Playing in the shadow of the beast
"We can no longer afford to delude ourselves, the situation is too critical. Either we put our society on a radically different course so as to reduce its destructive impact on the biosphere, or we delegate this task to the four horsemen of the Apocalypse."
Edward Goldsmith
editor, The Ecologist
I don't know how it is where you live, but I have a huge animal living in my house. He's immense and he's ugly and he stinks. He's dark and deafening. He has a nasty disposition and because he's so big, he monopolizes my conversations and my consciousness. He's a real pain in the ass and I wish that he would just go away. This animal is an enormous bull elephant named "Looming Catastrophe."
Looming Catastrophe is not a furry, feel-good kind of animal. He's a terrifying creature composed entirely of life-threatening trends: economic uncertainty, environmental breakdown, deforestation, population growth, death of the oceans, loss of biodiversity, depletion of soil and groundwater, social injustice, racism and terrorism. He's nasty, persistent and demanding. He won't shut up and he won't go away and no matter what I do he's always poking his trunk into everything. He's in my house, he's in the workplace, he's in the car. He's on the radio, TV and the Internet. Wherever we go, the elephant goes with us.
The problem with the elephant is that he now disrupts everything everything in our lives, including our health. Even if he doesn't step on us directly, the elephant interferes with our vitality and our physical happiness.
Many of today's trainers tell us that the key to health lies with biomechanics, supplements or periodized, professionalized training schedules. In fact, these considerations are beginning to look less and less relevant with each passing day. Instead, we are now beginning to realize that the secret to a healthy life lies in how we are going to relate to the elephant.
In fact, as the elephant consumes ever more of our attention and psychophysical resources, the details of sets, reps, diet and exercise start to look pretty trivial by comparison. After all, what difference does it make if you tweak your protein-carbohydrate ratio or your training schedule when the biosphere itself hangs in the balance? What good is a beautiful body on an impoverished planet? How does it help to shave a minute off your marathon time when habitat is dying all around us? Who cares if your abs are sculpted when fresh water is disappearing and the oceans are dying?
the power of the beast
Ultimately, our relationship to the elephant will have a profound impact on our bodies. This is absolutely inescapable. Yes, denialists will ignore the elephant until their last breath, but for those of us who are awake and concerned, the consequences will be profound. We are a species that can, to a limited extent, see into the future and that future is looking increasingly bleak.
The elephant wrecks our bodies in several ways. In the first place, he's a major distraction. When you've got a nasty beast tromping around in your life, it's easy to get derailed. We spend less time pursing the things that would normally keep us healthy. We spend less time concentrating on the things that give us joy. The elephant drags us out of our natural play state with the constant threat of disaster.
The elephant also disrupts our neurobiology and in turn our health. The process begins as the elephant gives us a sense of anxiety about the future. We feel fear and sometimes outright horror. These feelings of dread aren't just harmless abstractions; they have very real effects on the tissue of our bodies.
When ecologists and biologists talk about "mass extinctions," "ecological overshoot" and "population bottlenecks," we start to take seriously the idea of mass starvation and environmental devastation. Phrases like "death of the oceans," "fresh water shortages" and "disappearing topsoil" fill our minds and bodies with dread.
This kind of language even causes us to question our very species-identity. When sober environmental scientists suggest that "we are the asteroid," or "we are a planetary pathogen," we feel a crushing weight of shame.
These catastrophic thoughts and images are bound to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, even when they're abstract and imaginary. In effect, we respond to the elephant the way we would respond to a real elephant in a wild environment. Think of it this way: You're out on the grassland on a walkabout. Suddenly, an enormous beast charges directly at you, ears flapping, tusks poised for action. Your body prepares for flight by dumping a powerful cocktail of stimulants into your bloodstream.
In the short term, this neuroendocrine boost saves your life. You run away, climb a tree or dodge the beast. You then return to camp to calm down. Your body weathers the chemical storm and returns to homeostasis. The elephant wanders away and all is at peace. Your body gets a chance to rest and repair itself. Your health remains intact.
But our elephant, this "Looming Catastrophe," doesn't go away after making a charge. He's a chronic irritant. He stimulates our sympathetic system and keeps on doing it, all day, every day and even well into the night. And every day he keeps getting bigger and stronger and more annoying. And every day, we dump more and more stress hormones into our bloodstreams, preparing to fight or flee.
