Useful metaphors

[Jon Freise]

One challenge I face when contemplating these times and the possible near future is that I get wrapped up in the emotions around not wanting it to be this way and being very angry at the people who I feel are responsible.  But often I find those feelings drain me of energy that I would prefer to be putting into getting through this time.

A few shifts of mind that I have found helpful is to tell myself that our society is going through a mental dysfunction right now: like being drunk, or having taken some other addictive substance.  Alcohol disables the brain's natural self regulation.  So once you imbibe enough alcohol you no longer have the ability to resist imbibing more.  The brain then spirals out of control.  It can inflict self harm or harm to others.  If the drinker is lucky they don't get into a car and crash it into a lot of other people.

Alcohol is also addictive, and despite the known bad effects, people cannot stop themselves from imbibing it again.

In some sense, our whole society is facing this issue around fossil fuels.  Our collective information system is being disabled by the purveyors of fossil fuels.  They are addicted.  They want all of us addicted.  They are directly taking over media companies to spread the addiction.  (That part is not a metaphor, that is economic reality).

Nazi Germany was a nation that basically suffered a 10 year spasm of insanity.  It was taken over by the thought that it could dominate the whole rest of the world.  Go look at a globe sometime and compare the size of Germany with the rest of the world.  It was insane.  Germany woke up in the hospital ICU like a drunk that picked a fight with a whole bar. Germany's industry was destroyed, its cities destroyed, its government and military destroyed.  An IV drip of the Marshall Plan was all that saved those people from starvation.  Now it is a powerhouse of democracy and industry.  The spasm of insanity passed quickly because Germany picked fights with every other nation.  The Soviet Union took a lot longer to get out of its spasm.  But it did.

I find it helpful to think of what we are going through as a withdrawal symptom of fossil fuel addiction.  Right now, our nation is like a dope junky that breaks into houses and steals things to get another hit.  To put off the pain of the withdrawal symptoms.  That is what we are collectively doing right now.  Our collective brain is not functioning correctly.  It may not for one or more decades.

On a good day, this perspective can help me set down the emotional judgement about what is happening and just focus on surviving the present moment.  If we cannot stop the addiction, and we very likely cannot, can we prevent some self harm?  Can we prevent some harm to others?  What is the kindest thing we can do for self and others during this moment of insanity?  

And every step we take to remove fossil fuel dependency is going to bring us toward sobriety.  Is going to reduce the addiction.  Every solar panel installed.  Every heat pump installed.  Every insulated house that is built.  Every job and school that is built within walking distance of homes.  All these will reduce the intensity of the addictive hangover and make achieving sobriety easier.  And those things can be worked on even if democracy does not survive the fever of addiction.

Reality always wins.  Eventually the addiction will end because our nation is so weak it cannot continue.  We may collectively wake in the ICU and wonder what happened.  And pray we didn't kill anyone during our last blackout.  Then will come a time for feeding the hungry.  Rebuilding from tent cities.  Healing the PTSD.  Building the monuments that say "never again".