Pretending That Everything is Fine is Putting Everyone in More Danger - Including You

The earth is grossly overpopulated. Natural disasters are increasing in numbers and also in severity. If you just take a moment to look up from your phone, you will see a large part of society in straight-up, glassy-eyed denial. Simply paying attention to the news stories we see everyday is now ridiculed and called “doomscrolling” (unless we’re reading fluffy celebrity, sports , or political news). Doomsters are often compared with preppers, ignoring the big, glaring differences in how each group is perceived by the public. Preppers were never really big news or attacked too much publicly, whereas Doomsters are constantly ridiculed online as if they are spreading poisonous thoughts. Why?

"Any action you take towards freeing yourself and confronting our reality means you aren’t stuck in the mind-trip created by others to control you and keep you spending, always lining the pockets of the ultra-rich. "

My theory is that preppers were notorious for preparing for a future apocalyptic or collapse event, whereas Doomsters are responding to the reality of the present (at this point a lot of preppers are adapting to this current reality as well).  So rather than being able to say “Oh, these people are paranoid, they’re preparing the some crazy event in the future” we see clearly that Doomsters are reacting  to the current situation, here and now.

And a lot of people don’t want to believe that we are in the midst of a global pandemic that has lasted four years (and is, at the time of writing this article, still killing 1,500+ Americans per week, 7,500 in the UK per week, and more worldwide). Or that we are witnessing multiple signs of societal, environmental and economic collapse. It is as if a large portion of the population is saying “look on the bright side!” , not realizing that in order to see the bright side, you also need to accept reality, dark as it may seem.

So what do we need to awaken from this slumber, this consumerist, social media junkie smart-tech haze? How can we stop being a part of the problem—the tornado of blame, hate and destruction—as we lie in our comfy, carefully-constructed prison of the mind?

 We’ve all been spoon-fed this idea that as long as we support the government, keep shopping and do as we’re told, the government will somehow always serve our best interests (as long as we voted for the person in office). The reality, however, is that the government cannot (and will not) come save us from our current predicament. In fact, most of this is the fault of governments worldwide. As always, when the shit hits the fan, the government officials, corporate CEOs and tech billionaires will all run off to whatever bunker that has been reserved for the one percent, leaving us to fight each other for the last goddamn toilet paper roll. We need to see this and accept it all before we can move on to the next stage, collectively.

The next stage after accepting our reality is most likely going to be individual action, and it will be different for everyone. If you live in the desert (places like Phoenix, AZ and southern Nevada), you may decide to rip up your lawn and put down rocks and a desert garden with things like sage, rosemary, prickly pear cactus and palo verde trees. Wherever you are, you might cancel all of your streaming services and get DVDs from the thrift store. You might go carless and get a bike, stop using services and products from anyone who isn’t independent or local, or switch from Gmail or Hotmail or Apple emails to a private encrypted email service like Proton. You could repurpose your property to turn it into a food forest or Guerilla Garden to cut down on groceries or provide free food for your neighborhood.

Whatever it is, any action is good. Any action you take towards freeing yourself and confronting our reality means you aren’t stuck in the mind-trip created by others to control you and keep you spending, always lining the pockets of the ultra-rich. It doesn’t seem like much, but imagine that 1000 people in your state start doing this every day. Every day, 1000 people would be pulling their money from Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google, growing gardens, spending less on groceries, cutting down on water usage and pollution, creating community and crossing party lines to make friends. Imagine this happening in every state in the US, every province in Canada, every region in every country. The more people that do this, the more that will follow.

We all have power at an individual level, but governments and corporations don’t want us to realize this. Now, time has run out for us to wake up from our sleepwalking. It is incredibly brave to open your eyes and see, really see what the reality of life is and where we are at this point in history, despite the fears and social conditioning trying to keep you where you are. And then to move forward with purpose, a willingness to adapt, and the determination to make every day count.

"The most radical thing any of us can do at this time is to be fully present to what is happening in the world."

—Joanna Macy