I got arrested for the first time in my life this week. And I'm proud of it.
As long-time followers of this blog know, over the past 13 years I've tried everything I know to get our society to change its omnicidal course. I've written books, co-founded organisations, taught courses, worked in my community, lobbied governments, given talks, participated in grassroots discussion and action...
I've failed. We've all failed. As a global society we are accelerating towards oblivion, and taking everyone else with us.
And last week, someone said something that stuck with me. That if everyone around you is carrying on like everything's fine, then no matter how much one reads or understands intellectually about a situation, it's so difficult not to go along with that. Equally, if you're somewhere and everyone else starts screaming and running for the exit, then you probably start running for the exit, even if you have no idea what's going on.
Maybe there's seemed to be a disconnect between the message we've been bringing - that this society is knowingly causing the harshest catastrophe in history - and the actions we've been taking?
Maybe if the wider public see that hundreds feel the need to go to jail over this, they might start to seriously ask why? With these stakes, it's worth a shot.
https://vimeo.com/301399993
That film was shot yesterday on Blackfriars Bridge, one of five bridges surrounding Parliament that we occupied as part of the Extinction Rebellion. The sheer mass of thousands of people meant that the police couldn't possibly arrest everyone, so the bridges were ours for all the family fun you can see.
But when, at the hour we decided, we collectively moved on, many ordinary folk stayed behind and refused to leave in order to be arrested. If all we have left to amplify the message with is our liberty, then we offer it up.
And paradoxically - as I said in my speech in the clip above (from 4m15) - in doing so we have discovered a new freedom. That following our conscience and refusing to be bound by laws that insist on inflicting death and misery is an act of liberty.
Hundreds of thousands of humans are dying of climate change each year now. Most of the wild nature that existed fifty years ago is gone. What's a little time in jail, by comparison?
---
As I sat in my cell, I felt peace. I knew that I was doing all I could for our collective future, and am proud to have that recorded against my name for the rest of my life.
Perhaps, as ever, Wendell Berry said it best,
"Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success, namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence."
Maybe we can't stop what's unfolding, but it would diminish us not to try. And yesterday was the first event I've attended that felt as though it might be a historic turning point.
Equally, it might not. That's up to us.
One child held a placard saying "When I grow up, I want to be alive".
Yep. See you there next Saturday.
(and there are plenty of crucial non-arrestable roles too)
--
I'll leave you with the song that has been the soundtrack to my personal Extinction Rebellion.
It makes me cry every time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTFFOr_G6ZM
For more on my late mentor David Fleming's astonishing Surviving the Future or Lean Logic, see the official page for the books, which should provide all you need.
The “Order the books” section there will point you to the best deals available (in print, as e-books, or as an audiobook with my narration!), with free worldwide delivery.
Forthcoming public events:
Mon 23rd November 2020 - Sun 31st January 2021 - Eight week online course Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time, in partnership with Sterling College, Vermont.
Led by Shaun, the previous run attracted 250 participants from 25 countries, with guest teachers including Vandana Shiva, Kate Raworth and Rob Hopkins. This run will be limited to 100 participants.
Sat 12th December 2020 - Shaun will lead a workshop as part of A Journey Home, organised by Eve Annecke and Advaya.
Click links for more details or to book places at events.
Or follow DarkOptimism on Twitter for more.
I look forward to seeing you soon!
Sat 10th Sept 2016 - Small Is Beautiful festival, with Natalie Bennett, Andrew Simms and others. Centre for Alternative Technology, Powys, mid-Wales
Sat 17th Sept 2016 - 9am-5pm - Towards a Localised Future: A New Economy Convergence, with Helena Norberg-Hodge, Molly Scott Cato, Rupert Read, Michael H Shuman... Friends House, Camden, London:
Weds 21st Sept 2016 - 6:30pm-8:30pm - The launch party at Daunt Books Chelsea, London
Mon 26th Sept 2016 - 7pm-9pm - Studio guest of Dave Hampton on MarlowFM, 97.5's weekly environment show:
[sc_embed_player fileurl="https://www.darkoptimism.org/MarlowFM.mp3"]listen here
Weds 10th May 2017 - 7pm - 'Surviving The Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy', at Housmans radical bookshop. 5 Caledonian Road, King's Cross, London, N1 9DX
Tues 18th July 2017 - Greening the Apocalypse interview: "The Future, and How to Survive It" on Melbourne, Australia's RRR FM:
Sun 30th July 2017 - Workshop hosted by video link at the first Transition US national gathering, discussing "Transition's wider vision: David Fleming and Surviving the Future":
Thurs 30th Nov 2017 - Fleming anniversary event, Gaia Foundation - To mark the seventh anniversary of David Fleming's death, Shaun hosted a special evening with The Gaia Foundation at the beautiful Burgh House, honouring their late friend and fellow Hampstead resident. London, UK.Fri 1st/Sat 2nd Dec 2017 - Sterling College symposium - Sterling College hosted a weekend symposium dedicated to David Fleming, featuring presentations from five influential devotees of his work: Peter Buffett, Chuck Collins, David Bollier, Margo Baldwin and Matthew Derr. The event was standing room only, with over 150 people in attendance to engage with Fleming's legacy. Craftsbury Common, Vermont, USA.
