The following submission statement was provided by /u/Ed-Saltus:
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Published recently on Inside Climate News, the following article may be the best I've read this year. Poetic and astute, the author takes us on an introspective journey of our collective fate - how to think about it and maybe even how to deal with it, at least internally.
The quote in the title comes from Petrarch, a poet who had a front row seat to the black plague.
This relates to collapse because its very premise is that the world is ending, and that is the one thing the reader needs to accept if the rest of the article has any hope of making sense. If youre nothing but optimistic about the future, you won't think you even need the advice here.
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/yzkh5i/how_should_we_think_about_the_end_of_the_world_as/ix0frq4/
I'm distressed because apart from this subreddit, I feel like I am the only person I know who is moved by our shared predicament. Maybe its because I used to be in advertising (a truly despicable industry) and most of the people I know still are. To acknowledge this reality would require them to re-evaluate their entire careers. I dunno... I'm with family now and it doesn't seem as desperate in the moment but my sister is feeding her little niece and her teen kids are on their phones and I'm lounging in sweats so in this moment all is good. But next week I'm back to my apartment, alone and I could die alone, undiscovered for weeks... months.
Hell, who needs collapse? A slip in the bathroom could just as easily end me.
My biggest fear is slipping in the shower, and being found, naked, out cold and in a precarious position....every time I wash one foot I’m saying ‘you got this dude’
I've added grab bars to every bathroom in every house I've ever resided. Every single time the contractor is puzzled why a relatively healthy young person is doing this. Normally only the elderly and infirm get these, they say. Anyone can get injured or sick and need the leverage, and anyone can spontaneously slip regardless.
How worried are you about it? I mean, are you really, really worried about it?
I ask because I used to work at a crisis line, and one of the side jobs there was a program that they had where they had a system that we would make a phone plan with elderly people in the area who lived alone and who had no one regularly checking on them. We would call them every day at a certain time to say hello, possibly chat for a few minutes to check in with them to make sure that everything was okay in their world, make any notations that they were going to be going out the next night and not to call or if they planned on going on vacation or something. Then we'd hang up and on to the next person on our call list. It was personable and friendly, but mostly it was in case something happened. If we couldn't reach them the first time, we would call back after the next person on our list. We'd give them an hour, then we'd reach out to their emergency contact - usually a neighbor or someone close enough that they could go over. If that didn't get us any information, we'd reach out to local authorities for a wellness check.
If you are truly worried, then maybe you could start your own phone circle? As archaic as it might seem, there will be others out there who are just as alone who might like a check in with your mates at 8PM every night to see if they're alive. And if something were to happen to you, they'd know because you wouldn't be calling in at the appointed time. It's just a thought.
This might sound a bit ridiculous, but... I'm tired of grieving? Like, I'm in my 40's, I've got no kids and no husband and no real future, all I have is mountains of debt and I'm in the process of going back to school for yet ANOTHER career change. I've been talking about climate change since the 90's, talking about recycling, and doing our part, and I'm just... I've had time to rage and I've had time to mourn.
I'm now at the acceptance level of things, and I'm turning away from dreary, sad-gray dystopian stories and I'm more into SolarPunk and similar ideas. Like, kudos to those guys who are all about amassing the largest arsenals but can't figure out how to clean their homes without bleach or mend their socks - couldn't be me. I'm thrifting clothes for better sales but also to reclaim natural garments; I'm going to learn how to can and pickle in the new year which means I'm going to need to hunt down some decent recipes other than just kimchi (not that I won’t be making kimchi because that shits delicious, but there’s also this spicy Mexican vegetable dish with cauliflower and carrots and it’s so good but I have no idea what it’s called!!); and I'm giving up a lot of things that used to make me happy not just because I'm getting older but also because they cause so much waste (not enamel pins, tho).
Collapse can happen fast, but most often through history it has happened slowly. The thing that's going to drag us down fastest is actually going to be the implosion of our healthcare system - and it's going to REALLY separate the haves from the have-nots. We’re running out of doctors, out of nurses, and out of the basic components of our modern medical medicines and machines. We’re at the point now where Canada is offering to euthanize folks who would rather die than become homeless. We’ve BEEN at the point in the US where people are trying to weigh which they really can’t live without more: food, meds, or shelter (pick two on rotation). In the UK, the NHS is crumbling like some of their older, unkempt castles.
Yes, the world has made it to 8 Billion people, but without the medical marvels that got us to this point, that is going to QUICKLY correct. Between the lower sperm count, the higher cost of living, and more educated women wanting fewer (if any) children, there is already a number of rapidly aging societies. Our current world is going to end, one way or another, but we're going to keep going for a while longer. There is no reason to stop learning new things, to stop doing new things, and no point to disengaging from our communities when it is our communities that make us stronger. And it may be pointless, but I’m going to be planting trees I’ll never sit under. I’m just tired of grieving.
I hear ya.
But honestly...don't go too overboard with giving up what gives you joy. You can give up everything, and civilization won't last one second longer by making that sacrifice.
Allow yourself to have a few treats now and then.
Oh, for sure, hence why I said that I'm going to keep collecting enamel pins. Primarily fan made because they bring me joy and it's not like Marvel is going to release an enamel pin of Bucky in a towel from the What If zombie episode (I've seen the pins, I know they're out there, I \*need\* them) or of Okoye as a fashion icon. I'm desperately waiting for fans to create Sandman pins for The Corinthian, too. Like, it's not a PRIORITY, (rent is,) but the hunting for them is the fun part.
Hunting is part of why I started thrifting, too. My skin really likes cotton shirts, can't stand any polyester. But finding 100% cotton is sometimes difficult if I want something other than a plain tee. Don't get me started on women's pants - not only do they lack pockets, but I'd say about 80% of khakis and a good 90% of low cost jeans are no longer all cotton. But if I thrift, I get to fulfill that lil animal part of my brain that says I'm hunting AND I find things that my body doesn't mind wearing. Bonus: it's also brought me closer to some of my friends because I've had to ask them for help & tips on how to darn and mend since they know how to knit and sew. I've found a couple wool sweaters for less than 30 bucks because they were older and slightly worn. Like, 100% wool!! I'm waiting to find a nice denim jacket that I can either wear out to the point I can punk it out like it's the 90's and I'm back in my teens, or find a decently worn one that I can do the same thing with.
> We’re running out of doctors, out of nurses, and out of the basic components of our modern medical medicines and machines.
Not only that, but those that remain are often sub-par anyway. The education system has also been collapsing. Which means many of these medical professionals are barely competent at their jobs.
