Hi, I have been ‘lurking’ in the collapse forums for several years now. Without having a term for it until more recently, I have been ‘collapse aware’ for some time. It hit me around 10 years ago that our neo liberal economic model was not working for the benefit of all and I started to feel that as a society we were heading down the wrong path. Consumerism was running rampant (so much unnecessary production of crap that people don’t need and the push to consume more and more). From a societal perspective, common courtesy and respect seemed to be going out the window, we were not paying heed to calls to manage our environmental impacts, we were becoming more individualistic, inconsiderate, selfish and fearful. Some refer to it as the ‘enshittification’ of various aspects of life that we are experiencing atm. I also am part of fellow-Australian Sarah Wilson’s Substack community so have listened to many podcasts with the likes of Meg Wheatley and Nate Hagens (and many others) so am across some of the collapse theory and aware that a lot of change (certainly environmentally-speaking) is already ‘baked in’. Sarah’s just completed a book serialisation on the topic of collapse. I know that we need a different way of being/living and a system/perspective shift to support that. I already try to live a minimalistic lifestyle and reduce my environmental impact where I can. I focus on connections with loved ones/nature as much as possible. I left private sector employment (in marketing/communications) to work in the government transport sector as it aligns with my values. I am interested to follow along with what is happening in this 2R space. I came across it in the collapse subreddit. Not sure I will have much to add – at least initially.
Welcome, Fran.
We’re (nearly) all new here. It was my post you saw on /r/collapse. What is extraordinary, considering there are 527,000 subscribers to that subreddit, is how few of them showed any interest in my post. They aren’t interested in solutions there.
We need to find ways to break through to that demographic. Becoming collapse-aware can’t just be “the end”. There is a real future coming, and we need to start preparing to adapt, and ultimately to transform the West.
Geoff
Ahhh Geoff. That was you! You are right. That r/collapse subreddit is full of a lot of talk and ‘doomism’ but no action/solutions apart from plenty of “smoke ‘em while you got ’em” advice! That what seems so refreshing about this forum. I can see that there are some big minds already on here grappling with how we can ‘show up’ and work out what a new paradigm might look like. I am part of a Signal group here in Oz made up members I’ve met via the Sarah Wilson Substack group. It is more or less a support group to help those of us who find it difficult to discuss these topics with our loved ones. A different purpose to this forum but important nonetheless. We are educating ourselves around some of the concepts in this space like degrowth and attending events that discuss these topics. We all attended a screening of a documentary ‘Putting degrowth into practice’ that was arranged by an organisation called Regen Sydney. This is more localised than what you are looking to achieve ie a global paradigm shift but we are educating ourselves on what is happening in pockets of the community around the world and how we can be ready to adapt. Anyway I’m sure I’ll be more of a ‘lurker’ here but it gives me hope that there are folks out there working on the ‘big, fat, hairy, audacious’ predicament we find ourselves in at the moment.
They are actually hostile to solutions. I had a bizarre exchange with one person there recently about near term human extinction. I had already made clear that I think at least three quarters of the global population is going to die off and that the survivors face a major struggle to survive, and this person insisted on berating me for “not being willing to face up to the difficult truth”. Anything less than believing that humans are doomed to go extinct was being presented by this person as both intellectual and moral weakness. The reality is that it was the belief this person was defending – certain extinction – which is both intellectually and morally deficient. It is entirely unjustified (it involves a poor understanding of the relevant science) and it provides an excuse for not even bothering to think about any of the moral choices we actually face. If we’re guaranteed to go extinct then nothing really matters.
Welcome @franb 
(dawn after darkness)
Yes I understand they may seem hostile to solutions but I think like a lot of people they feel sense of powerlessness so it is easier for them to give in and focus on the hopelessness of the situation. I am reconciled to the fact that my personal actions may not amount to much but I want to do what is morally and ethically sound despite that fact. I want to live with myself knowing I gave a rats. Sounds a bit like virtue signalling but that’s how I want to be as a person. I’m already learning to live without (the things I don’t see as super important to my physical, mental and emotional wellbeing) in preparation for what’s to come. I want to be slightly ready for this new way of being/living - if I get the chance.