An alternative to despair. Photo: Margot Gabel / flickr CC.
Active hope
Elizabeth Coleman reflects on a book that offers an alternative to despair
‘Since 1950, we have used up more resources and fuel than in all human history before this.’ I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this statement in the book Active Hope: How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy, by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone.
However, we know that we live in exceptional times, in terms of global warming, nuclear weapons, production of nuclear waste that is deadly for huge lengths of time, destruction of habitats, species facing extinction, spending on armaments, inequality, threat of water shortages, reduction in fish in the sea, pollution of the sea, air travel and population growth.
Damaging change
Damaging change has happened at an accelerating pace within our lifetimes. Future generations will be deeply affected by our actions and will pay the price of our greed and lack of foresight. Meanwhile, the media, controlled by the rich, fail to educate us about the true dangers we are facing, instead feeding our addiction to unsustainable economic growth.
Hearing this kind of thing may lead us to despair or to find an escape in denial. Sadly, bombarding people with depressing information does not turn them into activists. How can we live and act in the face of these horrors without being paralysed by them?
In fact, we live with different and contradictory views of the world. As well as the view that we are facing disaster, there is the ‘business as usual’ model – that if we go on as we have been doing, things will be OK. We hold both these scenarios in our consciousness and move from one to the other.
A radical change
What the book Active Hope gives is a third view of the world, an alternative to despair and to ‘business as usual’, which is a denial of reality. It uses a parallel with an adventure story. At the beginning of the story, the odds are stacked heavily against the hero, but he/she does not give up, and uses all his/her abilities to try to save the situation. We do not know what the outcome will be, but we can live full lives if we face the reality of the danger and do what we can to avert disaster. While an individual can do little, we can contribute to the effort, and if many, many people work on this in their different ways, perhaps a radical change can take place.
It is helpful to face one’s emotions. Paradoxically, people are actually happier when they face their sadness and anxiety about the planet than when they try to deny these feelings:
It is our consistent experience that as people open to the flow of their emotional experience, including despair, sadness, guilt, fury or fear, they feel a weight being lifted from them. In the journey into the pain, something foundational shifts; a turning occurs.
A suffering world
We are part of the world, with all it is suffering, and it is our task to alleviate that suffering and to reduce the danger. To feel unhappy when you hear of the destruction of the ecosystems on which life depends is to feel the pain of the earth. It is normal and healthy to feel this pain, and is part of our deep connection with the earth. It is suggested that we might design ceremonies and memorials to remember the species that become extinct and the habitats destroyed, so that we can mourn appropriately.
One of the exercises in the workshops that Joanna Macy runs is to split up into pairs, to look at one’s partner attentively and to imagine that he/she is one of the victims of nuclear war or environmental disaster, and to face the feelings that this brings up.
Joanna also described how she had a nightmare in which she saw her own children struggling though a desolate landscape, where she and her husband were unable to be with them, the older ones helping their younger sister, while the effects of radiation were beginning to show on their bodies. She comments: ‘Our nightmares can alert us to dangerous conditions and summon us to respond on behalf of life.’
There is a need for changes in our consciousness. Success in our society is often measured according to how far one succeeds in getting more than one’s share of resources, and this feeds unsustainable growth and inequality. However, a better way to measure success might be to see how one has succeeded in serving humanity and contributing to making the world a tolerable place to live in for future generations. This latter way of acting could be seen as unselfish, or could be seen as acting from a broader definition of self.
Broadening our sense of self
A young man finds, when he marries and has children, that his whole perspective on life changes – instead of caring only about himself, he cares deeply about his family and his child’s future. Similarly, we can broaden our sense of self by seeing ourselves as part of humanity, and so seeing the good of humanity as our own good. We can bring future generations into the picture by imagining that someone from (say) seven generations into the future is able to communicate with us, and to listen to what they would say.
Our idea of happiness can change. Advertisers portray happiness as consisting of lying on a beach in the sunshine but, in reality, happiness is more likely to come from achieving something worthwhile. In our materialistic society many people are anxious and depressed, as wealth does not bring happiness.
When things appear hopeless, and we seem set on a course to destruction with no possibility of turning round, it is useful to remember that change is discontinuous – there are movements for change, and for a long time nothing seems to happen, but when change comes, it comes suddenly and quickly. An example of this is the ending of the slave trade and slavery in the British empire, which at one time seemed hopelessly impractical.
Sacrificing personal good
In more than one religious tradition there is the idea of a choice being made by an individual to sacrifice personal good in order to help those in need, out of compassion. The book ends with a way to look at one’s own life.
Imagine that you were offered spiritual fulfilment, but instead chose to come to earth as a human being at this particular time, to help humanity at a time of crisis and danger. Look at when you chose to be born, the location, your ethnic identity, your gender and sexual orientation, the parents you chose – and try to recover in your memory, or work out, the particular role that you had chosen to fulfil when choosing this incarnation. This can help in guiding you in finding your way in life and what your particular contribution might be.
This book has changed my way of looking at the world, and in this article I have picked out the ideas that were particularly helpful to me. However, I would recommend that you read it for yourself.
It is a wonderful book.
Active Hope: How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, New World Library, ISBN: 9781577319726, £12.99.