The effect may be experienced in full awareness, or more likely, it challenges us below the level of consciousness. Our bodies feel the presence of the elephant, even if our minds are engaged with other things. In any case, this chronic state of arousal takes its toll and leads to disease. Living in a state of chronic emergency, our bodies don't have time to repair neurons, vascular cells or vital organs. The end result may come in the form of heart disease, diabetes, strokes or neurodegenerative disorders.
Not only does the elephant wreak havoc with our physical tissue, it also takes an enormous toll on our spirit. Elephant-induced stress wears down our defenses and saps our vitality. We fight to maintain our equilibrium, but many are dragged down into states of depression. But as we sink, we become even more vulnerable to the elephant and our powers wane even further. This is a classic vicious circle.
Conventional explanations for depression include neurotransmitter imbalances, social isolation and lack of exercise. We think of chronic stress from combat or impossible living conditions. These are genuine factors, but the elephant looms large here as well. The seemingly inexorable rise in depression over the last 50 years may have as much to do with the elephant as anything else. The immense psychic challenge posed by looming catastrophe is particularly threatening to young people. After all, it's hard to be resilient when the future looks grim.
can we co-exist?
Everyone seems to have their own style of dealing with the elephant. Many of us rely on old-fashioned, garden-variety denial. The evidence of looming catastrophe is everywhere and demands our attention, but denialists look the other way. We are supremely adept at ignoring reality.
Others see the elephant, but say that it's someone else's problem. "The elephant could never come to our country, our neighborhood. And besides, it's not my job anyway. Don't we pay people to deal with things like this? The government, the scientists, the specialists, the activists; they are the ones who are supposed to be dealing with the elephant. Dealing with the elephant simply isn't part of my job description. I have other things to do."
Ignoring the elephant may bring a certain level of psychic comfort to the denialist, but it scarcely qualifies as an intelligent response to a planetary emergency. If we are to have any kind of sustainable future or healthy experience in this world, we must keep our eyes open. Denying the reality of the elephant will only make matters worse.
But there's danger in the other direction as well. That is, there's a price to pay for excess vigilance. When we pay too much attention to the elephant, we ultimately put our health at risk. The more we read and learn about Looming Catastrophe, the more powerless we feel. Learning is absolutely essential at this moment in history, but beyond a certain point, excessive attention begins to take a toll on our bodies and our spirit.
Given the overwhelming nature of the elephant, some of us are inclined to obsess. Knowledge, we believe, is the antidote to our anxiety. And so we study everything about the elephant and its ominous characteristics. If we can just know the facts about climate change, groundwater depletion or species extinctions, we'll be better prepared to act.
But the dose makes the poison. Education is absolutely essential and we would be fools not to investigate the nature of this crisis. But after awhile, we reach a point of diminishing returns and then a point of reversal. Once the curve tops out, looking at the elephant no longer makes sense. And if we persist, our obsession will ultimately make us sick, and in turn, render us ineffective in our activism – another vicious circle.
playing in the shadow of the beast
So how do we act responsibly and intelligently without exposing ourselves to the toxicity of the elephant? Is there a path to health in the midst of this predicament?
The elephant threatens to turn us into grim and cynical actors. As concerned activists, we run the risk of becoming chronically serious. We fight the beast with determination, but in the process, we begin to abandon the life-affirming-behaviors that are so important to our health. We stop taking care of ourselves. We stop playing, we cut back on sleep, we eat faux food; all in the name of bringing more of our serious energy to bear on the challenge of this serious beast.
But this response is backwards. Our predicament now calls for more life-affirming behaviors, not less. We need our health now more than ever. Our bodies and our spirits are in grave danger. Turning away from the things that give us life will ultimately lead to even more darkness.
This leads us to a paradoxical formula for success, or at least survival. That is, we need work both sides: engage the elephant with intelligent activism and at the same time, pursue more life-affirming behavior.
We need to redouble our attention and our efforts at health promotion. We need to spend more time moving our bodies, more time preparing quality food, and more time living in the company of friends and lovers. Save the planet by saving yourself.
Acknowledge the elephant, fight the beast as best you can. Be a good activist and then, forget it. Don't be consumed; build some mental and spiritual firewalls around the beast, then start taking care of yourself. Recharge your physical and spiritual resources with all the life-affirming behaviors you can create.
The biosphere depends on it.
