Again, I’m very happy to be amongst real people, even if this is via the internet from the other side of the planet.

I too feel the need to get out of ‘busyness-as-usual’ for rest, community, fresh food, fresh air….how to do this when stuck in this insane culture is terrifying. I have given up false hopes of surviving. I just hope I can help slow the insanity down, help with heading off in a different direction, for all life.

Thank you
Ted

The ability to feel and to operate from a second-tier consciousness drives a whole different set of values, from which flow a whole different set of behaviours and attitudes toward the planet. It’s a cleft stick, isn’t it–these people are our kinfolk, our flesh and blood and we can’t get through to them because they are so caught up in the old paradigm. It is exactly as you say, “We’ve reached peak insanity. We’re sunk. Thank the gods. It’s all downhill from here.” It’s time to prepare for the worst possible outcome while working for the best; there’s no soft landing in sight. Keep up the good work, Sally!

i feel truly honored to be standing alongside all of you!!

I, too, am in the place so many of us are at this time: seeing the slow motion, bleak and near apocalyptic horror of what is unfolding - resource wars over oil and water, world drought and genocide, Peak Oil energy shortages, disconnected communities, deeply unhappy North American people,a polluted environment, and soul-destroying cities.

Meanwhile, most of my well-off friends and relatives around me are in total oblivion to it all — in sheeple denial — with their abject ignorance of history or politics or literature (they can’t “be bothered” with politics,is what I often hear). Worse yet, I know a few who live in corrupt complicity (knowing what’s coming but believing somehow that mammon and solar panels will save their individual families, either that or they’ll be dead by the time the SHTF. “Peak Oil? That’s a ridiculous conspiracy and a laugh — hydrogen run cars and solar panels will save us.”)

I’ve tried to engage people I know and love and meet in so many different ways: with humor, gentle persuasion, hints, by discussion, outright polemics, by showing films and sending out articles — nothing, I repeat, nothing can reach Canadians and Americans who’ve been conditioned like slow boiling frogs their whole lives to live in our foolish, cheerful, Disneyesque culture where all that counts is personal happiness and optimism (read: McMansion, new big vans, nice clothes, comedy movies and nothing but, career perks, weekend golf and skiing, expensive tickets to rock concerts, massages, false nails, bleached hair, and trips to Mexico and Hawaii at least once a year.)

The worst, I think, are my highly educated, upper class friends, those with graduate degrees from near ivy-league schools (but who, since college, have never read anything beyond a John Grisham novel or “The Secret,” thinking that that counts as literature:). These are the same people, and who, while tsking tsking over (or deny our role in ) “global warming,” or “poverty of the homeless,” or “Iraq and Afghanistan” (although they say, “we have no choice but to be there”), continue to live their lives in a manner that promotes these very horrors.

One tiny example? Last weekend I attended the bridal shower of my wealthy cousin’s extremely obese daughter. Most all the women there were dressed to the nines in their pretty little heels, wearing nail polish, driving SUV size vehicles, and had brought obscenely expensive wedding-calibre gifts as shower presents wrapped in expensively ribbon-decked paper (when my brother was married I threw a modest, pragmatic shower for my sister-in-law and requested kitchen gifts under $10 - I was chided for it by guests who ignored my request), and of course, at my cousin’s daughter’s shower… the foolish bridal games passing as sophistication and”fun”: 5 groups of the women wrapping 5 grown women with rolls and rolls (must have been 30 in total, at least) of toilet tissue and tape, to make “bridal gowns” - all of which was thrown into the garbage afterwards, as were all of the plastic utensils and food cartons for the catered hors d’oevres. And may I remind you that this is only one small example of our culture’s idea of “community.”

If you dare raise your voice in small, reasonable protest or question against any one of our society’s excess — dead silence ensues, as you are viewed alternately as a “crab, kooknut, eccentric, doomsayer, crazy, nutball, doomgloomer, pessimist, anarchist, treehugging dreamer, angry bitch, sunshiner spoiler, partypoop, communist” I could go on and on. This includes some in my environmental group who think that society will transform itself into a better life by sheer osmosis and world meditation, and by no other method, such as petitioning, legislation, letter-writing campaigns. (Never mind that I’ve spent considerable hours of my life examining, reading, thinking about these issues - thinking and feeling doesn’t count for smack in our culture. Only participating in the brain-dead, T.V.-hypnotized, “fun in the sun” society, counts for anything at all.) I have now moved away, psychologically speaking, from many of my old friends whom I still love but cannot much frankly bear to be around, and have, thankfully found 3 new ones who see things more as I do. Some may not be so lucky.

