We are living in a golden age of human prosperity — deaths from war and famine are at all-time lows. The exponential development of technology has given many people more access to on-demand services than the wealthiest elite had just 25 years ago.
Yet the systems we rely upon are breaking down. If you ask leading climate scientists, our civilization is driving 100 MPH towards a cliff. Environmental and ecological destruction, systemic racism, political polarization, government ineptitude and mistrust, consumer debt, and human mental, emotional and physical health crises. Here are a few statistics backing this up:
Many leading scientists estimate that we have 10 years or less to alter the trajectory of toxic emissions or we will reach a point of no return. ~U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
¾ of Americans report being lonely and a report by Cigna found that loneliness is as harmful to our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
According to the UN more people are committing suicide than are dying from all natural disasters and armed conflicts combined.
Suicide kills over a million people a year globally and 50,000 in the USA. — CDC
Drug overdoses kill 70,000 people a year in the USA — CDC
Last year, according to the FAO, five million children worldwide died of hunger (among 162 million who are stunted and 51 million who are wasted)
1 in 8 American adults have diabetes according to the CDC
The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s prisoners ~13th~Documentary by Ava DuVernay
African Americans make up 6.5% of the American population but 40.2% of the prison populace. ~13th~Documentary by Ava DuVernay
While a white male has a 1 in 17 chance of ending up behind bars, for black males it is 1 in 3. ~13th~Documentary by Ava DuVernay
Less than 30% of Americans are engaged in their work — Gallup
Only about 33% of Americans report being happy — 2017 Harris Poll Survey
The list could go on and on…
This begs the following questions — how the fuck did we get here? Where is this dysfunction coming from?
I believe the root of these problems is the same. It is the isolation and loneliness in which we’re living and the disconnection from ourselves we have created in response to our traumas. This isolation and disconnect have been going on long before the forced isolation stemming from COVID-19.
Let me explain.
For 99.9% of human history, we lived in tribes and relied upon each other every single day for survival. We humans are wired for connection, community, and interdependent living, yet we increasingly live in isolation and independence.
Because we are living out of accordance with our essential nature (community, connection, interdependence, immersion in natural environment) we are experiencing immense emotional and existential pain.
“Rugged individualism” is even celebrated in our culture as a high virtue — and images like the Marlboro Man — an independent, tough, unfeeling icon is the peak of ‘manhood’ in our culture (note: several Marlboro men have died from smoking). The fact that the National Rifle Association (and its protection of individual freedom to bear arms) is one of the most powerful organizations in the country is also evidence of our individualist culture.
It follows that with cultural values like this — we’ve developed the ability not to need each other or interact directly. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Uber…in some ways these tools have vastly increased our quality of life. At the same time, they allow us not to need or interact with each other.
Rather than deal with the dissonance we are experiencing, and rather than feel the uncomfortable emotions it causes — we dull the pain through addiction to external stimulation and externalizing our problems through projection and blame. This is the basis of a consumption-oriented culture.
Numbing & Addiction
This numbing could look as mild as an addiction to scrolling social media, video games, checking email, or working too much or something more destructive like chemical addictions to alcohol, opiates, and other drugs. The list can go on. Regardless of which outlet, addiction is at record levels.
Personally, and despite being a highly functioning member of society, I have been addicted to or dependent on Adderall, cocaine, tobacco, alcohol, sugar, pornography, television, exercise, and work. I’ve been diagnosed with ADD, mild depression and I’ve had suicidal thoughts.
I wish I could say that I am the outlier here. But almost every person I know has addictions, including the most “successful”. Many people I know struggle with depression. Worse, we stigmatize these addictions and feelings as being wrong, strictly personal, and not something to talk about.
“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it is connection” ~Gabor Mate~ Best-Selling Author
Externalizing Our Issues
Equally problematic is our addiction to externalizing the source of our issues and then trying to exert control over people or factors wrongfully identified as the source of the problem. Rather than take responsibility for our situation — we project and blame.
We blame Trump, we blame Republicans, we blame Democrats, we blame men, we blame women, we blame China, most of all we blame “the system”. I too always had someone to blame. I blamed my parents, I blamed my boss, I blamed my significant others, I blamed my colleagues. Unfortunately — when we blame others we are only creating further disconnection and are making ourselves powerless.
Einstein said — “one cannot solve a problem from the same level of thinking that created it.” So if the humans trying to solve our society’s problems are disconnected from themselves — they will only create more disconnection.
Blame — One reason blaming others is so highly ineffective is that we have so little, if any, control over the behavior of others. As we all know, being blamed very rarely makes someone want to change. When we take responsibility and look for how we have contributed to or been complicit in a problem — we give ourselves agency because we have the ability to our own behavior. One of the reasons that QAnon became so popular is that the narrative of a specific group of global elites controlling the world is that it allows people to externalize the source of their own problems.
Projection — Psychological projection involves taking our own internal pain, issues, undesirable feelings, and insecurities and casting them onto someone else, rather than being aware of, admitting to, or dealing with the unwanted feelings ourselves.
Typically when we are most disturbed by or judgemental of the behavior of others — it is because that behavior is actually a reflection of characteristics in ourselves about which we are most insecure.
A classic example of projection would be if someone with adulterous feelings accuses their partner of infidelity.
One way that blame and projection manifest is in the creation of ingroup/outgroup dynamics.
InGroup/OutGroup Dynamics — The concept of ingroup/outgroup comes from social identity theory — in which it is natural for humans to form “ingroups” and “outgroups” based on a broad range of factors including preferences, socioeconomic status, age, race, sex, etc.
Essentially:
- “Ingroup” = good, safe, not to blame for problems
- “Outgroup” = bad, not safe, to be blamed for problems.
Here are some examples of ingroup/outgroup thinking from the United States worth mentioning to elucidate this point. You’ll note each of these attempts at large-scale change were spectacular failures.
- “The War on Drugs” has been both a spectacular failure and a perfect example of trying to solve deeper human and societal problems by controlling surface level circumstances. We treated drug use as a crime problem instead of a health issue. Out group: drug users, drug traffickers, drug producers, and unofficially — black Americans.
- “The War on Terrorism” has created more anti-US sentiment and insurgency than there ever was before 9/11. Out group: terrorists, anyone supporting terrorists
- Immigration and Illegal Immigration Policy — rather than attempting to support foreign countries experiencing crisis to be more desirable to stay in — we try to build walls and control people from coming into the US. Out group: anyone not American
- The War on Crime & the Prison Industrial Complex — has only created more crime and incarceration. Recidivism rates are abysmal. We treat crime as a behavioral problem that can be fixed by punishment rather than a systemic issue — much of which stems from mental/emotional health and racism. Out group: black Americans
When we try to resolve issues by externalizing the source and blaming others — we will only create more outgroups, projection, and disconnection.
Connect vs Control
“Today, most of our challenges no longer succumb to force. Our antibiotics and surgery fail to meet the surging health crises of autoimmunity, addiction, and obesity. Our guns and bombs, built to conquer armies, are useless to erase hatred abroad or keep domestic violence out of our homes. Our police and prisons cannot heal the breeding conditions of crime. Our pesticides cannot restore ruined soil.” ~Charles Eisenstein — Futurist, Best-Selling Author
Perhaps what we really need is the ability to connect. The challenge we face with climate change is the first time in human history that we have ever faced an existential threat to humanity without the possibility of creating an outgroup. In WWI and WWII — vast swaths of the developed world were able to get over differences to work together against the threat (they had an outgroup to fight against). This time, the trajectory we are on spells disaster — but it will only be through coming together (connecting) as one human race that we’ll be able to overcome the climate crisis.
