Walkie-Talkie #14 ‘What Can You and Me Contribute? (But Really?)’
Dear friends,
In Walkie-Talkie 14, I’m walking along a forest trail in Hungary, near the village where I spend a lot of time. Hungary has been my second home for nearly four decades, so I visit this country relatively often and enjoy its nature—though even here, nature is already suffering greatly from climate disruption and increasing droughts and heat waves.
In my blog, I’ve often discussed what is no longer possible (or has never been possible) when it comes to “solutions” for the many ecological crises we’re currently facing. In various pieces I’ve written myself and in texts by others that I’ve shared, I’ve tried to explain why many of the “solutions” circulating in the public debate (to the extent that such a public debate even exists) aren’t solutions at all but simply shift the problems elsewhere.
I’m currently writing a blog post about what is still possible to turn the Titanic of our industrial global society around, and to truly make a difference for our future and that of our descendants (and the other life forms with whom we share the planet). It looks like this post is going to turn into a full-fledged essay, because it’s impossible—within the maximum length I currently allow myself for blog posts—to provide even a brief summary of everything that will be needed to achieve an ecological civilization worthy of the name.
And even now, as I try to provide such a concise summary in this Walkie-Talkie, I realize it can’t be done in just a few sentences. Like the previous Walkie-Talkie 13, this post has turned out to be a bit longer than average, because even a very brief and simplified outline of what will need to happen to change the course of our society quickly becomes an impressive “to-do” list that can be quite discouraging at first.
But above all, I’m trying to make clear during this “Talkie” that what you and I can contribute to this has less to do with personal behavioral changes regarding consumption or energy use than is generally thought: the sum of our individual good intentions in that area won’t save us, and the emphasis on individual responsibility regarding global transformations keeps us trapped in isolation as existentially lonely entities within our consumer society, quickly leading to despondency, despair, cynicism, aversion, or resistance.
Yes, individual behavioral change is necessary, but above all, each of us can contribute to the major systemic changes that will be required. And that can be done in a million different ways—large and small, modest or ambitious—but at every scale, it’s primarily about forging connections. In fact, we need to start seeing ourselves less as individual consumers, and more as cells of an organism that must find one another to breathe new life into that organism.
And our disbelief that each of us can make a meaningful contribution is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If, on the other hand, we start believing again in our agency and the potential impact of our contribution, nothing is impossible. And the new worldview emerging in philosophy, the philosophy of science, and science itself will make it easier for each of us to believe that we truly all have a unique contribution to make and a unique gift for the world, each from our own unique soul.
To be continued, because that will actually be the very core of my new goal with A Biosphere Project/ Infinite Mind: connecting that new worldview with all of our sense of power, agency, and belief that each of us has a gift to offer the world to help turn the Titanic around.
Thank you for joining me on this walk, and until the next episode,
All the best to you,
Filip
