Max Wilbert responds to the statement “we are all doomed.”
by Max Wilbert
Anyone who is honest about the present state of affairs on this planet knows that things are very bad.
The oceans are dying. Coral reefs are collapsing. We’re living through a 6th mass extinction event; around 200 species are driven extinct every single day. And things are getting worse, fast. Emissions are rising, not falling. Pollution is increasing. Population is exploding. Energy consumption is skyrocketing. The permafrost is thawing and life as we know it—perhaps life itself—is under serious threat.
Meanwhile, economic inequality is at it’s highest level ever. The rich grow ever richer as the poor work to the bone, grow sick, and die. Meanwhile, popular culture glorifies technology, fast cars, and pornographic images. We live in a culture of adolescents ruled by sociopaths. The Amazon is falling, the forests burn, and millions of tons of plastic churn through the seas.
Despite how bad things are, there are multiple issues with the mentality of “we are doomed.”
First, it presupposes failure. That is not something we can afford at this point. If we have already failed in our minds—if we are already convinced of our defeat—that is a problem.
It is a victory for the dominant culture when we have lost our will to fight. One of the main objectives in any war is to destroy the opponents will to continue fighting. The dominant culture is always trying to destroy our will to fight, in many different ways, through all kinds of different propaganda. This is something that we need to overcome. When we become apathetic, when we say “there is nothing that can be done,” we are surrendering. And I, for one, do not mean to surrender until ever last tree, every last fish, and every last human being is dead.
As long as there is wildness and beauty in this world, there is something worth fighting for—and there is no time to waste wallowing in self-pity.
In some senses the doomer mentality is a parallel to the consumer mentality that says “everything is okay, go on with your shopping.” These two mindsets (doomer and consumer) coexist together very well. Both allow the status quo to continue.
A truly oppositional mindset looks at the dominant culture that is destroying life on this planet, sets itself in conscious political opposition, and organizes from this mentality, not from a sense of doom.
We need to organize with an understanding of reality. Things are very bad. We are deep in a hole. It’s not hyperbole to say that humans could even be driven extinct due to runaway global warming, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, and the collapse of the soils. These are serious trends, but it is not too late for life on this planet.
Action now can make a difference.
I have interviewed some of the top climate scientists in the world, and without exception, they all told me “it is not too late.” Everything we can do now to reduce the destruction of the natural world will create a better future.
Does this mean we have a great future? That everything is going to be fine? That there will be no problems? That we will live in utopia in no time?
Not at all. We are in for some dire times ahead. It is possible that in years to come we will look back at years like 2020 and, despite coronavirus, we may say “that was an easy year.” It’s likely that things will get worse.
It is ironic to me that many doomers, like me, actually have a roof over their head, food, and clean water. Many people around the world are already living in a state of collapse. In the short term, the future is grim.
So what can we do instead of simply saying “we are doomed” and then walking away? The more mature response is based on love for the planet, the beings on it, our family and friends, both human and non-human. The mature perspective works to protect and enhance the future no matter how much hope there is.
If you love then you keep fighting.
Sometimes you win. Sometimes you will change the situation and improve outcomes. There is no magic formula to make things better, but we can make fundamental changes. We can. We must.
If we defeat ourselves in our minds by believing that we are doomed, without taking action and fighting for what we love, then our souls have already been defeated.
If you would like to hear more about this subject, you can listen to an interview Max did with Michael Dowd on his “Post Doom” podcast.
Max Wilbert is a writer, organizer, and wilderness guide. A third-generation dissident, he came of age in a family of anti-war and undoing racism activists in post-WTO Seattle. He is the editor-in-chief of the Deep Green Resistance News Service. His latest book is the forthcoming Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About Itco-authored with Derrick Jensen and Lierre Keith. His first book, an essay collection called We Choose to Speak, was released in 2018. He lives in Oregon.
Liberation Listening is a radical community healing method designed to increase the effectiveness of change-making organizations in the face of systems of oppression and a collapsing society. A major focus of our work is in developing and supporting leadership. Although readers of this article may be unfamiliar with the practices of Liberation Listening, the principles of leadership apply to all kinds of human groups.
In Liberation Listening we define leadership as the ability and willingness to make a commitment to see that everything goes well to the limit of one’s resources.
Leadership is the commitment to help everything go well in your family, community, and environment. It is realizing that you are responsible (able to respond) to the challenges that face us.
In order to do this, we must heal the old distresses that cause us to feel helpless. The truth is that we are powerful, capable, loving, and intelligent. The challenges before us are large, and we are the best people for the job.
