Most of what I write is analysis or sermon; when I write about what can be done, I usually write about what society can do and rarely what individuals can do.
However I’ve had a few requests for writing about what my readers can do, in the situation we now find ourselves and in the situation as it will unfold in the years to come.
Whatever happens, the future will be interesting: The certainties of the neoliberal era will be replaced by actual, rapid political, technological, and economic change. Combined with the oncoming shocks of environmental change, it’s going to be a fascinating time to live in.
And that’s the first thing I suggest readers do: Change the way they view what is coming. Much of it will be bad, yes, but it will also be a compelling time to live in. Perhaps when growing up you imagined what it would be like to live in times of crisis and hardship? They will soon be upon us, and while we might not have chosen that, we can only act as Gandalf told Frodo.
Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
Let us start, first, with death.
All of us were born to die. We have only a small amount of time on Earth. The question is not if we are going to die, but how we live. The simple practice to deal with this is to imagine your death. It sounds horrible, but in fact people who do it often find themselves happier afterwards. Get comfortable with what is inevitable, and much of the fear of it goes away. And when you no longer fear death, much of life’s remaining fear leaves.
At most, the onrushing crisis may have changed when and how you’ll die. It hasn’t changed the basic existential fact that all that exists, ends. In this knowledge, held deeply, there is freedom.
Having accepted your death, you can move on to the business of living, including, if you choose, not dying quite so soon. Life at all costs, in my opinion, isn’t worth it, but each of us must decide what price we will pay for another scrap of life, what we’re willing to do to breath another day. This may be hard labor, it may be moral compromise, it may just be cleverness and outwitting death.
Just as there is great comfort in acknowledging death, there is great comfort in knowing what we will and won’t do. The lines we won’t cross define us more than perhaps anything else, whatever and wherever they are. And this is the second step: What will I do, what won’t I do?
The third psychological step I suggest is comfort with pain and loss; an acceptance of it. In preparing for death, we imagine our death; in preparing for pain and loss, we remember what we have lost and the pain we have experienced in the past.
Dwell in it for a bit, bring the memories up if you can bear them, then remember the other side.
You survived. You are still here. You are still you. You survived the loss of people or things you loved; you survived pain. You can take it, and still function.
A sense of relaxation towards pain and loss actually makes both hurt less. Suffering is what we add to misfortune, when we accept what is happening and has happened, we suffer less. This doesn’t mean not trying to avoid pain and loss when that makes sense, simply that it is not always unavoidable and that railing against inevitability is foolish and makes the event worse.
Having done these three things, turn your gaze outward, to the good things that remain in the world. What do you still love? What still gives you joy? Is it some people you love? Is it, perhaps, something as simple as the taste of the food; the wind on your face, the steering wheel under your hands? Find those things, dwell in what you love, and enjoy.
Having completed these four tasks (and it will take some time, done properly), you will find that you look to the past with far less regret, the future with far less fear, and the present with far more joy.
These steps may not seem “practical” but if your head and heart aren’t straight, nothing else will work well.
Future articles in this series will deal with “practical” issues as well as psychological, but the first step is to get loose and easy again, to believe you can handle what’s coming, and that it’s worth doing so. Perhaps you will even be able to look forward to the future as fun; a challenge worth meeting, in hard times.
Loss and pain will still find us, of course, but we can handle it. And nothing we lose was ours to keep forever anyway, because none of us, as humans at least, are eternal.
The times are changing, and they are going to be hard times for most. The good will still exist and these are the times that others will read of and imagine, “What would it have been like to live then? Could I have handled it?”
Those who live on are those doomed and honored to live in such times.
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Daniel
Could you give any advice on the opposite position; feeling tired of life and seeking comfort in thoughts of death. Not the youthful angst type, but dreary tiredness and will to rest away from it all
/d
Fox Blew
Well said, Ian. I’m hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. In the meantime, I’ll continue to humbly live in the now.
Stirling S Newberry
Remember that we live in a capitalist era: there is a high demand for just bad enough that makes money. It is not an era for the best.
