This article originally appeared in Conscious Choice magazine.
A few years ago, while working with shamans in the Amazon jungle of
Brazil, I channeled a prophetic voice that announced itself as
Quetzalcoatl, the Mesoamerican deity. The voice insisted a great karmic
reckoning was on its way. These days, I often feel more like Chicken
Little, seeking to warn people the sky above them is starting to fall.
The more I explore what the near future may bring, the more I feel like
running for cover.
Dmitry Orlov’s Reinventing Collapse
argues the United States is headed for an imminent economic meltdown
that will be as devastating as the fall of the USSR in the 1990s: “Try
to form a picture in your mind: it is a superpower, it is huge, it is
powerful, and it is going to come crashing down,” he writes. “You or me
trying to do something about it would have the same effect as you or me
wriggling our toes at a tsunami.” According to Orlov, an engineer and
peak oil theorist, the causes of this crash include ideological
gridlock, the entrenched corruption of our corporate state, the massive
debt piled on by heedless U.S. policies and our utter dependence on a
rapidly diminishing supply of fossil fuels.
Predicting mass
bankruptcy, hyperinflation and resource shortages, Orlov recommends
stockpiling items that can be bartered on the black market, such as
razors, condoms and liquor, strengthening local communities and
learning how to grow your own food. “For most people in the U.S., rich
or poor, life without money is unthinkable,” he notes. “They may want
to give this problem some thought, ahead of time.”
The most
penetrating inquiries into our immediate future seem to be coming from
small press writers such as Orlov. His book is published by New Society
Press, which specializes in studies of our unfolding debacle and
pragmatic tactics for dealing with its unavoidable fallout. Another
meta-perspective is provided by Alexis Zeigler’s Culture Change: Civil Liberty, Peak Oil, and the End of Empire
(Ecodem Press). Zeigler’s bracing little screed explores the connection
between biofuel production and world hunger and argues that ecological
crisis will lead to increased authoritarianism in the short term.
While Zeigler describes the dangers ahead, he is more optimistic than
Orlov in that he sees the possibility of a mass activation of social
awareness and a shift to more sustainable patterns. “The solution to
changing the Western lifestyle is the simple impossible act of creating
social networks that build social support outside of the mainstream in
the context of a truly sustainable society,” he writes. Both writers
foresee the necessity of adapting communal lifestyles to stretch
increasingly scarce resources. Interestingly, Orlov proposes the
friendly American mentality is much better suited for communal life
than the surlier Russian psychology.
I tend to agree with
these authors that the next few years are going to see extraordinary
and even unprecedented hardships as many negative factors combine in
unexpected ways to amplify each other. In the U.S., as the going gets
rough, there is certainly the potential for a further degeneration into
a hyper-controlled, security state. The horrific development of
“disaster capitalism” based on Milton Friedman’s economic doctrine is
well-documented in Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine. The last
decades have seen a massive transfer of assets from the poor and middle
class to the wealthy elite, who are now contracting with private
security firms to guard and rescue them in the event of social or
ecological catastrophe.
At the same time, there are many
positive developments that could counteract the doom-and-gloom. The
increasing ease with which groups of people, ranging from small
communities to massive crowds, can self-organize and mobilize through
the Internet, using new Web 2.0 tools, is viewed as a revolutionary
development in Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody. My
hypothesis, shared by many, is that there is also a change happening in
human consciousness, with increasing numbers of people recognizing
psychic capabilities and undergoing initiations that lead to mystical
insights, compassionate openings and awareness of deeper levels of
unity. It is interesting that our new media technologies amplify our
awareness of interconnectivity, a once rarefied spiritual insight that
is now becoming apparent to many people.
The material crisis
we face is an expression of a spiritual crisis that requires a deep
transformation of values and habits. As our current civilization melts
down around us, my personal hope is that those people who have
initiated themselves through spiritual practices — whether yoga,
meditation, shamanism, martial arts or other disciplines — will step
forward as leaders, helping the multitudes who have not been prepared
for such a shift. A prudent course of action in the near-term might
involve a process of self-education and study in sustainable
techniques, securing access to clean water and locally grown food,
exploring “off the grid” tools and alternative energy sources, while
deepening one’s spiritual practice in preparation for greater changes
ahead.
As Charles Darwin wrote, “It is not the strongest of
the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most
adaptive to change.” As the pace of change increases rapidly, we have a
great opportunity to practice non-attachment, to pare down to
essentials and to learn by doing. Rather than ignoring our intuition
and remaining complacent, it would be best to face the future and make
substantive changes in our lifestyles and expectations right now, while
encouraging our friends and communities to do the same.
Image by NiinaC, courtesy of Creative Commons license. Tarot image created by Melanie Gendron for U.S. Game Systems, Inc.