We are creatures of empathy. We are in a double-bind – one among many. Either suppressing our empathy, or letting ourselves feel even a fraction of the death and destruction we are complicit in takes a tremendous toll. When we look timorously at the effects of collapse we discount what I expect to be an expansive relief when it appears on track to actually putting a crimp on what is being done in our names, in a complex dance between an amping devastation and its influence on our ability to continue our destruction of the Earth beyond some point of ecological no-return. We tend to avoid these thoughts, or at least feel uncomfortable about having them. The angry-man will blame us for cheering for society's collapse, for civilization's fall. His inability to see beyond black & white, and experience anything other than conflict, leads him to fear the straw-man he's put up and to want to prohibit what he can't understand. We let our own discomfort with the wellsprings of emotion lead us to confuse cause and effect. We join the angry-man in the delusion that desire, or the expectation brought on by a certain emotional state, will itself create an outcome in the physical world. "Step on the crack and break your mother's back!" This trap makes it hard for us to imagine life any different from what we know. All our insecurities concrete around this little seed of doubt.
Creatures of Empathy
Creatures of Empathy
Creatures of Empathy
We are creatures of empathy. We are in a double-bind – one among many. Either suppressing our empathy, or letting ourselves feel even a fraction of the death and destruction we are complicit in takes a tremendous toll. When we look timorously at the effects of collapse we discount what I expect to be an expansive relief when it appears on track to actually putting a crimp on what is being done in our names, in a complex dance between an amping devastation and its influence on our ability to continue our destruction of the Earth beyond some point of ecological no-return. We tend to avoid these thoughts, or at least feel uncomfortable about having them. The angry-man will blame us for cheering for society's collapse, for civilization's fall. His inability to see beyond black & white, and experience anything other than conflict, leads him to fear the straw-man he's put up and to want to prohibit what he can't understand. We let our own discomfort with the wellsprings of emotion lead us to confuse cause and effect. We join the angry-man in the delusion that desire, or the expectation brought on by a certain emotional state, will itself create an outcome in the physical world. "Step on the crack and break your mother's back!" This trap makes it hard for us to imagine life any different from what we know. All our insecurities concrete around this little seed of doubt.