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I used to feel this way and I found that it wasn't productive. What can you do? If you can do something, do it. If you think you can't change the future possibl

I used to feel this way and I found that it wasn't productive. What can you do? If you can do something, do it. If you think you can't change the future possible destruction of our ecosystem or millions of people, then you also need to make peace with it. I think you can either do or not do things without the negativity. I found that the negativity made me think emotionally and not rationally or productively, and also sometimes came off in my conversations with people which was also not helpful-because I was clearly very emotional about the issue. My thought process is whatever happens, happens. I can't do much to prevent whatever systemic collapse that might happen or not happen. But whatever I can do, I will. When I first learned about this, I thought it meant the future that I took for granted could be nonexistent - the dying happily carefree of systemic collapse part after having a family and growing old. It made me bitter and resentful. What's the point of doing anything if the world's going to go to shit by 2030? I decided to be more optimistic or maybe stoic. Make sure I can do what I can or all I can and not let some potential apocalyptic future darken my life. Sorry if this is a trash comment.

honestoHeminway 8y ago
You can sabotage, initiate preemptive collapse
makerofspoons 8y ago
This isn't a trash comment- this is exactly what I needed to read after reading this article. Thank you!
radiorental 8y ago
I view our success as a product of evolution. It is the driving factor that got us down out of the trees, cultivating our food and to where we are today. Would we be putting a little less pressure on the environment without people like Edward Bernays, possibly. However, I think our collective consciousness can put itself a little at ease. As we enter the 6 mass extinction event, it's a natural cycle and if it wasn't us, some other species would dominate the planet. It's never a bad time to listen to George Carlin's "saving the planet" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c
- honkycat 8y ago
  I think you vastly over-estimate our power. If the oceans die through acidification and pollution, and all of the insects die we will die as well.
  - radiorental 8y ago
    I expect us to die. I think you may have misread the intent of my comment. We're going away.
  - vokep 8y ago
    Yes, we'll die, but only 99.99% dead. The remaining surviving will have learned the most costly lesson yet of humanity, and will continue on and rebuild. It sucks, but so did the millions of years of animals murdering each other just so that I could type this and you could read it.
    - titzer 8y ago
      > The remaining surviving will have learned the most costly lesson yet of humanity I wish I could believe this, but I don't. The cycle will repeat as the collapse passes out of living memory. We will have lost civilization by then, the only records that remain will be the trash heaps that we leave behind.
- jelliclesfarm 8y ago
  Thank you. St.Carlin always keeps me grounded.
titzer 8y ago
> I decided to be more optimistic or maybe stoic. Make sure I can do what I can or all I can and not let some potential apocalyptic future darken my life. I am somewhere along this path, trying to find a mindset to cope. Yet I have the feeling that even so, widespread, happiness all but ensures the collapse, as the emergent effect of everyone being happy and living their best life, no matter what they think as they do it, is just as bad. I am sorry about this, sorry to be a bearer of bad news, sorry to bring this darkness out in the world, but honestly there is no way out of this box for humanity.
- Regardsyjc 8y ago
  I am too optimistic about humanity. I think there are billions of humans on Earth and not all are as stupid as some people might presume. In fact I would say if there's any humans that survive, it will probably be the 1% that many people hate. I think even then being in the USA easily increases your survival chances. At the same time, I have absolutely no doubts what is to come. If this is the end of humanity then so be it. It would be irrational to feel bad because I can't do much to stop a disaster like that. I accepted last year that I will die, everyone I love will die, and even potentially all of humanity will die perhaps in my lifetime, and I have made my peace with it. I have spent a significant amount of time reading all the ways the dominoes will fall and how people will die. People are dying right now. Happiness comes from within, not from outside. What happens outside should not affect what you feel inside. That's the mindset I learned from stoicism and reading Victor Frankl. "The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance." If you are too emotional and depressed, you will be unproductive/not be able to do much to help, and do you also want to spend the little time you have like that? I choose to enjoy the little life I have with the people I love but not in ignorance. I will do everything I can but I will not let it darken my life and my disposition. I hope that makes sense.
otikik 8y ago
I'm still on the "affected by negativity" phase. May I ask what concrete actions are you taking (besides being optimistic). I spent one morning with a group which plants and looks after trees in a reserve near my place. We were putting protections around young saplings so cows wouldn't eat them. It took my team of three the whole morning to put protections around a single sapling. The whole thing made me sad. There is no way we are going to counteract our consumption with single individual actions like that. So I am looking for ways to be more effective.
- skh 8y ago
  It seems to me the only thing we can really do is not have children. There are too many people on the planet.
  - linguistbreaker 8y ago
    I've thought this too but then you are leaving the future to those who breed more irresponsibly. Another way to look at it would be that we have a responsibility to raise more responsible people.
    - CalRobert 8y ago
      I suppose the question is whether the future is a gift or a curse. Though I agree. It's odd - I've known people who seemed offended by Idiocracy, but couldn't really come up with any flaws in its basic premise (in short, well-educated highly-productive people (for traditional values of productive which is its own debate) tend to have fewer kids, and people are usually like their parents, so over time we'll have fewer people like that).
    - DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
      > I've thought this too but then you are leaving the future to those who breed more irresponsibly. The movie "Idiocracy" addresses this very issue. It's a comedy, and I really enjoyed it.
      - 8y ago
jelliclesfarm 8y ago
Reaching out and talking to people will help. 1. If everyone has 1/2 surviving child then in 150 years, our population will become stable. 2. It’s not transferable because we still need species diversity 3. People will be incentivized with ubi and all their needs taken care of if they agree to #1. 4.stop animal based foods. 5. Return half planet back to nature to reforest and rewind. 6.reverse acidification of oceans. 7. Find ways to restore polar ice caps and bring down planet temperature 8. Reduce fossil fuel dependence. Go nuclear. 9. Protect water. Nature will rewild. We just need to stop being so successful with procreation because our highest achievement will result in our extinction. My 2c.
- sethammons 8y ago
  Human populations grow slower the more advanced they are. Most of the first world, including the US, is below replacement fertility rate of 2.1. Without immigration and the like, the US would start contracting. Bringing the third world up to first world is what is needed. That and the other things you said. [EDIT] Links help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-replacement_fertility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-replacement_fertility
  - kamaal 8y ago
    >>Bringing the third world up to first world is what is needed. Again, the biggest hurdle to that is politics. There are deep geo political ramifications on any thing that causes change in economic equations at such massive levels. Mostly its also the will of the people. The world is indeed a giant stack ranking system, and people do indeed believe in ruining anything it takes to score the most points. Most people do believe in things like their civilization, nationalism and racial supremacy. If you think of it as a whole, space, asteroids and what humans could do if they work together. The very concept of economy feels like something that limits human progress.
    - CuriousSkeptic 8y ago
      Economy won’t go away, limited resources needs to be managed. A market economy, otoh, is just one approach. I’m pretty sure the current configuration is just a temporary blind spot. Market economy as an optimization algorithm is pretty neat for a limited set of problems. As a means to handle social justice, collective planning, and a bunch of other problems perhaps not so much. While finding better models for that, we shouldn’t throw out the bayby with the bath water.
kpennell 8y ago
I appreciate this helpful comment

