy, most of which I have not had time to study properly. I've heard of thorium reactors, but can't give you an informed opinion right now. Nuclear basically boils water to run turbines, so it's a very different kind of energy than fossil fuels. Certainly appropriate for the electric grid, but not destined for cars or heavy equipment. Even if thorium reactors have significant potential, I would guess significant changes in how we live are inevitable. We would also have a very late start in scaling it up, and the same Catch-22 of dwindling FFs to contend with similar to renewables. Concrete and steel start with mining and diesel. Regardless, I should bone up on this. The next article will likely be on agriculture (half done before I got blown off course), and there may be an ocean oriented guest post soon.
Thanks for your quick response, Geoffrey. I’m looking forward to reading your next efforts.
Apparently, the Chinese are now building 10 of the thorium based plants. They use molten salt to cool the reactor’s, which is much safer in the event of a meltdown. Granted we are now hopelessly behind the Chinese on this technology, but, it does put some of my worst fears about nuclear power to rest to the point I think it is worth considering.
Thank you, I appreciate that. The system leaves little time to grieve. We all face these situations, I’m not special, just need to keep my readers informed of why my productivity has dipped. Writing takes care of me, it’s good to be finding time again.
I enjoy all of your posts and this is a particularly good one. I call myself a realist, and probably tend toward being a doomer. There is an alarmist who tries to convey science and important information about our situation to the public at large and there’s the boy who "cried wolf", which is a whole other thing and not beneficial. You are definitely not that.
I know we are doomed and it’s nobody’s fault but our own, due to greed and corruption and people’s adversity to admitting to being wrong. A lot of this may be simply evolutionary traits, that we don’t have a lot of control over.
What keeps me from feeling angst about all this is the long view that this is what happens not only to civilizations on earth, but probably the ones out there in the universe, except for extremely rare ones, if they exist at all. I view it as a cycle of death and rebirth. All the elements will always be here changed, no doubt when the sun starts to burn us up, but they’ll remain in the universe in some form and join with other elements, and perhaps create something new again, eons from now. Like I said it’s all a cycle.
I’m very sorry about your father and your mother. I’ve lost both of my parents and my spouse, so I can imagine what you’re going through. It does get better.
Thank you, Mary, and please forgive my tardy response. I'm still a bit discombobulated here. I am glad you find a way to channel your angst. Doing this work is my way of accomplishing that while hopefully helping others understand the situation and maybe, just maybe bending the trajectory a little. Keeping a glimmer of hope while perhaps unjustified by the facts is important to keep going, as is having a community of people who understand and wish to connect over our predicament. I appreciate your encouragement and kind thoughts.
Yes, there's a bigger physical and spiritual picture to consider than our tiny disconnected, ridiculous behavior on planet Earth.
Fantastic article. You are an educated realist who knows that humanity is destroying the atmosphere and the planet. All people everywhere should read your articles, and maybe then they will help save life on Earth. You can factually explain why people are endangering all life on Earth, and how humanity can prevent destroying life on Earth.
Isn’t a “doomer” someone who believes that life on earth is coming to an end for false reasons?
When I started on this journey nearly four years ago it was from the realization we're in deep trouble and that our dilemma is not being communicated in the mainstream media with any degree of detail and seriousness. Having gotten exposed to climate science reports on Twitter before it was ruined, I decided perhaps I have some of the skills needed to translate the dry science. It has been a tremendous amount of work in which I have learned an incredible amount, a second education, really.
The work in part was to replace loved things lost due to deteriorated physical health — my life used to revolve around serious cycling and hiking. These crises, my love of the natural world and professional career in communications made this work a logical fit. While draining at times, now I can't imagine doing anything else.
I think the term "doomer" in the past is associated with those that called out the end of the world superstitiously, only to see it carry on. Doomers today are looking at science. Heavier slower moving storms caused by increased evaporation from heat, and historic drought caused fires have well-documented causes. The changes can be analyzed through ice cores, tree rings, sediment and rocks.
It's tragic that with so much information that could have been acted on for the last 50 years when Big Oil knew the future results of burning carbon we have landed here. Hell, the fundamentals of CO2 in the atmosphere were known by scientist Eunice Foote from a simple experiments she performed in 1856. Our situation is an indictment of our ludicrous behavior. https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/first-paper-to-link-co2-and-global-warming-by-eunice-foote-1856/
Thank you for taking the time to research and write this Geoffrey. It's excellent and beautifully articulated. I'm so sorry to hear about your mom and dad- I hope his memory is a blessing and that your mom finds comfort.
