Alongside “the pandemic”, I believe we’re in the middle of a national anxiety epidemic. I’ve self-vaccinated by letting go of my longing for the simpler, vaguely misremembered world of my childhood. Accepting what is, rather than cocooning in an imaginary return to a long-gone time, has reduced my stress, bringing me more joy and happiness. Let me explain.
Like many over-educated liberals, I bought into the notion that we could arrest climate change, wind back CO2 emissions, and eventually resume life as it was “before”. That was magical thinking. It raised my anxiety alongside rising planetary CO2 levels. Here is my new understanding. It’s brought clarity and peace.
Change is Certain
Everything changes. It’s the nature of the universe and it’s a one-way street. You can’t unwind evolution or return to the past. Although human biological evolution largely ceased 100,000 years ago, our self-created cultural evolution advanced with increasing speed and power
Man-made changes were initially profound but slow. Just 3000 years ago, Europe and Britain were enfolded by vast hardwood forests, home to the wildest animals. We stripped the forests, plowed fields, built towns and roads, and eliminated most animals. That massive but creeping environmental change was almost unnoticed from generation to generation. Today it’s different.
Too Fast for Comfort
Since we kicked off the Industrial Revolution with the steam engine in 1770, environmental change progressed so rapidly that it is now noticeable not just from generation to generation, but annually, or even monthly.
In our lifetimes we’ve seen surprising changes — sea level rise, coastal flooding, more frequent and powerful hurricanes and tornadoes, and unprecedented heat waves, forest fires, and droughts. Here is the latest surprise. Increasingly violent ocean squalls, that severely tilt container ships, pitch overboard more than 10,000 containers a year.
It’s all terribly distressing and scary. We’re not used to seeing our world change this fast. It’s just not “natural”. Of course, nothing about cultural evolution is natural. We left nature behind when our giant brain gave us the imagination to ignore nature’s evolutionary rules and constraints. We are the only animal to risk this.
It All Hangs Together
We can’t enjoy the staggering benefits of an industrial consumer society without experiencing the planetary change it brings. But being unnerved by the rate of change is no reason to pretend we can wind back evolution. For example, we’re unlikely to reduce CO2. We are too accustomed to the low prices we enjoy from dumping expensive-to-treat waste into our environment.
Truth is, none of us want to pay the price of a non-polluting society. Far better we kick that can down the road — although we each know that’s denial. Our impotence, and guilt in complicity then compound our anxiety. That’s unhealthy for us and our planet. It prevents us from discussing real potential solutions that might bring some planetary recovery, individual hope and happiness, and longer lives.
Positive Acceptance
Personally, I have accepted that human culture will continue evolving as it has. We will do what we have done for 300,000 years, live mostly in the moment, be alert to immediate personal threats and opportunities, and ignore or deny imagined events beyond our control.
Accepting that brings more than peace, it empowers me to think and act with conviction, confidence, and calm.
- I no longer imagine our planet or society will collapse. We will do what we always do, adapt.
- I’m no longer a Loosey-Goosey, following Henny Penny as she cries, “The sky is falling.”
- I’m not worried about the planet we are leaving to our grandchildren. We have always adapted to whatever culture and climate we are born into. They will do simply fine.
Though the media encourages attention-grabbing panics of the week, I no longer bite on their hooks. While I’m well-informed on current events and empathize with those who suffer, I don’t buy into our Culture of Anxiety. Life is too short to swallow the unhealthy guilt and stress spooned to us by uncaring, self-interested profiteers.
My next blog post will be written on Orcas Island in Puget Sound west of Seattle, where my extended family is resuming what, pre-Covid, was an annual get-together.
Thank you for reading. As always, I appreciate your comments.
May peace be with you.
Barry
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