More and more, I hear that folks are feeling frustrated and betrayed,
combined with a sense of loss and despair. I feel this way, too.
As I've written recently, I observe this is due more than anything else to
a widespread demoralization society is suffering from.
Certainly the statistics reflect this. Suicides in the US are up 30% since the turn of the millennium, obesity
is at epidemic proportions, mortality rates are rising especially among white
working-class Americans, and our national opioid addiction is now the “epidemic
of epidemics.”
To these we can also add falling birthrates and the truly startling shift
towards a younger age for the onset of depression; declining from age 30 now to age…14(!)
When an organism gives up on self-care, breeding, or its will to live,
it's suffering from a tremendous amount of strain that is cutting it off from
its own life force. A dispirited lion wasting away in a cage has a lot
in common with the average American today.
At a deep level, what ails us is not a host of unrelated, intractable
problems, but the fact that our model of pursuing eternal economic growth
simply isn't working anymore. It doesn’t work for the planet’s increasingly
strained ecosystems, nor does it work for the bottom 99% of folks in society
(i.e., the non-elites).
The various health epidemics noted above are merely symptoms of a larger
acute spiritual crisis.
But viewed at a certain angle, this may be a good sign.
Why? Because in order to shift from one model to another, the old one
first has to become unbearable.
And, as the data cited earlier is making increasingly clear, our addiction
to growth is killing us and the ecosystems we depend on.
Look, if you're a well-nourished human being -- physically, emotionally
and spiritually -- then you have a heartfelt appreciation for the
Earth. You can clearly see that it's achingly beautiful, perfect, and
abundant. It is your home, your mother, the source of all your
sustenance, and the one and only vessel for your children and grandchildren
(born or as yet unborn) -- stretching as far into the future as you can
imagine.
I'm completely in love with this world and with being alive in it. I love
the beauty of Nature and all of its life forms, each beautiful and complete
in its own way, just like this dragonfly:
Nature and our connection to it is about creation, flux, and regeneration
-- it's deeply spiritual. To live in a world solely of materialism,
devoid of deeper meaning and connection, is be the caged lion wasting away.
The loss of life on this planet, the diminishment of once complex ecosystems
into barren, simplistic shadows of their former selves, is a source of very
real and profound sadness. It is my belief that the existential dread
many of us feel is our registering this loss of life -- consciously or not --
as Nature retracts her abundance.
Who hear still hears crickets at night? With the unfolding insect apocalypse, fewer and fewer can make
that claim.
The point of all this is that the one and only way out of this box in
which we find ourselves is by adopting a better model for living. And to do
that, we first need to re-write the narrative that guides us.
If we do this, anything is possible. We can create a future of abundance
and prosperity.
But if we don’t, the end will certianly be bitter and full of regret.
Narrative #1: Growth is Always Good, More Growth Is Always Better
Literally every time you read anything about economic growth it's always,
unerringly, framed in positive terms. This serves to reinforce the idea
of growth being “good.” It’s virtually never questioned or famed
differently.
Here’s an example:
China’s gross domestic product grew 6.9 per cent last year, Premier Li
Keqiang told a regional meeting in Cambodia last week. “The overall
situation was better than expected,” he said.
Mr Li’s estimate is higher than the 6.7 per cent growth reported
for 2016 but the real recovery has been sharper. Corporate
results are rosy, commodity imports are hitting new records and
producer prices have shifted back to steady gains, signifying better
industrial health.
So why will Thursday’s 2017 GDP figures not reflect the good news?
(Source – FT)
China’s economic growth was described as “better (than expected)” and in
terms of “recovery” and “rosy” and “good news.” It doesn’t matter which
news sources you read, you always find growth framed as "good",
"rosy" and desirable.
But is it truly any of those things?
Using the 'Rule of 72' we can divide the reported 6.9% growth into 72 and
discover that at that rate of growth, China’s economy will fully double in
just 10.4 years.
It’s already the largest economy in the world in terms of oil imports, raw
material usage, concrete poured, and food consumed. But in just 10.4
years it’s going to be twice all of those things.
And then what? Well, another doubling from there of course, all of it
rosy, desirable and good. But how many more forests, fisheries, aquifers and
fossil fuels will such doubling consume?
Of course, when you read about an economic slowdown you'll see framing
words like “concern” “weakening” and “weighing down.” This subtle and
continuous conditioning has most people firmly committed to the belief that
economic growth is something we always want more of.
This is psychological programming, pure and simple. It's so pervasive that
it’s thoroughly accepted without question or examination.
The problem, of course, comes in when that unquestioned narrative of
growth begins to foul its own nest. When people’s inner guidance systems
begin to crash into each other: one committed to the idea of endless growth,
the other observing the damage it does. Self-preservation runs smack
into self-harm.
Perhaps this explains the mass appeal of such movies as Avengers: Infinity War
where the evil Thanos is an eight-foot-tall madman seeking to restore balance
to a universe of overgrown worlds by killing half the living beings in it.
The entire plot plays on these subconscious belief systems I’m describing. I
do wonder if that's, in part, why the movie has been a hugely successful box
office smash.