Ian Welsh
Daniel,
it’s hard to say, but what might is work is having someone who loves you unconditionally, and who needs you.
Aka. a puppy.
(I’m quite serious.)
Steeleweed
I came to terms with death half a century ago. It holds no fear for me, but I fear not having lived.
Everyone decides for himself/herself what constitutes ‘living’, but whatever it is for you, do it.
What ages us is not the pain and sorrow we personally experience, but being unable to protect those we love from pain and sorrow.
Loss is another thing altogether. In 79 years, I’ve lost a lot. Some were dear relatives, some were people I knew only from their work – musicians, artists, writers. The losses leave ‘holes in my spirit’, a feeling of emptiness that is somehow filled with love when I remember them; listen to a song, read a book, reminisce with family. Note that the only losses that matter are people.
Re enjoying life? I never had the understanding that the purpose of life was my personal enjoyment. To me, a life well lived is a life of service to others – to an individual, to a community, to a society/world. Serve as you are fitted and moved to serve.
Wise Old Indian says there are three things a man must learn:
Who he is.
Where he comes from.
Why he is here.
That keeps me busy and is sufficient goal.
Taiyosun
When the President-elect is hacking away publicly at the CIA, that’s good times in my book. : )
Anyway, thanks, Ian, for your reviews of Jane Jacobs. Her books seem to be chock full of information that everyone ought to know. _The Economy of Cities_ gave me lots of ideas for things to do myself. Since her most key of key ideas is import replacement, what better time for individuals and small groups to start replacing all the goods that have been off-shored. I’m currently reading _Cities and the Wealth of Nations_, finding out why foreign aid doesn’t work, even when it works. : 0 Very interesting books.
Jeff Wegerson
I did that one time. I mean exactly that. It’s almost comical. The way it played out was comical.
I found myself gripped with fear of being killed. Sure I’d had moments where the infinity of death had seeped in and I had stared at the abyss, but this was different. It had me and wouldn’t let go because I had so thoroughly mapped it out.
My daughter and I had been hiking in literal wilderness if not real wilderness. It was the Gila River Wilderness in south central New Mexico. We had arrived at our destination after five days of hiking including the last two days of a 140 river crossings at the Jordan Hot Springs. We had come via the back door, as it were, as we were by then less than 10 miles from civilization. The springs are lovely I recommend them.
In the springs we met a man recently enough back from war in Iraq and a stint as a guard in a Texas prison. Meaning very likely no stranger to violence. He was nice. He had a puppy even. Then while I was relaxing at our campsite my daughter returned from visiting with the young man.
“Here. He wants to loan us this…” she said as she handed me a big buck knife. “When I said we had no weapons he was concerned for us.” She then went back to hang out with him in the hot springs.
I tell you my imagination went wild. This was New Mexico not Montana. The bears were black not Grizzly. The people shy wolves and cougars were so scarce that you considered yourself lucky if you saw one. There was really only one thing to be afraid of and that was people with knives like the one he was lending us. I had bragged to him about how the way to hike was lightweight like us and not with heavy army surplus. He had asked to leave with us in the morning. Of course. A chance to spend more time with my grown daughter, before he killed me, raped her and made off with our prized lightweight gear. Sure we could leave early before he awoke but being young he could easy overtake us and would be further enraged that we had treated him so badly. And for the life of me I could not shake these thoughts nor the gut wrenching fear that had come with them.
In desperation I remembered that these very springs had likely been visited at different times by Kit Carson and Geronimo. Call on their spirits I said to myself. What would they say?
They would say I had not accepted my own death. And upon thinking that exact thought my fear disappeared and a calm came over me. Comical. Too pat, too literal to be anything but comical.
The next morning the man said he had been afraid we would leave without him.
thomas
Ian, thank you very much indeed for this post.
My wife and me enjoyed i6t very much!
Really profound and very touching words!
May I give you “a little gift” –
and I am sure that some of our friends here
will also enjoy it !
The Third Patriarch of Zen
Hsin Hsin Ming by Seng-T’san
http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/buddhism/third_patriarch_zen.html
I’m well into my seventies and this verse is with me for 50 years now,
and getting more and more “alive” and clear – simple and clear.