Deep in the bowels of reality, it is very murky. The average tenure of civilizations has been 250 years, and that's the birthday we have next year in our civilization, which is more capable of self-destruction than any before us. It is also more capable of looking at itself, thinking together, than any before us. Although there is no advocacy for it, surely that would be the optimum thing to do.
I don't find any of this murky at all. The science of where we're going is well-established. Yes, it will evolve with climate change happening faster than models predicted and the complexity of modeling dozens of interacting factors. We may lack absolute precision, but the overall predictions are on target. Alarmist? I connotate that with over reaction and find that to be an inaccurate representation of my work.
Maybe it's the pressure you are under that makes you testy, since, as my body of work that you are familiar with attests to, murky is where-to-from-here and not where we are. "Sounding the Alarmist" maybe?
Testy? My response was even. Alarmist is inaccurate. You seem to enjoy casting judgment. You judged a list of people. The epiphany of humankind isn't coming. Wake up. My judgment? You're unrealistic, a dreamer. Unsubscribe anytime.
Do you want me to stop considering you as a deep ally, who I respect more than any of the other “alarmists” who are doing the vital work of analyzing the mess we are in? What happened to our communicating about my collecting some leading others to have a Zoom to compare notes and think together about what to do?
Well I suppose that you meant the term alarmist in a sense that someone who is setting an alarm call for us to wake up rather than just being someone who is the little chicken saying the sky is falling. I like your point about how no civilization has been more capable of looking at itself. This is the one point Where we can find a major shift. The body possesses a perceptual system called proprioception which has this function. It is effectively the core system of the body and is what provides balance and stability and integration to the structure. Perhaps you are thinking in terms of looking at ourselves externally in a mirror whereas what I think is the most hopeful is looking at ourselves in a more interior way in order to activate the part of us which can guide us into returning to a path of harmonious interactions with the web of nature, a kind of animal wisdom perhaps. The ability to see things from within is what is required to have an appreciation of the interconnectedness and interdependence of the natural world. This (proprioception) is a synergistic and integrative cognitive skill that is quite different from the reductionist and instrumentalist one (exteroception) developed in the history of modern science.
Yes, my prescription is based on internal awareness and not on moving the deck chairs. We need to get it that we aren't sinners supplicating to an external god but are divine creatures in a divine universe, who are of the Earth and not just on it. Here's a recent summary of what I've been delivering here for the last two years:
I don't think we lose our sanity if we know what's real. Avoiding depression is a different matter. For me, both are fought with engagement. How do you stay grounded?
But I agree. I wouldn’t want to be called an alarmist. Alarm is a very serious and very important function in the homeostatic systems of the body. At a certain level there is a physiological and instinctive alarm process that can become caught in a feedback loop when alarming inputs are chronic and overwhelming. It is important not to be dismissive of this adaptive process and to understand that there are very real environmental factors that are not decreasing manageably. The point is how we react to the alarm that is the natural inappropriate reaction of exposure to critical challenges to our expectations, our working model of life. The idea that there is a model of life that we can work with Makes the challenge a little bit clearer but at the same time we have to recognize that the current model we are operating with is innocence itself the problem. From the perspective of statistical mathematics we need to update the model. This is called belief updating in computational neural physics Bye the same concept is applicable to our psychological and behavioral approach to the metacrisis.
On the simplest possible level the model has an outside and inside. For anything to be a thing it has to have an outer surface that it maintains despite the force of entropy and all of the factors in its external environment. This can be a cell wall or it can be our own outer surface with all the five senses and the extremities and the skin combined. If no matter how hard we try we are unable to deal with the challenges we are facing in our reliance on this external, external receptive perceptual system then the model reminds us that there is yet another perceptual system we can access. Just like the outer elements of a cell have its own skeleton that maintains its structure and facilitates all of its interactions both with the environment and within itself the nucleus as the largest and hardest organelle has its own nucleoskeleton and a nuclear outer membrane by which it interacts with the rest of the cell and by extension with the external world. There is an interplay between these two structures of the cell, the outer surface and the inner core mechanical architecture of the nucleus, that we find the full complement of an organisms adaptive abilities. Even fully deployed these may not be enough in some cases but if we are not actively relying on the resources of our own core in a conscious and intentional way, then we have not begun to respond fully to the challenges that we face. This is what the model reminds us of.
