Whenever I talk to young people, I am impressed by how different their perspective is about collapse, compared to me and my generation.
My cohort (I’m 65) has what I would call “nostalgia” for a world which we knew and which is now passing away. The younger folks have never known a world that is not perched on brink of collapse.
In a recent Collapse Club meeting, I had the chance to hear from some “young people,” which in this context means people in their mid-30s. This is a different demographic than the mainstream of our participants, who tend to be in their 50s and older.
The young folks have lives, careers, and families that are in their early stages. Their knowledge of collapse forces them to confront choices which are completely outside the conventional paths offered by the “business-as-usual” society. The old maps are meaningless, and there are no new maps aside from what we can discover together.
Young people who are collapse-aware face a terrible dilemma. They must balance their understanding of reality against the need to “pay the bills”: to have a place to live, to eat, to get medical care. Many of the folks I heard from talked about the acute stress caused by the contrast between what they know and what they are required to do, just to survive.
People with young children face particular difficulty. How are they to protect their kids in a collapsing world? What should they tell them about our current situation? The responses I heard focused on giving the children a loving, supportive environment, and cherishing every moment, regardless of the imagined future.
These young folks seem strong and resilient. They do not lie to themselves about the future, but they are not disheartened about the present. They are exploring, with all the gravitas and intelligence they can muster, how best to live in an uneasy and challenging time. I am grateful to hear from them, and I hope to learn from them as time goes on.
These stories contain the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Collapse Club members or conveners.
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At Collapse Club we gather so that we are not alone. We gather to metabolize our grief. We gather to understand what it can mean to have hope at the end of the world. We have discovered something marvelous! There are as many perspectives as there are people. Everyone has their own ideas, their own practices, their own wisdom. We do not seek for one grand, correct idea; we seek to learn from everyone we meet.
This article explores the cognitive dissonance created by the psychological tension between participating in industrial civilization, all the while, believing in its inevitable downfall (destruction) and how communities navigate and accept this emotionally painful experience.
I have attended Al-Anon meetings for 29 years and I still use this prayer to help me keep a balanced attitude. Can I also use this simple prayer to help me cope with the collapse of civilization? Is it even possible to have “serenity” in these changing times?