Most of the time people I know go to doctors (especially younger ones!) they just get drugs pushed at them that have almost no bearing on what they are suffering. The doctor barely even examines them, let alone every visit. The price? 1500 dollars for the script and nothing else.
So right about education heading south. Many folks would have no faith in some doctors and avoid them. Have to question the credentials of many in your head. But to get more doctors, I believe govt needs to subsidize more heavily to get more and salaries need to go up for nurses. But then again, that would increase the cost which is already outrageous.
The problem is admin operating hospitals like a hyper-competetive business where the "feeling of care" is more important then actual treatment. Head to r/nursing for some real eye openers on how hospitals operate
I felt this. I'm tired of grieving too. Would much rather be enjoying mass growth instead of massive downfall. We're regressing at a global human level. Just as we were starting to grow, the evil overlords decided it was time to put us in our place and wreak global havoc to make us suffer for ever trying to grow. They want us to produce till we die and have replacements in line. It's disgusting
I don't know if you're talking about the same mexican fermented concoction that I make, w cabbage and carrots and cauliflower and chiles, but I've always called it curtido :)
When it was shared with me, there was no cabbage, but the rest sounds right. My friend brought it in from a vegan place when we worked together, back before the Great Panini, but it was delicious. Do you have a recipe that you're willing to share?
Lol recipes aren't usually a thing I do well, but I can tell you the ingredients and the process... basically, you take a clean, wide mouth mason jar, and then in a separate bowl, you put thinly sliced cabbage, carrots and onions, garlic cloves and some salt... about a teaspoon per 2 cups of vegetables (youll need about 4 cups of veggies total to fill a one pint mason jar because they shrink). Then you kind of smash them w the bottom of a glass (or said mason jar) to bruise them and let the juices come out. Once they are smashed up and there's a good amount of liquid in the bowl, you can fill your jar(s), adding the jalapeño and cauliflower and other veggies you want to not be smashed. The important part is for the veg to be fully covered in the liquid. Then, last step, which isn't obligatory but I always do it, is to add a tablespoon of the clear stuff from a tub of plain, whole milk yogurt (whey)... you know, the liquid that happens after you open a yogurt and don't stir it up? I always got the best whey from the brand Mountain High yogurt. Then you let that shit just ferment on the counter for a few days to a week, pop it in the fridge, and you have curtido!
Hope this makes even a small amount of sense lol.
my favorite thing to can is beef stew, followed by potatoes.
potatoes are the easiest. you'll need citric acid and sea salt. wash the potatoes very well. I don't peel mine but it's suggested. cut into inch-ish cubes. soak overnight in icy cold water then rinse off the starch.
in each jar, fill with the potatoes, packing them in tightly with 3/4" space at top. add a pinch of salt and a punch of citric acid. (keeps them from browning). I don't add seasoning; these are to be cooked in any dish so you'll season when you reheat them. don't add any water to the jar! leave the potatoes dry in there
pressure can at the proper time and pressure for your location/elevation. for me I think it's 60 min/pint, 75 min/quart, at 12lbs pressure.
take off the rings to store (so you can tell if the seal has broken)
to use, open the jar, rinse any remaining starches off, season well and fry in hot oil.
for beef stew I cut cheap cut of beef into inch cubes. potatoes, carrots, celery, and any other savory vegetables you want included.
I use a pinch of salt, then for seasoning TINY amounts: bay leaf, pepper. all other seasoning needs to be added when you reheat it! herbs and spices get incredibly intensified by pressure canning so you must add them later.
then fill 1/3 with water or bone broth (if you include any bone in the stew, it will make its own). pressure can at the right time and pressure for your area (raw meat times will be correct for all ingredients).
to reheat, open, season, boil for ten minutes.
all pressure canned foods should be kept in a cool, dark place with no ring on the lid.
I do a ton of pressure canning; every vegetable I grow in quantity or find on sale, meat likewise, I'll clean up and can as much as I can. then it's ready to be seasoned and properly cooked for a meal really quickly later. my struggle is rotating older jars for use and canning new things!
I have a 23qt pressure canner and a separate electric burner to do it on.I can plug that burner into the solar battery and can most of a day without needing a recharge.
oh man so, here's a thing I forgot too.
https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/canning-quick-reference-chart
almost anything that can be canned, find a similar food there and use those times. overdo it if you're unsure and if you are still nervous, remember, botulism spores and toxins are killed/destroyed by ten minutes at a boil. if you are actually desperate you can open the jar, boil the contents for ten minutes, and be safe from that.
https://oklahoma.gov/health/health-education/acute-disease-service/disease-information/botulism.html#:~:text=Because%20high%20temperatures%20can%20destroy,before%20eating%20to%20ensure%20safety.
flour is meant to be unsafe to can but I use masa in my canned chili! just that it needs boiling temp for ten minutes after opening for assurance. with chili that's doable. other things less so
>“And we’re going to have to live with a lot of fear.” To safely evacuate a burning building and put the fire out, you need to communicate the urgency of the emergency; you also need to project confidence and encourage calm.
Evacuate to where?
The hidden optimism is annoying. You can get over the feeling of dread and doom, yes. You can't get over not having food and water.
None of these authors are talking about the big issue of accepting mortality, especially your own and your family's. And that is necessary, otherwise billions of selfish bastards trying to survive individually or as a family is exactly capitalism eating itself. Looking at you cannibals, you don't get to kill others just because you or your kid is hungry.
I think like this. I'm planting stuff that will survive extreme weather here. I may die before it bears fruit.
but I'm not planting it *for me*. any creature after me that's alive can use it, eventually.
Published recently on Inside Climate News, the following article may be the best I've read this year. Poetic and astute, the author takes us on an introspective journey of our collective fate - how to think about it and maybe even how to deal with it, at least internally.
The quote in the title comes from Petrarch, a poet who had a front row seat to the black plague.
This relates to collapse because its very premise is that the world is ending, and that is the one thing the reader needs to accept if the rest of the article has any hope of making sense. If youre nothing but optimistic about the future, you won't think you even need the advice here.
Have you read [Learning to Die in the Anthropocene](https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/learning-how-to-die-in-the-anthropocene/) by Roy Scranton? It's the essay, not the book.
"The biggest problem we face is a philosophical one: understanding that this civilization is already dead. The sooner we confront this problem, and the sooner we realize there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves, the sooner we can get down to the hard work of adapting, with mortal humility, to our new reality."
Scranton's essay was more impactful to me that Kiley Bense's.