Leadership is an inherent human characteristic. In any group of people, leadership functions must be performed in order for the group to function well. At least one person must think about the group as a whole rather than about just her or his role in it.
It is possible to deliberately create sanctuary spaces where we can connect with other humans, think, release emotions, and heal from old traumas. This creation of sanctuary space can help the group to function better in terms of addressing the real-time challenges we encounter. It is not necessary for all people in the group to be committed to specific emotional healing paths in order to use the safety of the group for their own healing. It is only necessary that we make and follow agreements that lead to a greater sense of safety, trust, and connection with each other over time.
Leadership may include listening respectfully to people in your group who are unawarely acting out old emotional trauma. Usually this listening requires us to decide that we are not actually threatened by the person’s emotional reactions. By listening respectfully, we give the person time and space to heal themselves with the help of our positive regard. We may also need to give ourselves attention for challenging emotions that arise while listening. This form of listening assumes that each person has always done the best they possibly could with the resources available to them at each moment. By listening, we offer a moment with additional emotional resources, to see if that may be what they need in order to do better than before.
Be aware, however, that it is not always effective or advisable to use compassionate listening skills on someone who unawarely acts out emotional distress in your group. Sometimes the best option is to set clear boundaries and expectations for behavior, and ask people to leave the group if they cannot follow these agreements. The specific appropriate response to each incident will require the thinking of the group, and while we can learn from other groups’ successes, we will require fresh thinking to solve our group’s problems. Giving time to really hear all group members’ thinking is a valuable tool.
It is not the leader’s job to do all the thinking for the group. Rather, a good leader listens to the thinking of every group member, fills in any gaps, and organizes the thinking into a consistent form. The leader then communicates this synthesis of ideas back to the group well enough to secure their agreement, and, if possible, their commitment to it.
Being a leader opens you to attacks. People have lots of old trauma about power dynamics in their past. People also project hopes and frozen needs onto leaders. A frozen need is something you needed in childhood, but did not get. It continues to feel like something you need, even though it can never be met because it was actually a need in the past, not the present. For example, many people have both current needs for connection, and frozen needs for connection from too much isolation as young children. Frozen needs can never be satisfied, so when they are projected onto leaders, they are bound to be disappointed. People often react to this disappointment by blaming the leader. (We can never satisfy our frozen needs, but we can heal them by mourning the developmental loss.)
As leaders, we must be ready to listen compassionately to ourselves and others in times of attack, and use it as an opportunity for further healing. Peer support is essential in these situations. Use your listening relationships to stay resilient during, and to recover from, attacks. Look at it as an opportunity to heal old traumas and free more of your thinking from the binding power of past hurts.
Within the context of Liberation Listening, we agree to support the leaders of classes and workshops in several specific ways. These include:
Continuing to do our own thinking, and considering what we as individuals can do to help the classes and workshops go well.
Supporting the leader’s thinking, even when that thinking is different from our own. This may include agreeing to take on roles delegated to us by the leader.
Sharing our thinking with the leader. If we think the leader is making a mistake, or missing valuable information, or acting out distress in the class, we find an appropriate time to share our criticism. The goal is not to make the leader change direction, but to give the leader more information with which to make good decisions.
Using Listening Skills on the leader. All people have patterns of behavior based on old trauma that they are not yet aware of. In order to help the leader move forward on topics that will make future classes go well, the class is asked to think together about the leader and use listening skills on the leader at the end of every class series. Feel free to push the leader with persistent listening outside of class as well. Of course, do this as two people thinking about one person—in other words, include the leader in your thinking about how you plan to use listening skills on her or him in persistent sessions.
Using time in your listening sessions to talk about leading and leadership. What distresses make you want to avoid leadership or rigidly take on leadership?
Learning to take on leadership ourselves. If there is a topic that is underrepresented by current Liberation Listening leaders, learn about the topic and do extensive listening sessions on the topic. Prepare yourself to lead on that topic. Solicit the support of the leadership team in reaching for your goals.
Directions for Listening Sessions:
You can try doing this with a friend or co-revolutionary: Set a timer for 20 minutes. One person talks while the other person silently listens with curiosity and interest. When the timer goes off, switch roles and start the timer for another 20 minutes. The second person talks while the first listens. It’s important for each person to get the same amount of time. Hold what you hear with confidentiality.
If you prefer to do this work alone, try journalling on the topic, or daydreaming. You can also try telling your thoughts to a tree, animal, or rock.
