The Mystical Mountain

According to the late great humorist Terry Pratchett (author of the  popular  “Discworld” fantasy series) the most fundamental element in the universe is “narrativium”. “Narrativium” is what stories are made of and stories make the world. This isn’t just an amusing fancy. As humans we invariably tell ourselves stories about our experiences to give them meaning and value.

The world is made of stories. The stories both reflect and create our experience. Good stories are useful and empowering; they help us to respond appropriately to our circumstances. Unfortunately, our current stories about climate change and many other big world issues are not good stories. 

We are told we can solve massive global problems caused by industrial systems of production by personal action. Vote with your money; buy “green” products; shop your way to sustainability! Climate change? Car pool; take public transit. Giant gyres of plastic waste in the ocean? Reject plastic straws; reusable your shopping bags. The mismatch between the scale of the problems and the solutions on offer would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic.

Even without these deliberate manipulations and distortions there are several flaws in our current understanding. Many unstated assumptions cloud our thinking and keep us mired in helplessness and despair. If we want to do anything other than give in to paralysis and denial we need a better understanding of who we are, our place in the world, and what we are up against.

The most insidious error is thinking that we are somehow separate from or unconnected to the natural world. We think we are special, different, powerful. We talk about “Nature” as if it was an aging relative that we should be more dutiful about visiting. We have created the illusion of separation but we are really just one species among many. 

We idea that we are god-like beings who can control or manage a planet is pure fantasy. We figured out how to tap into a concentrated energy source that allowed us to rise to spectacular heights. We’ve also  squandered it recklessly. We will be dealing with the massive unintended consequences of this for generations to come.

Pollution of the atmosphere, the land, and the oceans isn’t going to evaporate. Resource depletion and rising energy costs are here to stay. Political turmoil and economic uncertainty are likely to remain an ongoing challenge. These are the issues that shape our lives and will continue to shape our lives for the foreseeable future.

These are not problems that can be solved. This the second flaw in our thinking. Solutions may have been possible 50 years ago. Today, unfortunately, even if our debauched political class was willing to take action, there is no way to make these issues go away. We’re in a bind created by decades of inaction. Our only option is to find more or less useful ways to respond.

Too many of our stories encourage the least useful response: remaining passive. The twin fantasies of apocalypse and salvation dominate our mythos. Apocalypse, it’s all going to come crashing down around us, appeals to people who have lives they hate and feel helpless to change. Salvation, some dramatic intervention in the form of aliens, gods, or mass enlightenment is preferred by those who are more comfortable. Both give us the excuse to carry on without the personal inconvenience of making changes to how we live.

The third story is even more pernicious. It is that we, the human species, are inherently destructive and the world would be better off without us. This is another excuse to sit on our hands. We are so bad, so innately harmful that we can’t possibly ever find ways of living that are beneficial to the rest of the biosphere and we might as well not bother trying.

This is a fiction that ignores hundreds of thousands of years of human history and countless cultures around the world. People have found ways to live sustainably many times in many places. Humans have been and can be keystone species. A keystone species is a species that exerts a stabilizing influence throughout an ecological community. A keystone species can expand the diversity of the bioregion by generating or regenerating habit and increasing available resources.

We love to think of ourselves as special even if it’s especially destructive but we could also be especially valuable members of our ecological communities. We could be a regenerative force. We’ve done it many times in many places throughout history. How we choose to response to the current crisis depends on which stories we choose to tell ourselves about ourselves and our place in the world. 

Next: Adaptation is our Superpower

Our so-called leaders have abandoned any attempt to make any effective response to the real challenges that most of us face. They have consistently chosen to enrich themselves at our expense and have just as consistently stirred up international conflict to distract us from the resulting in poverty and immiseration. It is clear that they are unwilling or incapable of doing anything useful. Instead, they have offered us the equally destructive choice between paralyzing fear and mindless distraction. They cannot save us. The only help available is what we can provide for ourselves and share with the people around us. 

The good news is that outside all the noise and confusion something else is happening. It is quiet and hard to see. Even if you do see it you may not realize how important it is. Outside the circus there are individuals, families, and small groups of people who are doing something different. They are living their lives. They are rejecting both fear and distraction and they are finding ways to make the best of their situation. They are doing what people have always done: they are adapting to the unalterable circumstances that shape their lives.  

Adaption is our superpower. We are the most adaptable species on earth. We have adapted to and survived dramatic changes in climate many times in the last 200,000 years. We have developed new ways of living for every new climate and every bioregion we’ve encountered. We were creating sustainable cultures with stable populations in some of the most extreme regions on earth, including the Australian outback and the high Arctic long before the discovery and widespread use of fossil fuels. 

Most of us have forgotten our strength. The stories we commonly hear or tell or “know” about who we are, how we fit into the world, and the challenges we face, are stories of shame and blame. They focus on our “innate” flaws. They are stories that lead to guilt and paralysis. But they are not the whole story or the only story. The stories shaping our ideas about ourselves and our  world are by nature only partial truths. They reflect some aspects of reality and they ignore and distort others.

There is a better way to understand ourselves and what we’re up against. There are better stories, empowering stories. Stories that can help us shake off helplessness, grief, and despair. Some of these are stories as old as humanity itself. They are stories about our inherent human strengths and abilities; about how we’ve used those traits in the past; and about the time tested strategies that have helped us thrive. They are stories about what we can do as individuals, families, and small groups to help ourselves. Stories that can help each of us formulate our own best response to the soul crushing weight that is the future currently on offer. 

We have the potential to be a positive force for regeneration and renewal in our sadly damaged world but before we can go on to finding our own stories we must take a deeper look as some of the false assumptions holding us back. The stories we have right now are not empowering. Recognizing the flaws in our current understanding is the first step to co-creating a future worth having. 

Next: Fallacies, Fantasy, and Fiction or What’s Wrong with this Picture?