honestoHeminway 8y ago

You can sabotage, initiate preemptive collapse

makerofspoons 8y ago

This isn't a trash comment- this is exactly what I needed to read after reading this article. Thank you!

radiorental 8y ago

I view our success as a product of evolution. It is the driving factor that got us down out of the trees, cultivating our food and to where we are today. Would we be putting a little less pressure on the environment without people like Edward Bernays, possibly. However, I think our collective consciousness can put itself a little at ease. As we enter the 6 mass extinction event, it's a natural cycle and if it wasn't us, some other species would dominate the planet. It's never a bad time to listen to George Carlin's "saving the planet" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c

honkycat 8y ago
I think you vastly over-estimate our power. If the oceans die through acidification and pollution, and all of the insects die we will die as well.
- radiorental 8y ago
  I expect us to die. I think you may have misread the intent of my comment. We're going away.
- vokep 8y ago
  Yes, we'll die, but only 99.99% dead. The remaining surviving will have learned the most costly lesson yet of humanity, and will continue on and rebuild. It sucks, but so did the millions of years of animals murdering each other just so that I could type this and you could read it.
  - titzer 8y ago
    > The remaining surviving will have learned the most costly lesson yet of humanity I wish I could believe this, but I don't. The cycle will repeat as the collapse passes out of living memory. We will have lost civilization by then, the only records that remain will be the trash heaps that we leave behind.
jelliclesfarm 8y ago
Thank you. St.Carlin always keeps me grounded.

titzer 8y ago

> I decided to be more optimistic or maybe stoic. Make sure I can do what I can or all I can and not let some potential apocalyptic future darken my life. I am somewhere along this path, trying to find a mindset to cope. Yet I have the feeling that even so, widespread, happiness all but ensures the collapse, as the emergent effect of everyone being happy and living their best life, no matter what they think as they do it, is just as bad. I am sorry about this, sorry to be a bearer of bad news, sorry to bring this darkness out in the world, but honestly there is no way out of this box for humanity.

