Barbara Cecil & Dahr Jamail: Hope Is An Avoidance Of An Essential Risk That Needs To Be Taken
Channel: Last Born in the Wilderness Podcast
Date: 2019-10-16

This is a segment of episode #215 of Last Born In The Wilderness “Transitions: There Is Infinite Hope, But Not For Us w/ Barbara Cecil & Dahr Jamail.” Listen to the full episode: http://bit.ly/LBWceciljamail

Read Barbara Cecil and Dahr Jamail’s 'How Then Shall We Live?' series at Truthout: http://bit.ly/2M2g9Ek

Barbara Cecil: Well I'm looking out the window right now and aware that there is a young man that has left his career as a librarian at the Sonoma State University. He had a very good job. His mother was a librarian so he was like really cool with his family. And he came to a point where it was unbearable. The politics in this situation and the fit for his spirit and the misfit of focus for this time. And he picked up with his partner and moved up here and is living in a what looks like a civil war tent that they have kitted out with a stove. They're going to weather the winter in it. And he is learning permaculture. Not everybody needs to take this risk. Not everybody can take this risk. But I have a feeling there is a risk for everyone because business as usual has gotten us into the mess that we're in and if hope somehow relates in any way to the continuance of business as usual — we will not see the risks that we need to take to change course — because this where we are. 

I don't believe that it is an expression of the true human spirit. Like somewhere we diverted. And to get back on track means following some other kind of impulse. Now that's what comes right now. There will probably be more here in a second but I'm waiting for it now. 

[…]

Dahr Jamail: You know, and that's one of the things we've been talking about since you've been here is a Native American scholar Jack Forbes, who wrote a book called Columbus and Other Cannibals, which should be mandatory reading, especially in this country. But he talks about that Wetiko Disease, which is what essentially settler-colonialism is — which is if you have it, it's a psychosis and it means you think that it's okay to take another person's resources or life for your own benefit. And that's what settler-colonialism / global capitalism is, even capitalism with a green leaf, because it means you're taking things from the Earth. Of course people like to call those resources but you're taking things from the earth. You're killing parts of the earth for your own benefit. And somehow that's okay. And so right from an Indigenous perspective of “oh hey, all these white folks showed up and they're completely insane, because they think they can do all this, and it's okay — and they have the biggest guns and they're gonna get away with it, and they're going to just keep doing it and probably figure out faster ways to do it more efficient ways to do it. And so how is this going to end?”

And so hence, as you said, the prophecies are just logic. You know, it's just like let's run this out to its logical conclusion, and now we are — we being now people living in the end of industrial growth culture — where the reckoning is now upon us. Not just Indigenous people, but everyone, even those that have caused it — the reckoning is upon all of us. And, you know, even the rich people — your money is not going to protect you. 

Barbara Cecil is the author of ‘Coming Into Your Own: A Woman's Guide Through Life Transitions.’ Barbara Cecil’s Master’s degree in speech communication and human relations has supported her in her calling to assist individuals, groups, teams, and organizations toward the full manifestation of their creative potential. 

Dahr Jamail is an award-winning journalist who (formerly) reported on climate disruption and environmental issues for the online publication Truthout. Dahr is the author of multiple books, including ‘The End Of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption.'

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