A critique of collapsism as an ideology

Eric Harris-Braun wrote this in May 2009, but these are still very valid and stimulating observations:

“A friend of mine recently asked me to read Carolyn Baker’s article When facing reality is not ‘negative thinking. This article has finally helped me nail down some thought’s I’ve been having about the way I’ve been often asked to look at the “collapse” of civilization and the idea that we need to “face reality.”

To begin with, I’d like to affirm my agreement with Dr. Baker and others that the ways our world is currently structured, from how we use people and energy, to how we feed our selves, to our political and financial forms, are completely unsustainable and are destined to be radically changed. That much is certain to me.

But I’d like to suggest that the very act of framing of this process of change in terms of “collapse” and of “facing reality,” is in itself part of remaining within those same sets of unsustainable structures.

Some people have described the current era as on par with what happens in a caterpillar before it turns into a butterfly. This process is not a simple transformation where the caterpillar body shrinks and then sprouts wings and legs. Instead the body of the caterpillar completely “collapses” into a a blob of ooze, and is then re-grows itself into it’s new form starting from what are called imaginal cells which are a kind of new butterfly stem cells that are even attacked by the body of the caterpillar before it has completely dissolved because they are at first not even recognized as “self”. This process has been written about elsewhere, so I won’t belabor it, but if you haven’t read about it before, it’s worth googling.

However, I actually don’t think think this caterpillar-butterfly process really is on par with what’s happening now for one main reason: the outcome of the metamorphosis of the caterpillar is pretty darn certain, but the outcome of our future is not at all certain. But, this makes it more clear to me that to describe the change we are facing now as “collapse” is even more of a mistake than it was for me to use the word “collapse” in describing what happens to the body of the caterpillar.

The word collapse comes from the roots “fall” and “together” and evokes the idea of the falling down of a building, and its breaking apart, shattering to pieces. The reason why that’s not an appropriate description in the case of the caterpillar, is that its body’s dissolution is part of an active living process that’s going somewhere, that though it is a destruction or death of sorts, is fully energized and there are nodes of self-organization that are part of the living process that will take it to the next step. Collapse is a word for the falling apart of a mechanical system, not for the transformation of a living one. And there’s the rub: at the heart of our world’s current structures (the very ones that led to our current forms of government, finance, politics, that are unsustainable), is the underlying assumption that the universe is a mechanical system that we are separate from rather than a living system of which ware intimately a part. So to call what’s happening now a “collapse” I think keeps us from stepping into the very “myriad opportunities it presents,” because it keeps us thinking in the old way. If instead we conceive ourselves as part of a living system, then how we conceive of what’s happening right now might be vastly different.

Here is what I see: for the last 5000 years (since the advent of the three big inventions: agriculture, writing & money) we have been on a massive journey of increasing consciousness and liberating potential that those three inventions are the foundation of. I’m making no claim as to the universality, value, goodness or evil of this journey, I’m just know that it has happened. At the end of this 5000 year journey our consciousness of how the natural world (including ourselves) works, and the pure liberation of potential (both social, physical, and technological) is simply awesome. But we are at a nexus. On one hand there are millions if not billions of fully empowered humans on the planet; there is a vast quantity of energy that is available to be put to use; there is an even greater quantity of information and knowledge to organize that use; and there is an astounding set of information processing tools coordinate that use. On the other, there are millions, if not billions of disempowered and enslaved humans on the planet; there is vast energy need as well as waste; and there is great disinformation and lies spread and all kinds of machinations in place to prevent the free spread and coordination of information. I see these two “hands” as fully living and dynamic tensions in a vast living earth of which humanity, with it’s budding consciousness, is now a significant part.”

3 Comments A critique of collapsism as an ideology

  1. AvatarMushin

    Thank you for this great meditation on where we are. A helpful observation that I’ve been recommending my friends, of which many are into ‘collapsism’, to read on the known platforms.

  2. Pingback: Tweets that mention P2P Foundation » Blog Archive » A critique of collapsism as an ideology -- Topsy.com

  3. Avatarjames william gibson

    Much of the left in enthralled with the power of the state and corporate capitalism–“collapsism” is the counter-part to their analysis. It leaves people psychologically defeated, and resigned to waiting as spectators for the end to unfold.

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.