Quite true. If we know what’s real. I think that begins with knowing ourselves within. That may sound like a cliché but there are revolutions in many fields of science including anatomy and neuroscience. I think my best answer to how to stay grounded is to practice consciously but gently activating the bodies own structure for grounding and stabilizing itself. Thats what I try to do.
Discerning reality is becoming more challenging with the rise of AI, but then again reality has always been a nebulous target. The victors rewrite history, and reality for me, and you are far different from someone living in the Congo. Scientific evidence of climate change are evidence based facts. Hiding truth from people is divisive and destructive and done quite deliberately.
I agree with everything here, except the title. Psychosis is not running the world. Psychopathy is.
It's psychopaths who are leading the world to its soon-coming collapse.
Psychosis describes the masses who are so easily manipulated into following them.
Thanks, Stan, good point, I think I'll change that.
You said "psychos" which is correct, it is a shortened version of "psychopaths" meaning exactly the same thing. With the slow death initiated by introduction of plastics, most life will be in severe decline in 2-3 generations, including stupid humans. This can't be remedied.
Stan made a good catch. I had "psychosis" in that subhead initially.
Yes, there are studies out there tying plastics to infertility in men and falling birth rates. It's interesting to ponder all the extinction level forces in play today to say the least.
I replied here because my comment is too long for SubStack:
“This very modern, literal, dangerous mental illness is preventing the herd from acknowledging, comprehending and adapting to a 100% normal and recurring event which it is not the sole or primary driver of. Therefore, the prognosis for survival of the species is, most assuredly, not good.“
https://www.facebook.com/Jeff432Miller/posts/pfbid02kQySAQxETBT3psPQxYpzEDdbfEfnW5zLLWsANew8aRQLRSdVCe3BCBkMK3ufVpS4l
Yes, we are in a polycrisis of our own making, and yes our reaction to it is mentally ill if we consider delusion mental illness. A small percentage of the population controls information, peddling delusion for the health of their bottom lines. We are well into overshoot, and those novel entities like plastic you mention are not even on the radar as the inadequate conversation we have focuses on climate change.
Our "mastery" of the world has led to a blind arrogance likely to take us down. My writing almost always comes back to the behavioral component. Technology will not save us.
The liberals pushing the green economy are deluded at best, building such a thing is not possible with EROI on fossil fuels about to crash. The conservatives are even worse. The only sane action would be taking to heart The Limits of Growth, published so long ago with such predictive accuracy.
Now however, we have waited for too long. Greenland and Arctic melt for instance are baked in guaranteeing release of more CO2 into the atmosphere than we've managed to put there already.
The economic breakdown, climate migration, crash of agriculture and social unrest we are moving into is going to be horrifying.
Psychosis could possibly be worse than Psychopathy, but only very briefly before the offending 'Psychosis' was carted off to the Psyche Unit. However Psychopathy is on balance worse because 'Psychops' are able to resist sectioning and therefore capable of inflicting sustained and terrifying damage to societies. It's surprising how many Psychops are out there going about their daily mad business, seemingly normal in appearance and activity. But underneath the horror exists as explicitly demonstrated by the Yellow Haired Man.
It’s so hard to lose a parent. Glad to read your writing again. Take care.
Thank you, John, it's been my own perfect personal storm. However, we all face these kinds of challenges eventually. I appreciate your well-wishes.
Welcome back, Geoffrey!
Humanity…the American type, at least…seems to be intent on proving that we cannot hold two big thoughts in our heads at the same time. I see too many comments like, “Well, let’s just get through the 2026 midterm election and then we can focus on climate change.” No. Bzzzzt! Wrong answer. Game over. We’re in a position like the Swiss village just erased by a glacier. If we don’t get on with things the end will be swift and unpleasant.
Thank you, sir!
Those who think we can kick the can down the road some more have been grossly under and ill-informed by the mainstream media. How surprising. They also haven't figured out the other party with a handful of notable exceptions is part of the scam.