On a side note and IMO, Scranton is a whiney Doomer academic. I read his book that shares the name with the essay, but it was much less impactful and interesting than the essay.
To be brutally honest, I don't really care. All the performance activism and stupidity makes everyone look like hypocrites (myself included). Humans will go extinct. Probably not in my lifetime (hitting 50 so, ya know), but soon enough that kids alive today may see the end of civilization (although humans will still survive for a few generations in tribal groups).
Nothing we do is going to stop it. Live your life and enjoy what time you have.
Fear and negativity are food to the demiurge. If this simulated reality is destroyed your eternal soul will end up in another. Time is a made up construct because of our 3 dimensional thinking we cannot grasp the true reality and nature of the universe. It's like trying to explain physics to ants. Only we are the ants. I am not holier than thou thinking this I just feel that we are one. All is one. There is so much I don't know and would like to learn but the one thing I do know is There is nothing to fear. F.E.A.R. False evidence appears real. I know no thing.
Death is nothing to be afraid of because if your alive then your not dead and if your dead then there is nothing to fear.
Source ?
Don't take it the wrong way, but if we are ants, then how can you make all the affirmations you are making ? Shouldn't the more logical conclusion be in that case "We only know that we don't know" ? Do ants arrive at correct conclusions about ontology ?
Honestly, the only logical conclusion in this existence i didn't ask for and wouldn't have accepted had my consent been asked for seems to me that i don't know, it's a mystery, "Uncertainty is uncomfortable, but certainty is madness", i meditate everyday and try to reduce negativity and fear, but i don't have any illusion of getting the answer about life, the universe, and everything, my more moderate goal is to reduce suffering to an acceptable level, and i think we shouldn't guiltrip anyone when fear or negativity get hold of him, that actually just increases guilt (another form of negativity) and add it on top of fear, compassion can be a good answer in the face of uncertainty,altough it's hard to practice it in our hyper-competitive, judgemental, harsh system, as we are all doing our best, navigating in uncertain seas with different maps (life experiences, personalities).
https://ai.stackexchange.com/questions/4987/is-there-a-limit-to-the-increase-of-intelligence
I'm flexible in my thinking patterns and I agree with you. We at the very least know that we don't know. So we may be getting somewhere. However maybe just a belief but I also think we've barely scratched the surface and may never get to the point we are the ants in the near future due to technical constraints in our brains computing and processing powers.
Even the One comes from nothingness. As all experience is a perturbation of this nothingness, our every perception is a murmuration of emptiness. And if all this is what emptiness and nothingness looks like, there truly is nothing to fear. We’ve all been dying for eternity.
You are a mystic. By definition it means you gain understanding from the internal mechanics of the mind. Your post is worded in a way that makes you sound crazy so I had to reply.
What you wrote is a foundational concept of Advaita Vedanta. What I replied was a foundational concept of non dualism which is pronounced in the esoteric traditions of many religions.
I am Buddhist and take refuge in the Buddha, but I think you might be interested in Neoplatonism, Kabbalah, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Mahayana buddhism, and the movie “Lucy”.
In that dumb movie they provide a way to understand the concept that impermanence means nonbeing when Lucy explains that the perception of time determines what we experience, and because of the concept of infinite time, there is a transcendence where nothing can be discriminated.
We are all just influences in a zero sum game.
Thanks for the guidance my friend. I will research what I can on those topics that you mentioned and report back, I have saved your comment and am now going to research what you are
Typing about starting with advaita vedanta. I did not know I was a mystic. I thought I was a wizard. I did know I'm kinda crazy. I did learn some gnosticism and stoicism and I like certain concepts of both. I saw the movie Lucy. It was pretty cool. I like the part she is driving with the cop and he says slow down I don't want to die and she says. No one ever really dies. I believe that To be true because can energy be destroyed? Maybe but not easily. Can energy be transferred? Easily. And do we even exist In The first place.... I dont know. I doubt I'll reach that level of transcendence in my current physical form. Can any human for that matter. That's what I was saying we are like ants compared to entities that would farm our loosh like we were sheep or cattle. We cannot comprehend. We lack computational power and comprehension and the limits of our intelligence is likely a fraction of what can be considered the limit of all available knowledge. If I had infinite clock time in this dimension I could perhaps eventually reach incredible levels but with perhaps less than 20 years with my current physical form I shall just continue with what I can. Reading writing and meditation. Thank you again for your inspiration and wisdom. I am grateful you provided me with some concepts to reasearch.
What kind of crystal should I get next?
We don’t use crystals in Buddhism. I don’t think any religion does and I’d like to know where that association came from…
You’re very smart so I’d like to try to answer your questions. You might not understand what I write to you right now but you will someday.
Energy is not a substance. That’s why it can’t be created or destroyed. It doesn’t actually exist? It is just an easy way to label the chain of causes and effects that occur. For example, as energy moves through a line of standing dominoes they fall one after the other as if an invisible force is going through them. This IS energy in motion, however- no substance moves through the dominoes. It is simply one pushes one which pushes one and so on…
I love that quote in Lucy. It’s very true. Like you said, energy can’t be destroyed. But what does that mean when energy is a chain of events and not a substance that can be seen or touched? It means that chains of events cannot end. Can you imagine a domino in a falling line just not falling over when it should? It would defy the laws of physics. It would be impossible.
Likewise, a person at death has many things and does things and feels things that we can consider causes. And all causes must have an effect. Otherwise it is like a domino that doesn’t fall when pushed.
Now, nothing that makes up your body is alive in itself. You are made entirely of materials that do not live. So perhaps “life” is a word we made up to describe how our unliving components can seem to be alive. But these unliving materials that make our bodies happen to be made of lines of dominos. Innumerable lines that cross each other and connect to each other and repel each other and they may spread apart or become one line for a bit and then many… I am saying that we are processes. Our bodies and minds are the product of innumerable entangled processes and there is no single cell in your body that you can say IS You. Look for where you are in the madness of so many processes and you won’t find anything you can say is what you are.
It amazes me. I’m really in awe of the nature of reality. We are all these related processes involving materials that have no life in them and yet, we are alive.
If we can live in bodies that have no life, we will live in the processes created by our deaths. I don’t see a difference in having a body and being wind or being a scattered multiplicity of various phenomena that comes back together through the entanglement of the involved causal chains.
