The Art of Giving a Shit
Drifting out of the gloaming consciousness of full blown anesthetic recently, I had a blissful thought that the end of the world was coming and it was just fine! Afterwards, the realization that I’d been in a place of ultimate acceptance sort of bothered me so I had to have hard conversation with myself about it. Am I a harbinger of doom or just an old boy scout being prepared for the worst whilst working towards the best. There are times where I feel like nothing will save us from our ecological mess but more likely I am solution focused and resolved to earth repair. Commitment to a path rather than attachment to an outcome helps keeps me sane. If I am experiencing this then being on a spectrum of hope Vs despair is probably true for many of us. It is like sitting on a see saw where at your end there is a shark waiting and the other where your play partner is just losing weight and getting sicker. How does society respond to this on a collective consciousness level? I think this question is something well worth investigating as our behavior will be strongly influenced by how we react. History has no lesson to teach us equal to the ubiquitous threat of runaway climate change. However, scaled down slow pace disasters are a frequent occurrence. A recent example of this might be the parties in Berlin at the end of WW2 when the realization finally dawned that the allies were going to overrun the city. Denial had flourished under a wave of Nazi propaganda, an easy task when denial is our default setting when it comes to an existential crisis. As it became clear the end of the Reich was near, the civilian population took to either a stoic last man standing attitude, sending old men and children to fight the battle hardened Allies, or to partying hard and adopting nihilistic (and hedonistic) behavior. This is probably a model we will emulate over the next 20 years or so as climate disasters take the denial option away from us. The option to blow off steam and dissociate from reality is a viable way of dealing with stress and anxiety, up to a point. Sex is also a great way to escape, and to guarantee the immortality of your genes. After all, the baby boomers were a consequence of a collective attempt to re-populate after the last war. This is a good example of the collective consciousness looking after the future of our species. Perhaps we need to breed faster to increase the chance of a few climate change evolutionary adaptations (cooling fins on our heads!!) Frequent small, manageable and meaningful changes to the way we live, the fight back option, are also capable of reducing climate change anxiety. With every positive change, you know you are contributing to the health of the planet. You become part of the collective that gives a shit, connecting you to the earth and taken to another level, can give spiritual meaning to life. Of course the best way to do this is to use a composting toilet, and start every day with the transcendental experience of giving a shit.
