We Need More Doomers, Not Fewer

One of the biggest mistakes of the environmental movement today is stubbornly hoping that somewhere, sometime, there are specific cognitive triggers which will awaken people to the climate and ecological devastation taking place.? There is an almost dogmatic conviction among many environmentalists that, once climate impacts become life-threatening for example, a magic cognitive threshold will be reached which will act literally as a switch that “tips” people overnight into concern for the climate, the planet, and all the millions of species going extinct.? I’m really sorry to have to destroy that hopeful dream in this essay, and it is with a very heavy heart that I do this, but it has to be done. Because it is just a dream, and activism must work strategically, not idealistically.

I won’t say names, but there are many big-name activists in the frontline of environmentalism at the moment who have not learned from past human history: they are utterly deluded and still believe that there is an awakening tipping point in people, a hidden compassion for humanity which is waiting to be discovered, a new-found care for their children and the ecology of this planet which will only become apparent to them once “the shit hits the fan”, even though all of us are already covered in shit from head to toe by now.?

What these environmentalists are in fact experiencing is a cognitive short circuit of their own: in the same way that climate denialists do not want to admit that the Earth is burning, many environmentalists do not want to admit that they cannot convert others into action.? This is an entirely human “psychological self-care” response, and in no way does this make these activists “less smart”, gifted or important.? It does make them a bit less pragmatic though, if they have made it their life’s work to bang on a door that will never open. ?

I do know where these passionate environmentalists are coming from, and I feel their intense pain, dedication, and forced hope.? But I do need to bring them down to earth as much as it is painful both for me, and for them.? Not because I’d love to see the end of the world and I want environmentalists to lay down their arms and sit back. Quite the contrary.? It is because we need to have this conversation so that we can up our game.? We have reached almost 100% failure in the environmental movement, and it is important to take stock of where we go from here, if this fight has any “hope” of being a realistic one.?

As an environmentalist myself I have spent a considerable amount of my time over the years absolutely frustrated with society, wondering what the magical cognitive threshold for “activism” may be, until it became a never-ending holy grail for my writing.? I dissected the issue of climate denial from multiple angles:? evolutionary biology, cognitive anthropology, the psychology of the trauma response, political ecology, capitalist economics, the list goes on.? I even came up with novel terminology to describe our world and the cognitive limitations of the human mind, in order to make my peace with our imperfections and with all the inaction I see around me in the world.? Sometimes I was so frustrated with our species that I even became hateful of myself and others, for the extinction crimes and ecological fraud that humans have perpetrated on Earth, the responsibility for which lies with all of us, collectively.

But in the end, I reached a point of compassion for the human condition, and reached my own cognitive compromise: to accept the things that I cannot change about humans.? And while you might think that this would mean activism would be over for me, in fact this was when it all became more real, more exciting, more ruthlessly ferocious, more meaningful than ever.? Because I was finally living in the real world, which goes like this:

Most people out there simply don’t give a shit. THEY ARE NOT YOU.?

(Re-read this 3 times until it sinks in)

As dumb and simple as this truth sounds, it is a truth which terrifies environmentalists, as they falsely think it will destroy the holy grail of awakening they are after.? But it is also a truth which they really struggle to connect with cognitively, exactly because they themselves care immensely about the fate of the planet. ?They cannot imagine that other humans could actually be so ignorant, and so self-destructive.

When people ask me what type of books I write, I don’t say “environmentalism”, as I believe that is too narrow. Because the current state of the planet is not about what we have done to it, but about something much bigger: how our brain works, what lies inside of us which we need to face.? My answer, to many peoples’ amazement, is that “I write books about human self-destruction”.? Oh god, here’s another one of those “doomer” types.?

Yet us doomers have actually cracked the code of sincere environmentalism, long before the others.? We are still here, we haven’t killed ourselves as you might have expected, and we always hit it right where it hurts:? we expose the psychopaths, the narcissists, and the ignoramuses of this world, whoever they may be: rich or poor, male, female or seven-fingered, rather than conveniently looking for villains and narratives which will make our crusade more defined, and centered.? We are ALL villains.? Human nature is self-destructive, and unless we understand our own nature, we will be looking for good guys and bad guys, black sheep to blame, and holy grails to unearth.? There are millions of solutions to the climate crisis.? The problem is not the solutions but our self-destructive human nature which prevents us from implementing them.? THIS is the holy grail we need to crack, our understanding of the nature of our consciousness.?And this has been the mission which I set for myself as an author years ago.

This type of broad thinking about human consciousness itself, may actually be the smart activism we need today: sometimes you need to realise that you will never change the way people think, but you can still change the way that they behave.? You may not be able to make them believe in a revolution, but you still may be able to recruit them into it.? Successful revolutions usually involve people from all walks of life, each of them revolting for entirely different reasons which are completely personal to them.? It is the leaders who own the broad strategy and ideology of the revolution, the higher purpose, if you like.? If these leaders are charismatic, they are able to unite and recruit all of these different people with multiple different personal interests and agendas, under their higher purpose of saving the planet.? That’s how its done, and this is what we must learn from the fascists, who do this trick with their eyes closed.? Unless we play their game, they will always have one up on us. We need to start getting smart.

There ARE people who do give a shit, and chances are that if you’ve read this, you are one of them.? Find the people in your circle who are like you, but don’t create you own, safe little echo chamber.? Remember that others are very different from you with different sensitivities which you may or may not need to address first, in order to get them on your side.? Be smart.? Be pragmatic. Get to know your target audience.? It doesn’t make you any less genuine, ruthless, or dedicated.? And begin to accept doomers into your life, as they are the most pragmatic yet passionate at the same time, and they are people of unbelievable courage: they have reconciled their rational and emotional world, survived the processing of those feelings, survived the stigma and isolation received from the world, and yet here they are still: able to draw a line in the sand and continue their activism despite knowing what they know.? A doomer is not someone who wants to see the end of the world.? It is someone who tells you that the end is closer than you think, and shit needs to get done, NOW.?

There is a big fucking difference between the two.

George is an author, researcher, molecular biologist and food scientist. You can follow him on Twitter?@99blackbaloons

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