What I learned about collapse this year

This is primarily in regards, like much of this blog, to how to deal with collapse on an individual, spiritual level. Many of us will likely be meeting our maker as a consequence of unfolding collapse, especially those of us with chronic illnesses such as diabetes. That is why one's spiritual attitude towards these events is of the utmost importance.

One thing is clear: What you must not do is take an attitude towards collapse issues that could be characterized as either hysterical or lugubrious. And it should really go without saying that one absolutely shouldn't be gleefully misanthropic about the human tragedy that the collapse of industrial civilization will represent. These wrong-minded attitudes come from the ego and only lead to self-defeating and counterproductive social acting out. Acting like a deranged teenager isn't going to help anything or anybody.

What you should cultivate is inner peace and wisdom. These are the things that will keep people balanced and mature as things become increasingly dire. This does not mean kidding oneself that society's problems are going to have any sort of conventional political solution. One may, for instance, understandably vote in such a way as to decant the irrational right-wing extremists from political power next year because you don't want people like that making important decisions in a collapse-situation. But it would still be a mistake to invest any hope as such in the political establishment as it is currently constituted. Kidding oneself about what's going on and emotionally investing oneself in the deception will only court great disappointment.

However, community involvement is something real and substantial into which to invest oneself because we will need to rely on one another to deal with the realities of collapse. So if one is going to be involved in politics, local politics is definitely the place to be active. And local politics is always going to be the politics which are most immediately about you and your family and your neighbors. So even though that may well be frustrating too, it is also the area that is likely to be rewarding.

In our spiritual orientation, we should seek to put aside ego-investments of all varieties, because collapse will teach us in no uncertain terms just how little the realities of this world care about the fantasies to which we cling to keep ourselves going. And we must not flinch from looking honestly at our own behavior to see if fear of the harsh future is making us lapse back into the sort of bad old social habits we are better off outgrowing. Maturity and realism are the keys to dealing with collapse constructively, not kidding yourself and getting caught up in your old ego-garbage.