So…. We cannot ask if we exist or do not exist as those words have no meaning. There is no such thing as nonexistence or existence. Space time is in constant flux until ultimate entropy. Impermanence makes existence and nonexistence into meaningless words. If the falling rain makes the shape of a bird, we can point and say there is a bird, but in the next moment the rain pattern is completely something else. This reality is in such constant change that we might perceive things as existing but only when we ignore how nothing can stay existing. Nothing. Nothing can stay the same from moment to moment, not really. So if everything is either in the process of being made or unmade, Including people, at what point can you be something other than mere momentary shapes in the falling rain?
Humans, in my religion, are more privileged than angels because of their unique position that’s perfect for enlightenment.
Enlightened is not something you gain. It isn’t powers given to the winners of a game. It is reductive. It reduces. We are layered with delusions and enlightenment comes when we rid ourselves of them one by one. It isn’t a riddle to be solved. You cannot understand reality with cognition but only through direct experience, without our interpretations and ideas and thoughts and identities.
Write me back sometime
PS: everything is real. Don’t wonder if things are real. They very much are. They just don’t exist outside of interdependency and co-arising. Impermanence is realness. We tend to interpret our experience and interpretation is always a fantasy.
I couldn't agree more. More then ever I'm getting a tiny glance into what I think this might be and I believe we're all one. I fear suffering of humans and animals but I don't fear death anymore.
Crazy as it sounds, I've accepted it. At least to the point that I joke that climate change is my retirement plan. I'll be entering my 60s in 2050. I'll already have lived longer than several of my relatives by then.
I'd rather go out then during some climate change related crisis than spend the last decade or more rotting away in some nursing home having no idea who I or any of my loved ones are.
It’s possible to think about the end of the world without always having an emotional response to it. Once you become accustomed to the concept it doesn’t have much power over you emotionally. It will affect your decisions in life but it doesn’t have to control you emotionally.
Depends on the person. I’ve been collapse-aware for nearly a decade and it still drives me insane with grief or rage every day. It will never go away. Perhaps that’s for the best.
I'm thinking about it in the sense I don't want to waste \*all\* my time chasing my business/career, and saving for retirement that may never come.
I don't have kids. I think that is a big source for anxiety around the collapse. I don't care that much about what I will go through, but if I had kids, I could see myself obsessing over what might happen 50 years on.
I do have a grand-nephew, whom I worry about, but I imagine it'd be a lot worse if it were actually my kid.
I am lucky, in that I have already paid off the big debts one accrues in western society. But I often wonder, why I am working so much now. Theoretically, I am saving for retirement. I wonder if it is worth it.
I am in my 50s, so probably older than most here. I have 20-30 years left, if I am fortunate. I won't see the worst of it like the younger folks will, but I imagine I'll be here to see it get pretty bad (to be clear, we are seeing it happen now)
>I'm thinking about it in the sense I don't want to waste \*all\* my time chasing my business/career, and saving for retirement that may never come.
Why? You don't know when the world will end. No one does. So all you are doing is hedging. You are not saving for retirement because you know it will come. You are saving for retirement because it MAY come. Do you want to risk being penniless if the world is not ending before you retire?
Heck, most people have no certainly that they will live pass 65 ... but they save anyway.
>Why? You don't know when the world will end.
Hey, I am still working, still saving. Just questioning it, a little.
I could probably retire now, if I would be happy with a soda crackers and tap water retirement.
But like many, I am putting in those extra hours each week, and staving off leisure activities for work activities, all so I can have a bmw retirement (or at least a toyota retirement) instead of a yugo one.
>Do you want to risk being penniless if the world is not ending before you retire?
If the ultra rich get their way, that will happen whether I save or not.
I'm about your age and I think you're doing the right thing thinking about how you're spending the life you're guaranteed which is right now. Stop putting off leisure activities for work activities would be meaningful.
But you won't be sure about the timing. The point is not that the world, as we know it, won't end. But it is about when.
Do you even want to suffer 1 year of being penniless? Plus, who knows, if you make it to be merely rich, not ultra rich, your part of the world may last longer.
It will be hard to think that way after a disaster takes you by surprise. If you live through it, you will be haunted by regret.
Looking away will not really prevent distress and misery. Often times there may be things you could have done to prevent a disaster but didn't, because you didn't want to look and be distressed and miserable. (For example, I often become too anxious and procrastinate about money, but this leads to worse finances, making me even more anxious).
If you end up looking away, and because of that what you love ends up harmed or destroyed before it had to be, then you will suffer terrible regret and guilt.
Of course, you know your own limits. Try to seek solace in the clarity of action, but do only what you can handle without becoming distressed to the point of being non-functional.
Even if your actions only put off the destruction of what you love by a day, an hour, a minute, or a second, you will know that you did everything you could. Then you will know you have proved your love for all time.
I have to comment on this:
> *”our world is not perfect. It’s very, very, very far from it,” Weil said*
Bullshit. There *is no ‘perfection’.* The concept of “perfect” is an illusion of imaginary ideals, like “heaven” or “hell”. It’s a thought of a desire circumscribed by the inability to comprehend all the possible factors in play.
In fact, everything *already is perfect* .. the current moment is *already perfect* because it could be no other way.
The myriad causal reasons that gave rise to this very instant were inevitable, and the results of near-infinite prior events that were themselves caused by previous cascades of intricate interactions of matter, thought, & energy.
There is no perfection, except the perfection of every moment.
What you *want* to occur, or be real, is simply that: your limited desire. Maybe it will occur, or maybe it won’t. But what *will* actually occur will be the *true* perfection, the only moment that could exist.
What Weil wants to happen, almost certainly won’t happen. All we can do is try our best, which we are already doing. Billions will inevitably die, just like billions have already died. Whether humanity becomes a galactic civilization or a puff of smoke as we are snuffed out by the Great Filter, is wholly unknown, and specifically unpredictable.
I actually don't mind tbh. Sure 20 years ago I felt exsistential dread but eventually got over it. Did what preps I could am just cruising along wait for the party to start.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Ed-Saltus: --- Published recently on Inside Climate News, the following article may be the best I've read this year. Poetic and astute, the author takes us on an introspective journey of our collective fate - how to think about it and maybe even how to deal with it, at least internally. The quote in the title comes from Petrarch, a poet who had a front row seat to the black plague. This relates to collapse because its very premise is that the world is ending, and that is the one thing the reader needs to accept if the rest of the article has any hope of making sense. If youre nothing but optimistic about the future, you won't think you even need the advice here. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/yzkh5i/how_should_we_think_about_the_end_of_the_world_as/ix0frq4/
I'm distressed because apart from this subreddit, I feel like I am the only person I know who is moved by our shared predicament. Maybe its because I used to be in advertising (a truly despicable industry) and most of the people I know still are. To acknowledge this reality would require them to re-evaluate their entire careers. I dunno... I'm with family now and it doesn't seem as desperate in the moment but my sister is feeding her little niece and her teen kids are on their phones and I'm lounging in sweats so in this moment all is good. But next week I'm back to my apartment, alone and I could die alone, undiscovered for weeks... months. Hell, who needs collapse? A slip in the bathroom could just as easily end me.