Recently, I sent out 100 short e-mails trying to raise awareness and support for an important specific environmental issue to our community. The upshot? I received exactly 1 “Thankyou!!!,” 1 “Sorry, we can’t help your organization”, and 98 no replies whatsoever. Some community spirit we have in our great, enlightened, modern, Westernized society. I lived in Africa for a year and saw more love and respect for human beings in the dirty little Arab grocery store under my apartment in one week, than I have in my life, here, in a year.

As a highly educated single woman (who I think actually has a good sense of humor) there are times lately, that I despair, having no one but my mother and two or three friends who actually listen and share input, but mostly I feel just very very sorrowful for a society that simply has lost its ability to see and, more importantly, act upon the truth. Of course, I have to live, too, and carry on and try to enjoy my family as best I can, despite its general, good-natured ribbing for my “kooky hippie” opinions, and my own sad thoughts of the sinking dinghy we are all precariously standing on.

My greatest joy comes from reading others who speak the unvarnished, heartfelt, so thank you, Sally, for this column.

Wasn’t it George Orwell who said something like, “Speaking the truth in dangerous times is a revolutionary act”? That’s what it feels like, now, to speak out to anyone but one’s closest, like-minded friends. Everyone is afraid.)

i feel closer to the truth, here, than with anyone else…anywhere!! we can be real with each other and that means the world to me!! thank you ALL!!! aloha!!

I look for the means to surrender, and it’s lovely to see that there are kindred spirits who see the value of this, of admitting complete defeat. I didn’t cause Civilization, I can’t cure Civilization, and I can’t control the Civilization Deathwish. And so every day I try and turn it over to God Herself, knowing that I’ll take my will back because like you, like everyone I know, I get the bejeebus scared into me by fear entities. And I think I have the illusion that I can do something, when I need to not do anything and sit there. I’ve been thinking that Cindy Sheehan has awakened to something like this. When I read she wasn’t going to participate in this mishagoss, I thought “hallelujah! She gets it!”

Having time in various 12-Step fellowships has at least taught me that what other people think of me is none of my business, and that I need to “go to where it’s warm.” As the culture starts to twist and turn in the winds of change, I’m hopeful that more and more people will be moved to change because they either must or they will die. I had to face that with my sugar addiction, but it took me years even in being immersed in 12-Step work before the denial cracked me open. I did have to get to a place where i was 300 pounds and wishing I was dead before the moment of surrender occurred, and you know, I didn’t even know I had done this when it happened. It was only later that I realized surrender had graced my life.

So I pray for grace to descend upon the humanity inhabiting this Gaian realm. I quietly let you know that I surrender my will to that of divine powers who are aligned for the greatest good, whatever shape that may take. And I trust a serious dialogue will be initiated.

I had a somewhat similar experience in Vietnam; part of the killing fields, (women and children), from a distance, (shelling). -Destroyer Hamner, Op. Linebacker 1, Quang Tri Province.

This has MOTIVATED me to create a plan for world peace and to leave Christianity in favor of Buddhism. But the emotional memories never go away, (ptsd).

The culprit for our evil at home and abroad is Calvinism, (selfishness, measuring up, racism, class bigotry and religious bigotry).

You are on the right path, if I can help, send me an email. Yours respectfully, -Bill B.

The “richer” one is in this society, the more dependent he is. If you are middle class, look around yourself. Everything you see likely required someone else to make or grow. If those people hadn’t agreed to spend their time, ingenuity and expertise doing it, would you know how to do it for yourself? If you say no, you likely compensate for your vulnerability and neediness by adopting a “rugged individualist” persona.

I feel sorry for wealthy people in this society. It is hard for them to avoid becoming superficial, fearful, self-indulgent parodies of human beings. Due to the constraints put on them by whatever they have to do to make their money, there are usually large parts of their own potential that just lie dormant. And when they do need emotional and mental resources - such as in the coming economic collapse - they’ll just revert to the dependent, whining children they’ve actually always been. They’ll be no good to themselves or anyone else. Who among them will, like Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With the Wind, develop inner fortitude and resourcefulness? Who will give up the silly compensatory mantle of “rugged individualist?” Time will tell.

