Dooomed! … a way to face the unfolding meta-crisis we are living within.
‘The Dance of Death’ by Michael Wolgemut
[Some challenging and potentially unsettling ideas and themes are shared in the following article. I recommend that you bring to mind something that supports you in your life right now. I encourage you to use this as an anchor whilst reading this piece if you need. Whilst exploring these ideas over the past years I have found ‘grief tending’ communities [1] supportive and perhaps you might too!]
I’m not sorry for the radio silence!…I have been putting out a fortnightly radio called ‘Radio Silence’ on the local community radio station ‘SoundArt Radio’[2] in Dartington. My show began with explorations around my dissertation topic and has continued since. The most recent radio episode was — in the words of Pendulum’s song Blood Sugar — a “sonic recreation of the end of the world. Fuck it, I lied…” [3] … it was doom-folk, dark ambient, post-rock, and heavy metal! The show was a cheery exploration of various civilisational and ecological collapses, from the destruction of pre-roman cultures in ancient Europe and the fall of the Roman Empire, to poetic tellings of future apocalypse.
Why, you may ask did I choose to put out such a bleak show so close to Christmas? Well, perhaps by facing the inevitable endings of our species, societies and our lives — perhaps sooner rather than later according to Jem Bendell’s Deep Adaptation [4], or the late Michael Dowd’s Post-Doom ideas [5] — then perhaps our sometimes challenging Christmas period may seem relatively cheery in comparison! Perhaps it can induce gratitude for all that we still have in our late-stage-capitalist lives. Things may not be easy, but at least — if we are the lucky ones — we may have regular food on the table, loving family and friends, a roof over our heads, reciprocal giving of gifts and good cheer! As the darkest night was drawing close, I lead my listeners to walk into the darkness, so that perhaps we may see the stars shine more brightly above us.
One of the tracks I shared was ’Dead Flag Blues’ by ‘Godspeed you! Black Emperor’, a dour song overlaid with a bleak narration [6]:
“The buildings toppled in on themselves
Mothers clutching babies
Picked through the rubble
And pulled out their hair
The skyline was beautiful on fire
All twisted metal stretching upwards
Everything washed in a thin orange haze
I said, "Kiss me, you're beautiful
These are truly the last days"
You grabbed my hand
And we fell into it
Like a daydream
Or a fever”
The song conjures some future societal collapse in a north American setting. But this could as easily describe some story within any number of war torn countries in the world right now, such as those living and dying within genocide in Palestine. I stress this, as collapse is not some future event, it is a constant unfolding, a constant withering, crashing and dying that occurs on many levels. From the withering flower to the failing nation, all will eventually cease to be, at least in their current form. Out of this dying however, new life also continually flourishes. I believe that consciousness cannot be destroyed, new life will always emerge. These may not be comforting words for those who are facing death and collapse right now, I don’t know. But I hope it may help us in preparing for the inevitable loss in — and of — our lives.
We have now passed through the shortest days, and slowly creep further into the light. Who knows what will happen to humanity in the decades to come. But things will change, and with this change, will come the breakdown of many harmful elements of our global systems. We will need to come together in deepening systems of reciprocal relations, to democratically organise on local levels, to learn methods of co-healing and co-regulation, to create new stories, new rituals, new ways of seeing and being with — and as — the world. We will be forced to realise and re-member our connection to the earth, even as their systems falter and fail to provide in the regular and predictable ways we have expected of them in these last 10,000 years or so.
A new year is ahead of us, and although these brightening days may not be easy either, as the second half of winter often teaches me. But we will be invited into a deeper relationally as we gaze out from the darkness, into the vast array of the galaxy around us and within us. As we experience the dawn of new days unfolding and the rebirth of ancient ways arising, the twilight may shine ever more sweetly than we ever remembered or could have ever expected.
Rock on, love hard, dream big…and small (small dreams are beautiful too)!
Peace out,
Jonny B
p.s. If you don’t want to listen to my silly voice, or if you want to find some of the tracks from this last episode, here is the playlist, including some extra tracks that I didn’t get time to share. This way you also get to avoid the sound of me singing ‘Empire Falls’ by Primordial, which I started in too high of a pitch and I had a cold, so it didn’t go so well!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0sdBC1SdTh2I5N9lirV7WZ?si=a2cde24799c84083
Link to my most recent radio show, which I reflect on in the article:
https://www.mixcloud.com/Soundart_Radio/radio-silence-161224/
An extended version of this article can be found here:
‘Deep time’ by John Abell
Appendix and Links
Grief comes in many forms, personal, environmental, ancestral, and more. Here are some links for Grief Tending events and community, where grief is held collectively with others. Here are some UK organisations: https://grieftending.org/ https://www.griefsupport.org.uk/
Listen to SoundArt Radio here: https://www.soundartradio.org.uk/
Pendulum, Bloodsugar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPGtOugQ69U
Jem Bendell’s Deep Adaptation Blog: https://jembendell.com/category/deep-adaptation/ and his original paper https://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf
Michael Dowd - the first video I watched by him which I found mind altering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6FcNgOHYoo&t=726s and the final lecture before he died https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le1TzMsGXkg&t=155s and his website https://postdoom.com/
‘Dead Flag Blues’ by ‘Godspeed You! Black Emperor’ full narration found here: https://genius.com/25219244?