Hope is Available

Eco-angst is a pandemic that isn’t going away. The covid pandemic and our response to it has inflicted trauma of one sort or another on virtually everyone. It has killed nearly a million people in the US alone. After two years, most, in the US at least, are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. That can’t be said for the Eco-Angst prognosis.

 

Particularly scary is survey data from the CDC and other research sources suggesting a rising tide of general gloom, underlined by behavioral stats that include anxiety, depression, and suicide attempts, particularly evident in the younger sector of the population.  While isolation related to covid isolation, social media and smart phone addiction, and political polarization are contributing (and complexly interacting) factors, a sense of helplessness and inevitability around climate change is a central player.

 

There is nothing new about bad news, nor about the media’s eagerness to exploit our innate attraction to it. Regular updates of covid’s rampages were scary, but surely helped rally our defenses and limit the virus’s reach. Whether the net psychological impact of the covid tsunami, including incessant digitally-transmitted psycho-trauma, was worse than what would have been felt from the disease alone is anybody’s guess. But the pandemic’s concurrence with increasingly catastrophic hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, famine, and wildfires, complexly entangled with ethnic and religious strife, mass human displacements, political vitriol in the US and elsewhere, and despotic ventures of the likes of Putin together create a profound overwhelm for many.

 

For humans, as social beings, a quintessential reflex in times of crisis has always been to circle the wagons. Especially when the threat is of human origin, the impulse is to latch on to the most obvious “in-group”, and simultaneously begin focusing on features that identify the “out-group”. No doubt that at countless points in our ancient history and pre-history, this approach can be attributed with having saved the lives of we survivors. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that memories of the worst of our “out-grouping behaviors” will not just echo in our collective psyche but grow increasingly and malignantly intrusive. The costs to our collective Karma of the remembrance of heinous acts committed by human beings against ‘de-humanized’ outgroups reverberate unrelentingly, enhanced by our internet-facilitated group-think consciousness. This is a consequence of two things: 1) the utter loss of boundaries to our shared consciousness that has emerged via internet, with its pervasive social media dimension, particularly, and 2) the facility with which we can chronicle such experiences, going forward, on our billions of ever-accessible smart phones, equipped with infinitely nuanced personal vantage points, and instantaneous sharing options. Who ever imagined how quickly we could become so collectively self-aware? It remains to be determined whether this will ultimately create more trauma and division or rather, increase the scope of tribal affinity and cooperation to global scale.

 

We see the enemy more clearly than ever, and yup… “It is us”.  Our (commendable) human proclivities to 1) persist in inventing better ways to do almost everything, and 2) share our discoveries with others of our kind, have combined, unfortunately, with the good fortune we have enjoyed of tapping into the mother lode of fossil fuels at our feet. The synergy has brought us to the precipice. We are now faced with (or, or more accurately, already immersed in) choosing between an all-inclusive renaissance and an all-inclusive demise. The “Great Turning” versus “The Great Unravelling”, as profoundly articulated by the far-seeing Joanna Macy a few decades ago.

 

Both seismic revolutions are unfolding concurrently, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. As individuals, we influence the outcome, whether by acting decisively, or by declining to do so. How we make this choice, and the innumerable accompanying micro-choices, will depend heavily on the state of our individual psyches, including our levels of optimism at critical moments, our assessments of the importance of our actions, and, as social beings, our perceptions of and inclinations to follow (or defy) actions of the flock.

 

While we have long recognized our enemy, we may have grossly underestimated our “friend”. In academic/scientific discourse and beyond there is a dramatic growth in appreciation for the profound depth of our human capacity, as social beings, to act “altruistically” (in the interest of others), and even to radically redefine the boundaries of ‘other’ as conditions arise. Advances in our objective ability to measure such behavioral inclinations are of great importance in themselves, but also provide tools to go further, to identify neurobiological mechanisms that motivate and entrain such behaviors. Together these discoveries can turn the tide on collective choice and their existential consequences.

 

Beyond direct benefits to the environment, generous and cooperative acts immediately counteract Eco-Angst by nourishing the spirit of the perpetrator. Awareness of the connection between action and pleasure (or relief) resulting therefrom is a powerful re-motivator. As in addictions, the motivation is likely to be grokked and widely copied in the flock. Joy experienced by immediate beneficiaries is a bonus. Broad awareness of the spread of generosity across the population raises further the tide of hope. And hope feeds personal fortitude. Such “vicious cycles”, or positive feedback loops, are scientifically appreciated as the primary cause of robust change. While negative feedback loops underlie regulatory stability, it is positive ones that transform.

 

The struggle between good and evil isn’t over that fast: it will be epic. ‘Positive’ and ‘negative’ feedback terms don’t imply ethical or emotional timbre. Selfish acts that gratify can incite selfish acts in positive feedback fashion, particularly in worlds rich in unmet needs, including, ironically, social ones. No organism (or tribal unit) has ever evolved without a great propensity for self-care. That’s biology. But just as deeply and necessarily engrained in the genes of a social being is the generous and cooperative impulse. The miraculously complex flesh-and-blood neuroendocrine mechanisms of motivation, reward, and reinforcement underly generous and cooperative inclinations, just as is true for selfish behavior. Broad societal appreciation for the deep genetic and neural roots of social drive lags far behind our appreciation of that for selfish instincts. But that is changing. And with huge implications. We are beginning to map the physiological bases in detail, as well as appreciate the taxonomically wide distribution of generous behavior, evident in whales and dolphins, dog and cat lineages, and even in rodents and birds, as well as in chimps, bonobos, and other primates. And to appreciate the virtually universal taxonomic distribution and importance of cooperative interactions, including between species as distantly related as trees and fungi.  

 

Thich Nhat Hanh had a sign at his entrance: “Happiness is available. Help yourself!” Joanna Macy describes “Active Hope” as a self-directed therapy for Eco-Angst. Both have grasped that the cosmos will go forward, with or without human beings, and continue to create unimaginably intricate beauty. As the epic battle driven by human impact on Earth plays out, the options for our emotional gratification could not be more stark. Hope can be had simply by helping others. Imagine the joy experienced when socially-motivated human beings act inclusively to restore our home! Focus there. Breathe. Repeat.

 

David McCobb 7/31/22