Fri 6th Apr 2018 - Interview by Jean Vidler MBE of The Green Futures Show, Kingston, UK: "Shaun Chamberlin on David Fleming", via the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network:
17-19th May 2018 - Sterling College short course on Surviving the Future. Sterling College hosted a three-day course built around David Fleming's vision, led by Martin Kirk, Richard Heinberg and Matthew Derr.
Weds 19th Sept 2018 - The European Parliament discusses Fleming's TEQs system, as described in Lean Logic:
Tues 19th Feb 2019 - Inspired by the release of the Surviving the Future audiobook, Peter Buffett and Jimmy Buff have been hosting a weekly show on Radio Kingston NY, playing/discussing the chapters. Click the image below to catch up from the first episode, or hear the final episode, featuring an interview with Shaun Chamberlin, here.
Thurs 7th May 2020 - 'Deep Change: Cultivating a Truly Regenerative Activism', organised by Advaya and Ulex.
Online panel discussion with Shaun, Ann Pettifor and Fran Boait of Positive Money:
Mon 6th April - Sun 31st May 2020 - Eight week online course Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time, in partnership with Sterling College, Vermont.
Led by Shaun and Philip Ackerman-Leist, with 250 participants from 25 countries, and guest teachers including Vandana Shiva, Kate Raworth and Rob Hopkins.
Sat 20th June 2020, 8-10pm UK time - Shaun hosted an online screening of The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?, as part of Into The Wild's 'Wonderland' online solstice festival, followed by a talk on the theme 'Culture, Carnival and Capital - Living in the Aftermath of the Growth Economy'.
Sat 29th - Mon 31st August 2020 - Shaun joined/hosted a couple of panels at Medicine, the first physical UK festival to go ahead post-COVID lockdown, discussing 'Dark Optimism: Culture and Carnival in the Aftermath of Capitalism'.
This is an excerpt from a longer video interview Rhonda Fabian conducted with Shaun Chamberlin at the opening of the New Story Summit in Findhorn, Scotland. Part of a Findhorn Foundation documentary initiative.
Transcript originally published in the Kosmos Journal.
--
Rhonda Fabian: Shaun, please tell me what Dark Optimism means to you.
Dark Optimism is a widely misunderstood term. I get a lot of people coming up to me saying, “Are you feeling dark today, or optimistic?” That’s not quite what I mean. Dark Optimism means being unashamedly positive about the kind of world we could create, but unashamedly realistic about how far we are from doing that right now.
So it’s not that sort of bright shiny optimism, which I can find quite frustrating. It’s more like, “Well everything isn’t fine actually", you know? It’s an ability to look at the more difficult aspects of where we are and what we’re doing, whilst also retaining a sort of deep faith in human potential. And also drawing on the deeper questions of why we’re really here. And does the state of the world in any way challenge our purpose in being here, or make that impossible? I don’t think it does.
Even if we are into a world of unstoppable, runaway climate change, for example. There’s still love to do, there’s still positive change to make in the world.
Fabian: How does it compare with the Dark Mountain movement?
Well, obviously they stole my darkness! (laughs) Actually, their name comes from a Robinson Jeffers poem. But Dark Mountain plays an incredibly important part enabling us to ask the questions that we’re often not allowed to ask. You know, maybe it is all too late. And if it is, what does that mean?
There’s a logical flaw at the heart of a lot of arguments that we make in “the movement” – whichever movement label you want to put on it – which is that we tend to look at things and say, “Well that won’t work, so we need this.” An example might be people saying, “Well renewable energy can’t ramp up fast enough to solve our energy crisis, so we need nuclear.” Or, “The mainstream parties aren’t going to give us what we need, so we need the Green Party." Or to not vote…or whatever. The premise isn’t the conclusion – they don’t join up! You might just as well say, “Renewable energy can’t ramp up fast enough to deal with our energy crisis, so we need sardines.” You’ve not said anything about the alternative. You’ve just said, “This doesn’t work, so that.”