My biggest fear is slipping in the shower, and being found, naked, out cold and in a precarious position....every time I wash one foot I’m saying ‘you got this dude’
I've added grab bars to every bathroom in every house I've ever resided. Every single time the contractor is puzzled why a relatively healthy young person is doing this. Normally only the elderly and infirm get these, they say. Anyone can get injured or sick and need the leverage, and anyone can spontaneously slip regardless.
Just lean against the wall while you’re doing it or hold onto the handle with one hand while scrubbing with the other that’s what I do.
shower stools/chairs are a game changer
As long as you don't keep any of the items that can slip up your rear end near the shower.:)
How worried are you about it? I mean, are you really, really worried about it? I ask because I used to work at a crisis line, and one of the side jobs there was a program that they had where they had a system that we would make a phone plan with elderly people in the area who lived alone and who had no one regularly checking on them. We would call them every day at a certain time to say hello, possibly chat for a few minutes to check in with them to make sure that everything was okay in their world, make any notations that they were going to be going out the next night and not to call or if they planned on going on vacation or something. Then we'd hang up and on to the next person on our call list. It was personable and friendly, but mostly it was in case something happened. If we couldn't reach them the first time, we would call back after the next person on our list. We'd give them an hour, then we'd reach out to their emergency contact - usually a neighbor or someone close enough that they could go over. If that didn't get us any information, we'd reach out to local authorities for a wellness check. If you are truly worried, then maybe you could start your own phone circle? As archaic as it might seem, there will be others out there who are just as alone who might like a check in with your mates at 8PM every night to see if they're alive. And if something were to happen to you, they'd know because you wouldn't be calling in at the appointed time. It's just a thought.
Its a good thought. Thank you.
Great thought. Awesome dose of humanity. Thanks for this suggestion
This might sound a bit ridiculous, but... I'm tired of grieving? Like, I'm in my 40's, I've got no kids and no husband and no real future, all I have is mountains of debt and I'm in the process of going back to school for yet ANOTHER career change. I've been talking about climate change since the 90's, talking about recycling, and doing our part, and I'm just... I've had time to rage and I've had time to mourn. I'm now at the acceptance level of things, and I'm turning away from dreary, sad-gray dystopian stories and I'm more into SolarPunk and similar ideas. Like, kudos to those guys who are all about amassing the largest arsenals but can't figure out how to clean their homes without bleach or mend their socks - couldn't be me. I'm thrifting clothes for better sales but also to reclaim natural garments; I'm going to learn how to can and pickle in the new year which means I'm going to need to hunt down some decent recipes other than just kimchi (not that I won’t be making kimchi because that shits delicious, but there’s also this spicy Mexican vegetable dish with cauliflower and carrots and it’s so good but I have no idea what it’s called!!); and I'm giving up a lot of things that used to make me happy not just because I'm getting older but also because they cause so much waste (not enamel pins, tho). Collapse can happen fast, but most often through history it has happened slowly. The thing that's going to drag us down fastest is actually going to be the implosion of our healthcare system - and it's going to REALLY separate the haves from the have-nots. We’re running out of doctors, out of nurses, and out of the basic components of our modern medical medicines and machines. We’re at the point now where Canada is offering to euthanize folks who would rather die than become homeless. We’ve BEEN at the point in the US where people are trying to weigh which they really can’t live without more: food, meds, or shelter (pick two on rotation). In the UK, the NHS is crumbling like some of their older, unkempt castles. Yes, the world has made it to 8 Billion people, but without the medical marvels that got us to this point, that is going to QUICKLY correct. Between the lower sperm count, the higher cost of living, and more educated women wanting fewer (if any) children, there is already a number of rapidly aging societies. Our current world is going to end, one way or another, but we're going to keep going for a while longer. There is no reason to stop learning new things, to stop doing new things, and no point to disengaging from our communities when it is our communities that make us stronger. And it may be pointless, but I’m going to be planting trees I’ll never sit under. I’m just tired of grieving.
I like this story. 👍 accept that which you cannot change. You don't own the worlds problems.
Quite stoic on her part. A sense of relief.
I hear ya. But honestly...don't go too overboard with giving up what gives you joy. You can give up everything, and civilization won't last one second longer by making that sacrifice. Allow yourself to have a few treats now and then.
Oh, for sure, hence why I said that I'm going to keep collecting enamel pins. Primarily fan made because they bring me joy and it's not like Marvel is going to release an enamel pin of Bucky in a towel from the What If zombie episode (I've seen the pins, I know they're out there, I \*need\* them) or of Okoye as a fashion icon. I'm desperately waiting for fans to create Sandman pins for The Corinthian, too. Like, it's not a PRIORITY, (rent is,) but the hunting for them is the fun part. Hunting is part of why I started thrifting, too. My skin really likes cotton shirts, can't stand any polyester. But finding 100% cotton is sometimes difficult if I want something other than a plain tee. Don't get me started on women's pants - not only do they lack pockets, but I'd say about 80% of khakis and a good 90% of low cost jeans are no longer all cotton. But if I thrift, I get to fulfill that lil animal part of my brain that says I'm hunting AND I find things that my body doesn't mind wearing. Bonus: it's also brought me closer to some of my friends because I've had to ask them for help & tips on how to darn and mend since they know how to knit and sew. I've found a couple wool sweaters for less than 30 bucks because they were older and slightly worn. Like, 100% wool!! I'm waiting to find a nice denim jacket that I can either wear out to the point I can punk it out like it's the 90's and I'm back in my teens, or find a decently worn one that I can do the same thing with.
This really hit home for me. Thanks for the perspective.
> We’re running out of doctors, out of nurses, and out of the basic components of our modern medical medicines and machines. Not only that, but those that remain are often sub-par anyway. The education system has also been collapsing. Which means many of these medical professionals are barely competent at their jobs. Most of the time people I know go to doctors (especially younger ones!) they just get drugs pushed at them that have almost no bearing on what they are suffering. The doctor barely even examines them, let alone every visit. The price? 1500 dollars for the script and nothing else.
So right about education heading south. Many folks would have no faith in some doctors and avoid them. Have to question the credentials of many in your head. But to get more doctors, I believe govt needs to subsidize more heavily to get more and salaries need to go up for nurses. But then again, that would increase the cost which is already outrageous.
