Reviving Radical Social Work in Collapse
As I study to become a social worker, I find myself questioning what this profession will look like post-COVID. It is a surreal time to enter the field, as most agencies are unclear on how to best serve clients from a distance or help process the collective trauma of experiencing a pandemic (particularly for people who are under-resourced and oppressed).
coronavirus, climate change and community care
If our response to the coronavirus would be to support collective strategies for our shared safety and wellness, as well as remembering to wash hands, cough into our sleeves, and support our immune systems, as well as remembering to care for those of us whose bodies are more vulnerable to viral attack, then perhaps this would be another time when, as a species, our evolution was changed as a result of the life of a virus? Perhaps it would shift how we are steamrolling towards climate collapse? I don’t know how to get from where we are to the place we can’t yet imagine, but I do know that any practice that moves at the pace of relationship, at the speed of trust, and at the centered pace of those who are most vulnerable, is a pace that won’t kill some of us to save others of us along the way.
Facing Extinction
What else is there to do now? Here we are, some of the last humans who will experience this beautiful planet since Homo sapiens began their journey some 200,000 years ago. Now, in facing extinction of our species, you may wonder if there is any point in going on. If your future projects make no sense any more, if you feel it is unwise to have children, and that things are going to get really hard and bad, you may not want to bother living any longer. Yet, there are other ways to use your attention that make life still relevant and even beautiful.
With a Planet on Fire, This Is What It Means to Enter Emergency Mode
The climate crisis is an unprecedented emergency. How we react to the climate crisis will shape centuries and millennia to come. Given the stakes, and the extremely short timetable, it is imperative that we strive to maximize the efficacy of our actions — from ourselves as individuals, from our nation, from the global community of nations, and from the organizations that are trying to avert this catastrophe.
Mainstream Psychology Can Go Fuck Itself
Near-term social collapse IS imminent due to the global climate crisis and ecocide resulting from capitalism, imperialism, racism, and patriarchy (the kyriarchy). It’s already happening, yet mainstream psychology and most therapists I know of, are not developing the language and skills to help people live with climate truth and organize towards any meaningful revolution.
Some People Wake Up: Reflections on Initiation
The immediate need of our time is for ripened and seasoned adult human beings to take their place in our communities; individuals who carry a deep and abiding fidelity to the living body of this benevolent earth, to beauty and to their own souls. Traditionally, these were the ones who had successfully crossed a series of initiatory thresholds and had come through as protectors and carriers of the communal soul.