Hi Abby, I find some solace in your writing, if only to see that others are experiencing similar feelings about the world as my own. In case you haven't seen them, I wanted to share with you two future fiction (vice "science fiction") books that provide a bit of solace and also some degree of hope that plausible pathways exist that could help arrest our current precipitous decline. The first is called "the Deluge" by Stephen Markley, and the second is "Ministry of the Future" by Kim Stanley Robertson. Both detail the interplay between climate disaster and society, and both posit that at some point humanity as a whole comes to its senses albeit quite late in the game and is able overcome collective action problems in last ditch attempts to avert a die-off of our own species not to mention others.. Both also pose somewhat of a paradox: radical efforts to address and mitigate the consequences of climate change require a good degree of top down direction both in terms of what is done and also in terms of addressing intense income equality that prevents us from mustering adequate resources and incentives to address the crises at hand. At the same time, both posit that overcoming the collective action problem requires small scale democratic decision making and established universal rights. As some democratic socialism models might indicate, these two eventualities are necessarily incompatible with one another. However, both books leave me a bit mystified as to how we might establish a consensus surrounding the urgent need for climate change-related action and/and the imperative that doing so requires income and social equality. In both books, society has somehow has also overcome both the oligarchs and their political patrons. (Indeed, both books posit that these constituencies will push back to prevent reform by whatever means necessary. (In fact in both books, violence comes from rightist pushback on emissions and societal equality from leftist terrorists seeking to disrupt carbon emitting activities). In any case, while societal reactions to widespread disaster are the superficial causes for reform in each book, neither narrative really explains how intense feelings of alienation on the right and left. are overcome to such an extent that a public consensus can be established that changes forms of governance of society and the main outlines of global finance in such a way as to muster the resources required to pull back from the brink. Still, both books at least establish what an attempt to achieve survival might look like, which is something seemingly lacking in most of today's public discourse. Here's hoping that these two stories might provide you with a ray of "hope" and the inspiration we all so desperately need so that, as you put it at the conclusion of your essay, we are at least able share our own stories as a first step towards figuring out how to proceed. Best, Todd. PS just love your writing as always as well as the way that you document your own journey in relation to the broader societal changes take place. Thank you!
I agree, stories can save us. It's nice to start with yours here.
Hi Abby, I find some solace in your writing, if only to see that others are experiencing similar feelings about the world as my own. In case you haven't seen them, I wanted to share with you two future fiction (vice "science fiction") books that provide a bit of solace and also some degree of hope that plausible pathways exist that could help arrest our current precipitous decline. The first is called "the Deluge" by Stephen Markley, and the second is "Ministry of the Future" by Kim Stanley Robertson. Both detail the interplay between climate disaster and society, and both posit that at some point humanity as a whole comes to its senses albeit quite late in the game and is able overcome collective action problems in last ditch attempts to avert a die-off of our own species not to mention others.. Both also pose somewhat of a paradox: radical efforts to address and mitigate the consequences of climate change require a good degree of top down direction both in terms of what is done and also in terms of addressing intense income equality that prevents us from mustering adequate resources and incentives to address the crises at hand. At the same time, both posit that overcoming the collective action problem requires small scale democratic decision making and established universal rights. As some democratic socialism models might indicate, these two eventualities are necessarily incompatible with one another. However, both books leave me a bit mystified as to how we might establish a consensus surrounding the urgent need for climate change-related action and/and the imperative that doing so requires income and social equality. In both books, society has somehow has also overcome both the oligarchs and their political patrons. (Indeed, both books posit that these constituencies will push back to prevent reform by whatever means necessary. (In fact in both books, violence comes from rightist pushback on emissions and societal equality from leftist terrorists seeking to disrupt carbon emitting activities). In any case, while societal reactions to widespread disaster are the superficial causes for reform in each book, neither narrative really explains how intense feelings of alienation on the right and left. are overcome to such an extent that a public consensus can be established that changes forms of governance of society and the main outlines of global finance in such a way as to muster the resources required to pull back from the brink. Still, both books at least establish what an attempt to achieve survival might look like, which is something seemingly lacking in most of today's public discourse. Here's hoping that these two stories might provide you with a ray of "hope" and the inspiration we all so desperately need so that, as you put it at the conclusion of your essay, we are at least able share our own stories as a first step towards figuring out how to proceed. Best, Todd. PS just love your writing as always as well as the way that you document your own journey in relation to the broader societal changes take place. Thank you!