2022-02-28: the collapse

this was originally a message i sent to my family in a chat room. it was composed as a stream of thought on-the-fly. i am publishing it unaltered below.

message

I feel like it's time to talk about The Collapse... or whatever you want to call it.

I've been following the climate crisis for a while. The situation is becoming increasingly dire, the evidence more and more clear and yet, we keep marching on with business as usual, destroying life systematically: plant life, animal life, human life, the life of our planet itself.

The political climate is as polarised as ever. Discourse is frequently impossible, there's hatrid, a complete lack of understanding or even willingness to see and understand the arguments of the other side. Positions are extreme in all directions and the willingness to cooperate is dwindling.

It used to be easy to detach yourself from politics, to avoid discussions. But COVID dragged it into our everyday lives. We're all immediately faced with the consequences of political decisions that can come out of nowhere and change from one day to the next. The topics surrounding COVID have been straining for everyone and even caused long-term friendships to break under the weight.

Now there's war on our doorstep (at least if feels close). People are dropping bombs on cities where other people live with their families and children. There's fighting in the streets. "Ukrainian men are turning into animals", I hear. No mercy for the attackers. Nuclear waste is probably seeping out. Increasingly dangerous weaponry is being brought into the conflict zone, with nuclear war becoming a real possibility again.

Something... is very, very wrong. And it's not Putin, it's not the global elites, it's not Donald Trump or Jeff Bezos, it's not Communism or Capitalism. Something deep, deep inside of us, something that connects us all is very, very sick and it's crying out, flailing, destroying everything in its wake. We've allowed ourselves to become so disconnected... disconnected to everything that's real and true and that really matters. We're all just functioning in some kind of machinery. And somehow we know this. We know this isn't right. We know there's... another way. Another, more beautiful world. Not just a fantasy, a very real and possible alternate reality. But we only catch short glimpses of it at a time before we get distracted by the drudgery of everyday life again.

I don't know exactly what this other place is, much less how to get there. But I know it's there. It's here. It's waiting. It's waiting for us to pull it into existence. To make it a reality. And I'm convinced we can make it happen. Somehow.

So. I don't really know where I'm going with this, just wanted to share my thoughts. Maybe some of you feel the same way. I kinda want more people to see this place.