Good questions. I am constantly asking myself not only am I doing enough, but also enough of the right thing. So I was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful story from the German public broadcaster, which I listened to on the train this morning. I won’t spoil it, but it’s a lot to do with community. https://www.dw.com/en/breaking-the-chains-of-consumerism/audio-72888782
I love that you are bringing in the productivity dimension of our climate crisis and making the really-really-really-really-really important connection between the productive thrust of our globalised industrial consumer economy and our own internal compulsion to be doing more/better.
Of course we want to do good things in the world and there's the urgency that comes with that (y'know, when our own so-called leaders insist on shredding life for profit, Shane and David, etc). But I just want to remind anyone who knows they need to slow down or do less, and who is finding it really really hard, that No Wonder You Are My Friend.
We are living in the narrative longtail of deep colonial mindsets: ones of extraction, oppression, domination and fetishised production....including over ourselves. But we don't truly see how deeply internalised these stories are (because we don't talk about the ongoing effect of past social violence on our shiny modern lives).
I definitely do not have an "answer" as I am continuing to work (see: I said WORK?!) through this myself but I will share something that stuck with me from a wise person. They said: "The earth begins with you".
Our bodies are the earth, too, little finite planets of our own, so when we ravage them in the name of activism we are kinda innocently going against our principles.
A resource for people is Dr Devon Price and their book Laziness Does Not Exist speaks to tge construction of productivity very well... also can be found on lots of podcasts including a good episode on Upstream: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3bdqEgNmdhkQ0CjTOtllPz
Thanks again for bringing in this topic and I love your newsletter!
Good questions. I am constantly asking myself not only am I doing enough, but also enough of the right thing. So I was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful story from the German public broadcaster, which I listened to on the train this morning. I won’t spoil it, but it’s a lot to do with community. https://www.dw.com/en/breaking-the-chains-of-consumerism/audio-72888782
This was beautiful, thank you for sharing Stephen.
I love that you are bringing in the productivity dimension of our climate crisis and making the really-really-really-really-really important connection between the productive thrust of our globalised industrial consumer economy and our own internal compulsion to be doing more/better.
Of course we want to do good things in the world and there's the urgency that comes with that (y'know, when our own so-called leaders insist on shredding life for profit, Shane and David, etc). But I just want to remind anyone who knows they need to slow down or do less, and who is finding it really really hard, that No Wonder You Are My Friend.
We are living in the narrative longtail of deep colonial mindsets: ones of extraction, oppression, domination and fetishised production....including over ourselves. But we don't truly see how deeply internalised these stories are (because we don't talk about the ongoing effect of past social violence on our shiny modern lives).
I definitely do not have an "answer" as I am continuing to work (see: I said WORK?!) through this myself but I will share something that stuck with me from a wise person. They said: "The earth begins with you".
Our bodies are the earth, too, little finite planets of our own, so when we ravage them in the name of activism we are kinda innocently going against our principles.
A resource for people is Dr Devon Price and their book Laziness Does Not Exist speaks to tge construction of productivity very well... also can be found on lots of podcasts including a good episode on Upstream: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3bdqEgNmdhkQ0CjTOtllPz
Thanks again for bringing in this topic and I love your newsletter!