Narrative #2: We Should Live Within Our Means
When I was a child, our family measured the growth of me and my siblings
on a door frame in pencil. I so looked forward to being taller at each new
measurement.
But I’m certainly glad I stopped growing by age 18. Otherwise I’d have
grown over 9 feet tall, likely dying from a heart attack by age 26.
There’s nothing wrong with growth, in and of itself. But its context
matters critically.
Endless growth that exceeds biological parameters? Well, that’s just
bad -- whether we're talking about unchecked height, deer populations, or
cancer cells.
There was nothing wrong at all with we humans expanding into our biosphere
as it could support our population, as does any and every organism in
existence. The problem was in failing to self-regulate our consumption
to a sustainable level.
Heck, it’s worse than that because we didn’t just fail to regulate
ourselves; we just ignored the math.
Here are some simple math problems we could have easily seen coming, but
chose not to:
Simple math says more people trying to eat dwindling fossil fuels is a
predicament. Who’s actually doing anything serious about that on the
world stage right now?
Even easier math says that our pension and entitlement promises to
ourselves cannot ever be met. What’s realistically being done about any of
that? Nothing as far as I can tell.
What’s the plan for replacing 100% of the concrete ever poured in the
world? Where’s the energy for that going to come from?
Humans have never transitioned from a more- to a less-concentrated energy
system before. And at current rates it will take 400 more years to get
there. Where will the energy for that transition come from?
The above is just a very partial list of bad math functions we are facing
along with some very obvious questions. The simplest way to resolve
them all is to finally admit to ourselves that more growth is not the
solution here, it’s actually the problem:
Which brings us back around to the idea of demoralization which is both
running rampant and gaining ground. It’s what happens when your
cognitive map no longer functions:
Rather than a depressive disorder, demoralization is a type of existential
disorder associated with the breakdown of a person’s ‘cognitive map’. It
is an overarching psycho-spiritual crisis in which victims feel generally
disoriented and unable to locate meaning, purpose or sources of need
fulfilment.
The world loses its credibility, and former beliefs and
convictions dissolve into doubt, uncertainty and loss of direction.
Frustration, anger and bitterness are usual accompaniments,
as well as an underlying sense of being part of a lost cause or losing
battle. The label ‘existential depression’ is not appropriate since, unlike
most forms of depression, demoralization is a realistic response to
the circumstances impinging on the person’s life.
(Source)
Did you get that? Demoralization is actually a realistic
response under certain conditions.
Those conditions are manifesting themselves now, which means that the waves
of dispiriting statistics we are seeing are not 'bad'; they are telling us
something important. People are right to be deeply disturbed by the
ways in which the main narrative of their culture no longer maps to
reality. Worse, the endless growth narrative is killing life on this
planet and therefore harming each of us in ways both overt and subtle.
More and more people are detecting that, and that’s a good thing, because
that’s the necessary first step in crafting a new narrative and adopting a
different model that hopefully serves us better.
We often say here at Peak Prosperity that if you're feeling anxiety (or
demoralization), it means that there’s a gap between what you know and what
you're doing. Since you can’t unlearn something, your best course of
action is to change your behavior.
Take action to align what you know with what you do.
I totally get the frustration, anger and bitterness on display in politics
all across the West right now, but these are almost universally misdirected
at the wrong targets. Whether by intent or accident, this is usually
the case and heavily supported by a media system that actually promotes
divisiveness over unity, and isolation over connection.
The deeper truth is that we're all experiencing painful shocks, and are
therefore reacting like rats in a cage, fighting each other because we cannot
properly detect the true source of our pain.
So, what to do?
Yes, the math just doesn’t work out. Yes, there’s no uber strategy in play
of which you aren’t aware. Sadly, what you see is what you get. The one and
only plan the central panners have is to redouble their efforts to drive more
growth. And to do that by creating more and more artificial money to drive up
stock and bond prices.
The only plan of any government is to grow its economy and secure
more power for itself.
This means that it is up to you, to me -- to us collectively -- to work
out the new narrative, or at least support it as it is painfully
birthed. We have to become the change we wish to see. We live in
the era where The End of Growth is taking place. It’s a critical and
important time to be alive and we each have a vital role to play.
For certain, there are many steps you can and indeed should be taking to
build your resilience to prepare for a very uncertain future. These are
well outlined in our book Prosper! and encompass the 8
Forms of Capital (Financial, Social, Material, Cultural, Time, Knowledge,
Living and Emotional) all of which you should each be working to develop more
of at this moment.
But in Part 2: How To Engage Others I share the skills I've
developed over the past decade in effectively communicating this tricky
information, which many 'regular folks' aren't eager to hear. Done correctly,
you can engage new minds, recruit their support, and contribute to shifting
society to a new, better narrative.
Plus, these techniques and best practices have real practical value.
Whether you're trying to inform someone about these emotionally-challenging
predicaments we face, or influencing your workmates to undertake an important
project you have in mind, or asking for your spouse’s support during a major
life/career shift, the principles are the same.
Click here to read Part 2 of
this report (free executive summary, enrollment required
for full access)