And I think Dark Mountain addresses that to an extent. The argument we hear again and again in environmentalism is, “Should we be working for radical change, or should we be working within the existing paradigms?” So, people will say, “Well, you know, we don’t have time to wait for a revolution. Everything has to happen now, so we’ve got to work within the existing paradigms.” And then other people say, “Well, you know, if we don’t have a radical, fundamental revolution, then what’s the point, because we’re just addressing symptoms.” And both of those arguments, I think, are completely valid. Yet, you hear people arguing back and forth and back and forth about this and never finding resolution. They can’t admit that they’re actually both right.
There isn’t time for radical change, AND we need radical change. And so, if you can never accept that actually maybe they’re both right, and that we have to ask some really deeper questions about what that means, then you just end up with people over here having a nice career saying this, and people over there having a nice career saying that. And you never actually get to the deeper truth.
For me, Dark Mountain is a venue where we can ask those kinds of questions. Well, what if this doesn’t work AND that doesn’t work? And what if we don’t actually know of an alternative. Can we sit with that? Can we actually sit with that together? And can we have a conversation about what that means? To me that’s a really potent and fertile space.
Fabian: It says to me that there’s a place for sorrow in optimism?
Yes. Part of my journey over the last few years is that David Fleming, who was my mentor and very close friend passed away very suddenly at the end of 2010. And actually, we were just a few weeks away from launching a big project that we’d co-authored. So it was a very difficult and busy time. To try and hold that – deal with the work and bring it to the fruition we were both hoping for, whilst also trying to process the grief of the sudden loss of my – my good friend. And then just three weeks after he passed, my fiancée passed away very suddenly as well.
That was a profoundly challenging time. And I’m quite happy with how I moved through that. Yet, I don’t think grief is a process that ends. I think it’s a relationship that continues throughout your life. I sort of found over the past few years that when I reflect on and write about my personal grief, there’s a very strong correlation between that and the grief that many of us carry, maybe all of us carry, for the state of the world and the state of nature and the state of our society.
I think grieving, as opposed to loss, is a process of opening ourselves. When we suffer a loss that’s overwhelming, we shut down. Your body just says, “That’s too much”, right? “I’m gonna shut it down.” We shut down part of ourselves and that keeps us from being completely overwhelmed, but it also keeps us from being fully alive.
And so the process of grieving is the process of – of coming back to life. On a societal level, on a collective level, that’s true as well. Part of the reason we fail collectively right now to face up to the kind of damage that we’re doing in the world, is because the grief of it is so overwhelming, that the process of opening those doors again is incredibly difficult. Because behind them is a huge, overwhelming bunch of pain. So every time you open one of them again, there it is waiting for you.
And so you have to have the space to do that – to work through that pain. And it’s only by doing that that you come back to life and you start to be able to respond to these problems in a way that is more open, to look at it all in the round and say, “Okay. What is the most appropriate way of acting here?” Rather than, “Oh god, I can’t look at that. I’m just gonna keep my head down and work really hard at this thing, because I can’t look at the bigger questions.” Because the grief is still there.
Fabian: So if grief is a process, what about despair?
Well there’s a really interesting thing about despair, I think. It has a spark in it of deep motivation. I think despair can be described as looking at every possible scenario and seeing no hopeful one. But what that means is, if you can present someone in despair with one scenario that looks hopeful - that looks like a real possibility - then there’s this immense wealth of motivation to drive toward it, because despair is not a nice place to be.
If you can actually present someone with a possibility, even if it’s just a narrow possibility, then despair becomes this huge driver, this huge motivation that can achieve incredible things.
Fabian: Is this despair at the heart of Dark Optimism? Does that drive your activism?
For me, becoming whatever I am, whether that’s an activist, or whatever, was about selfishness really. It was about the perspective I hold that in a very real and important sense – we’re all one. And our well-being is completely interdependent.
From that sort of spiritual perspective, the suffering of others and the suffering of the world is my suffering. Consequently, you know, sitting on the sofa, watching TV, selfishly consuming, wasn’t very selfish because it – it didn’t satisfy me. It left me with this – this sort of pain about what was happening. And it was really uncomfortable for me as an individual.
