I'm stunned. Gobsmacked. Bloooown Awaaay!
I've spent the last three years investigating the terminal problems of our age: peak oil, climate change,economic collapse, population growth, ecological and human die-off. I've painstakingly built up a narrative of civilization in which all of these interlock logically, with a denouement that is at first terrifyingly apocalyptic and subsequently somewhat hopeful (at least for very small values of "hope"). I've devoted my web site to various musings written as I discovered what was around each new bend on the road to hell. Only recently have I been able to postulate a future development for humanity that has any positive aspects whatsoever. It has been a long and intensely painful journey from comfortable cornucopian complacency to razor-edged Damoclean awareness.
Browsing the net for new signals of doom I ran across a reference to
this movie. The teaser said, "A middle class white guy comes to grips with Peak Oil, Climate Change, Mass Extinction, Population Overshoot and the demise of the American Lifestyle."
"Huh," said I, "that has a somewhat familiar ring. It sounds like they Get It." So I ordered the DVD when it came out, and watched it last night.
Well, well, well. Boy, do they Get It.
This is a two hour, fairly low budget documentary with very high production values. They interview a whole slew of big names, from Richard Heinberg and Willian Catton to Daniel Quinn and Ran Prieur. They tell the whole story, without once looking away, without even blinking. The movie examines where we are, how we got here, and what the consequences for humanity will be. Like me, they have come to the conclusion that a die-off is inevitable, and even project the same ultimate human population - one billion people.
Up until that point in the movie I was mostly staring at the screen and nodding my head. For anyone who has been researching the condition of our modern industrial civilization for a while there is nothing new here. It's the same story of self-evident catastrophe, though told with succinctness and insight, and with a lyricism that had me smiling in admiration. Then they hit part four: "Walkabout". The contents of that part stopped me in my tracks.
They have come to the conclusion that the story of humanity through and beyond the bottleneck can only be one of personal transformation. Call it what you want; a resurgence of personal responsibility, an ethical awakening, a spiritual journey. Their position is that the circumstances of both the human and non-human worlds require such a change, and that those who make it through will be unavoidably and profoundly altered. They feel that the society that eventually emerges will be radically reshaped by the impersonal forces of constraint and reduction. Such a society will of necessity be one of much greater ecological awareness and personal interdependence than the illusion we have created for ourselves at this point.
It mirrors almost exactly the final section of my article,
"Population Decline - Red Herrings and Hope". In fact, the entire movie amounts to a spell-binding two hour cinematic treatment of that article. To say I was amazed is a gross understatement. In fact it was traumatic seeing my ostensibly radical worldview confirmed so completely and unexpectedly.
Here's an excerpt from
one of the reviews:
As I sat watching the film in awe, stuffing handfuls popcorn in my mouth I couldn’t stop smiling at the realization that though none of this information was new to me, to someone with no understanding of these problems, someone who has stayed in denial thanks to Al Gore’s inconvenient lullaby and other green-washing media, this movie will no doubt cause them to curl up into a ball in the corner and sob. It may seem sadistic to so gleefully watch such a film, but for someone who has felt alone with their understanding of collapse, this movie seems a blessing; “Now I’ve got a movie to show Mom why I do what I do!” We can only hope that once they wipe those tears away, they will feel ready to find a way out of this mess.
I cannot recommend this highly enough. Buy the DVD. Show it to everyone who will sit still for two hours. This is the whole enchilada.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
