Thelma, Louise and Six Degrees
With his usual uncompromising vision, Tim Bennett’s latest essay cuts to the heart of the climate debate. If you haven’t seen What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire, I consider it the definitive examination of the current global condition. An excerpt from his essay:
So, if the question is why can’t we seem to get our shit together when it comes to climate change? then most of the answers I hear seem to fall into one of three categories. It’s because we (or our leaders) are:
• stuck in distraction and/or denial,
• greedy, unprincipled and maybe even psychotic or evil or
• just too stupid to go on living.
To me these are all reasonable explanations. Distraction and denial are surely in force, as are those other human possibilities: greed, psychosis, evil, and stupidity. If you view our movies, as I do, as the stories of Imperialism, which reveal how we view both the world and ourselves, then you’ll find overwhelming evidence to support these assessments. But I think I see something more at work here. Something more fundamental, perhaps, or more invisible. And invisible, maybe, because it just breaks too many rules, to speak about it.
Here’s what I see: our collective death wish at work.
…
If that’s the map, then the territory is our own world, our own culture, our own lives. If Thelma & Louise shows us the Geist, it’s the Geist of our own Zeit. And if we allow that as our starting point, then the connections come easily enough. Did not the culture of civilization, at some point, take off on a weekend fling of unexpected exhilaration that spiraled out of control, bringing the entire planet face to face with our present predicament? And have not many people’s lives, at least those lived here in the heart of Empire, become so loveless, abused and unsatisfying that we’re poised now to do almost anything to get out of them? Have we not truly managed to do something no other living creature has managed to do, which is to make ourselves, individually and collectively, miserable?
Aye, now I’ve done it. I’ve violated a deep taboo, spoken the unspeakable. Because, well, we’re so happy, we Americans. Aren’t we?
Please read the entire essay.
Arousing, your thoughts, Steve… I’d not thought of it, but I can see that for Americans, the deep unspeakable taboo is that we’re NOT happy. That all this pay-by-plastic stuff, much of which we then rent storage units to house, is not making us happy. An alarming number are in hock up to the gills, burdened, anxious, angry, privately (or blatantly) miserable, succumbing to lovely-sounding prescription drugs, and on and on ad pathetic nauseum.
Oh dear, oh dear, what to do? And to this query, there are as many reasons as to the cause itself. All of which will assist, but unless they address cause, they will only touch a mere portion of the enormous mess humanity has long thought itself into.
I speak from the perspective of a 20 year self-mastery/peak performance specialist. And within the confines of this little Reply box, I can’t begin to provide the response my work has given me to understand. However, I can say that there is no blame, no one to shout at, arrest, try, and punish. It’s vibrational and evolutionary. And the sooner we grok this, the sooner our corrective, regenerative, creative, ingenious ideas will flow.
To that aim, I urge us to reflect honestly, undefensively, and deeply into what we do to contribute to the mess, determine why we do this, FEEL the consequences of our little contribution, then humbly devote ourselves to rigorously changing our dishonoring attitudes and behaviors.
Now, having said this, I feel my heart stirring in the sorrow that often motivates me to take positive action.
I appreciate your providing this unexpected opportunity for me to leave my serenity for a few minutes, and experience my soul writhing in this reality we create and endure.
Good morning!
It’s funny you mentioned the storage units: they’ve been making themselves prominent to me lately; I’m always amazed that anyone can have so much stuff that they’re willing to pay yet more rent in an already exorbitantly overpriced area. The irony is that consumerism is fundamentally insatiable because it’s a misguided attempt to satisfy the void and disconnection caused by consumerism itself.
All that aside, I’m deeply moved by and agree with your insight that there’s no blame, within or without… what we’re experiencing is truly evolutionary. As Joni Mitchell sang in the 60′s: “We are stardust, we are golden, and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” Perhaps the greatest consolation I feel these days is the recognition that there are others like you that also bear witness to the predicament we face; each new voice adds to the chorus that will be the only true means of effecting change.
I’m reminded of a beautiful quote by Nietzsche:
I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.
I often find that there are occasions when it’s all too easy to point the finger of accusation, yet in doing so we fail to see that we are pointing at ourselves (after all, who am I?). It seems that our time of turning demands an uncompromising inventory and reduction of our possessions (physical, emotional, spiritual, and otherwise). After all, where we’re headed, we need not be burdened with anything but our essence. Thoreau’s words are remarkably timely now:
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Another point about judging, blaming, making less than, and angry, is that when we do this, we are most profoundly hurting ourselves.
As Arielle Essex says, “When we think negative thoughts, we release negative chemicals into our body. And those have a profound affect on how the cells are behaving, how nutrition is being used.”
Even importantly, when those thoughts are fueled with intense emotion, the body suffers even more. we think positive thoughts, we release certain chemicals into our body. But when we think positive thoughts, we release supportive chemicals into our body.
It clearly takes time to make this shift from conditioned negativity to chosen positivity. But for me, whether or not to make the choice is non-negotiable. Serenity, compassion, harmony, ingenuity, freedom, and more… are my reward, and I want nothing less. To me, this transformation is the ultimate creative act.
Happy new year to you!