I’m offering the latest contemplation by Jem Bendell on Collective Trauma and the Climate Crisis. Although I often disagree with much of what Jem Bendell says and does (anti-vaxxer, for one), this article goes deeper than anything else he’s written, into the links between trauma, spiritual bypassing and the climate crisis. I will copy a few paragraphs, and then link to the rest of the article, which you can read yourself.
The connection between collective trauma and climate change
Most people in the world today live in industrial consumer societies. As such, we experience being ourselves in ways that have been shaped by those societies. That makes me curious about how myself, and others, have been influenced. The typical view within modern societies is to think that we have each been ‘civilised’, through discipline and moral exhortation, so that we behave better for both ourselves and society. However, there is another view, which doesn’t start from the assumption that we are born with moral deficiencies. Associated with that view, I particularly like the (pre-)Buddhist idea of Brahma Vihara, or four virtues. They point to the idea of an original human nature, prior to any psychological injuries from experiences and cultures. That original human nature includes a general benevolence towards all life, compassion for the suffering of sentient beings, vicarious joy at others’ joy, and an equanimity or non-attachment to those three emotions and all else that occurs. The idea is that delusions and fears block us from those virtues, which are actually our original human nature and natural way of being. With that in mind, we can be curious about how growing up in modern societies has created delusions and fears that then shape our perceptions and behaviours in ways that are problematic for ourselves, others and wider nature.
We have been taught so many ideas that are deep within us, often not commented upon because they have become ‘common sense’ assumptions. Some of the simplest deep stories that create emotional injury are that we are separate from the rest of life, that we can and should be in control, that we need to strive and compete, that we need to suppress our emotions and that other humans are dangerous (or even that we are to others). These all relate to a ‘scarcity mentality’ that there is not enough for everyone, and that we aren’t enough as we naturally are.
All of those deep stories produce a traumatic emotional injury, by which I mean a form of emotional hurt that stays with us and promotes defensive, ill-considered, over-reactions, to experiences that occur today and hereafter. For instance, when we seek to know what’s occurring in the world, where the reality might present a difficulty to ourselves, or those we love, a trauma-shaped sense of unsafety can mean we look for what story to believe that calms us down. That is a story where we think we are less in danger and that we belong to a group which we believe gives us security, meaning and status. That traumatic response might be happening to climate scientists as much as anyone else. It might happen as much to medical professionals as it does within contrarians on health issues. It is at the heart of people’s susceptibility to polarisation between false binaries of elite-defending orthodoxies and outsider-bonding heresies. Then there is the personal, not collective, trauma that people have, such as from our childhood experiences. For instance, adult children of alcoholic and abusive parents are known to suffer in various ways and benefit from support groups. The existence of personal trauma presents a difficulty for responding wisely and kindly to bad news and actual difficulties and disruptions. However, it also offers an opportunity to people if they have been able to consciously heal from such traumas, to become better able to approach the generalised societal traumas I mentioned earlier.
It is important to recognise that, for most of us, both our environment and society will become more disturbed and disturbing for the rest of our lives. Consequently, there will be no respite from triggers of trauma responses during this new era of societal collapse. The difficulties will become worse both at distance and locally. That includes even the most local, as our colleagues, neighbours, friends, family and ourselves may react poorly to increasing difficulties and worries, if not aided to respond differently.
In this case, ignorance is not bliss. For if we are fortunate enough to recognise this situation now, as well as understand something about trauma, then we can try to develop our own resilience and that of the people we know. This opens up a huge arena for positive responses, which is something I will explore in closing this essay.
We can also become aware of what some psychologists label a ‘pre-traumatic stress’ disorder. That is a term to describe problematic reactions to bad news or setbacks which in themselves wouldn’t actually disrupt our lives. These occurrences can impact us more if we are anticipating great suffering and tragedies to come but haven’t allowed ourselves the time and space to integrate that anticipation into our sense of self and world.
Dharmaecology 