Breaking Together: A freedom-loving response to collapse

Product Information

So, when world leaders were on stage in New York, grandly signing off on their sustainable development goals, most of their countries had already begun their decline. Amid this July’s unprecedented global heatwaves, Richard Hames sat down with Jem in Berlin to talk about the impact of his ideas and whether there is a climate politics beyond “doomerism”. Jem’s new book is called Breaking Together: A Freedom-Loving Response to Collapse. Ecological Restoration: Efforts to restore and protect local ecosystems aligns with ecolibertarian emphasis on harmony with nature.

In 2006, Bendell worked with the World Wide Fund for Nature UK, analysing and ranking the social and environmental performance of luxury brands. His resulting report, Deeper Luxury: Quality and Style When the World Matters, was discussed internationally in over 50 newspapers as of late 2007. [7] The report argued that luxury brands were not meeting the expectations of customers for high performance on social and environmental issues. [8] A new compass for navigating collapse.” Pablo Servigne and Raphael Stevens, authors, Another End of the World is Possible Bendell, Jem (2023). Breaking Together: A Freedom-Loving Response to Collapse. Bristol: Good Works - Schumacher Institute. Links to various versions of the Deep Adaption paper, including the original blog post, a Kindle version, an audio MP3 file, as well as a variety of translations Our societies are breaking because of damage to the living systems of our planet. It’s time to face this reality and this book helps us do just that. As further collapse unfolds we need a practical alternative to global panic. Jem Bendell has got one – restoring community self-reliance as a global effort.” Pooran Desai OBE, CEO, OnePlanet

Abstract

Restoring the Commons: This action prioritizes community stewardship over exploitative control of resources by powerful entities. JemBot:“In the context of ‘Breaking Together,’ Jem Bendell’s ecolibertarian approach is about building self-reliance, decreasing dependency on harmful systems, and fostering communities that are more in tune with nature and each other. While there wasn’t a definitive list of top ten prosocial actions in the book, here are some key actions and their relation to ecolibertarian principles: This is all well and good. More generally, it is refreshing to see self-help discourses appear side-by-side with serious discussions of monetary policy and climate tipping points. But the self-actualisation aspect is also a bit … basic. The key point, really, is we all have to work this stuff out for ourselves. Elsewhere in the book, Bendell suggests:

Participatory Decision-Making: This directly challenges top-down authority by redistributing decision-making power to community members. Friday essay: in an age of catastrophe is there still a place for utopian dreams? Or might our shared vulnerability be the key?

A radical rethink of ‘the entire Western project’

On the other hand, for readers who are unfamiliar with the finer points of economics or finance – such as myself – there are some huge claims it’s hard to know what to do with. Apparently, the world’s current monetary systems “are not only hastening the collapse of both natural and human systems, but are known to be on the verge of collapse by some senior officials”. Economic Space Agency is designing ‘Post Capitalist protocols’ to support all these ideas and make them interoperable.

News of JemBot within the Deep Adaptation Facebook group generated a range of reactions. Some people see AI as the latest creation of a doomed techno-obsessed culture. Some see it as endangering societal systems. They might be right, but that doesn’t mean we don’t deploy it for straightforward and positive reasons. As with all technology, the key issue is ownership, intention, use and governance. If you like this analysis, then send it to someone influential, and if you want more, please help fund future writing . Finally, create and engage in spaces (both physical and virtual) where authentic dialogue and connection are encouraged. Participate in community-building activities that foster trust and cooperation. This could range from neighborhood initiatives to international peace-building projects. Alternative Economies: Encouraging local currencies, barter systems, or time banks, which can foster local resilience and equitable exchange.Participatory Decision-Making: Community-level initiatives that encourage participatory approaches to decision-making can empower local residents.

I want to say something about the climate. After Young people are less psychologically invested in society as it has been. They are less likely to shun difficult information, or cling to their existing identity and worldview. So opinion polls consistently tell us that young people assess the future to be more difficult than what older people do. The response from adults can be to gaslight them, by claiming their attitude or mental health is the problem, rather than the state of the world. I find it odd that the sustainability professional is no longer focused on the so-called business case for action, but is obliging us to believe business can save the planet or we are seen to be at fault for when they don’t. History is full of anxious elites being similarly strange. Young people need something else, just like we all do. What we all need is to find new ways to live positively without fairy tales that someone or something is going to fix it all. That would not be a stubborn optimism, but a stoic certainty about living with reality in a positive way, come what may. One area of trauma-healing that has been widely recognised and utilized, is to get out of urban environments. As a suburban kid we always went hiking at the weekends, in forests, meadows, or along coasts. It was our form of recharging and revitalising. Most of us live disconnected from wider nature, and that will not help the healing. In the absence of being close to wilder environments, then even gardening organically can help with a sense of reconnection to natural reality. The importance of nature reconnection in our healing is why we named our regenerative farm and training centre the Bekandze Farm School. Known widely in Buddhist communities due to the Medicine Buddha mantra, Bekandze is a Sanskrit word describing healing through reunion. This book is worth reading even – especially? – if you don’t believe climate change will lead to a widespread breakdown of social structures. I would also suggest the book is worth persevering with even if you’re not convinced by every link in its chains of logic.

Systems under stress

Intuition is often honed through experience and deep listening, trusting your gut feelings, and exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness through art, nature immersion, or even guided hypnosis. [Hello it’s the actual Jem here.. I never mentioned hypnosis in the book]