Another End of the World is Possible

What Shade of Green Are You? (Alex Steffan)

The following is an excerpt from “Bright Green, Light Green, Dark Green, Gray: The New Environmental Spectrum“ by Alex Steffen

The Dictionary Is Not a Holy Book

In my discussions in various online forums, I frequently encounter people who worship the dictionary. These individuals will whip out the dictionary at every turn in an attempt to convince others of the rightness of their position. Often, the discussion is about religious words, but it could be any word really. Most recently, it was about the word “anarchism”, which this particular individual kept trying to dumb down from a sophisticated political philosophy to a trite dictionary definition.

We’re all monsters.

On my way to work today … driving my fossil-fuel-powered vehicle … to a job that basically consists of two people spending a combined two dollars to fight over one dollar … anyway, on my way to work today, I heard an advertisement for a credit card which promises to plant a tree for every purchase you make in order to “offset you carbon footprint.”

Elite Over-Production (Peter Turchin)

Below is an excerpt of an article in The Atlantic from late last year about Perter Turchin, the Russian ecologist-turned-historian who wants to apply mathematical rigor to the study of human history. You can read (and listen to) the complete article here.

Where the Sidewalk Cracks: Ricochet Resistance & Interstitial Insurrection

This 2-part essay has been percolating in my heart and mind for about a year now, and I struggled to write it for longer than usual. I feel an odd mixture of pride and uncertainty about it. I fluctuate between feeling like it says something profound and feeling like it says nothing at all. Judge for yourself.

Confessions of a Recovering Progressive by Michael Dowd

Progress is the de facto religion of the industrial world. But something has changed in America, and beyond. What happens when we progressives ‘lose the faith’?

Accelerationism: So close, and yet so far

What follows is an excerpt from the “Manifesto on Accelerationist Politics” written by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams. There’s so much here that I agree with—especially the critique of capitalism/neoliberalism—that I want to republish parts of it. But then it takes an unexpected turn, suggesting that neoliberal capitalism has actually constrained technological growth, which needs to be accelerated.

“Welcome to the Smugosphere” of Mainstream Activism by Dwight Towers

Smugosphere [sməɡ ō sfir]: 1. “the protective fog of (unjustified) self-congratulation and complacency that surrounds any ‘community’ of people claiming to be making the world a better place, but which lacks commonly accepted an utilised measures of success and failure”

Seeking a Community for the End of the World

The community I want to be a part of would agree on the following as a starting point:

1. The end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI, i.e., collapse of the global industrial capitalist civilization) will probably happen sooner rather than later. The specifics of when and how, the exact degree of probability, etc., while interesting, don’t really matter and should not get in the way of building communities.

Hospice for the Human Species

I was honored to be interviewed by the Ernest Becker Society for their recent climate issue of the This Mortal Life series. The interview is excepted below. You can read the entire interview here.