And the only thing that could make me more comfortable, was to feel like I was facing up to these challenges, trying to engage with them in some impactful, positive way. That was the only way I as an individual could feel happier, more content, and more whole. And so, yes, that process of opening to the pain that we feel at the state of the world; the anger, or dissatisfaction, or sense of injustice, or whatever it might be that we feel when we look at how things are;
if we don’t try and face what we feel, and hear the call that it might give to us, then we’re shutting ourselves down. Then we’re becoming less alive.
The one piece of advice I would give to young people is to remember that you cannot NOT change the world. Whatever you do will change the world. If you take the most default option, you follow the most mainstream, down the line, ‘just keep your head down and get on with what they’re telling you to do’, approach, then that’s the world that you’re helping to create. There is no way that you can not change the world.
And so open yourself to everything that you feel about the state of the world. Don’t let anyone tell you what to do. But just ask yourself, “How do I want to respond to this in a way that isn’t shutting me down; that is opening me up; that is helping me be fully who I am.” And that will lead you for the rest of your life.
--
This is an excerpt from a longer video interview conducted on the 27th September 2014, at the beginning of the New Story Summit in Findhorn, Scotland.EDIT - 12th Jan 2017 - The video footage of this 14 min interview excerpt added above. The footage of the full 43 min interview is also available, here.
Let me tell you a story.
It’s a story about our land – our home – and our ability to live peaceful, harmonious, respectful lives upon it and in partnership with it.
And it’s a story about the big bad political structures and corporate institutions that conspire to stop us doing so, using the unspeakable, impenetrable black magic of bureaucracy and backhanders to bind our best efforts with frustration and fatigue.
Oh, you already know that one?
~~~~~~~~~
Ok, then maybe you’re ready for the next chapter, about what comes after?
Fine. Sit down, make yourselves comfortable.
But you should know that this isn’t a Hollywood story, about a heroic individual battling the faceless hordes of bureaucratic ennui and struggling towards an inevitable triumph.
No, this is a collective adventure, and a story I have to try to tell from the inside, as it occurs. Although perhaps it could be all the more powerful, for that?
This story really matters to me. To us.
It is the story of our lives. It seems you know the early chapters. The ones where the twisted power of the demons seems unstoppable, where calling the future uncertain sounds recklessly optimistic, where our humble efforts seem insignificant, and where our all-powerful superhero is nowhere to be seen.
And you know too that, as in the most gripping stories of our childhood, the stakes are higher even than death. Though death is at stake; for us, for our loved ones.
Higher than the destruction of our entire communities. Though their destruction is ongoing.
Maybe higher, even, than extinction: that death of birth itself. Though that too hangs in the balance, for us and for others.
~~~~~~~~~
Here I sense some of your eyes widen. What could be worse than that?
But some of you nod sadly, knowing that I speak of ‘undeath’. That living death that hollows all joy, pleasure and meaning from our souls even as our bodies continue to feast on all around us. The realm of zombies, of vampires.
This is our story, so we all know it is no fiction. Rather, it is the true story that some of us don’t dare to tell our children, because we know they will be scared, and that we may have no honest way to reassure them.
~~~~~~~~~
You should know that I do not speak of death lightly. Two years ago I lost both my closest partner and mentor, and my fiancée, both suddenly, and within a few weeks of each other. Shortly afterwards, my father suffered a double heart attack and barely survived.
I am coming to know a little of death, of its causes, and of what it leaves behind. And I am learning a great deal.
Eventually, painfully, I am beginning to learn what Nature tells us so clearly, and what our culture fights so hard to ignore.
That death is not evil. That death has its rightful place, as the partner of life, and it always will.
But that undeath does not. Undeath is the enemy of nature and of life. The enemy of art and of love.
It is the hollow-eyed, insatiable hunger that works to consume all that we hold dear, and takes no pleasure in that work.
But I am getting ahead of myself...
~~~~~~~~~
Instead, let me speak a little to those who feel their unity with their lover, Earth.
Those who step into the wild from which we came and can feel the terrible grief that she herself carries.
Unending, as all grief is. As all relationships are.
But who also feel something more from our wise, wise, deep lover.
That grief too has its place.
That feeling the loss of life, aching over it, is, truly, a triumph for life.
Grief cannot – stubbornly will not – overcome death, but it vanquishes life’s true enemy.
This is the gift we can eventually bring back from our time in the underworld, clutched tight against those from whose realm we return.