Wow, this post on collective dementia really hit a nerve. Everybody’s comments are so eloquent and raw. It’s great to see so much resonance.

Sally says, “I never had the guts to go there, to make a lot of money. I never felt I had the right to profit wildly from the abusive and exploitative system we call American capitalism.”

I loved that admission! It reminded me of when I was in my 20’s and had my first and only close brush with working in the corporate world. I was working in a temp agency in San Francisco, finding jobs in corporations for girls like me. So I wasn’t even in the lion’s den myself, just opening the door for others. But, still, I could smell the stench of deception. I didn’t even understand what it was that was making me sick, but I knew that I’d never survive in that system. The experience helped me to have the courage to go the other way — education in the non-profit world, and not the soul-destroying American educational system.

I’ve always been sickened by lies, and now we see our whole country sickened by lies. The lies of materialism became the lies of corporate commercialism, which have evolved into the economic and political lies of empire. And this sinister epidemic is spreading to the rest of the world through the corporate media and the manic neo-liberal economies that are goobling up ecosystems and souls at a breath-taking pace.

“Busy monster eats dark holes in the spirit world where wild things have to go, to disappear forever,” sings Bruce Cockburn, my favorite singer-songwriter.

Materialism replaces emotional needs with things. The lie is that if we have enough things then we won’t have emotional needs. That’s why we have “retail therapy. This may be the basic lie that is making us all so crazy. Apparently we can never get “enough” stuff to replace our stuffed feelings.

I grew up in an emotionally dysfunctional, materialistic family in which vulnerability and neediness were not allowed. Need was indeed a “nasty word.” I learned this at age three. My vulnerability and neediness as a toddler made my mother insecure. She felt threated by my emotional sensitivity.

When my father forgot to pick me up at nursery school, leaving my little three-year-old self standing alone on a busy city street, my mother saw her chance to strike a deal with me. Since my father proved himself undependable, I was therefore totally dependent upon her. The deal was that if I would take care of her emotional needs and NOT demand that she take care of mine, she would provide for my survival needs — feed me, educate me, and dress me up to look respectable. I received further lessons that reinforced that first one, so that any time feelings of vulnerability and need arose in me, the fear of abandonment instantly followed. She actually threatened to cut me out of her will for demanding genuine communication.

So I grew up to be independent and self-sufficient — insensitive to my own needs while taking care of others’. It’s taken a lifetime to break open that box. But still, I am haunted by a little demon that says that when I feel those 3-yr-old needs for comfort, reassurance and protection, I will surely be abandoned and find myself alone on the street in an indifferent world — “bag-lady” fears. And that basic complex has evolved into the fear of abandonment, exile, and punishment if I speak the truth and point out the lies. Maybe that’s why it takes a child to exclaim that the emperor has no clothes — the adults are too conditioned by lies.

Speaking the truth and refusing to comply with lies is a NEED of our souls. To maintain soul integrity we need to speak the truth as we feel it, and act on it. The truth in Buddhism AND ecology is that we are interdependent. In the sacred wholeness of the Anima Mundi (soul of the world), we are all connected. Individualism and materialism are lies. Seeing this puts us at odds with our sick society. Expressing it puts us at risk of exclusion and exile, or worse.

So I thank Sally and Tim and all who participate in these blogs for expressing your soulful truths. Thank you Tim and Sally for making a movie that tells the truth of our world. May it act as an antibody that counteracts the antigens (toxic lies) in our society by activating the antibodies of truth in many, many souls.

Blessings, Suzanne

You bring up an excellent point: “Why don’t we talk to our neighbours? Why are we afraid to talk to them?”

Unfortunately, I think we are past that now,so numbed by our culture on all fronts that there is nothing but a real shake up catastrophe — Katrina-like — that will reach the insulated North American psyche of the average citizen now. The broad issues in our society are non-negotiable - ie. don’t bring them up! (As Dick Cheney says, the lifestyle of Americans is “non-negotiable”. He was dead right, try talking about the issues Sally and Tim have brought to their film and the talk stops dead, there, for once and for all.)