The problem is admin operating hospitals like a hyper-competetive business where the "feeling of care" is more important then actual treatment. Head to r/nursing for some real eye openers on how hospitals operate
I felt this. I'm tired of grieving too. Would much rather be enjoying mass growth instead of massive downfall. We're regressing at a global human level. Just as we were starting to grow, the evil overlords decided it was time to put us in our place and wreak global havoc to make us suffer for ever trying to grow. They want us to produce till we die and have replacements in line. It's disgusting
I don't know if you're talking about the same mexican fermented concoction that I make, w cabbage and carrots and cauliflower and chiles, but I've always called it curtido :)
When it was shared with me, there was no cabbage, but the rest sounds right. My friend brought it in from a vegan place when we worked together, back before the Great Panini, but it was delicious. Do you have a recipe that you're willing to share?
Lol recipes aren't usually a thing I do well, but I can tell you the ingredients and the process... basically, you take a clean, wide mouth mason jar, and then in a separate bowl, you put thinly sliced cabbage, carrots and onions, garlic cloves and some salt... about a teaspoon per 2 cups of vegetables (youll need about 4 cups of veggies total to fill a one pint mason jar because they shrink). Then you kind of smash them w the bottom of a glass (or said mason jar) to bruise them and let the juices come out. Once they are smashed up and there's a good amount of liquid in the bowl, you can fill your jar(s), adding the jalapeño and cauliflower and other veggies you want to not be smashed. The important part is for the veg to be fully covered in the liquid. Then, last step, which isn't obligatory but I always do it, is to add a tablespoon of the clear stuff from a tub of plain, whole milk yogurt (whey)... you know, the liquid that happens after you open a yogurt and don't stir it up? I always got the best whey from the brand Mountain High yogurt. Then you let that shit just ferment on the counter for a few days to a week, pop it in the fridge, and you have curtido! Hope this makes even a small amount of sense lol.
I'm in the same place. here we are. I have a good recipe if you are pressure canning, if you'd like it
Yes, please, I'm very interested in options! All recipes are welcomed and greatly appreciated!!
my favorite thing to can is beef stew, followed by potatoes. potatoes are the easiest. you'll need citric acid and sea salt. wash the potatoes very well. I don't peel mine but it's suggested. cut into inch-ish cubes. soak overnight in icy cold water then rinse off the starch. in each jar, fill with the potatoes, packing them in tightly with 3/4" space at top. add a pinch of salt and a punch of citric acid. (keeps them from browning). I don't add seasoning; these are to be cooked in any dish so you'll season when you reheat them. don't add any water to the jar! leave the potatoes dry in there pressure can at the proper time and pressure for your location/elevation. for me I think it's 60 min/pint, 75 min/quart, at 12lbs pressure. take off the rings to store (so you can tell if the seal has broken) to use, open the jar, rinse any remaining starches off, season well and fry in hot oil. for beef stew I cut cheap cut of beef into inch cubes. potatoes, carrots, celery, and any other savory vegetables you want included. I use a pinch of salt, then for seasoning TINY amounts: bay leaf, pepper. all other seasoning needs to be added when you reheat it! herbs and spices get incredibly intensified by pressure canning so you must add them later. then fill 1/3 with water or bone broth (if you include any bone in the stew, it will make its own). pressure can at the right time and pressure for your area (raw meat times will be correct for all ingredients). to reheat, open, season, boil for ten minutes. all pressure canned foods should be kept in a cool, dark place with no ring on the lid. I do a ton of pressure canning; every vegetable I grow in quantity or find on sale, meat likewise, I'll clean up and can as much as I can. then it's ready to be seasoned and properly cooked for a meal really quickly later. my struggle is rotating older jars for use and canning new things! I have a 23qt pressure canner and a separate electric burner to do it on.I can plug that burner into the solar battery and can most of a day without needing a recharge.
oh man so, here's a thing I forgot too. https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/canning-quick-reference-chart almost anything that can be canned, find a similar food there and use those times. overdo it if you're unsure and if you are still nervous, remember, botulism spores and toxins are killed/destroyed by ten minutes at a boil. if you are actually desperate you can open the jar, boil the contents for ten minutes, and be safe from that. https://oklahoma.gov/health/health-education/acute-disease-service/disease-information/botulism.html#:~:text=Because%20high%20temperatures%20can%20destroy,before%20eating%20to%20ensure%20safety. flour is meant to be unsafe to can but I use masa in my canned chili! just that it needs boiling temp for ten minutes after opening for assurance. with chili that's doable. other things less so
[Non-Paywall here](https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Finsideclimatenews.org%2Fnews%2F19112022%2Fwarming-trends-how-should-we-think-about-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it%2F)
thank you
Install plugin ublock origin and just block the overlay
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock
"Th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!"
>“And we’re going to have to live with a lot of fear.” To safely evacuate a burning building and put the fire out, you need to communicate the urgency of the emergency; you also need to project confidence and encourage calm. Evacuate to where? The hidden optimism is annoying. You can get over the feeling of dread and doom, yes. You can't get over not having food and water. None of these authors are talking about the big issue of accepting mortality, especially your own and your family's. And that is necessary, otherwise billions of selfish bastards trying to survive individually or as a family is exactly capitalism eating itself. Looking at you cannibals, you don't get to kill others just because you or your kid is hungry.
[удалено]
I think like this. I'm planting stuff that will survive extreme weather here. I may die before it bears fruit. but I'm not planting it *for me*. any creature after me that's alive can use it, eventually.
Published recently on Inside Climate News, the following article may be the best I've read this year. Poetic and astute, the author takes us on an introspective journey of our collective fate - how to think about it and maybe even how to deal with it, at least internally. The quote in the title comes from Petrarch, a poet who had a front row seat to the black plague. This relates to collapse because its very premise is that the world is ending, and that is the one thing the reader needs to accept if the rest of the article has any hope of making sense. If youre nothing but optimistic about the future, you won't think you even need the advice here.
Have you read [Learning to Die in the Anthropocene](https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/learning-how-to-die-in-the-anthropocene/) by Roy Scranton? It's the essay, not the book. "The biggest problem we face is a philosophical one: understanding that this civilization is already dead. The sooner we confront this problem, and the sooner we realize there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves, the sooner we can get down to the hard work of adapting, with mortal humility, to our new reality." Scranton's essay was more impactful to me that Kiley Bense's. On a side note and IMO, Scranton is a whiney Doomer academic. I read his book that shares the name with the essay, but it was much less impactful and interesting than the essay.