Use the following prompts for your work on leadership:
Tell memories of good leadership in your past: mentors, people you admired, people who could think well about you and the group, people who helped things go well. If you can, start with the earliest memory, and tell each memory in chronological order.
Tell memories of poor leadership in your past: authority figures, people whose power over you or over the group was tainted by their distresses, people who had power but could not accept feedback, etc. If you can, start with the earliest memory, and tell each memory in chronological order.
What happened in the past when you tried to right a perceived wrong?
Tell memories of your own leadership or attempted leadership. If you can, start with the earliest memory, and tell each memory in chronological order.
What does it mean to you to be out in front? When you are in a group, and everyone is looking to you for guidance or leadership, what emotions arise in you? What thoughts come into your mind? How does your body feel?
What groups are you a part of? How could you help those groups function better? Think about the group’s current functioning. What are the needs and challenges of its members? How can the group meet those needs and address those challenges?
Kara Huntermoon is one of seven co-owners of Heart-Culture Farm Community, near Eugene, Oregon. She spends most of her time in unpaid labor in service of community: child-raising, garden-growing, and emotion/relationship management among the community residents. She also teaches Liberation Listening, a personal growth process that focuses on ending oppression.
This article, published November 5, 2020 is written by Ahjamu Umi, an author and revolutionary organizer with the All African People’s Revolutionary Party.
My license to speak about this comes from the fact I’ve been involved in organizing work since 1979 when I joined the Pan-Africanist Secretariat (Brother Oba T’Shaka for those that know) at 17 years old. In 1984, I heard Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) speak and I joined the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP). I’ve been an organizer/member of the A-APRP ever since.
That means decades of working with people, all types of people.
I’ve worked in organizing efforts in Africa. In Europe. In the Caribbean. I’ve worked with African street organizations (what you would probably call gangs), church groups, women’s collectives. I’ve worked with students. I’ve worked with African people from every segment of society and I’ve also worked with European allies, Indigenous people, Asian allies, and Palestinian comrades. I’ve done significant work with organizations as broad as the Nation of Islam to White Women against Imperialism.
My political organizing work created the opportunity to work as a paid organizer for the labor movement which I do as well. In that work, I work with right-wing workers. Workers who have no experience interacting with African people. I’m still responsible for moving these folks. So, with all that outstanding experience, if there’s one thing I know about, it’s how to work successfully with people. I’m not saying I know everything because the more work I do, the more I realize I need to learn, but I am saying, I have at least learned some valuable lessons that some of our newer organizers would do well to pay close attention to.
Dont’s – No nos in organizing work 101:
1. Make sure you are in an organization. If not, your message is you don’t seriously believe what you are spouting because you don’t think enough of it to create a plan and work to bring it into existence.
2. Don’t criticize other people’s work. It makes you look like a hater and opens you up to questions about what you are doing (which is usually not too much if you have time and the lack of focus to criticize other people’s efforts).
3. If there is a problem with another organizer and/or organization, take that problem directly to the people involved and engage them in principled ideological struggle around the problem. DO NOT, under any circumstances, talk about people behind their backs. It will come back against you and will make you look cowardly and dishonest, the crippling ingredient for anyone attempting to become a respected organizer. Plus, principled struggle creates a stronger movement.
4. Do not permit yourself to see the struggle simply as an extension of your personal experiences. You are just a speck in this work. Remember that and carry yourself with humility at all times.
5. Do not view the struggle as the flavor of the week. Get a focus people and stick to it. If you change what you are doing every other week you send a clear message that you are not serious, about anything.
Do’s – Great things in organizing 101:
1. Make sure your organization has a dedicated study process where you can rotate facilitators, everyone is required to participate, and you have a praise/criticism process to properly assess your work.
2. Use the praise/criticism process to challenge yourself honestly around improving your weaknesses
3. Practice your writing skills by putting together articles, leaflets, etc, that address the problems you are fighting against. Getting people to read is a critical component of this struggle so help out by developing your skills while contributing relevant material.
4. Develop strong habits in your organizing work around study and work. Be where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there. Don’t be late and don’t make excuses. If you are always consistent, the message you will be sending out is that you are serious about your work and there is an urgency to make that work happen. If you are always late and disorganized, the message you send is that you say it matters, but you really don’t believe it. A credibility problem again.
5. Lastly, base your personal behavior and your organizational work around one principle – what’s right and just. An African proverb is “even a dead fish can swim with the current.” Don’t be a dead fish.
If you heed these do’s and don’t’s you are guaranteed to be an effective and respected organizer.