In any case, I’m not sure that it’s fear that stops people from trying to communicate all of this, now, but rather, like Cindy Sheehan, a fatigue one feels from constantly being ignored — it’s really tiresome to try to engage one’s friends and neighbours and help shift their focus towards what’s really happening, both here on the local level and at the global level. What I usually get, in the face of trying to bring up important subjects is a yawning boredom in people’s faces, jokes meant to change the subject, outright ridicule at my survival efforts and the worst of all, a moving away - a kind of isolation as if you are some kind of nutty pariah (when speaking with a group of people, something I just now never ever do).

Basically, after a period of trying, a sane person JUST GIVES UP — at least, with strangers and neighbours, if not with one’s own family. At this point, you start seeing that the only way to save your own sanity and perhaps even survival (if there’s a hard landing after Peak Oil), is to quietly pull back, like a turtle in your shell, and say little, if nothing. Just make your own plans and realize you can’t teach the world to sing. Although, luckily, I’m still making the odd connection, here on this website, and out there, with people who seem to understand the world from the same “reality based” perspective as I do, but it’s a limited bunch in a small town, believe me.

Our environmental group had a huge big film day on Earth Day this year. I a town of nearly 20,000 we got — tah dah! — aside from friends and relatives - and audience of six. 6. It’s really discouraging, but we’re still at it, planning a new festival for the fall. After that, I’ll take stock and decide whether it’s really worth the effort. In any case, I’m making plans to leave this satellite town and move to something much smaller and more secluded where I can powerdown as Richard Heinberg says, to a more contained lifestyle, cottagey size house and garden. I’ve looked at it 20 different ways, and it’s the only solution I can come up with for myself and my family.

I wish you all luck and pragmatic skills for the “tempest in an ocean” that’s looming on the horizon. We’ll need them both.

** very candid thought here today **

I too have been preparing for the crazy hard times to come as we begin dealing with the effects of Peak Oil, Global Warming and unusual weather, job impacts (low pay, jobs disappearing, etc.)…and some days I feel like I have a mental disorder. I’ve done everything I can to hone my useful “survival” skills like raising animals, making cheese and other milk products, weaving, sewing, gardening, salvaging/recycling, living on less in a very small house so as to remain with my means and not get into too much debt, etc. but I’m still freaked about what the government will do when things get crazy and what people who don’t live this way will do when they find themselves in a new state of deprivation when supplies of things (petroleum-related products) start becoming scarce and energy gets rationed. I see such a huge void or gap in personal preparedness and/or willingness to forego immediate gratification in order to put in stores for the hard times. It’s the ant-and-the-grasshopper story in spades.

My neighbors see me working diligently in my yard, making an investment in my soil so that when I have to become more and more reliant on my own food stuff I’ll be ready, but they just make comments like “that’s an awful lot of work.” Frankly, I get angry (too strong a word?) that they don’t take measures themselves because I know exactly who they will come to when things get rough and they start experiencing “need” themselves. I’m not saying that I don’t need them - to help be the eyes and ears in our little community or to feed the critters if I need to be away for a day or two - because I do - but they aren’t banking any effort toward the hardships I expect us all to have to face. I can only hope that they try to maintain their rugged individualism because I don’t know how I will react when they come calling. Resentment springs to mind.

How are we to cope with those who are not our equals - in understand of the situation, in preparation for difficulty, etc? Generosity leads to being taken advantage of. Segregating oneself leads to social misery. Must we resign ourselves to having to work 3x, 5x, 10x harder to be sure that the there will be “enough” when the unaware and thoughtless start making demands?

I know there is a lot of judgemental language in this posting but when one has invested time and money to educate oneself (certification in emergency mgmt and planning) and has put in the hard work necessary to ensure that, barring some physical calamity, one won’t be a burden to society or others, it’s very hard to come to grips with those who refuse to do so despite all the signs and nudges that suggest they do. I was raised in hurricane country - so I know about pulling together to help each other out but generally we were all pretty much equals - equally equipped, equally prepared, etc. Family pitched in to help family; neighbor pitched in to help neighbor. In that rural environment that was the norm. City dwellers just don’t get it and now that I find myself amongst them, I’m incredibly uneasy. I foresee “Katrinas” happening all over the place and most people just aren’t capable of meeting the challenges.

One can talk until blue in the face, but no one wants to hear it. I see so many of you expressing similar sentiments. I society so cut off from reality that they can’t see trouble staring them in the face?

Help me to understand how we move forward without sacrificing ourselves to the ill-prepared and overly needy majority.