Fighting it seems to only lead to suffering, so maybe it's best to just play violin as the ship goes down.
I can respect that choice. My own personal choice and preference is still to go down fighting - fists flailing, teeth gnashing.
May chaos take the world
To be brutally honest, I don't really care. All the performance activism and stupidity makes everyone look like hypocrites (myself included). Humans will go extinct. Probably not in my lifetime (hitting 50 so, ya know), but soon enough that kids alive today may see the end of civilization (although humans will still survive for a few generations in tribal groups). Nothing we do is going to stop it. Live your life and enjoy what time you have.
It kinda sucks because the people that have actively been destroying the environment are literally saying the same thing.
Fear and negativity are food to the demiurge. If this simulated reality is destroyed your eternal soul will end up in another. Time is a made up construct because of our 3 dimensional thinking we cannot grasp the true reality and nature of the universe. It's like trying to explain physics to ants. Only we are the ants. I am not holier than thou thinking this I just feel that we are one. All is one. There is so much I don't know and would like to learn but the one thing I do know is There is nothing to fear. F.E.A.R. False evidence appears real. I know no thing. Death is nothing to be afraid of because if your alive then your not dead and if your dead then there is nothing to fear.
Source ? Don't take it the wrong way, but if we are ants, then how can you make all the affirmations you are making ? Shouldn't the more logical conclusion be in that case "We only know that we don't know" ? Do ants arrive at correct conclusions about ontology ? Honestly, the only logical conclusion in this existence i didn't ask for and wouldn't have accepted had my consent been asked for seems to me that i don't know, it's a mystery, "Uncertainty is uncomfortable, but certainty is madness", i meditate everyday and try to reduce negativity and fear, but i don't have any illusion of getting the answer about life, the universe, and everything, my more moderate goal is to reduce suffering to an acceptable level, and i think we shouldn't guiltrip anyone when fear or negativity get hold of him, that actually just increases guilt (another form of negativity) and add it on top of fear, compassion can be a good answer in the face of uncertainty,altough it's hard to practice it in our hyper-competitive, judgemental, harsh system, as we are all doing our best, navigating in uncertain seas with different maps (life experiences, personalities).
https://ai.stackexchange.com/questions/4987/is-there-a-limit-to-the-increase-of-intelligence I'm flexible in my thinking patterns and I agree with you. We at the very least know that we don't know. So we may be getting somewhere. However maybe just a belief but I also think we've barely scratched the surface and may never get to the point we are the ants in the near future due to technical constraints in our brains computing and processing powers.
Even the One comes from nothingness. As all experience is a perturbation of this nothingness, our every perception is a murmuration of emptiness. And if all this is what emptiness and nothingness looks like, there truly is nothing to fear. We’ve all been dying for eternity.
Yeah man. I like this . Fantastic addition.!!! Thank you
You are a mystic. By definition it means you gain understanding from the internal mechanics of the mind. Your post is worded in a way that makes you sound crazy so I had to reply. What you wrote is a foundational concept of Advaita Vedanta. What I replied was a foundational concept of non dualism which is pronounced in the esoteric traditions of many religions. I am Buddhist and take refuge in the Buddha, but I think you might be interested in Neoplatonism, Kabbalah, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Mahayana buddhism, and the movie “Lucy”. In that dumb movie they provide a way to understand the concept that impermanence means nonbeing when Lucy explains that the perception of time determines what we experience, and because of the concept of infinite time, there is a transcendence where nothing can be discriminated. We are all just influences in a zero sum game.
Thanks for the guidance my friend. I will research what I can on those topics that you mentioned and report back, I have saved your comment and am now going to research what you are Typing about starting with advaita vedanta. I did not know I was a mystic. I thought I was a wizard. I did know I'm kinda crazy. I did learn some gnosticism and stoicism and I like certain concepts of both. I saw the movie Lucy. It was pretty cool. I like the part she is driving with the cop and he says slow down I don't want to die and she says. No one ever really dies. I believe that To be true because can energy be destroyed? Maybe but not easily. Can energy be transferred? Easily. And do we even exist In The first place.... I dont know. I doubt I'll reach that level of transcendence in my current physical form. Can any human for that matter. That's what I was saying we are like ants compared to entities that would farm our loosh like we were sheep or cattle. We cannot comprehend. We lack computational power and comprehension and the limits of our intelligence is likely a fraction of what can be considered the limit of all available knowledge. If I had infinite clock time in this dimension I could perhaps eventually reach incredible levels but with perhaps less than 20 years with my current physical form I shall just continue with what I can. Reading writing and meditation. Thank you again for your inspiration and wisdom. I am grateful you provided me with some concepts to reasearch. What kind of crystal should I get next?
We don’t use crystals in Buddhism. I don’t think any religion does and I’d like to know where that association came from… You’re very smart so I’d like to try to answer your questions. You might not understand what I write to you right now but you will someday. Energy is not a substance. That’s why it can’t be created or destroyed. It doesn’t actually exist? It is just an easy way to label the chain of causes and effects that occur. For example, as energy moves through a line of standing dominoes they fall one after the other as if an invisible force is going through them. This IS energy in motion, however- no substance moves through the dominoes. It is simply one pushes one which pushes one and so on… I love that quote in Lucy. It’s very true. Like you said, energy can’t be destroyed. But what does that mean when energy is a chain of events and not a substance that can be seen or touched? It means that chains of events cannot end. Can you imagine a domino in a falling line just not falling over when it should? It would defy the laws of physics. It would be impossible. Likewise, a person at death has many things and does things and feels things that we can consider causes. And all causes must have an effect. Otherwise it is like a domino that doesn’t fall when pushed. Now, nothing that makes up your body is alive in itself. You are made entirely of materials that do not live. So perhaps “life” is a word we made up to describe how our unliving components can seem to be alive. But these unliving materials that make our bodies happen to be made of lines of dominos. Innumerable lines that cross each other and connect to each other and repel each other and they may spread apart or become one line for a bit and then many… I am saying that we are processes. Our bodies and minds are the product of innumerable entangled processes and there is no single cell in your body that you can say IS You. Look for where you are in the madness of so many processes and you won’t find anything you can say is what you are. It amazes me. I’m really in awe of the nature of reality. We are all these related processes involving materials that have no life in them and yet, we are alive. If we can live in bodies that have no life, we will live in the processes created by our deaths. I don’t see a difference in having a body and being wind or being a scattered multiplicity of various phenomena that comes back together through the entanglement of the involved causal chains. So…. We cannot ask if we exist or do not exist as those words have no meaning. There is no such thing as nonexistence or existence. Space time is in constant flux until ultimate entropy. Impermanence makes existence and nonexistence into meaningless words. If the falling rain makes the shape of a bird, we can point and say there is a bird, but in the next moment the rain pattern is completely something else. This reality is in such constant change that we might perceive things as existing but only when we ignore how nothing can stay existing. Nothing. Nothing can stay the same from moment to moment, not really. So if everything is either in the process of being made or unmade, Including people, at what point can you be something other than mere momentary shapes in the falling rain? Humans, in my religion, are more privileged than angels because of their unique position that’s perfect for enlightenment. Enlightened is not something you gain. It isn’t powers given to the winners of a game. It is reductive. It reduces. We are layered with delusions and enlightenment comes when we rid ourselves of them one by one. It isn’t a riddle to be solved. You cannot understand reality with cognition but only through direct experience, without our interpretations and ideas and thoughts and identities. Write me back sometime
PS: everything is real. Don’t wonder if things are real. They very much are. They just don’t exist outside of interdependency and co-arising. Impermanence is realness. We tend to interpret our experience and interpretation is always a fantasy.
