Some words of wisdom from Not Buying Anything, There is nothing I would wish to add to this piece, suffice to say, read, think and act.
Image by Pawel Kuczynski
You don't need a crystal ball to see what lies in the near future for humanity. It is increasingly obvious.
Here is what I see just from a little looking around - there are, and will continue to be, great changes occurring with increasing rapidity.
Why?
Cascading crises. Pick any one.
Economic crisis.
COVID crisis.
Variant crisis.
Climate crisis.
Environmental crisis.
Extinction crisis.
Biodiversity crisis.
The list goes on and on, but it does not matter.
We already have enough going on to let us know that business as usual is over, and it is not coming back.
There will be no "going back to normal" because it was that normal that got us into each and every one of our current crises.
To go back to normal would mean to go back to a continued path to extinction of not only humans, but all life on Earth.
There will also be no Great Reset.
There is nothing left for capitalism to reset. Decades of unchecked greed have sucked the life out of everyone, and everything.
There is nothing left.
There will, however, be a Great Remembering, and it might just save us.
This will be where the tired and worn out workers of overdeveloped nations begin to yearn more for slower, quieter lifestyles than they do for more money, more work, and more stuff.
People are deciding, appropriately, to quit consumerism all together. They can see it is a dead end.
The more principled ones will also quit jobs that support the creaking machine of consumerism, and shift toward endeavours that support the health of our communities and ecosystem.
Regardless of what happens moving forward, one will be better served by having a simple, more self-reliant and local lifestyle.
If there is any "reset" it will be this - community and cooperation are becoming more important than cash and competition.
The only things that will make the massive and rapid changes of the near future easier to deal with as our multiple crises continue to cascade and coalesce into collapse are:
Simplicity.
Community.
Cooperation.
