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Staying Sane in the Next Five Years | Charles Eisenstein

Posted by 416246@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 52 comments

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dumnezero@reddit

Spiritualist cryptofascist bullshit. >Is this the time of Kali Yuga No, you fool. This shit has been going on for thousands of years. >Prepare children You won't, all you're doing is passing on your mediocrity and bullshit. >the purple team of course, just call it "[The Third Position](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Position)" or something. >RFJ Jr. In case it wasn't obvious what level of conspiritualism these assholes are promoting. >Reclaiming the American Dream I wish George Carlin was alive to roast these fuckers.
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MassMercurialMadness@reddit

Someone on this sub recommended his book Climate and I did buy it but I haven't read it yet - sounds like I may have made a mistake
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dumnezero@reddit

>sounds like I may have made a mistake, hopefully not. You could always use it for mulch or kindling. >However, to your first point about Kali yuga, you obviously don't understand how Hinduism works if you think a few thousand years is a large timespan to them haha. Real time vs magic time is what matters. People have seen magical cycles changing for a very long time, every year. It's not a science, it's like giving an astrology sign to year or a generation or a century. The Hindu region civilization is, at best, about 4000 years old. I don't really care what spiritual claims they make; I mean, I care that India is running towards fascism with Hindu flavors. That's not something I can fix by throwing rocks at spiritual claims, it doesn't work that way.
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blobbyboy123@reddit

Kali Yuga isn't a Hindu idea, it goes back to ancient vedic traditions which are timeless, although yes Hinduism is based on vedic teachings. We really have no idea how old vedic culture is since teachings were passed down orally, but it is far older than 4000 years.
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dumnezero@reddit

It doesn't matter.
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LiveFreeDie8@reddit

Kali Yuga started about 5,000 years ago in Hinduism. 3102 BCE.
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dumnezero@reddit

Sure, and Yahweh created the World 6000 years ago. I can also make up stories about the distant past. Have you been touched by His Noodly Appendage, by the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
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Daniastrong@reddit

The minute I saw the font I knew something was up. I might watch it anyway; at this point joining a cult might be the only thing that saves my sanity.
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Flimsy-Selection-609@reddit

A relative was institutionalised yesterday. She has been given a room of her own, food and activities throughout the day. All for free
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foureeees@reddit

Where do I sign up?
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dumnezero@reddit

Is that saving your sanity? Or is it cashing out or retiring your sanity?
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Daniastrong@reddit

What sanity?
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416246@reddit (OP)

I didn’t see it as fascist. He said that stories we’ve told ourselves might start breaking apart and made an emphasis on healing the divide and not going insane doubling down. He also said the story that says we are nothing but parasites is false. I viewed that as rejecting the ‘extinction of humans is good’ argument.
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dumnezero@reddit

What he is doesn't matter. What he says and does does. Fascism isn't only racism, it's complex set of feelings that's been plaguing human brains for a while. What these people are promoting has been done before, a century ago and more. Few learn from this. They enable fascism to rise, even if they tend towards eco-fascism. Once the open fascist movements are going, they tend to drop the whole "eco" and go for industrial surplus (American Dream) comforts and military industrial complex... you know, for the wars. These are people who Adam Curtis refers to in his documentaries, these are the "hippies" who turn into right-wing grifters and fascist ideologues. They claim to be nice and concerned about ecology, but in reality they're traditionalists high on spiritualism and immense sense that they don't belong in this world, they're divine, they're magical. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/adam-curtis-bbc-cant-get-you-out-of-my-head >Followers of Curtis’s work will recognise one theme – he tries again to square the circle of the individual and the collective. In Curtis’s eyes, this is pretty much the definitive theme of the 20th century. Individualism, he argues, began as a utopian ideal: freedom through self-expression. Then it morphed into consumerist enslavement. In other words, Curtis hates hippies. “The great big shift, which is the root of our age, is that somewhere in the late 1960s, the radical left who talked in terms of power, society, overthrowing the power structure – all that rhetoric – gave up. And instead, encouraged by radical psychotherapy, they went for an alternative idea which said, ‘Okay, if you can’t change the world, in terms of power structure, what you do is change yourself.’” This shit happened a century ago too, when industrial society really picked up. It's not new. It's even part of the older dreams of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum . Doesn't have to be just https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palingenetic_ultranationalism Individually, these talking heads who can enchant a crowd may just be grifters, but it doesn't matter. This is bad, this will make the future much worse. He talks about sanity a lot, but it's just solipsism, he's promoting his mythological and magical idea of reality as reality. It does not work out.
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416246@reddit (OP)