Everyone won’t like you because waging principled struggle, being consistent, and making things happen challenges those who desire to function without accountability, but just remember Sekou Ture’s correct statement that “if the enemy isn’t doing anything against you, you aren’t doing anything.” Do the dos and don’t do the don’ts and you will become stronger. You will also realize that all work is important and should be respected (I always know someone doesn’t know what they are talking about when they start talking about work that isn’t relevant). Even standing on a street corner with a sign saying “ORGANIZE!” is good work and anyone who does this work seriously knows that. So, take these and use them. They don’t belong to me, they belong to humanity. And make sure to share them.
What will it take to save the living planet? What will turn the tide of climate change and lead to forests rising again? What will defeat or transform the empire that is consuming our living world?
How can we win?
These are the largest and most important questions we face, and they are our mission here at Deep Green Resistance. We dedicate ourselves, relentlessly, to pursuing answers to these questions. And answers we have found—some of them. History and analysis teaches us that transformative, revolutionary political movements rise and fall with cultures of resistance: the people and communities that provide support, material aid, and solidarity to fuel movements.
You are part of this culture of resistance, and we salute you. We thank you for your solidarity, your material aid, and your support. We are humbled by our community: your dedication, your work ethic, your experience, your power, your passion.
Last Sunday, November 22nd, we hosted a 4-hour live streaming event called “Drawing The Line: Stopping the Murder of the Planet,” and we received an outpouring of support. We have raised over $5,000 USD, which for a small grassroots organization like us is a significant portion of our budget. If you didn’t have a chance to donate yet, it’s not too late, and we still very much need support. We hoped to raise $15k, and are still operating in the red. If you can support us, please visit this link to donate, or this link to sign up for monthly contributions. As always, you can contact us to discuss other options.
You can watch the recording of the event here:
We want to thank everyone who contributed to us last week, and over all the years. We are so grateful for the support we receive from our readers, friends, family, donors, and allies. Our work is truly a group effort, and support is truly an essential part of this.
Image: Mother bear and cubs in the redwoods, photographed by Derrick Jensen.
For this episode, we speak with Laura Cunningham of Basin and Range Watch about dozens of large solar energy projects threatening the Mojave and Great Basin deserts in Nevada and eastern California. We explore why utility-scale solar built on habitat is not a solution.
From this episode:
Now that I have seen ten years of solar build out. I was opposing the giant Ivanpah solar power towers in Eastern California deserts. That was a beautiful sloping desert next to the Mojave national preserve, full of Mojave yuccas, rare plants, wild flower blooms. We’d find horn lizards, black throated sparrows. cactus rinds, beautiful little slidewater snakes, harmless, just wanting to live in this area. Tortoises, a lot of tortoises. And it all got flattened, graded, run over by heavy machinery. Now it’s just a disturbed weed field with a giant fence around it. I looked about it. The whole of project – I think it was about 400 MW of energy, but it had a natural gas backup. Then we saw others, and others, still others. Tens of thousands of acres of deserts going under the blades of solar panels. I have not noticed a decline in carbon emissions. Of course, this is just one part of the world: the Mojave desert.
But it does make me think more recently: how much solar will it take to cover the desert before we see that downturn in carbon emissions? I think never. It’s this never ending scenario of needing more and more land, but we are not going to reduce our standard of living. I’ve heard different numbers regarding the pandemic: 17% decline in carbon emissions, maybe it was 12. A sort of a gigantic lowering of carbon emission, what we’d been wanting to have. But it took us really lowering our standard of living. Being much more efficient. Not burning a lot of fossil fuels. That’s actually, maybe, what we have to do in a non-pandemic situation: alter our whole way of living on the globe. And it’s a daunting task. Here we are going to build 60,000 acres of photovoltaic projects. Some of them will have Lithium-ion battery bank storage on protected Joshua tree habitats. That, I predict, will not lower carbon emissions one iota.
Our music for this episode is Melodi från Vest-Agder by Tim Eastwood of Dic Penderyn.
A friend of mine defines leadership as taking responsibility not just for yourself, but for a larger group or community. As she explains it, a leader tries to ensure things go well.
In general, activists are not very concerned with leadership. We tend to have an understandable mistrust of leaders. This is no surprise, as most leaders in the dominant culture abuse their power for profit and exploitation. But there is another type of leadership that is wise and moral and just. Leadership is extremely important, and we should learn basic principles from those who study leadership most seriously—often businesses and military. We can learn principles from these organizations, even if we disagree with their entire foundation.
