"There are lots of reasons to feel panicked & overwhelmed about climate change but really they're all surmountable", says Richard Bartlett
We are a great fan of Richard Bartlett - social network guru and “microsolidarities" advocate extraordinaire - and his pithy Twitter expositions of issues relevant to democracy and regeneration. Here’s two of his latest, theming on the psychology of climate crisis. We begin with an embed of his opening tweets, then a text list of following points:
you don't know what piece of the puzzle is yours to work on so you're trying to eat it all at once and you're choking
you found your piece to work on but you don't have enough peers so you think it's never going to be enough
your unprocessed fear of your personal death (certain) is getting mixed up with fear of human extinction (unlikely)
in your desperate grasping for certainty in an increasingly volatile world you decided we're definitely doomed
you underestimate how much beauty & goodness will persist amid terrible suffering
you have prematurely written off the USA
you don't know enough engineers/inventors/entrepreneurs/gardeners/earth protectors
you have insufficient immunity to panicporn and you don't know how to modulate your media diet
you think we need to undo capitalism, patriarchy, colonisation, ableism etc if we're going to interrupt climate change (compounding problems problem)
your identity is anchored in a perverse sense of superiority, you're better than everyone else who doesn't know that we're all doomed
you have never witnessed the awesome power of a generation supercharged by courage and a righteous cause
stage 1: denial, avoidance, numbing, joking... I don't want to think about it because if I did it would probably be depressing because we're probably fucked and there's nothing I can do about it anyway so get out of the way I'm trying to watch the footy mate
stage 2: rage/grief. I've seen how big the problem is, nobody is doing shit, everyone with more power than me is to blame. I don't know what piece of the puzzle is mine to solve so I choke/freeze/panic when I try to imagine doing something constructive but at least I can protest
stage 3: risking burnout. I know what piece is mine to work on, I'm fully engaged in constructive projects. but I can't see enough ppl taking action so I feel compelled to work at 3x my capacity. painfully oscillating between overwork & depression
stage 4: joyful & relaxed. I know my piece to work on & I'm in relationship with many other engaged peers working on theirs. I couldn’t imagine a more meaningful life. we have such deep support networks that civilisation could collapse and we'll still take care of each other
this is a developmental hierarchy I just invented so of course I put myself at the top 🤣
seriously though, this is what @micro_solid is about: getting people into regenerative communities of mutual aid & belonging to mass-produce courage & hope for purposeful action 📈
if you're in stage 2, people in stage 1 and stage 4 both look like the enemy, “they're not taking this seriously, can't you see we're doomed, how dare you be happy!!!”
there are lots of reasons to feel panicked & overwhelmed about climate change but really they're all surmountable
To read more from Richard Bartlett, follow him at @rich_decibels on Twitter, and at his home page