The gift of the tingling intensity of full life – the simple joys of a path untainted by despair, corruption or surrender. The exquisite tastes of food, the truth and beauty ringing in the music and, for me, always the dancing; my wild, beloved dancing. The aliveness that grief works to return us to - in its agonising, unhurried way - in the aftermath of beloved death.
~~~~~~~~~
And, possibly, the gift for which environmentalism hungers.
So often, when I hear the learnéd speak of environmental collapse, ongoing or long done, all I can hear is their pain - sometimes articulated, often not - lurking among the figures and statistics. Unresolved..
I hear a zombie speaking.
It is no great wonder that when a man seeks a podium to speak of his pain, the audience is limited.
Most flinch before this uninvited onslaught, are put out, offended, impinged upon.
~~~~~~~~~
Yet we can - I can - learn to speak from the place beyond agony.
Joy.
The place that faces down death, even the death of birth, and finds life beyond that. In this world.
In that place I find the other voices, the non-human and the no longer human. The others who share in the life of this planet, and those who no longer do.
All speak in this place.
And those dread, tender voices speak of death. Shatter undeath. Bring life.
~~~~~~~~~
epilogue
There is a time for everything – a time for grieving, a time for reflection, a time for action, a time for silence. I feel that the time for storytelling, and for sitting comfortably, is drawing to a close.
On Dark Optimism I sometimes speak of the paths I am choosing to walk, and if they seem a little inadequate in the face of the big bad, well it is because they are. But they bring me life – true life – and a little voice whispers to me that that is enough. That that is everything.
I know that voice, and I love her.
Out today from Pluto Press is What We Are Fighting For: A Radical Collective Manifesto - a book to which I was delighted to contribute.
My chapter, "The Struggle for Meaning", wraps up the section on 'New Economics' and addresses our collective fight for meaningful lives, and the importance of the beliefs and stories that shape and power our struggle. It considers the Transition movement and TEQs through this lens, viewing them as part of the vast, diverse upwelling of people around the world resisting the current death march and fighting, so simply, for a future.
I feel most honoured to see my work published alongside inspirational writer/activists like John Holloway, David Graeber and Ann Pettifor.
Here's the publisher's description of the book:
The age of austerity has brought a new generation of protesters on to the streets across the world. As the economic crisis meets the environmental crisis, millions fear what the future will bring but also dare to dream of a different society.What We Are Fighting For tries to answer the question that the mainstream media loves to ask the protesters. The first radical, collective manifesto of the new decade, it brings together some of the key theorists and activists from the new networked and creative social movements.
Chapters outline the alternative vision that animates the new global movement – from 'new economics' and 'new governance' to ‘new public’ and 'new social imagination'. The book concludes by exploring 'new tactics of struggle’.
--
For early reviews, see the Books page.
Mon 23rd November 2020 - Sun 31st January 2021 - Eight week online course Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time, in partnership with Sterling College, Vermont.
Led by Shaun, the previous run attracted 250 participants from 25 countries, with guest teachers including Vandana Shiva, Kate Raworth and Rob Hopkins. This run will be limited to 100 participants.
Sat 12th December 2020 - Shaun will lead a workshop as part of A Journey Home, organised by Eve Annecke and Advaya.
Mon 23rd Sept 2019 - 50th anniversary screening of the newly beautifully restored 1969 classic The Moon & The Sledgehammer. Shaun joined director Philip Trevelyan for the post-screening Q&A, hosted by Extinction Rebellion's Jessica Townsend. Curzon Bloomsbury, The Brunswick, London, WC1N 1AW.
Mon 16th March 2020 - Triple launch for our feature film The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?, online course Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time, and the interactive LeanLogic.online. Livestreamed by Dark Optimism and Extinction Rebellion. Click below for the full one-hour film, and the ensuing discussion between Shaun, Caroline Lucas MP, Kate Raworth and Rob Hopkins.
Mon 6th April - Sun 31st May 2020 - Eight week online course Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time, in partnership with Sterling College, Vermont.
Led by Shaun and Philip Ackerman-Leist, with 250 participants from 25 countries, and guest teachers including Vandana Shiva, Kate Raworth and Rob Hopkins.
Sat 29th - Mon 31st August 2020 - Shaun joined/hosted a couple of panels at Medicine, the first physical UK festival to go ahead post-COVID lockdown, discussing 'Dark Optimism: Culture and Carnival in the Aftermath of Capitalism'.
Recent Comments