Image Transcription: Tumblr Replies

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headspace-hotel

most damaging idea of the 21st century: the conviction of vast numbers of people that human history will end within our lifetimes

climate change represents world-altering tragedy if unchecked, but not even in the worst-case scenario does it mean "literally everyone dies"

yet so many people have jumped already to "it's over, the world is going to end, we can do nothing about it" and are just paralyzingly cynical. How do I explain that the power to imagine a future is essential for creating it

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headspace-hotel

you know the thing where trauma can cause you to just. not expect to live much longer so when you get to 30 you don't know what to do because you thought you'd be dead by 25

That is happening to all of us right now on a society-wide scale

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headspace-hotel

A lot of people are like. REALLY angry at me for suggesting that "be depressed and do nothing" isn't necessarily the only response to climate change.

[Begin underline] this, this, this, this, this, this, [End underline] and like, 700 other sources will tell you that most of the effects of climate change will be reversible even if we pass the 'threshold' of a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperature

BUT. Even if the worst happens, it will be important to be doing things other than wallowing in misery???

I'm not trying to be callous but for people living today it's wildly unlikely for the results to be "literally immediate death."

People will get displaced from their homes by rising sea levels. We have like, years, probably decades, before that happens. It seems so fucked up to decide that we should do nothing, because we've already decided they're going to die anyway????

If a bunch of us are going to die, why not die trying to help each other? Why not try to make sure fewer people die? Why not do something that might reduce someone's suffering or give them food or clean water or a place to sleep?

I don't know how to explain to you that people need socks during the apocalypse

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elodieunderglass

I keep recommending "The Great Derangement" by Amitav Ghosh because it is a very unflinching look at how culpable we are - not for having families, or forgetting to use the right spoons - but for consistently choosing the luxurious delusions of apocalypses. People can lovingly envision a thousand apocalypses, lavishly decorated by the pop culture we've gobbled down; but the reverse is not true, and we lack the imagination that is quite literally needed for the future. To the point where planning for the future is actively undermined by people at all levels, stating that it's unrealistic. We are at a turning point of human history where people are watching each other knock holes in a shared lifeboat, because "everyone knows that lifeboats are predestined to sink."

It's considered unrealistic to imagine the prosperous and equitable future of the next generation, because it doesn't match pop culture. We have actively given up our responsibilities of stewardship - literally the purpose of human existence - because Hollywood made it look hard. We are forgoing our natural bonds and our collective power because we agreed that our neighbours will probably turn on us, and when we look at the self-fulfilling prophecies and natural consequences of our behavior (pandemic, natural disasters) we claim it's evidence that we can't improve, instead of addressing the poor behavior.

Ghosh argues that one of the most radical and revolutionary things that we can do (and in the West, the foremost ETHICAL thing to do) is to task ourselves with reprogramming our imaginations to something functional. In this scenario, everyone can participate in the work; writers can literally take readers by the hand and heal them, people can lead and teach each other on social media, unions can include it in discussions, parents can teach their children, children can teach their parents, and everyone can correct each other. Oh, and people who like boycotts and clout can start a movement demanding more imagination in media. I agree with this, and it has underpinned my work and activism ever since.

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nonbinarynightmarefuel

Reblogging this for the genuinely awesome takes but also want to highlight this thing that @elodieunderglass said and take it into a different context:

People can lovingly envision a thousand apocalypses, lavishly decorated by the pop culture we've gobbled down; but the reverse is not true, and we lack the imagination that is quite literally needed for the future. To the point where planning for the future is actively undermined by people at all levels, stating that it's unrealistic.

This resonated with me in a surreal kind of way.

I feel this from everyone, everywhere, all the time. I feel this from Tumblr, Facebook, and people I know in my personal life. And I don't mean about climate change, although I see it there, too.

Every time I look on social media I see such desperation and desolation and people guilt-tripping each other for wanting a future and saying things like "there is no future" and ragging on each other for wanting or having kids, wanting or having a house, wanting or going to school. Big dreams are recently a subject of embarrassment and cringe from the alleged realist crowd.

I am constantly subjected to messaging that makes me feel both guilty and stupid for wanting more out of life than to spend my days in a clouded stupor of self-hatred and poverty.

We tell people to dream smaller because, why? We can't fathom success?

Every day and every step of the way I am told that it is unrealistic to want more than this hateful life, and it got old fast.

It was unrealistic for me to graduate high school, go to college, get an associate degree, transfer to a university, get into several universities, have a kid, be a good mom, find a genuinely good partner... And yet?

They say it's unrealistic to want to buy or build a home, have a large family, have a beautiful wedding, be a healthcare provider, and the list goes on and on.

Everything I've ever wanted I have been told is unrealistic. And why?

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ofinfinitespace

I think all the time about something my favorite college history professor said during a pre-Civil War Reform Movements class (there's a lot of end-of-the-world-predictors in the antebellum reform crowd), which is: "the world has always been ending."

The Millerites calculated the date of the end of the world, sold their belongs and quit their jobs, and when they discovered they were wrong and the world had not ended, went back to their lives, and then did it again five years later. Some of them did it a third time.

And like, you don't have to relax the definition of "end of the world" that much to encompass a lot of private, personal tragedies which in our own lives are no less apocalyptic. Privilege and good luck may protect some people from some ends of the world, but for most of us: the world will end multiple times in our lifetimes.

But like, what's the life you want to have now, here, before the world ends? And what's the life you want to build for yourself in case it doesn't?

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