Regardsyjc 8y ago
I am too optimistic about humanity. I think there are billions of humans on Earth and not all are as stupid as some people might presume. In fact I would say if there's any humans that survive, it will probably be the 1% that many people hate. I think even then being in the USA easily increases your survival chances. At the same time, I have absolutely no doubts what is to come. If this is the end of humanity then so be it. It would be irrational to feel bad because I can't do much to stop a disaster like that. I accepted last year that I will die, everyone I love will die, and even potentially all of humanity will die perhaps in my lifetime, and I have made my peace with it. I have spent a significant amount of time reading all the ways the dominoes will fall and how people will die. People are dying right now. Happiness comes from within, not from outside. What happens outside should not affect what you feel inside. That's the mindset I learned from stoicism and reading Victor Frankl. "The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance." If you are too emotional and depressed, you will be unproductive/not be able to do much to help, and do you also want to spend the little time you have like that? I choose to enjoy the little life I have with the people I love but not in ignorance. I will do everything I can but I will not let it darken my life and my disposition. I hope that makes sense.

otikik 8y ago

I'm still on the "affected by negativity" phase. May I ask what concrete actions are you taking (besides being optimistic). I spent one morning with a group which plants and looks after trees in a reserve near my place. We were putting protections around young saplings so cows wouldn't eat them. It took my team of three the whole morning to put protections around a single sapling. The whole thing made me sad. There is no way we are going to counteract our consumption with single individual actions like that. So I am looking for ways to be more effective.

skh 8y ago
It seems to me the only thing we can really do is not have children. There are too many people on the planet.
- linguistbreaker 8y ago
  I've thought this too but then you are leaving the future to those who breed more irresponsibly. Another way to look at it would be that we have a responsibility to raise more responsible people.
  - CalRobert 8y ago
    I suppose the question is whether the future is a gift or a curse. Though I agree. It's odd - I've known people who seemed offended by Idiocracy, but couldn't really come up with any flaws in its basic premise (in short, well-educated highly-productive people (for traditional values of productive which is its own debate) tend to have fewer kids, and people are usually like their parents, so over time we'll have fewer people like that).
  - DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
    > I've thought this too but then you are leaving the future to those who breed more irresponsibly. The movie "Idiocracy" addresses this very issue. It's a comedy, and I really enjoyed it.
    - 8y ago

jelliclesfarm 8y ago

Reaching out and talking to people will help. 1. If everyone has 1/2 surviving child then in 150 years, our population will become stable. 2. It’s not transferable because we still need species diversity 3. People will be incentivized with ubi and all their needs taken care of if they agree to #1. 4.stop animal based foods. 5. Return half planet back to nature to reforest and rewind. 6.reverse acidification of oceans. 7. Find ways to restore polar ice caps and bring down planet temperature 8. Reduce fossil fuel dependence. Go nuclear. 9. Protect water. Nature will rewild. We just need to stop being so successful with procreation because our highest achievement will result in our extinction. My 2c.

sethammons 8y ago
Human populations grow slower the more advanced they are. Most of the first world, including the US, is below replacement fertility rate of 2.1. Without immigration and the like, the US would start contracting. Bringing the third world up to first world is what is needed. That and the other things you said. [EDIT] Links help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-replacement_fertility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-replacement_fertility
- kamaal 8y ago
  >>Bringing the third world up to first world is what is needed. Again, the biggest hurdle to that is politics. There are deep geo political ramifications on any thing that causes change in economic equations at such massive levels. Mostly its also the will of the people. The world is indeed a giant stack ranking system, and people do indeed believe in ruining anything it takes to score the most points. Most people do believe in things like their civilization, nationalism and racial supremacy. If you think of it as a whole, space, asteroids and what humans could do if they work together. The very concept of economy feels like something that limits human progress.
  - CuriousSkeptic 8y ago
    Economy won’t go away, limited resources needs to be managed. A market economy, otoh, is just one approach. I’m pretty sure the current configuration is just a temporary blind spot. Market economy as an optimization algorithm is pretty neat for a limited set of problems. As a means to handle social justice, collective planning, and a bunch of other problems perhaps not so much. While finding better models for that, we shouldn’t throw out the bayby with the bath water.

kpennell 8y ago

I appreciate this helpful comment