Best regards to all of you
and Thanks Again !
t.
willandermann
I think you completely miss the point that what we are facing is not our own deaths but that of millions of others who die as a result of a combination of environmental and economic crises. I would guess that almost all of your readership is relatively well buffered from what is to come, especially regarding the environment. We will be witnesses to a horror that we must find ways to act against.
Arthur
Willandermann, a serious question: please explain how anyone can be buffered regarding the environmental damage when we all live in said environment?
Yes, we are facing a dire situation. Mr. T will be a uniquely bad president. For a variety of reasons this is the world we find ourselves in at the moment. What Mr. Welsh is saying, in my opinion, is that we must all find our center and carry on from there. I agree. As I said in another comment I believe the center begins with an honest acceptance of where one stands. After that, well, pick your fight. And fight that battle as best one can. Just remember you can’t fight them all. That’s really it.
Ian Welsh
I have been writing more seriously about the catastrophe coming down the line that almost anyone (there are a few exceptions) for over a decade.
I will deal with the problem of other people’s suffering later in this series, and probably also in a podcast or video.
I live in Canada (good), but I am poor and have some serious health problems (though they are getting better). If things go pear-shaped where I live, I can reasonably expect that I will be in the second group to die.
Tom W Harris
“Everybody’s got to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another beer.” — W. C. Fields.
breed
I find the hardest pill to swallow not that we die but that to truly control our life’s reality we must control others. I do not want to control others or to be controlled myself on moral grounds, but that is the reality we live in. We constantly control or lead others, in extreme such as our children, and we are constantly controlled or seeked to be controlled by others.
Spring Texan
Thanks. This is helpful.
John Poynton
What troubled times? I can only see hope unfolding with Brexit and Trump. Of course there is lots to mend and reconstruct, but life is all about accepting a challenge. It’s exciting, isn’t it? I will be 70 this year, but still feel young and forward-looking. My mother is 101. Death is a long way ahead, and hopefully by then painless assisted suicide will be an option.
I can best quote Nigel Farage on Donald Trump, that Trump should be taken seriously but not literally.
tsisageya
Troubled times. What can I do in troubled times, you ask?
And that’s the first thing I suggest readers do: change the way they view what is coming. Much of it will be bad, yes, but it will also be a compelling time to live in. Perhaps when growing up you imagined what it would be like to live in times of crisis and hardship: they will soon be upon us, and while we might not choose that, we can only act as Gandalf told Frodo.
You ain’t nothin but a piece of shit. Good job, asshole.
Peter
@JohnP
I’m glad to see someone standing firmly outside the event horizon of this black hole of despair being portrayed by so many Clintonites/liberals. I doubt we would be seeing this maudlin display of liberal angst if the Red Queen was being sworn in Friday.
No, there would be huge sighs of relief and pride that identity and the chosen smart people were still in control. There is always room for at least talking about improvement so the ‘ holding her feet to the fire’ canard would be dragged out and waved at the rubes.
This is a relatively large group of people and their reality is collapsing so I understand their gloom but I think many more people see possibilities in this change.
Ian Welsh
You are no longer welcome here tsisageya. You’ve made it clear you despise my writing repeatedly. Please do not comment here again.
Some Guy
John Poynton said: “What troubled times?”
I believe Ian was referring to all the dead celebrities….
Personally I find humour helps in all times, especially troubled ones.
StewartM
Ian–and I know it’s hard to guess–but any advice if one is considering leaving one’s country? Any places more apt to be less worse off, by your reckoning?
I am also reminded by Dmitry Orlov’s advice that in times of collapse having physical assets and resources, maintaining good relationships with people, and knowing out to ‘do things’ are worth more than money.
K Clifford
Watch Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, which explains it all.
Ian Welsh
Stewart,
it really depends, and a lot of it depends on your skill set and what you want to ‘do’, if you can afford land, etc… For example, parts of northern Canada, in non-resource dependent towns, might be a good bet, but it’s a hard life already.
