As I consider the changes in habit (see part 3 earlier post) which might be driven by an early tipping point of AMOC, I turn to philosopher and psychoanalyst Jonathan Lear’s “Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation”. This is a careful examination of the Crow Nation’s last chief Plenty Coups’ account of his life and his peoples’ life to a White biographer. There is a point in his story when Plenty Coups says,
“After the buffalo were gone, nothing happened.”
Lear examines this carefully. The obvious question is, did everything among the Crow stop because there were no buffalo (and much less land to live in, and no more wars with the Sioux)? No. Lear recounts that Plenty Coups continued to live a full life, engaged in farming and encouraging his people to do likewise. He also encouraged braves to join in the First World War, and was a dignitary who helped lay a wreath at the tombs of the dead. He continued to do many things, but his world had changed. What, Lear asks, did it now mean to be a Crow of excellent character? What did the mother, who had previously told her sons that she was raising them to be hunters and brave and competent warriors, tell them now about how and why they were being raised? What did it now mean to be a Crow when the traditions no longer projected them into their future? What did Plenty Coups mean by “nothing happened”?
Lear suggests that Plenty Coups developed a “radical hope,” and recounts how he adopted new values for himself and his people. Counselors would call this “reframing,”: look at new things from different angles; carefully choose what information to gather together to contemplate and examine; give due regard to the emotional responses to what is being placed outside the frame, i.e., what is being left behind, or stored to carry on the journey, or stored for nostalgia’s sake or for future generations’ benefit. Acknowledge the feelings and let them settle into your gut, because so many decisions will be made there before they are formed in conscious thought.4
As we think about the changes Plenty Coups faced when the buffalo were gone, we can see similarities to our possible future: we may have to shape our lives without placing value on consuming a lot, keeping busy, travelling a great deal, doing politics for its own sake, or seeking social status and wealth. As I’ve suggested in an earlier posts5 our younger generations don’t seem to value things so much, not even those which required skill and artistry to create.
As we contemplate our future and our children’s and grandchildren’s, pondering this question can help us think into the future. It won’t be just that the waters will rise and so forth. The world is already on its way to a reduced population by the end of the century (Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline, by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson) and we will be planning our economies without the huge new young population to follow us (The Next Age of Uncertainty: How the World Can Adapt to a Riskier Future, by Stephen Poloz), grow the economy, and take care of us. Fewer people will consume fewer resources and will damage the earth less. There are already examples of cities and towns without people6, the results of causes other than climate change.
So it’s not that the future is necessarily apocalyptic. It is that the future requires thought in advance. What will it mean to be an excellent person in a world where consuming is not the purpose of life? What will the purpose of life be when we do less than is normal now?
I have found my own answers, but this post is not where I will espouse them. In this post I only recommend an ethic to guide us through the changes. I suspect that it is only once we have lived through some of the changes that we will be able to reconsider things. We will benefit most if we can talk with each other about them; share our thoughts and feelings, and bear witness to one another’s lives. Doing these things will certainly be part of what our life’s purposes will be.
4See books cited in The Gathering Storms and Grief – Upon reconsidering…
5 We have built our society on the wrong principles and values. – Upon reconsidering…
Will things survive? – Upon reconsidering…
6 Japan’s scarecrow village: A living museum to rural life beyond growth (researchoutreach.org); The eerie cities where nobody lives (bbc.com)
Upon reconsidering... 