We can all say, believe, prophesize all we want about 2012 but one thing seems pretty clear – a historical moment in upon us. It includes a full-blown paradox of crisis and opportunity limited in scope only by our own imaginations. In other words, it’s big.
On the crisis side it’s bigger than the environmental crisis, the economic crisis, the presidential election, and even the question of what Sarah Palin is doing now. Many issues are converging to make it clear that there is really only one, all-encompassing crisis. That crisis is represented well, in my view, by the word and image of collapse, the collapse of industrial civilization as we know it. That’s not to say that it will all come crashing down tomorrow or by the end of the year. It is to say that it is already happening and will continue to happen, that it’s inevitable. The system is collapsing under its own weight, its non-alignment with life-affirming and life-sustaining values and practices (lip service not withstanding). It’s already happening, it’s just that the effects are not evenly distributed, the distractions are many, and the denial fairly extreme.
Climate change and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the build-up of toxic chemicals, starvation, homelessness, oil spills, peak oil (the inevitable end of cheap oil), exponential population growth with more and more of people wanting the “Western standard of living,” the tar sands, “clean coal” and more nuclear power, the disparity between rich and poor, racism, corporate control of the political system, erosion of civil liberties, the drum beat for yet another war (Iran), genetically modified organisms and the patenting of life forms, unaffordable health care, entitlement, the unconsciousness and immaturity, etc. etc. etc. How could it possibly continue? There is no way it ever could. When and where will it end? It’s ending now and the longer we fail to confront the reality and root causes of collapse the more assured we can be that it will unfold in a catastrophic manner.
And yet the silence is almost deafening. Silence about the bigger picture of collapse, silence about the actual root causes, and silence about what it will really take of us to fully embrace the opportunity. Even the Occupy movement is largely silent on these things, getting too easily distracted by symptoms and the temptation to point the finger at the villain of the moment.
So what is the opportunity? If the collapse of society as we know it—a society that undermines justice, peace, and life itself, a life-denying and life-degrading society—is one side of the equation, then the opportunity to create a life-affirming and life-sustaining society is the other side. Thus the opportunity is as large as the crisis. The opportunity is for a shift in consciousness and worldview, an expanded sense of who, or what, we are as human beings and why we are here. This is key since it is ultimately our beliefs and assumptions that give rise to the life-denying worldview and the society created from it. It’s our deepest beliefs that most fundamentally need to change and catch up with the reality of interrelatedness if we are to survive long enough to create a better society.
I can’t say for sure of course, but I don’t think the necessary evolution of consciousness will happen magically or because a cycle in a certain (Mayan) calendar has come to its end. We’ve been given the opportunity to see what is happening and take responsibility for it and that is probably as much as we could hope for. The historical moment is a definite end and a possible beginning. Part of its juiciness is the uncertainty – it takes courage to face reality with the full realization that we don’t know what will happen or how it will “all work out.” Of course life is like that anyway, but the tendency is to pretend that we know. So here is the opportunity to stop pretending. This is part of the gift and opportunity because it’s in the space of not knowing that possibility, imagination, and creativity opens up.
The most important leaders and midwives of the shift to a life-affirming society will be the people who are doing “their own work” – the work necessary to cultivate their own life-affirming worldview based on interrelatedness. When we model this way of being, and the freedom, joy, humility, compassion, and empowerment that comes with it, it inspires others and provides positive feedback that helps to keep us going and growing. Practices such as mindfulness, nature-based practices, developing relationship skills, and restorative activism are foundational in making this shift a lived reality for a critical mass of people.
There is an acronym that often comes to mind that I will paraphrase slightly: AFGO (Another Freaking Growth Opportunity). The historical moment upon us is the mother of all growth opportunities, a call and challenge to engage in an individual and a collective rite of passage, the initiation we may very well both welcome and fear. It is time, like it or not.
Hard material necessity and human evolutionary possibility now seem to converge to create a situation where, in the long run, we will be obliged to do no less than realize our greatest possibilities. We are engaged in a race between self-discovery and self-destruction.
—Duane Elgin
I know this view sets the bar high in a lot of ways. And I realize this short post opens up a lot of territory. I hope to follow up on this theme in the weeks and months ahead. As always, I welcome your questions and feedback.
Scott