Ken Ott
”I have been writing more seriously about the catastrophe coming down the line that almost anyone (there are a few exceptions) for over a decade.”
You’re actually fairly far behind writers like Survival Acres who has been writing about these topics for over fifteen years or so. His blog is the most comprehensive, detailed analysis on the coming crisis that exists. There’s nothing else like it. It’s no longer publicly available (private blog). I think he’s chosen to hand-pick participants now for what happens next. I don’t blame him.
Ian Welsh
Well, strictly speaking I was writing about it as early as the mid 2000s in BOPnews. It’s not my primary topic, but it’s been on my radar.
I was concentrating on avoiding it. Failed, obviously.
That isn’t to say that others weren’t before, more or more detailed, or whatever. However, the claim that I have not written about this is incorrect as is the claim that I was not ahead of the vast majority of public affairs writers and bloggers.
Tom W Harris
Such gracious commenters you have, Ian. 😉
Lisa
Well being LGBTI (I am a trans woman) and we are the #1 targets in the US and this is spilling over elsewhere (rabid anti trans BBC program just recently showing ‘Dr reparartive therapy’ Zucker) you hunker down, work together, support each other, plan, organise, create alliances and all the rest.
The attack on LGBTI, especially trans and GNC, youth is horrible to watch and experience. In the US, UK., Australia, etc the so called ‘christian’ right (feeling their oats) are going full on attacking them.
Bad times ahead for us. But we will fight, we have no choice. we lose we are gone, eliminated…. And that is the plan by not just some front organisations like the FRC but by a broad coalition (with serious money being spent) of orgs like the Catholic (duh) church, Govt owned Anglicans, ‘evangelicals’ and all the rest. ..our total and complete elimination (read the FRC for proof).
Like all groups of people we have had our our differences between us (some lesbians hate trans women as do some gay men) , some trans people hate other trans people …and all the sorry rest …all gone now, unity in the face of adversity.
It tends to concentrate the mind when facing extermination.
Especially, as they always do (being the miserable cowards* they are) , they hit LGBTI kids. Here in Australia our ‘religious right’ have been hammering LGBTI kids and nothing could have united us more than that.
Those who, because of social constraints kept a low profile are now showing their true, misogynists, rapists, violent, racist, LGBTI hating colours.
* Amazing (and maybe MFI can comment on this) how all the extremist ‘churches (like the Catholic or evangelical ones) hate LGBTI kids…and where was all there concern with the endless decades of child physical and sexual abuse by them? Nowhere of course.
Where is the Pope’s concern, rabbiting on about trans people are the ‘greatest threat to humanity’ while saying that a father hitting their child was ‘beautiful’ (yes actual quotes) and hiring squads of lawyers to ‘protect’ the so called ‘church’ from legal claims from the tens of thousand, maybe hundreds, who suffered accepted child abuse?…just from here in Australia alone….
The Victorian Police Commissionaire just stated that it might be time for an apology , because of revelations about police who worked to protect ‘catholic’ and ‘christian’ priests and orgs who abused children ..and he got criticised for that….from so called conservative ‘christians’ (who obviously ‘love’ children’..a lot of course).
0.6%-0.8% are trans, 3% males are gay, 0.7%-1.7 intersex, 2%-4% lesbian ….15% of male children are sexually abused and 25% of female ones. Do the math, who are the real perverts?
Lisa
Reading the comments here it is all about ‘me’… Being LGBTI it is all about ”working together’
And none of you get that, make friends, alliances, link with people with shared interests because no matter how good you think you are …you cannot survive alone..
Stirling S Newberry
It was one of the ur-topics at BOPnews.
someofparts
Good advice and much appreciated. I’m terrified of death. Dislike even thinking about it. So … now you have me focused on dealing with that. Interesting, and probably helpful.
This morning I’ve decided that going forward I will be thinking of and referring to our global overlords of malefaction as Reptiles. I gave the concept a test drive this morning watching an interview with Paul Ryan. I’m finding it genuinely helpful.