This article shares 18 tips for leadership.
1. Learn From Others
Study those who came before, as well as present leaders you admire. Learn from their mistakes, as well as their successes – their weaknesses, as well as their strengths. Be a student of the past.
2. Build Skills
Writing, research, direct action, strategic thinking, fundraising, organizing, relationship building, outdoor skills, first aid, tactical skills—all these things can be learned. Study hard and apply your knowledge.
3. Work on Self-Confidence, Not Arrogance
You will never step up without self-believe. If you believe you are destined to never be a leader, you will not work to apply yourself and study. Step up with confidence, but not arrogance. Recognize your own weaknesses, as well as strengths, and build a team to shore up your weaknesses.
4. Take on Work
Leaders should not sit back and wait for others to do the work. Lead from the front, and be an example for others.
5. Share your Ideas
Even if you don’t know how to solve a given issue, use your intelligence to bring the group together, facilitate discussion, gathering insight, and so on. Learn to ask the right questions and share your thoughts when you have them. Speak up.
6. Listen to Others
Leaders need to listen to other people. Listen more than you speak. Learn from everyone.
7. Delegate
Build trust with your community and team, and delegate. One person has a limited capacity. Therefore, we have to build skills in other people to expand our capacity. This requires trust, and investing in people’s education and learning. People are the most valuable asset we have. Invest in people, even if it takes time for them to learn and adapt.
8. Respect Others
Leaders who abuse power are not and should not be respected. As a leader, you must earn respect, and one way to do so is by respecting others. People should be given respect as a default, unless they do something to lose your respect. Even then, you should be forgiving of those alongside you in the struggle.
9. There Are Many Types of Leaders
Some are loud, some are quiet. Some lead by planning and writing, others by action and speech. Some lead in private, others in public. Some lead while others rest. This is a strength. Cultivate all types of leaders.
10. Lead from the Front
People will not trust or follow a leader who is not willing to take the same risks as them, and get their hands dirty. Set an example for others with your action. Like the lead goose in a flying-V, the leader should do the most work, not the least (and when the time comes, the leader should cycle to the back, allow another to take the lead, and take a rest).
11. Moral Courage
Be prepared to do what is right. Understand consequences, and be prepared to accept them, if it is the right thing to do. When you act cowardly, reflect on why, and what you could do better next time. Commit to excellence and growth.
12. Physical Courage
Leaders should be prepared to take action in the physical world. Practice, prepare, and train in controlled situations to be ready for uncontrolled situations that will arise. Visualize yourself intervening in various scenarios. When opportunities arise, challenge your physical courage.
13. Foster Teamwork
A team is a fragile, unstable creation. Leaders must constantly work to stabilize the team, encourage people, and foster a shared strategic vision. Aligning people as individuals and the group as a whole pays major dividends.
14. Physical Fitness & Energy
As a leader you have a duty to be as physically and mentally fit as possible so that your decision making is as good as possible in stressful and challenging situations. Also, training yourself hard physically ensures you are familiar with the feeling of exhaustion and burnout, and know when you do need a break. Physical health and mental health are closely inter-related. The healthy person can think, act, and fight harder and most effectively.
15. Be Aggressive & Bold
Success in any endeavor entails risk taking. You can never control all factors. Seek to control and understand a situation as much as possible before acting—do not act rashly. But action is almost always better than inaction.
16. Be Decisive
Often, the wrong decision made quickly is better than the correct decision made too late. Rushing can be a path to failure, however, as well. Remember the saying: “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” Be methodical. Move as slowly as you have to in order to get the job done, and no slower. Move as quickly as you can, safely and intelligently.
17. Show Determination
Failures are inevitable. Prepare for them. Plan for them. Expect them. Then keep going. You will face setbacks, betrayals, losses and more. Organizing is not an easy path. Take care of your mind, spirit, and heart, so you can be in the fight for the long time.
18. Be Strong of Character
Self-discipline is the foundational skill. Be gentle with yourself, but allow yourself no excuses.
Max Wilbert is a writer, organizer, and wilderness guide. A third-generation dissident, he came of age in a family of anti-war and undoing racism activists in post-WTO Seattle. He is the author of two books, most recently Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It (Monkfish, 2021 – co-authored with Derrick Jensen and Lierre Keith). He has been part of grassroots political work for nearly 20 years.
![[Green Flame] Industrial Solar is Destroying the Mojave Desert](https://dgrnewsservice.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/09/green-flame-NS.jpg)
