lens shift - from endless growth to societal collapse

conscient podcast

This is a bonus episode from my 'a calm presence' substack: lens shift featuring an excerpt from e164 jimmy ung - proximity proportionate responsibility.

The original text is below. The audio version was recorded on my iPhone in Vancouver on September 9, 2024 (4 minutes, 36 seconds). I also invite you to read the comments about this posting including one by Don Hill about the use of 'either/or dilemmas' in this kind of writing, which is a fair point (thanks Don). My response included that I sometimes 'do not leave enough room for the listener or reader to take their own space' (I'm working on that) but that in this case, I wanted to produce a 'polemic and provocation' given the severity of our situation. Thanks for reading and-or listening.

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lens shift

from endless growth to societal collapse

Ok, are you still with me after that subtitle? :-)

If so, when you get a chance, please try this exercise:

Think of something you are currently doing - anything - and then shift your perspective on that activity from an ‘endless growth’ lens to a ‘societal collapse’ lens.

Everything changes, right?

Well, maybe not right away…

Here’s an example: You’re driving a car and you’re ‘endless growth’ mode. You might feel encouraged, seemingly without consequence, to want a bigger or faster vehicle, whereas with a societal collapse lens, hum, you would make rethink owning a private vehicle altogether and focus your energies on other things such as on our dying planet.

Same car, two very different lenses.

Jimmy Ung’s in e164 jimmy ung - proximity proportionate responsibility of the conscient podcast said something that I think is worth remembering at this point:

· ‘If we were to do an inventory of where all the things we own were made, that would give us a very interesting map of where our responsibility, our attention and our donations ought to go because our pressures on the global systems can be revealed. That's a much more reasonable way to interact with different crises than to simply read about it on the news and interact with the whole of it without the context of our footprint.’

Right, context.

So, having done the exercise, what does one do? : car sharing, keep our old phones as long as possible, donate strategically to charity, learn to unlearn ? There are many things that we are doing and can continue to do more of…

But, the critical part is to apply this idea of ‘lens shift’ in every aspect of our lives and see where it takes us.

Personally, it has brought relief, relief in the spirit of the Deep Adaptation Forum’s ‘embodying and enabling loving responses to our predicament’.

Relief, but not in a doomist or defeatist kind of way, but relief in the sense of releasing pressure.

Releasing pressure that helps me deal with things as they really are and direct my energy based on what I feel about that reality not what I imagine through the fairy tale of modernity.

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I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). It’s my way to give back and be present.

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and it's francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' which are 'short, practical essays about collapse acceptance, adaptation, response and art’. To subscribe (free of charge) see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. You'll also find a podcast version of each a calm presence posting on Substack or one your favorite podcast player.

Also, please note that a complete transcript of conscient podcast and balado conscient episodes from season 1 to 4 is available on the web version of this site (not available on podcast apps) here: https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes.

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I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible.

Claude Schryer

Latest update on July 20, 2024