From C**** to Planetary Stewardship
By Alistair Langer
How the Pandemic Can Help Us to Put Things Into Perspective
When I write these lines, I’m looking out of the window at The Castle, a coworking space in the centre of Gamla Stan, the old town in Stockholm. It’s December 23, 2020. What a year. The best year in my life. A challenging one. One that brought me to my knees and at the same time was very gentle to me.
C*****
In this piece I want to use C***** just as a starting point of a much larger reflection. I’m intentionally not writing the word out. I call it the big C. C with a capital C. To start with: No, I’m not denying C. It’s a virus. It kills people. I know people who died from it. The closest one around me is the father of the partner of my sister in Lima. He died pretty young and unexpected. And his son, Fabian that I know for many years is grieving and helping his mother out in Bolivia to sort out the nitty-gritty of him passing away as the only son of his parents. I’m one of those who is still reading the statistics, climbing numbers of people dying “off and with C” every day. I’m curious, intrigued and staggered. Sometimes I’m sad when I read the news. But more often I’m compassionate.
Statistics
I loved math from early age on. I excelled in it before I entered primary school. And I got 15 points in it at the end of school, which is the equivalent of 100% accomplishment. And then I studied it in depth whilst at uni, during my integrated studies of sociology, psychology, law and macro-economics. I dove in deep. And got ever more curious. I went on to study two semesters of dark figures and criminology. And, my conclusion was: The more complex things get, the messier and less accurate the numbers are.
Like Quantum Mechanics teaches us, the observer is never neutral. It shapes the observed. Take our beloved Gross National Product. We are doing everything to grow our economies on a finite planet. That kind of felt utterly stupid, very short sighted and crazy already as an adolescent to me. That’s why I studied macro-economics. Just to find out after leaving uni, that I now understand more of the theory but that does not make our economic system less stupid. I’d say plain insane.
Putting Things into Perspective
Let’s get for a short while to the big C. I’m not criticizing our government for the measures taken in near complete uncertainty when C showed up. But we got numbers now. They are not perfect, there’s a lot of room for interpretation, but we got some numbers. In my humble understanding we got a pandemic. Yes, but it could be way worse. I’m just baffled of how little the different perspectives are put into relation with one another. Anybody thinking about the long-term political consequences about people getting triggered by fear? Steeply increasing numbers of suicide, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence? The political divide? The Social Dilemma?
Anybody thinking about „other“ things that might be worthwhile having on the collective agenda? Anybody still talking about the war in Syria, Jemen, the Horn of Africa? Climate change, plastic in the oceans, the nuclear arsenals getting revamped? Fukushima? Hello everybody, we got more than 180 reactors older than Fukushima in Europe alone. Of course none of them are likely to blow up. Degradation of soil, loss of biodiversity, bees dying, glyphosate still the top number one of chemicals used in agriculture. On top of that of course the possibility of AI going crazy and quantum computing. Does anybody care?
We Are Collectively Traumatized
Bottom line. I think neither me alone, nor we collectively can hold all of this. Yet we must learn to face the unfaceable. The only way out, is in, and through. As some of the readers know I suffered from PTSD my whole life quite exactly up until three years ago. It took 14 years of effort, therapy mainly, to heal just that coincidence in my life that I burnt myself the whole upper left leg when I was playing in the kitchen when two years and eight months old.
Science is proving that trauma is passed on through at least three generations. So, writing this small piece in Sweden is really interesting. Since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, besides „just“ burning a couple of thousand witches, there seems to be no trace of large scale trauma in this country or the others that make up Scandinavia.
The opposite is obviously true for the country of my origin, Germany. Not only are we responsible for the Holocaust but also the West-East divide is still deeply imprinted in our collective consciousness. And let’s take the history of colonization of France, the UK, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium into account. And millenia of slavery as the main means of production and peonage in many countries on this planet still common sense. And, of course this continues - often just in clever disguise (aka known as terms of trade) with the structural exploitation of the global South by the North.
The Inside of Sustainability
I dare proclaim that the big agendas of the 21st century are doomed to fail if we don’t radically acknowledge the „inside“ of what makes us human. I don’t think we will be able to reach the SDGs, fight against and adapt to climate change, build regenerative business models, heal the Earth before we do not radically and collectively first of all acknowledge that we are all - more or less - collectively traumatized.
We need to install large scale societal processes and access to means to heal individually and collectively. Only if the perpetrators and the victims come together in a multi-level peace and reunification process, then, and then only, we will grow into a new phase as a human civilization.
Do I think that is possible? Absolutely! Do I think it is necessary. Yes! I think it’s vital, if not for the survival of our species, then certainly if we want to take a course that is not doomed to end up in a collective doomsday scenario where we all fall back into a scenario of the new dark ages.
Collective Projection
Again here, I’m not denying C to cause people dying. Yet if I personally weigh the other challenges and consequences sketched in the above paragraphs I can only arrive at the conclusion that all that we collectively sweep under the carpet gets a perfect crystallization point with C that allows us to project everything on it. It relieves us from the burden of holding the tantamount and intricately linked n-dimensional systemic problems we as a species are causing. It allows us to relax internally and to trust into “if we successfully fight the big C” then we are back to normal.
The New Normal
I doubt very much that there will be anything back to normal in the decades until I die on this planet. We all of course want some kind of normality. Our hard wired body as vessel for us making a human experience is very much built for that. We are used to almost nothing changing when we look at our species through the lense of deep time. Things were the way they were, from the moment you were born until you died. That’s how it used to be for more than 99% that make us homo sapiens.
