The Anguish of the Age: Emotional Reactions to Collapse
by Robert Jensen
23 June 2010
Editor's note: this is a chance for reader feedback for an important work in progress.
We live amidst multiple crises -- economic and political, cultural and
ecological -- that pose a significant threat to human life as we understand
it.
There is no way to be awake to the depth of these crises without an
emotional reaction.
There is no way to be aware of the pain caused by these
systemic failures without some experience of dread, depression, distress.
To be fully alive today is to live with anguish, not for one's own condition
in the world but for the condition of the world, for a world that is in
collapse.
Though I have felt this for some time I hesitated to talk about it in
public, out of fear of being accused of being too negative or dismissed as
apocalyptic. But more of us are breaking through that fear, and more than
ever it's essential that we face this aspect of our political lives. To talk
openly about this anguish should strengthen, not undermine, our commitment
to political engagement -- any sensible political program to which we can
commit for the long haul has to start with an honest assessment of reality.
Here is how I would summarize our reality: Because of the destructive
consequences of human intervention, it is not clear how much longer the
planetary ecosystem can sustain human life on this scale. There is no way to
make specific predictions, but it's clear that our current path leads to
disaster. Examine the data on any crucial issue -- energy, water, soil
erosion, climate disruption, chemical contamination, biodiversity -- and the
news is bad. Platitudes about "necessity is the mother of invention" express
a hollow technological fundamentalism; simply asserting that we want to
solve the problems that we have created does not guarantee we can. The fact
that we have not taken the first and most obvious step -- moving to a
collective life that requires far less energy -- doesn't bode well for the
future.
Though anguish over this reality is not limited to the affluence of the
industrial world -- where many of us have the time to ponder all this
because our material needs are met -- it may be true that those of us living
in relative comfort today speak more of this emotional struggle. That
doesn't mean that our emotions are illegitimate or that the struggle is
self-indulgent; this discussion is not the abandonment of politics but an
essential part of fashioning a political project.
I would like help in this process. I've started talking to people close to
me about how this feels, but I want to expand my understanding. By using the
internet and email, I am limiting the scope of the inquiry to those online,
but it's a place to start.
My request is simple: If you think it would help you clarify your
understanding of your struggle, send me an account of your reaction to these
crises and collapse, in whatever level of detail you like. I am most
interested in our emotional states, but any exercise of this type includes
an intellectual component; there is no clear line between the analytical and
the emotional, between thinking and feeling. An understanding of our
emotions is connected to our analysis of the health of the ecosystem, the
systems responsible for that condition, and the openings for change.
Because I may draw on this material in public discussions and for writing
projects, please let me know how you are willing to have your words used.
Your writing could be: (1) "on background," not to be quoted in any forum;
(2) "not for attribution," permission to be quoted but not identified; or
(3) "on the record," permission to be quoted and identified. If you don't
specify, I will assume (2).
My plan is to report back to anyone interested. If you would like to be
included on that distribution list, let me know. Please send responses in
the body of an email message, not as an attachment, to
robertwilliamjensen "at" gmail.com.
Whether or not you write to me, I hope everyone will begin speaking more
openly about this aspect of our struggle. If there is to be a decent future,
we have to retain our capacity for empathy. Most of us can empathize with
those closest to us, and we try to empathize with all people. The next step
is to open up to the living world, which requires an ability to feel both
the joy and the grief that surrounds us.
[The follow up report "Struggling to be ‘Fully Alive’: Reports on Coping with Anguish" is at http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/663/1/">culturechange.org/cms/content/view/663/1]
* * * * *
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin
and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center in Austin. He
is the author of All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the
Prophetic Voice, (Soft Skull Press, 2009); Getting Off: Pornography and the
End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007); The Heart of Whiteness:
Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, 2005); Citizens
of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); and
Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream
(Peter Lang, 2002).
Culture Change mailing address: P.O. Box 3387, Santa Cruz, California, 95063, USA, Telephone 1-215-243-3144 (and fax). Culture Change was founded by Sustainable Energy Institute (formerly Fossil Fuels Policy Action), a nonprofit organization.
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