Beyond resilience to acceptance.

We should seek not survival, but transformation.

Resilience means "being able to bounce back after an adverse event." A resilient town rebuilds after a tornado. A resilient person starts dating again after a break-up. A resilient ecosystem rebounds after a fire or flood.

Resilience means that you can absorb damage and continue functioning. You can endure stress while working to improve your situation. You can adapt to a changed environment by finding new ways to live. Resilience is often suggested as a goal for people and communities who are trying to get ready for collapse. 

But collapse is not just an "adverse event." It is the mother of all adverse events! There is no "bouncing back" from collapse, when collapse means a breakdown of the climate and the biosphere as well as the mechanisms of civilization.

A normal disaster like an earthquake or a hurricane allows for recovery and a return to normal. There are resources outside the disaster area that can be used for emergency response. Systems outside the disaster are still functioning and can be brought to bear. Over time, the affected area can be restored to normal, or a new normal can be established.

Collapse is different. In collapse, the disaster area encompasses the whole world. No resources or systems will remain unaffected to be used in recovery. Extreme heat will render many places uninhabitable. Unstable weather and mass extinctions will make growing food for billions impossible. Instability will persist for thousands of years.

In collapse, there is no "normal" to return to. There is no "new normal" to adapt to. Our entire system is undergoing a change into something chaotic, different, and strange.

Does this mean that we should not strive for resilience? No, it does not mean that. We should still increase our capacity to absorb, endure, and adapt. This is a normal, beneficial activity, worthwhile in itself, which can help us maintain our peace of mind.

But we must change our objective.

Instead of preparing to restore ourselves to what we previously were, we should seek the path to becoming something new. "Collapse Acceptance" is in large part this: to let go of our existing, obsolete concept of ourselves; to surrender our certainties of knowledge and habit; and to forge a new relationship with the world.

We must balance between two fundamental influences: On the one hand, we have the useful mechanisms of civilization which support our lives (and without which most of us could not live). On the other hand, we feel ourselves immersed in the wild and free spirit of nature — the flowing life-force that animates us and gives our lives meaning.

We have been overbalanced toward the mechanical influence of our civilization, which has brought us to death's door. That civilization and its mechanisms are now collapsing. When they are gone, our work is not to be resilient and recover, but to accept and be transformed.

We have the opportunity to open ourselves to mysteries and wisdom which have long been suppressed by the supremacist ideology of science. We must release our death-grip on the instruments of worldly power, and give our loyalty to the living presence that flows into the world and all its beings. This is Collapse Acceptance, and it is our only safety.

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