Yet, things have drastically changed within the last only couple of decades. The intensity that binds us together with a collective fate, the need to cut the crap, and the urge of needing to redesign almost any aspect that make our societies function through the respective institutions. AI is already now way more powerful than we are (aka known as the Social Dilemma). Our financial super-infrastructure is programmed to disrupt the very fabric that glue our societies together. Even if this is largely overlooked by laymen, it can be understood pretty simply.
No, a system that creates a class of millionaires and billionaires that profit, and leaves disenfranchised the vast majority on this planet is not the way to go ahead. As simple as that. The collective architecture we all silently agree on (aka known as the Mont Pellerin version of neoliberal capitalism) can do nothing but maximise profits, externalise all costs to the disenfranchised as well as the future unborn generations, thus socialise the losses and increase the societal divide, leaving the vast majority of us Earthlings bruised and shattered. Large parts of human animals are kept intentionally in peonage, that’s nothing less than modern day slavery in clever disguise (aka known as least developed countries in euphemistic language).
Man re-made
Everything that man makes, can be re-made. Yes, kinda, but also not, kinda. Without allowing myself to be overwhelmed by the collective challenges ahead (I very much was as a kid and adolescent), we need to acknowledge that the amount of bullshit we are creating is really nop-notch insane. I don’t feel like I need to repeat myself but as laid out in “Putting Things into Perspective”, one of the multitude of collective challenges ahead seems already quite demanding to solve. All of them, well, yes, I totally believe it’s doable. But it needs a collective effort and not the business as usual, let’s stick all our heads into the sand (aka known as game denial). Also, I don’t believe in the “we just need to nudge and tweak it a little” scenarios that the vast majority of the political spectrum uphold as a possible road ahead.
No, I think we need a truly radical approach on all fronts.
Planetary Stewardship
I strongly believe in the Maslow pyramid of needs. We can arrive at an abundance for everyone scenario. There is enough for everybody’s needs, but not for everybody’s greed. Every Earthling can get a decent amount of universal basic income. Nobody needs any billionaire on the planet. We can live in peace and ecological health with our mother organism. Nobody needs war. Definitely not. Our ancestors should hopefully look back at this tumultuous period of humanity growing up. And, just to pick another drastic example. No, female genitale mutilation is not a custody that is ok. It’s outright barbarian and cannot be tolerated. Under no circumstance. And again, no, there is no justification for war at any time. What we need is nothing less than to manifest eternal world peace as a foundation to do the work that needs to be done.
Life Divine
I know that life divine is possible. In my heart it is very alive. I can see it, feel it, smell it. And I can live it to quite a certain extent as one of the privileged maybe 5% on this planet. And it is the duty for all of us privileged to plant seeds into the fertile soil of the future that this is possible for each and every Earthling. We can live in peace, health, abundance, singing and dancing together that song that all our hearts know is possible. We are brothers and sisters. We are all one big family on this beautiful planet called Earth. Yes, I’m up for colonizing the Milky Way. But first we need to grow up as a human family and heal our mother organism, Gaia. She is sick. We need to heal her. If not she will devour us, and shake us off like a plague. She got time, we as the descendants of the apes only exist here for a spec in deep time only.
Eutopia
I totally believe that almost everything we imagine we can turn into reality. That is what makes us human. For the good, the bad and the ugly. I believe we can manifest in my lifetime until maybe 2079 (this when God wants the year I’ll be celebrating my 100th birthday, though not counting on that):
Universal basic income for every Earthling.
The Green New Deal globally. Bluntly put 100% renewable energies, cradle-to-cradle industrial design and regenerative business models in conjunction.
A reformed Pan-European Union with a deeper and broader welfare for all citizens with adult personal development and wellbeing as key non-financial indicators complementing and better even replacing the Gross National Product as a means for progress, thus building a block in a multi-polar word as a counterpart to US hyper-individualism and Chinese surveillance capitalism.
100% cut of all seemingly legitimized debts that hold the vast majority in the cold grips of rich countries.
A clever multitude of planetary money systems on a blockchain. Some on a demurrage basis that devalue the worth of the currency hoarded in time. Thus, instead of giving interest on interest, this allows for large scale, intergenerational, deep-time investments into regenerating the harm we inflicted.
I don’t see any necessary “bank secret” or tax havens in the future. Why should the wealthy be allowed non-disclosure, when every normal citizen needs to pay its proper contribution for living in a welfare state.
Honouring the feminine principles, enabling and supporting female leadership on all levels.
Revitalizing indigenous traditions.
Baking wisdom and collective intelligence into the institutions that govern us, from a local, regional, national to a planetary level.
The psychedelic experience as a basic human right to allow every human being to transcend this narrow confinement of consensus reality, learn to die and be reborn as its biggest potential, which is our birthright.
Finally and most importantly forgiving all and each of us mutually. Only in this deep and tender space, allowing for us to meet, heal and grow together as one human family, we will find the collective destiny that is our birthright:
Sat-Chit-Ananda they call it in the Vedas. Being-Consciousness-Bliss. This is our birthright collectively. Including all the collective messiness that makes us human, hopefully also in 250, 2.500, 25.000 and 250.000 years as a human species. But without the outright stupidity and stubbornness of us like we behaved in our teens collectively.
Time to wake up, grow up, clean up, show up. Together! Now!