Are you a Doomer™? [View all]

[GliderGuider]

I recently got into an onlline discussion about what it means to be a Doomer™. The exchange was worthwhile enough that I thought I'd post part of it it here as a potential conversation-starter. Names have been scrubbed to protect the guilty.

The discussion was kicked off by this explanation about why the writer did not consider themselves a Doomer, and declined invitations to become one.

Doomers seem to, somehow, "get off" on fear. At least as I know the breed. I don't know if it's just an adrenalin rush, or what. We could debate that another time. I don't get that. I don't seem to be into fear as entertainment. And here's why.

A long time ago I learned that EVERYTHING DIES. Everything. People, dogs, cats, trees, grass, even dandelions. Populations die, species die, ecosystems die, planets die, Solar systems die, on and on, etc. etc. Knowing this has taught me, if nothing else, that fear of dying is, well, silly. And knowing that we humans have come up with some really interesting, and unique ways to die is meaningless. There is not a single goddamn thing I, or anybody else can do to prevent it.

So I choose not to be afraid, not to worry about radiation, climate change, peak oil, economic collapse, chiggers, or people I don't like. This doesn't mean I don't see these as problems. And whole host of other shit I don't like. So I watch. I talk. I try to listen. I live my life as best as I know how, trying not to be too much trouble for anyone else. And then I'll die, like everything else. And THIS will go on without me. Somehow.

This prompted me to wonder about the term itself, and why I didn't resonate with that interpretation. I decided to take a stab at deconstructing the origin and usage of the word "Doomer".

The way you describe yourself sounds like most of the Realists™ I know.

The word Doomer™ was originally coined by people who objected to the Realists™ pointing out precisely the things you just said (essentially, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi). These are people for whom the mere idea that all things pass away is anathema. For them, such an idea is not Realistic™ but Defeatist™, and one must never read anything serious into Shelley's "Ozymandias". They especially object to the Realists™ insistence that they can detect signs that things are already passing away and, as you say, there is not a single goddamn thing anybody can do to prevent that.

The invention of the Doomer™ label was an act of rejection, an attempt to minimize, smear and belittle anyone who dared to imply that human civilization follows ecological rules, that perhaps it is already in overshoot and in order to Fix™ the Problem™ we need to acknowledge its true nature. This usage of Doomer™ has a lot in common with the current American use of the words Socialist™ and Malthusian™ as epithets. So, as always happens in the natural course of language, the targeted population adopted the word as a shibboleth and a badge of honour. To draw a parallel, this is exactly the same sequence of events that led to people of colour adopting the N-word.

It has nothing to do with getting a rush out of imagining large-scale suffering and death, though that accusation is immediately hurled whenever a Realist™ dares to raise their voice in defense of their position. That characterization is publicized by those who invented the Doomer™ label, and attached to it in order to make the position seem as odious and anti-human as possible - to beat the timid back into the corral of human exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny.

Most of the Realists™ I know have no fear of dying. On the contrary, most of us seem to have come to graceful terms with the Reaper. On the other side of the table is where you tend to find the life extensionists, the cryogenics folks, those who wish to spread humanity to the stars and thereby achieve Immortality™.

This conversation is a perfect example of why I've started using those little ™ flags - to point out the words like Doomer™ whose meanings may be shaded by unspoken assumptions, or outright dicked with by people with ulterior motives. The more I try out the convention, the more I see a need for it.

Another friend (who invented the idea of using the ™ flags that way) chimed in with his take on the subject:

As regards your comments re Doomers™, I feel as though I could write a book in response. When I get that feeling these days, I step back and wait. It takes a while, to tease apart that which I might say which would actually help the conversation, and that which I might say which is simply reactive to my various woundings. I find it very hard to write really long things in this forum, and mostly crave the face-to-face, where we can take the time to unpack and examine the various facets of what, to me, looks like a very complex topic. Perhaps one day...

For now, I will say, yes, there are those who are as you say, addicted to Fear™, just as there are those who are addicted to Anger™ and Grief™. And just as there are those who are addicted to Comfort™ and Happiness™ and Positivity™. And I'm thinking of some particular people at this point...

Speaking as Bobby Wan-Kenobi, I say: "These are not the Doomers™ you are looking for." And you are right to trust the Force™ that has you keep your distance. But I will invite you to consider that Doomers™ are a varied lot, and that some of us are not here for the hit of Fear™ at all, but are here for very different reasons: to Protect™ to Serve™ to Witness™ to Love™ to Mature™, Grow™, Learn™ and even Evolve™. One helpful place to look, when teasing apart the various responses to our Collective Global Predicament® is to view people through Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's stages of grief, and to observe people as they confront Death™ as it looms before them in the guises of Peak Oil, Climate Chaos, etc., and then move through those stages. Were I to concoct a Doomer™ Bestiary, I would use this model as a sorting device.

For myself, having worked my way through that model more than once, and having at least established a beachhead on the far shore of Acceptance and even Re-Investment, I find myself feeling more like a shaman or psychopomp than anything, here simply to sit in the Death Lodge with those who are ready and help them to shed their old egos/paradigms/assumptions, and to then accompany them as they cross the River of Death into the afterlife. What fear arises in that process is their own. Having largely passed through my own fear, my "little death," as Frank Herbert put it, I can now sit with theirs, and witness it.

Who I was, who I appeared to be through most of my life, has well and truly died away, which is exactly what is so confusing and confounding to my family, I think, and my kids especially, who are not supposed to lose a father so soon. I am living in my afterlife, and though it can be lonely as hell, the view from here is exquisite.

Ultimately, I don't feel like I work for human beings, or at least not primarily. I work for the seagulls and crows and chickens who call to me all day. I work for the seals in the bay and the pines on the head. I work for owls and bears and frogs and fungi I have only ever read about. My job is to say, over and over, and in as open and loving a way as I can manage, "let go... let go... let go... let go of that which is killing the life of this planet... let go of that which is making you miserable... let go... fall into uncertainty and helplessness and the opposite of control... let go, and see where it takes you." I have no Hope™ whatsoever that my voice will prevail. I just do it because I cannot seem to do otherwise, and because my Muse™ seems to kick my ass if I don't.

I'd be very interested to hear how this discussion sits with people here, who tend to have different views than the self-selected group this came out of.

Cheers,
Bodhi