| Age of Stupor |
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| Keywords: age of stupid, age of stupor, climate change, peak oil
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| Categories: Society
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| Published on: Mar 30, 2009 |
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| Last updated on: Mar 30, 2009 |
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 You may have heard that a new 'last chance to tackle climate change' film has been released. Its name: Age of Stupid; its effect, so far fairly minimal, apart from its re-rousing of the 'converted' when it comes to such issues.
In my world, climate change (as well as its troublesome relatives - peak oil, the capitalism crunch and a gross misunderstanding of what human beings are really for) is a given, a foundational issue around which I structure my lifestyle.
A site I facilitate, tells me: “We stand at a crossroads. The facts are clear. Global climate change, caused by human activities, is happening, threatening the lives and livelihoods of billions of people and the existence of millions of species. Social movements, environmental groups, and scientists from all over the world are calling for urgent and radical action on climate change.” [1]
Blog comments I read say: “those who’ve not seen 11th Hour are likely to be pleasantly surprised. Leonardo [De Caprio] himself basically explain[s] that there is no hope without getting rid of capitalism and growth based economics. Yes, lots of small changes can add up. But all they add up to in the end is slowing, maybe, the rate of destruction. Only by creating a whole new economic system that makes capitalism (an economic system that requires/ demands constant economic “growth”, i.e. ecological and social devastation) obsolete will we have any real substantive effect.” [2]
This is where my consciousness lives. It's where I usually find myself.
Walking into town, however, I see little reference to the sentiments above - life-as-we-know-it goes on and it's business as usual, where closed shops and homeless people are conveniently edited from the collective purview. Equally absent - in any meaningful way - are they also from the TV screens, radios and newspapers, who, when they do cover the hot topic, still present it as a choice, sandwiched of course between blissfully, (in fact wilfully) ignorant advertising that speaks of no problems. Spending is their best way out of this mess. Or at least a little light relief from it.
This, according to the Age of Stupid movie would be the 'stupid' way. Anything not facing the fact, the fact that this is our last chance to take ourselves in hand and do something, before it's too late, is stupid behaviour, in this the age of that name. 'Not stupid' people are taking action, the film says.
I've seen the film twice and its shock tactic has dwindled as sure as shock tactics always did. But the problem remains: what will it take for people to be less or not stupid and, save ourselves from unthinkable suffering, if not near extinction? What will it take to wake us up as a species?
To me, this is not the Age of Stupid, it's more the Age of Stupor. Stupor, according to my rather lazy and stupefied research [3], “is the lack of critical cognitive function and level of consciousness wherein a sufferer is almost entirely unresponsive and only responds to base stimuli such as pain. The word derives from the Latin stupure, meaning insensible. Being characterised by impairments of reactions to external stimuli...”
Maybe, in time-honoured human tradition, that's what it's going to take - pain, and lots of it. Those 'who have ears to hear' can prepare ahead of the obvious pain that's coming. Those transition-ers are likely to be responding to the fear of pain, and that's very wise.
As for those still in the stupor, I'm not sure what to do about them. But relying on them when it comes to the most crucial areas of our lives like food, water, land use and the management of our daily affairs, should they be politicians, or in any other position of power, is surely not advisable.
I can't help thinking - if the time scales are to be believed - that the time for taking personal responsibility and taking action is here. Now.
Should you feel any discomfort as you face the inevitability of where this Western, industrial culture is taking us, please take positive action. Don't slip back into your stupor.
Top stupor symptoms include:
- Using mortgage payments as a reason not to take drastic action
- Believing in 'away' - as in throwing things away, wishing problems would go away
- Belief in separation i.e. that all life is not connected in some way
- Avoiding conflict resolution
- Blaming and complaining
- Being constantly busy
- Irrational belief that all is well (on the human level)
- Ignoring the possibility that 'all is well' at other levels of consciousness
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| Carl Munson, 45 |
| A square peg tired of endeavouring to live out ... |
| Exeter |
| United Kingdom |
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