Good luck to us getting warnings in time to evacuate impending disasters with the ongoing trashing of NOAA. Much of that is science on the ground at the local level and getting cut to shreds. That Swiss village got days of warning to evacuate. I doubt we will have that "luxury" for much longer.
Rome is burning, and the rich ones sing and play the lyre....But this time Rome is bigger, it's the whole world...We are definitely at the crossroads prophecies talk about, and imo the choice is an intimate one, to change things at the global level we need to change within. The road ahead seems long and arduous, but we can each do our part. Thank you for the important reminders and a big hug to you Geoffrey.
Thank you for your kind words, I am definitely in a hug deficit. : ( Yes, we are at the crossroads whether we believe that through prophesy or science, and you're right, it's much bigger this time with the technology and population explosion that has occurred since Nero allegedly fiddled. The modest community I have built here strengthens me, and in turn hope strengthens you.
Yes! We need to find each other and support each other. Like we did before when humanity failed in their choice. I dont know if you believe the old myths, but I feel them in my bones, this is not the first time we are here as humans. We didnt learn much yet it seems, but some survived, and brought civilization forth with them. That's the best we can do, us the visionaries, the ones who see. Oh and yeah, hugs and lots of mutual support :)
You are welcome to share your old myths with me. Truth and wisdom can be found in information rewritten by the conquerors. Anecdotal evidence should not be dismissed out of hand.
Altantis....😘
Geoff, we've been thinking about you and the difficult situation you are in. Having been faced with moving parents into assisted living, cleaning out houses, and dealing with estates, I know how stressful this can be. You are a good man for taking on this responsibility. Please remember to take care of yourself, too, even if it means letting some things wait until later.
It has been exhausting and disruptive, but sometimes life hands us situations we must rise to. There is more to do, but I believe I am through the worst part, and can now better focus on my work again. Thank you.
Glad to see you back and I took the test I’m good ! lol
Great article once again 🙏
Thanks, not out of the woods with mom's situation, but finally able to catch my breath again.
Welcome back, Geoffrey! Sorry about your mom and dad. That’s a lot to get through in a short period of time. Hopefully, your splendid writing will help to energize you.
I’ve been reading about the new Chinese nuclear power plant construction. The technology (abandoned by American scientists in favor of uranium based plants) uses Thorium. It sounds promising and it’s very preferable to uranium from what I’ve been able to absorb. Would love to get your reaction to the news.
Walt, always great to hear from you. A consistent writing schedule again would definitely be a boost!
I have many links on nuclear energy, most of which I have not had time to study properly. I've heard of thorium reactors, but can't give you an informed opinion right now. Nuclear basically boils water to run turbines, so it's a very different kind of energy than fossil fuels. Certainly appropriate for the electric grid, but not destined for cars or heavy equipment. Even if thorium reactors have significant potential, I would guess significant changes in how we live are inevitable. We would also have a very late start in scaling it up, and the same Catch-22 of dwindling FFs to contend with similar to renewables. Concrete and steel start with mining and diesel. Regardless, I should bone up on this. The next article will likely be on agriculture (half done before I got blown off course), and there may be an ocean oriented guest post soon.
Thanks for your quick response, Geoffrey. I’m looking forward to reading your next efforts.
Apparently, the Chinese are now building 10 of the thorium based plants. They use molten salt to cool the reactor’s, which is much safer in the event of a meltdown. Granted we are now hopelessly behind the Chinese on this technology, but, it does put some of my worst fears about nuclear power to rest to the point I think it is worth considering.
I’m sorry for what you are going through. Please take care of yourself.
Thank you, I appreciate that. The system leaves little time to grieve. We all face these situations, I’m not special, just need to keep my readers informed of why my productivity has dipped. Writing takes care of me, it’s good to be finding time again.
Geoff: I always learn when I read your articles. Glad to see you are back in the saddle! As always, thank you for enlightening me.
Thank you, Pam. Yes, it's good to be finding my groove again, even if it's a dreary one. We must fight! Just published hours ago: https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/capitalism-is-dead
I enjoy all of your posts and this is a particularly good one. I call myself a realist, and probably tend toward being a doomer. There is an alarmist who tries to convey science and important information about our situation to the public at large and there’s the boy who "cried wolf", which is a whole other thing and not beneficial. You are definitely not that.
I know we are doomed and it’s nobody’s fault but our own, due to greed and corruption and people’s adversity to admitting to being wrong. A lot of this may be simply evolutionary traits, that we don’t have a lot of control over.
