Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Nate Hagens In this short edition of Frankly, Nate dives into the theme of unintended consequences across energy, environmental issues, and social movements. Through this lens, we understand the importance of looking two or three steps ahead of today’s actions and see the – sometimes unwanted – ripple effects in the future.
Even if I don’t fully agree with Wilkinson’s thesis that development is driven by need, I think he demonstrates quite well that in a long term perspective, we actually spend more and more effort to maintain human societies. Most of that work is today based on external energy resources and overuse of biological and mineral resources.
People get broken all the time, there’s no art in that, but there is an art in making spaces where we can be broken open with a chance of healing.
For me, the greatest joy in reading Ross West’s eco-short story collection The Fragile Blue Dot lies in the sheer brilliance of imagination and storytelling prowess on display in each piece.
A revolutionary movement has to have a revolutionary goal – the overthrow of the corrupt, rotten structures of end stage capitalism and the replacement of decayed structures with new, responsive institutions.
I believe we are careening toward a biophysical and cultural crisis that will very likely destroy money — along with a great many other things. But I also believe that we are falling toward abundance again.
Lion encounters with gazelles are not war-like massacres, or expressions of hatred: just satisfaction of hunger in the way ecological relationships and evolution set them up to work. Once the lions have a gazelle down, the other gazelles go about grazing in close proximity to the lions, justifiably unconcerned.
The soul is neither the inner self, the divine, nor the immaterial, as traditional philosophical thinking might argue. Rather, it is that which binds us together: it is relational and environmental, and when a species goes extinct, its soul, and thereby its relations, goes with it.
And it will be up to Gaians to promote a right relationship with the living Earth, based on respect, deference, and atoning for decades of exploitation—just not as individuals, but as economic, political, and cultural systems, even as the levels of climate denial and climate disruptions crescendo and pull apart the economic, political and social realities we’ve known our entire lives.
Tomorrow’s worlds are built on reality. We need to tell a counter-narrative of the good life, of common decency, of hope, with creativity, solidarity, audacity… and joy. Which is what we need now more than ever!
It strikes me that we are now at a crucial tipping point where a large number of people have been activated to the dire state of things when it comes to our many crises and challenges but whose behaviours are not commensurate with their understanding.
Let’s not take these self-proclaimed heroes and warriors too seriously. People who don’t know the first thing about how to take care of themselves materially and are dependent on others to provide for their needs aren’t heroes. They’re helpless children.