Not an Adam Curtis fan and his stuff is obviously trying to be deep without shaking the status quo I’ll look into what else eisenman has done. Fascism is us vs. them politics that marries govt and big business. I’m aware :).
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dumnezero@reddit

>Fascism is us vs. them politics that marries govt and big business. I’m aware :). That's the economics of it. You're not aware of the mentality of it. >I interpreted this talk and the one before as an attempt to disarm those people who might turn to fascism as an easy new narrative when the standard one of progress has been shattered beyond denial. How are you interpreting that? He ended up promoting RFK Jr. This isn't helping.
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416246@reddit (OP)

Okay but people are wrong all the time, I don’t discount people because they say to vote for Biden. The mentality is being scared of losing social/economic capital and trying to preserve hierarchy. When people’s sense of meaning is shattered, the strong man will be very appealing. He is politically naive but if RFK running gets us another trump term, that would be a good time to question running septuagenarians, losing abortion access, restarting student loans, child labour etc., the EPA being neutered etc aren’t the reason for the loss.
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dumnezero@reddit

>The mentality is being scared of losing social/economic capital and trying to preserve hierarchy. That's part of it. There's more to the fantasy. >When people’s sense of meaning is shattered, the strong man will be very appealing. He is politically naive but if RFK running gets us another trump term, that would be a good time to question running septuagenarians, losing abortion access, restarting student loans, child labour etc., the EPA being neutered etc aren’t the reason for the loss. Fascist accelerationism is a huge gamble. Is that what you're promoting? For reference: https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-are-exploiting-rfk-jr-spoiler-candidate-against-joe-biden https://www.salon.com/2023/04/06/steve-bannon-spent-months-recruiting-anti-vaxxer-rfk-jr-to-run-against-biden-as-chaos-agent/
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416246@reddit (OP)

I feel like presenting Biden as a stop to fascist accelerationism is false. He is controlled opposition that will only hurt the chances of people feeling their vote matters only because there is a crazier person on the ballot. Even if he is reelected, it will be four vital years spent giving concessions and paving the way for the next right wing crazy. Sure there are appeals to the past and all that, but if Trump was in a second term and the dems had learned not to run these corporate traitors, we might be past this rightwing populism by 2024, instead its stronger than ever and theres no viable alternative (RFK is not it)
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dumnezero@reddit

Again, that accelerationism is a huge dangerous gamble.
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416246@reddit (OP)

It’s happening whether or not you sacrifice your hope with Biden is kinda what I’m saying. After a second Biden term this talk will be needed even more.
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dumnezero@reddit

Again, this acceleration is not going to help, it's at the level of global nuclear war. The fascists will make the climate and biosphere *even worse*.
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416246@reddit (OP)

Well hopefully biden gets back in, but after that if a more populist candidate is blocked again a la Bernie, people will lose their faith in voting.
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jahmoke@reddit

you give biden all the credit yet ignore those republican congressmen, why?
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416246@reddit (OP)

Being the lesser of two evils gets less and less impressive when it’s clear we need some good. Can the republicans be reasoned with? The dems sponge up all the good will and desire for change and betray it every single time they have a majority.
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Zestyclose-Ad-9420@reddit

why is being a marxist so fucking glum
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dumnezero@reddit

Bro, we're in /r/collapse. Collapse is the opposite of "gospel". Have you heard the bad news?
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Zestyclose-Ad-9420@reddit

most of the collapsniks i see posting here are a far fucking call away from being categorised as "marxist". i was specifically talking about your scathing analysis of eisenstein, which i agree with, but dont particularly want to on purely aesthetic grounds.
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dumnezero@reddit

I think you'll like this podcast on such topics: https://www.conspirituality.net/
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Zestyclose-Ad-9420@reddit

thanks
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redditmodsRrussians@reddit

It’s like someone read Sacred Games and thought “yea, everything is Kali Yuga now”
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CucumberDay@reddit

based u/dumnezero
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WorldsLargestAmoeba@reddit