Reptiles are living creatures and I would always treat them with respect and consideration. But I would never try to understand them or bond with them they way I do with a dog. It is a lot easier to watch someone like Ryan if I think of him that way. I can listen to him and try to figure out what he is up to, but I can do it with relative equanimity if I set my conversational expectations meter to Reptile. Expecting him to have the emotional presence and acuity of my dog is setting myself up to be disappointed. Another victory for lowered expectations!
Arthur
Years ago I had a friend. One I haven’t seen in years, but for a while long ago and in different circumstances we hung out over a beer. He recall he was pretty sharp. One day we were talking about the state of the world, as folks do over a beer, and he made the point that no one talks about their posterity anymore because deep down somewhere and for no particular reason they no there isn’t going to be one. He wasn’t setting a date for our demise. He was just saying that the downward slide had begun and everyone at some level in their gut knew it.
I think we are now seeing that belief writ large. There really is no future for this civilization. For good or ill the world that came out of the Greco-Roman mindset has run its course, as all things do. And nobody knows what to do about it. It’s like the last gasp of the hospice patient.
Stirling S Newberry
( https://symbalitics.blogspot.com/2017/01/fon-dparikulur-08.html the next section of Fon d’parikulur, a novella of the Haitian earthquake in 2010)
highrpm
a society whose wheels have come off the extent of this cognitive dissonance:
MSM to backpackers: leave no trace
MSM to everyone: this trace is OK!
$250 Million Bel-Air Mansion Is Priciest Home for Sale in US; Cost Includes Helicopter, $30-Million Car Collection | KTLA
so it’s ok to deface and profane some of the most exceptional landscaping in the world. f*k the la county commissioners who approve such graffiti. such a society that espouses these valuesis long overdue to eat sh*t.
Willy
Hanging out with the well-intentioned rational-minded hyphenated-word lovers is a good thing. But sometimes it’s hard to discipline oneself to not commiserate-negative in such company. Would it be wrong to instead encourage the channeling of negative energies towards tribal-cultist-zombies for the sake of personal amusement? (And I suppose their “leadership” too.)
Arthur
Just saw on a news site where Obama ordered an air strike as one of his last actions as president. I live in Chicago and have always been a student of the Prohibition era. For that reason I’m always insulted when Al Capone’s name is used in a disparaging way. You know. . .why Obama’s acting like Al Capone. NO! Mr. Capone might not have been perfect but he had a sense of honor and proportion. Just my two cents.
Donna Curtis
Troubled times? Oh Ian… imagine this: Just over a decade ago you’re a former working class poor person who has risen almost to the top of your profession and you’re making good money. BAM! You get sick. So sick that you’re driven into a medical bankruptcy. (Yes you had insurance, decent insurance too.) You eventually became disabled. You can’t work and you’re waiting for SSDI for almost two years but you’re the family breadwinner. First you empty your bank accounts then you sell off your stocks. Next to go are the IRA and 401K and yes you pay that horrifying tax penalty for doing so. The last to go are some personal items that you sell off and then… you handle your own bankruptcy because you can’t afford a lawyer… while you’re still sick and getting sicker. You’re finally diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. You’re told it’s progressing.
Imagine all that and realize all that happened to me. I’m on SSDI now. I have Medicare even though in I’m in my fifties. I’m in the SNAP program. I have one of those much maligned free phones. I am in pain constantly and have been for years now. I’ve done all the things you recommend in your post and I’m desperately looking for good things in my life so I can go on for one more day. I’ve done everything I know to assuage the pain. Curiosity about the scientific nature of the world keeps me going. My family, small though it is now, also helps. (BTW, all your recommendations are excellent Ian and even if one is not sick, one should do them.)
But… I am now only a few dollars above the poverty line. I am actually lower than when I started out as a young kid. I have no room for financial errors. None. Nada. You have an actual almost totally poor person stalking your blog. I can’t afford to lose a penny. I can’t afford government cuts to SSDI or Medicare. I can’t afford errors anywhere either on my part or the government.
