At a time of cultural devastation, the reality that a courageous person has to face up to is that one has to face up to reality in new ways. Jonathon Lear ‘Radical Hope’
We live in challenging times – normal service will not be resumed.
Jonathan Lear describes the story of how the Crow nation adapted to a new way of life after their traditional way of life had collapsed. Like the Crow, we live in an age of deep and profound angst that the world, as modern humans know it, is vulnerable to break down. It will take a radical decentering to re-imagine our place in the planetary ecosystem.
The Earth systems and the cultural systems are in a parallel process of rupture. Western culture is distracted by our many escapist entertainments that help maintain a sense of ‘normality’ despite increasing symptoms of eco-anxiety, addiction and suicide. Examples of our cultural malaise include:
- Issues of overstimulation and lack of self-regulation
- Culture of uncare and loss of our capacity to relate to others
- Reality seeming to fray at the edges; unravelling of our known world
- Unprocessed grief from the many losses of place and species
- Apocalyptic fantasies and dreams
My focus is not on climate science, technological solutions nor on individual maladies but rather on the psychology of the collective crisis which is likely to leave our children inheriting an endangered world. This crisis will force a species wide challenge to imaginatively adapt to a very different world. I am exploring how psychological interventions can become cultural interventions - new ways of healing and transformation.