He is too late and at the wrong party. The people he needs to convince dont have 1.5 hour attention spans to listen to weaving blah-blah with a little content here and there. They cant digest more than a 3 piece bullet list with max. 2 lines per point.
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Commercial_Flan_1898@reddit

Why you gotta come at me like that
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WorldsLargestAmoeba@reddit

Wdym? There is nothing wrong with having a short attention span. In fact most species makes a virtue out of that.
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Commercial_Flan_1898@reddit

While I appreciate your efforts at inclusion, life with ADHD/attention issues is demonstrably less forgiving and more difficult than life for a neurotypical.
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Seidrwoman@reddit

Wow. Everybody in the comments sound batty. At least he’s talking about survival. You folks should just save yourself some time and go get your grave ready.
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collapse-ModTeam@reddit

Hi, Seidrwoman. Thanks for contributing. However, your [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/13vhm7l/-/jma8iuq/) was removed from /r/collapse for: > Rule 1: In addition to enforcing [Reddit's content policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy), we will also remove comments and content that is abusive or predatory in nature. You may attack each other's ideas, not each other. Please refer to our [subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/about/rules/) for more information. You can [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/collapse) if you feel this was in error, please include a link to the comment or post in question.
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416246@reddit (OP)

Omg I was shocked too. RFK I’ve heard him called antivax more than I’ve heard him say anything about vaccines. And the talk to me was just warning people that meaning might get shattered
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Duckmandu@reddit

Once I realize this is all in support of that anti-VAX psychotic RFK I saved a lot of time.
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TotalSanity@reddit

Climate change, nuclear war, mass species extinctions, civilization collapse, famine, genocide, madness, and mayhem, but we'll all be fine if we meditate a little...
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MassMercurialMadness@reddit

Actually the Buddha and multiple Hindu text say essentially the same thing - when you sit in meditation the entire world benefits - script all sentient beings, which includes being one other planets according to the Buddha.
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TotalSanity@reddit

No doubt there's genuine benefits conferred from meditation. My statement was somewhat cynical however because this guy often reverts to metaphysical word-salad as he talks. 'Invoking' and 'actualizing, one gets the impression that they're listening to a 3rd-rate guru.
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ArtisticEntertainer1@reddit

I saw Third Rate Guru at Burning Man with Special Guest Conferred From Meditation
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416246@reddit (OP)

I can see people will just channel their confusion into whatever easy solution is waiting for them rather than feel emotions. My bad.
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nariusone@reddit

Ignorance is bliss and ignoring is the next best thing. Not only you can be sane, you can be happy.
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-Planet-@reddit

His last name is Einstein so I better believe him, he's probably really smart.
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PimpinNinja@reddit

That's not his last name.
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-Planet-@reddit

Just a wee joke.
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eaterofw0r1ds@reddit

There is no way to stop the madness. On the off chance we aren't reduced to dust in the next 15 years, the population could be 9 billion. The population climb has caused events to happen at a rapid cycling rate, and as it goes higher, human events will continue to happen very fast. This doesn't bode well for the human mind. We become desensitized to things after a while, and that causes us to see lots of fucked up shit as completely normal. So even if the climate doesn't go boom or we go nuclear, the population bomb will definitely cause us to experience an increasingly severe psychosis as time goes on.
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StatementBot@reddit

The following submission statement was provided by /u/416246: --- Submission Statement: The next five years (post El-Nino) are likely to disrupt our collective stories about society, the future, value and history. He speaks about how we can handle what we witness clashing with some of these deeply held beliefs in a way that doesn't drive us mad or make us cling to falsehoods. This is collapse related because collapse is quite fringe, so when things start collapsing, and people's sense and meaning therefore get strained, many will be seeking support on how to adjust while maintaining sanity. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/13vhm7l/staying_sane_in_the_next_five_years_charles/jm61yjz/
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416246@reddit (OP)

Submission Statement: The next five years are likely to disrupt our collective stories about society, the future, value and history. He speaks about how we can handle what we witness clashing with some of these deeply held beliefs in a way that doesn't drive us mad or make us cling to falsehoods. This is collapse related because collapse is quite fringe, so when things start collapsing, and people's sense and meaning therefore get strained, many will be seeking support on how to adjust while maintaining sanity.
View on Reddit #2694102