Society featured

Here, I attempt to paint a picture of how we might think of ourselves as humans on this planet, as integral members of the community of life.

History also teaches us that times of uncertainty and instability are fertile conditions for populists and those with dark agendas, as people under stress often seek simple answers to complex problems, which often dredges up an instinct to blame and see ‘us and them’ divisions.  This looks to be bubbling to the surface as unrest in many parts of the world, of which the UK is now exemplary. 

Modernity is a sort of flight-of-fancy: a mode that our flexible brains allowed us to pursue, while lacking sufficient cognitive power to really understand what it means or think it all through.

In this episode, Nate is joined by Mamphela Ramphele, co-founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, which was instrumental in building the ideological foundation that galvanized the struggle for Liberation under the apartheid regime in South Africa, ultimately leading to its dismantling.

If we can learn to navigate the ethical complexities of our non-ideal world, we will be much better prepared to transform it.

Rich countries have exported climate breakdown through extractive industries, creating a “carbon colonialism.”

Modernity has no choice but to end, although it seems very likely to me that humans will survive the trauma and come out the other side experimenting with new (and/or old) ways of living, necessarily in closer connection with local ecological realities.

This is not a heroic tale. There are no handsome protagonists bringing salvation at the end of the flood. There are only fleeting rainbows. And the miraculous thing is that this is enough.

The problem isn’t being an exceptional product of evolution. The problem is thinking we’re the pinnacle of evolution: that we’re better than the rest; somehow transcendent so that we are not mere animals. Ironically, it is in distancing ourselves from animals that we become monsters.