Embracing collapse and enjoying it?

Ever had this inkling that things will never be the same again - soon? That stability is something of the past? That the future of your kids hangs in the balance? That you fail to see the point of saving up money given the upcoming financial market turmoil? And that we are so powerless in the face of system dynamics?

Before I joined WWF in 2020 (left in Nov 23) I was still positive on the green transition and sustainable finance. Not anymore. My view of the future has become increasingly collapse-aware and dystopic. I can't help it. Impossible to bullshit myself into a rosier outlook. Without hope, then what? Why get up in the morning and push for change? How to avoid depression? What to tell your kids?

In this article my intention is not to give you false hope. Instead I want to share some thoughts on how to accept collapse and perhaps manage to live with it. I came up with five points:

• Accepting reality as it is
• Invest time and capital in upskilling
• Simplify life
• Build social capital
• Deal with life and death

A lot of those are based on assumptions that are subject to change. After all we live in a #VUCA world (VUCA => Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity). Predicting the future is increasingly difficult. Certainty fades into the oblivion.

Also bear in mind that a all of what I write is written within a context of massive (white) priviledge. I have income to spend. I don't get bombed to pieces. I have friends and family. I am healthy.

Accept reality as it is

Collapse is already all around us: fishing stocks, water tables and forests. Social dynamics are also becoming less healthy. A politician of Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) was just beaten up in Dresden. Surging populism appears a sign of things to come. Along with environmental and social decay, economies that are fully embeddded within nature and societal structures are starting to hit a wall. First in less resilient countries like Sri Lanka, Argentina and Pakistan. Later it will come for "us" too.

Looking into the eye of the tiger ain't fun. It sucks hope out of you. But then again it also takes a lot of energy to convince the brain that the flashing red lights are in fact orange. Cognitive dissonance. For people with empathy towards current and future generations this is a psychological recipe for disaster.

It did get to me. More than once. Tears flowing freely on long-distance bike trips, where the mind runs in circles. Or meditation bringing out inner feelings of fear and guilt. I still have that. These days more in meditative forms of dancing. But I don't fight them trying to convince myself that it is better than it appears to be. It is ok. The present giving way to the future. The neverending cycle of life and death. Just at a bigger scale and perhaps irreversible for this civilization. Acceptance gives me some sense of peace.

Invest time and capital in upskilling

Finishing school, going to University, getting a job, climbing the career ladder, having a family, taking out a housing loan, living there until you die... ok, maybe for the priviledged part of the world population still possible for some time, but for how long? Wars are breaking out again in Europe. Looking at how the world is letting Israel run amoc in Gaza puts into question all sorts of international norms - or the hypocracy of those pretending to promote them. Walls and fences are rising everywhere. Free trade used to have a better reputation. Sea-level rise. Wildfires. You get the picture.

It is great to have a refuge that is really yours. But if it is your only refuge you have nowhere else to go. When your home gets washed away by another 1 in a 100 years flood, then what? Or fascists may take over and you are too brown to stay. Is it better to have a second home somewhere else? If you can afford it, perhaps. My rule of thumb is increasingly that putting all eggs in one basket is an audacious bet. A massive home loan ties to one spot. Renting a flat does not.

So, if you don't invest in owning a house what would you do with your spare capital? Investing in stocks? Owning a digital portfolio makes a nice match alongside working on a laptop all day and streaming Netflix once the sun set. While potentially stranded assets will likely become stranded at some point, Netflix is perhaps great to chill out, but in terms of upskilling you don't get anywhere. We take the digital world for granted, but it may just evaporate in some way at some point. Our dependency on digital codes has never been greater, but perhaps only for a very brief moment in history.

While numbers can simply evaporate, as the shareholders of Wirecard know, knowledge and skills do not. So, paired with the capital you do not invest in stock markets and a single family home, better use whatever time remains to do and learn stuff: growing food, foraging, stitching, woodworking, playing an instrument, dancing... whatever really. It helps increase resilience.

That I can readily move into farming if my work on EU-policies goes nowhere, again gives me peace of mind. I feel less dependent. No need to worry all day what happens when the only factory in town closes down.

Simplify life

What do you need to be happy? Vacation on the Maledives? Riding a horse? A motorbike? Across businesses there is increasing chatter about reducing depencenies on ecosystem services to become more resilient. At the personal level it is no different. To get to the Maledives you need to have enough money to purchase an airplane ticket and rely on functioning infrastructure on-site. The airplane also needs fuel. To ride a motorbike you need the motorbike, potential spare-parts, protective gear and again - fuel. Then there is the horse for horse riding. The horse needs food. A lot of it. And someone taking care of it.

I became aware of these dependencies during COVID. I used to cycle a lot. More than 12,000km per year. Without the right spare parts my bike was floored. My hobby screwed. Early 2024 I put the bike aside and started dancing instead. To dance I only need my body. In improvisation not even music. And Woofing - volunteering on farms that need labour - as well and I am exploring more. The principle is clear. Rather than bank on hobbies that depend on a lot of things being available at any point of time, I simplify and enjoy nevertheless.

Build social capital

There are better terms than social capital to summarize all forms of social relations you have with family, friends and the wider community. The people closest to you are also the ones that are most likely to be able to assist you in times of need. Western society turned so individualistic, because we could increasingly afford it. But the trend is reversing. In Italy and Greece young people are living with their parents again. They cannot afford to move out.

Only looking after yourself can be fun, but whether or not the future is dystopian or not, expanding your social capital is a good idea anyway. Friendships and well-functioning families are rewarding and whatever it costs in time, effort and money is worth spending.

Deal with life and death

The urgency of the situation and dystopian vision of the future puts the immediacy of life and death into focus. Death can come at any moment. So, while I still push for what I perceive as positive change with the same fervour as before, I worry less about the future and focus more on the present moment. This very moment is all I have. Future is a theoretical concept and may never arrive (for me). And the past is the past.

Where it gets tricky is when you think about your closest. I have two children. 10 and 7 years old. What about them? If I read about wholesale collapse of marine ecosystems by 2050, then they are just over 30. But the immediacy of the moment and theoretical nature of the future also applies to them. All I can do is whatever is in my power to enable them to enjoy their life as long as it may last, every moment. Over and over again. And I let them know...

So...

What else to say? Well, I have no idea whether what I am doing is sensible or not. I am making it up along the way and will see what happens. I appreciate that I am extremely lucky to have the possibility to think all of this through, pay for dancing courses, live where I want to and at least feel that I can try to do something to stave off large-scale ecosystem collapse.

While I base all of this on the assumption that life is as I perceive it - and not a computer game or ruled by an almighty greybearded grandpa - I feel a sense of purpose and joy irrespective of the context. There is a strong upside to going through the process of embracing collapse, because acceptance, flexibility and simplication all bring their own elements of joy to your life.

If you have feedback, I am looking forward to hearing what you think. What is your approach? How do you deal with the prospects of collapse? How do you talk to you kids? Are you more positive? Is it also just ok to ignore and enjoy?