What keeps me from feeling angst about all this is the long view that this is what happens not only to civilizations on earth, but probably the ones out there in the universe, except for extremely rare ones, if they exist at all. I view it as a cycle of death and rebirth. All the elements will always be here changed, no doubt when the sun starts to burn us up, but they’ll remain in the universe in some form and join with other elements, and perhaps create something new again, eons from now. Like I said it’s all a cycle.
I’m very sorry about your father and your mother. I’ve lost both of my parents and my spouse, so I can imagine what you’re going through. It does get better.
Thank you, Mary, and please forgive my tardy response. I'm still a bit discombobulated here. I am glad you find a way to channel your angst. Doing this work is my way of accomplishing that while hopefully helping others understand the situation and maybe, just maybe bending the trajectory a little. Keeping a glimmer of hope while perhaps unjustified by the facts is important to keep going, as is having a community of people who understand and wish to connect over our predicament. I appreciate your encouragement and kind thoughts.
Yes, there's a bigger physical and spiritual picture to consider than our tiny disconnected, ridiculous behavior on planet Earth.
Fantastic article. You are an educated realist who knows that humanity is destroying the atmosphere and the planet. All people everywhere should read your articles, and maybe then they will help save life on Earth. You can factually explain why people are endangering all life on Earth, and how humanity can prevent destroying life on Earth.
Isn’t a “doomer” someone who believes that life on earth is coming to an end for false reasons?
When I started on this journey nearly four years ago it was from the realization we're in deep trouble and that our dilemma is not being communicated in the mainstream media with any degree of detail and seriousness. Having gotten exposed to climate science reports on Twitter before it was ruined, I decided perhaps I have some of the skills needed to translate the dry science. It has been a tremendous amount of work in which I have learned an incredible amount, a second education, really.
The work in part was to replace loved things lost due to deteriorated physical health — my life used to revolve around serious cycling and hiking. These crises, my love of the natural world and professional career in communications made this work a logical fit. While draining at times, now I can't imagine doing anything else.
I think the term "doomer" in the past is associated with those that called out the end of the world superstitiously, only to see it carry on. Doomers today are looking at science. Heavier slower moving storms caused by increased evaporation from heat, and historic drought caused fires have well-documented causes. The changes can be analyzed through ice cores, tree rings, sediment and rocks.
It's tragic that with so much information that could have been acted on for the last 50 years when Big Oil knew the future results of burning carbon we have landed here. Hell, the fundamentals of CO2 in the atmosphere were known by scientist Eunice Foote from a simple experiments she performed in 1856. Our situation is an indictment of our ludicrous behavior. https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/first-paper-to-link-co2-and-global-warming-by-eunice-foote-1856/
Thank you for taking the time to research and write this Geoffrey. It's excellent and beautifully articulated. I'm so sorry to hear about your mom and dad- I hope his memory is a blessing and that your mom finds comfort.
Deep in the bowels of reality, it is very murky. The average tenure of civilizations has been 250 years, and that's the birthday we have next year in our civilization, which is more capable of self-destruction than any before us. It is also more capable of looking at itself, thinking together, than any before us. Although there is no advocacy for it, surely that would be the optimum thing to do.
I'm keeping a list and checking it twice for who the participants could be -- all, save Anne Baring (scroll down: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/who-am-i-for-where-i-got-the-idea), are on Substack so they can be looked up. Suggestions, please.....
Alarmist: Geoffrey Deihl:
Substack Savant: Mark McInerney
Matchmaker between Politics and Spirit: Marianne Williamson
Mythematician: Brian Swimme
Wall Street Escapee: John Fullerton
Restorer of the Feminine: Anne Baring
Fanatical Cheerleader: Michael Cohen
I don't find any of this murky at all. The science of where we're going is well-established. Yes, it will evolve with climate change happening faster than models predicted and the complexity of modeling dozens of interacting factors. We may lack absolute precision, but the overall predictions are on target. Alarmist? I connotate that with over reaction and find that to be an inaccurate representation of my work.
Maybe it's the pressure you are under that makes you testy, since, as my body of work that you are familiar with attests to, murky is where-to-from-here and not where we are. "Sounding the Alarmist" maybe?
