Unlearning the Activist Script #5: We Must Save the World

[@jembendell]

Great session. I agree that the activists’ whatever-it-takes saviour impulse has a psychological function. It's function is similar to the professionals’ must-try-harder devotee impulse. The function is to pull us away from the horror of helplessness, the grief about what's already lost, our uncomfortableness with the pain of other beings, and the terror of what awful things lie ahead. Either the saviour or devotee impulse numbs us to what we think or feel might become unbearable emotions. We fear despair. This has been the root cause of denial amongst the Western environmental sectors I've worked with since the 1990s. It has led to aggression towards those of us who express a more troubling outlook on the future and a more humble assessment of our capabilities. We are heretics for the religion of human dominion and progress. So we must be shunned and shamed. The lack of awareness of these dynamics in Western environmental sectors has allowed ecomodernist delusions and strategies to dominate and taken precious time from people to reassess their lives. But I am noticing that now shattering.