Can we be humans once again?

Don’t be afraid to enter the Doomosphere. It is the door to what comes next.

Photo by Natalia Y on Unsplash

I think I’m part of a very special generation. My middle age started just when Earth officially entered its middle age, the beginning of its decline. I saw the environmental movement shift from “save the whales” and “clean the rivers” in the 80s to Save the Planet in the 2000s. I was having my own full circle moment just as the Planet was having its own. It was almost surreal. After years of being a corporate slave, paying my dues (and duties) to the soul-wrenching, heartless and traumatising system that we call modern civilisation and capitalism, I started burning out just as it became obvious to mainstream media that we had burned out the world. It took a while but I finally made the connection that I did not want to admit at first: we had inflicted on the Planet the same exact trauma of exploitation that we had inflicted on ourselves.

I do think my generation is special, because we all understand this sort of trauma. We have lived it. GenXers in our 40s and 50s, we have seen from experience how the system is corrupt from top to bottom, because it is corruption itself, moral, political, which keeps the system going. We have learned through pain and sweat how capitalism uses you, and then throws you away in the General Trash bin when it’s done with you, just like a plastic wrapper on a sandwich. We have gone through our teens and twenties full of aspiration, hope, and the arrogance of a new generation thinking it is “different” from the one before. Many of us embraced counter-culture movements, studied environmental sciences, were human rights activists, until The System sucked us into corporate jobs that feed the CO2 Machine, just as it does with the current generation. We became busy trying to survive. I’m seeing this again all around me.

I have a word of caution for the new generation: don’t think for a minute you are different from us, better. We also, like you, tried to rebel. We tried to change the world. And we failed.

I’m not saying this to discourage you. I’m actually saying it to empower you even more. The System is powerful. It will suck you into consumption. It will lure you with salaries. It will shield you from the everyday trauma it inflicts on you and the Earth so that you continue to feed the CO2 Machine and the global money pipeline that supports it. It will make you feel warm and fuzzy with memes and new products as it continues its destructive path, as it erodes and erases your humanity and your identity.

Don’t be afraid to enter the Doomosphere

Photo by Dima Pechurin on Unsplash

“Doomers” like me get a lot of bad press these days. We are being accused by both sides of the climate argument of having given up. Of being elitist hermites, almost nihilists. While we are certainly not perfect, this isn’t true. Doomers may appear apathetic and resigned on the surface, but this is because they are an enlightened species that has already processed its trauma, and its anger, and can therefore think with clarity and pragmatism and yes, with a vision, a vision of a new world that is way too revolutionary, way too painful for the others to find the bravery to process and to even contemplate. We know that capitalism won’t save us and this is why we resist fantasy versions of a Green New Deal. We have reached an almost buddhist state of acceptance. And while acceptance may appear very similar to resignation on the surface, it couldn’t be more different. We, the Doomists, actually give a shit. More that you could ever imagine.

Awareness and Acceptance are the beginnings of real change.

Process your Trauma

Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash

I encourage you to feel your trauma, to process it deeply. The new generation especially, will get there faster than mine did. It is being exploited even more than me. It is being thrown into the Mind Prison of apps and social media which is a path to mental illness. It is being pushed to the brink financially by a system that is restricting its returns while asking for more investment in school studies and living costs. The System is becoming more aggressive, more traumatising. It is time to reject it. To throw IT in the bin.

to be continued..

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