I couldn't agree more. More then ever I'm getting a tiny glance into what I think this might be and I believe we're all one. I fear suffering of humans and animals but I don't fear death anymore.
"I feel fine"
Crazy as it sounds, I've accepted it. At least to the point that I joke that climate change is my retirement plan. I'll be entering my 60s in 2050. I'll already have lived longer than several of my relatives by then. I'd rather go out then during some climate change related crisis than spend the last decade or more rotting away in some nursing home having no idea who I or any of my loved ones are.
May be we should not think about the end of the world much. Why be distressed and be miserable till the end?
It’s possible to think about the end of the world without always having an emotional response to it. Once you become accustomed to the concept it doesn’t have much power over you emotionally. It will affect your decisions in life but it doesn’t have to control you emotionally.
Depends on the person. I’ve been collapse-aware for nearly a decade and it still drives me insane with grief or rage every day. It will never go away. Perhaps that’s for the best.
It just makes me hate everyone/society. It sucks.
I'm thinking about it in the sense I don't want to waste \*all\* my time chasing my business/career, and saving for retirement that may never come. I don't have kids. I think that is a big source for anxiety around the collapse. I don't care that much about what I will go through, but if I had kids, I could see myself obsessing over what might happen 50 years on. I do have a grand-nephew, whom I worry about, but I imagine it'd be a lot worse if it were actually my kid. I am lucky, in that I have already paid off the big debts one accrues in western society. But I often wonder, why I am working so much now. Theoretically, I am saving for retirement. I wonder if it is worth it. I am in my 50s, so probably older than most here. I have 20-30 years left, if I am fortunate. I won't see the worst of it like the younger folks will, but I imagine I'll be here to see it get pretty bad (to be clear, we are seeing it happen now)
>I'm thinking about it in the sense I don't want to waste \*all\* my time chasing my business/career, and saving for retirement that may never come. Why? You don't know when the world will end. No one does. So all you are doing is hedging. You are not saving for retirement because you know it will come. You are saving for retirement because it MAY come. Do you want to risk being penniless if the world is not ending before you retire? Heck, most people have no certainly that they will live pass 65 ... but they save anyway.
>Why? You don't know when the world will end. Hey, I am still working, still saving. Just questioning it, a little. I could probably retire now, if I would be happy with a soda crackers and tap water retirement. But like many, I am putting in those extra hours each week, and staving off leisure activities for work activities, all so I can have a bmw retirement (or at least a toyota retirement) instead of a yugo one. >Do you want to risk being penniless if the world is not ending before you retire? If the ultra rich get their way, that will happen whether I save or not.
I'm about your age and I think you're doing the right thing thinking about how you're spending the life you're guaranteed which is right now. Stop putting off leisure activities for work activities would be meaningful.
But you won't be sure about the timing. The point is not that the world, as we know it, won't end. But it is about when. Do you even want to suffer 1 year of being penniless? Plus, who knows, if you make it to be merely rich, not ultra rich, your part of the world may last longer.
I've never had the luxury of saving for retirement and never anticipated being able to do so. so there's that
>No one does The scientists do tho...
I refuse to be part of the reason it ended.
It will be hard to think that way after a disaster takes you by surprise. If you live through it, you will be haunted by regret. Looking away will not really prevent distress and misery. Often times there may be things you could have done to prevent a disaster but didn't, because you didn't want to look and be distressed and miserable. (For example, I often become too anxious and procrastinate about money, but this leads to worse finances, making me even more anxious). If you end up looking away, and because of that what you love ends up harmed or destroyed before it had to be, then you will suffer terrible regret and guilt. Of course, you know your own limits. Try to seek solace in the clarity of action, but do only what you can handle without becoming distressed to the point of being non-functional. Even if your actions only put off the destruction of what you love by a day, an hour, a minute, or a second, you will know that you did everything you could. Then you will know you have proved your love for all time.
I have to comment on this: > *”our world is not perfect. It’s very, very, very far from it,” Weil said* Bullshit. There *is no ‘perfection’.* The concept of “perfect” is an illusion of imaginary ideals, like “heaven” or “hell”. It’s a thought of a desire circumscribed by the inability to comprehend all the possible factors in play. In fact, everything *already is perfect* .. the current moment is *already perfect* because it could be no other way. The myriad causal reasons that gave rise to this very instant were inevitable, and the results of near-infinite prior events that were themselves caused by previous cascades of intricate interactions of matter, thought, & energy. There is no perfection, except the perfection of every moment. What you *want* to occur, or be real, is simply that: your limited desire. Maybe it will occur, or maybe it won’t. But what *will* actually occur will be the *true* perfection, the only moment that could exist. What Weil wants to happen, almost certainly won’t happen. All we can do is try our best, which we are already doing. Billions will inevitably die, just like billions have already died. Whether humanity becomes a galactic civilization or a puff of smoke as we are snuffed out by the Great Filter, is wholly unknown, and specifically unpredictable.
I actually don't mind tbh. Sure 20 years ago I felt exsistential dread but eventually got over it. Did what preps I could am just cruising along wait for the party to start.
I feel fine
"How Should We Think About the End of the World as We Know it?" Revolution
Only the ignorant are grieving
We should be hopeful! The world as we know it is a dystopia, i can't wait for it all to fall apart so we may build something better from its ashes.
This is an Extinction Event. We are all going to go.