Why Radical is the New Normal
from YES! Magazine:
Get Apocalyptic: Why Radical is the New Normal
Feeling anxious about life in a broken economy on a strained planet? Turn despair into action.
by Robert Jensen
posted May 24, 2013
Feeling anxious about life in a broken-down society on a stressed-out planet? Thats hardly surprising: Life as we know it is almost over. While the dominant culture encourages dysfunctional denialpop a pill, go shopping, find your blisstheres a more sensible approach: Accept the anxiety, embrace the deeper anguishand then get apocalyptic.
We are staring down multiple cascading ecological crises, struggling with political and economic institutions that are unable even to acknowledge, let alone cope with, the threats to the human family and the larger living world. We are intensifying an assault on the ecosystems in which we live, undermining the ability of that living world to sustain a large-scale human presence into the future. When all the world darkens, looking on the bright side is not a virtue but a sign of irrationality.
In these circumstances, anxiety is rational and anguish is healthy, signs not of weakness but of courage. A deep grief over what we are losingand have already lost, perhaps never to be recoveredis appropriate. Instead of repressing these emotions we can confront them, not as isolated individuals but collectively, not only for our own mental health but to increase the effectiveness of our organizing for the social justice and ecological sustainability still within our grasp. Once weve sorted through those reactions, we can get apocalyptic and get down to our real work.
Perhaps that sounds odd, since we are routinely advised to overcome our fears and not give in to despair. Endorsing apocalypticism seems even stranger, given associations with end-timer religious reactionaries and doomer secular survivalists. People with critical sensibilities, those concerned about justice and sustainability, think of ourselves as realistic and less likely to fall for either theological or science-fiction fantasies. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/love-and-the-apocalypse/radical-is-the-new-normal