Testy? My response was even. Alarmist is inaccurate. You seem to enjoy casting judgment. You judged a list of people. The epiphany of humankind isn't coming. Wake up. My judgment? You're unrealistic, a dreamer. Unsubscribe anytime.
Do you want me to stop considering you as a deep ally, who I respect more than any of the other “alarmists” who are doing the vital work of analyzing the mess we are in? What happened to our communicating about my collecting some leading others to have a Zoom to compare notes and think together about what to do?
Well I suppose that you meant the term alarmist in a sense that someone who is setting an alarm call for us to wake up rather than just being someone who is the little chicken saying the sky is falling. I like your point about how no civilization has been more capable of looking at itself. This is the one point Where we can find a major shift. The body possesses a perceptual system called proprioception which has this function. It is effectively the core system of the body and is what provides balance and stability and integration to the structure. Perhaps you are thinking in terms of looking at ourselves externally in a mirror whereas what I think is the most hopeful is looking at ourselves in a more interior way in order to activate the part of us which can guide us into returning to a path of harmonious interactions with the web of nature, a kind of animal wisdom perhaps. The ability to see things from within is what is required to have an appreciation of the interconnectedness and interdependence of the natural world. This (proprioception) is a synergistic and integrative cognitive skill that is quite different from the reductionist and instrumentalist one (exteroception) developed in the history of modern science.
Yes, my prescription is based on internal awareness and not on moving the deck chairs. We need to get it that we aren't sinners supplicating to an external god but are divine creatures in a divine universe, who are of the Earth and not just on it. Here's a recent summary of what I've been delivering here for the last two years:
An epidemic of courage
For doing what saves humanity
https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/an-epidemic-of-courage
Gregory Bateson in Ftom Versailles to Cybernetics: you are going to be crazy, that is, if you live in a crazy world and you try to be sane.
I don't think we lose our sanity if we know what's real. Avoiding depression is a different matter. For me, both are fought with engagement. How do you stay grounded?
But I agree. I wouldn’t want to be called an alarmist. Alarm is a very serious and very important function in the homeostatic systems of the body. At a certain level there is a physiological and instinctive alarm process that can become caught in a feedback loop when alarming inputs are chronic and overwhelming. It is important not to be dismissive of this adaptive process and to understand that there are very real environmental factors that are not decreasing manageably. The point is how we react to the alarm that is the natural inappropriate reaction of exposure to critical challenges to our expectations, our working model of life. The idea that there is a model of life that we can work with Makes the challenge a little bit clearer but at the same time we have to recognize that the current model we are operating with is innocence itself the problem. From the perspective of statistical mathematics we need to update the model. This is called belief updating in computational neural physics Bye the same concept is applicable to our psychological and behavioral approach to the metacrisis.
On the simplest possible level the model has an outside and inside. For anything to be a thing it has to have an outer surface that it maintains despite the force of entropy and all of the factors in its external environment. This can be a cell wall or it can be our own outer surface with all the five senses and the extremities and the skin combined. If no matter how hard we try we are unable to deal with the challenges we are facing in our reliance on this external, external receptive perceptual system then the model reminds us that there is yet another perceptual system we can access. Just like the outer elements of a cell have its own skeleton that maintains its structure and facilitates all of its interactions both with the environment and within itself the nucleus as the largest and hardest organelle has its own nucleoskeleton and a nuclear outer membrane by which it interacts with the rest of the cell and by extension with the external world. There is an interplay between these two structures of the cell, the outer surface and the inner core mechanical architecture of the nucleus, that we find the full complement of an organisms adaptive abilities. Even fully deployed these may not be enough in some cases but if we are not actively relying on the resources of our own core in a conscious and intentional way, then we have not begun to respond fully to the challenges that we face. This is what the model reminds us of.
Quite true. If we know what’s real. I think that begins with knowing ourselves within. That may sound like a cliché but there are revolutions in many fields of science including anatomy and neuroscience. I think my best answer to how to stay grounded is to practice consciously but gently activating the bodies own structure for grounding and stabilizing itself. Thats what I try to do.
Discerning reality is becoming more challenging with the rise of AI, but then again reality has always been a nebulous target. The victors rewrite history, and reality for me, and you are far different from someone living in the Congo. Scientific evidence of climate change are evidence based facts. Hiding truth from people is divisive and destructive and done quite deliberately.