Deeply understanding the complexity and interconnectedness of our current issues, how systemic they are, can often give a sense of hopelessness while reducing our sense of agency.
We realize that there is no single solution. We realize that given the incentives intrinsic in the system, there’s a much broader change needed. We realize that whatever we do, we are complicit in the system perpetuating the problems, we don’t get to be a moral being separate from my species
One possible reaction could be actively repressing and numbing emotions, the opposite of that is not despair. Rather, the opposite of numbness is sensitivity, which includes fear, pain, hope, beauty humor and much more (emotions remind us of whats important to us). (Nora Bateson)
Agency and Duty
Instead of hopelessness and reduction of agency, Daniel Schmachtenberger argues that we could gets a sense of empowerment. Deeply understanding the problems (and how complex and seemingly intractable they are) is a needed first step towards addressing them. Then there can be a sense of sacred duty to do our best to protect life, as that’s what’s most worth doing in our situation. committed to being in service of the sacredness of life whether you can succeed or not (post tragic stance).
Looking at all of our biggest crises together (instead of singling one out) we can find the common underlying patterns contributing to them. Doing so gives us something to start with that can move us in the right direction on all these issues.
We can address the “generator functions” of The Metacrisis
Because Life
- What’s the point is a wrong question
- what’s the strategy we will use? what’s it for? how we’re going to do it?
- What’s the point of the forest? The forest is just foresting
- the reason for tending to life is because life Nora Bateson
Podcast - Deep(er) Ecology - Great Simplification | Learning to be in the world - Dinner&Talk with Nora Bateson & Daniel Schmachtenberger