What’s worse is that I’m responsible for taking care of my 91 year old grandmother whom the government actually thinks can live on $400.00 SSI per month. (I have nightmares of Paul Ryan’s so-called budget proposals chasing me around in my head.)
Pardon my working class background language here but I have no room whatsoever for Trump to fuck up even a little. Do you have any advice for people like me because I simply can’t afford anymore interesting times?
(And yes the MS is still progressing. It comes with ever more nerve pain and is targeting my ass for a wheel chair… which I cannot afford. As an aside, I voted for Bernie in the primary and Hillary in the general. Hillary is the devil I know. Trump is the devil I don’t know.)
Ian Welsh
I think you’re doing what you can, Donna and I’m very sorry you are in the situation you are in.
FWIW, and that may be little, I’m reasonably sure that this life isn’t “it” and that what comes after will probably be better. (That’s not to suggest death is a good idea, only that progressive MS in this life may not be all you have to look forward to.)
(I sleep on the floor in a garret, and I am ill, but there is always someone worse off. That fact doesn’t make me feel better, but worse. There is a reason why my main teacher calls Earth a “hell world”.)
I will think on advice for people on the margins. I won’t insult you with the standard stuff I’d give, about how to shop and cook cheap, I’m sure you know all those tricks. I know it is possible to grow food even in an apartment, and the initial outlaw is not huge (but still may be more than you have), but it’s not a skill set I have.
I apologize that these words are so little.
highrpm
@donna,
apologize for search engine advice.
vitamin d deficiency and multiple sclerosis at DuckDuckGo
since taking soft gel d3 8000-12000 nightly for months, sublingually, my dry hardened elbows have gone. with longer/ deeper sleep.
Donna Curtis
@highrpm
No apologies necessary. I have had 3 major Vitamin D deficiencies in the last 6 years or so. My neurologist got so sick of treating them that she just told me to take one 1000 IU Vitamin D soft gel a day. It’s the least expensive part of my treatment. Ever paranoid though, my doctor checks my D3 levels every 6 months now to make sure they are normal. Thanks for taking the time to search. That was sweet.
Lisa
Donna Curtis: Big, big hugs…..
Not even nearly as bad as you but I got sick too last year and my life collapsed. Being luckier I have, eventually, gotten better and more functional…but I am too just one step away from nothing in so called ‘protected’ Australia (where our religious right is going feral as well) . Being transgender just adds to that.
I was just 2 days away from being on the streets with my dog last week, thrown out of my own and owned house, backed up by police with guns to force that … then I got some luck.
If I had been as sick as I was last year when that happened …. I’d be dead and my dog killed.
The right wing, the religious right wing especially, are cruel and horrible people. Bizarrely since they always state they are against ‘evolution’ they are the biggest social Darwinists around. Everything is your fault (because you sinned), sick ..sin,. poor ..sin. Wealth is proof of ‘god’s’ approval (never mind they might have killed to get that money, their ‘god’ approves).
Since ‘their ‘sky god” (Gore Vidal quote) takes care of everything there are no accidents, only deliberate sin. Car crash that cripples you …sin…
This is from the FRC website and is creepy and would end coverage for any serious illnesses.
It means the end of risk pooling, a fundamental tenet of health coverage (private or public), if carried to its logical conclusion it means the end of insurance of any kind.
In the end their ‘position’ is that ‘it is your fault for sinning’ if you get a heart attack or cancer.
”risk sharing involves cross-subsidization within the group to pay for the medical claims of the group.
It is critical that these private transfers are based on criteria fair to all families and promote personal responsibility within the group.
Of course, compassion dictates that families help one another with costs that are beyond their control, such as unknown genetic diseases.
But compassion is reciprocal such that all parties need to avoid risky behaviors that result in conditions that unduly drive up premiums.”
tsisageya
Okay, you got it, chief!
I’m sorry to be so blunt and crude but your advice makes me angry. That’s all. And no, I don’t despise your writing. I check in with you often.
tsisageya
I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression.
tsisageya
I don’t actually care about my ability to speak on a blog, or not.
tsisageya
But, okay. Goodbye. I guess I don’t need you.