Living Through A Catastrophe
The Maelstrom Is Spinning Up
Have you lived through a catastrophe before?
Whelp, you are now.
This wild political situation in the US is shaping up to be catastrophic. It will take a while for us to all see that, in all the places. But the catastrophe is already hitting, strengthening, & making impacts.
You can't stop it.
⭐ You might be able to make some of the details less hard or difficult or damaging for some people or beings. ⭐
^^ That's a helpful place to put energy, if you're looking for somewhere to focus on through the unfolding maelstrom.
You won't be able to keep up on all of the details of what's happening.
It doesn't work. Humans can't handle all of that information. No one can track it all down anyway. There's too much.
🌀🔺🚧💥 Unexpected craziness is going to happen.
Part of that will be due to people processing chaos, tragedy, stress, loss, grief, and the need to survive.
Part of that is because whatever *was* before is not coming back... in the catastrophe impacted areas. Doesn't mean areas won't recover in some way, but things will often be very different. In something like a hurricane or a tornado we see the changes visibly on the land. In things like huge government change, funding cuts, disappearances of programs and agencies, and so on… we’ll see it in our daily lives. Or we won't. It will *be* different, and we won't be able to put it back.
Part of the craziness and tragedy will be due to the fact that not everyone's going to make it through. That's the nature of the thing. A catastrophe. Not everybody makes it.
Part of it all is the loss of community, or of connection. Catastrophes shake up the landscape, and can tear up parts of the social fabric. Those losses are real, and deep. We'll have them in this catastrophe for sure. They won't look like burned up neighborhoods or entire towns but they might resemble that in some way.
Part of the craziness will be due to disruptions in very interconnected and interdependent systems. 🌐
When system pieces stop working, there are *always* cascading effects. We don't always know what those will be. There are second and third and fourth and fifth order effects.
There can also be feedback loops that make things grow or occur faster than we might expect. Like, in other words, it can be nonlinear action or change or impacts. 🌀📈
Also, catastrophes are long. They're usually not forever.
This one is likely to be lengthy but this new political regime is not likely to be stable enough to hold onto power in a fiercely fighty country.
They're not taking actions that will lead to stability for long term control, either.
Instead, it's wildly destructive... and as they pull things apart it's throwing sparks and lighting fireworks all over the place. 💥🧨 In a country with a kiln-dried metaphorical landscape that's very susceptible to fire.
Catastrophes are *hard*. This one will be.
They are survivable, though.
Usually at least some of the people make it through. Often it's a huge majority of the people who do survive a catastrophe. This one could have lots of complicated aspects that make survival harder, but we're a wily and resilient bunch. Lots of folks will make it.
Things change as well as a result of the catastrophe... systems, power, attention, and priorities.
Some catastrophes inspire big change more than others. 🔺 A politically triggered catastrophe is quite likely to inspire change.
Blame happens, too. Everyone wants to point fingers.
Those who let things get tragic or who actively pushed trauma don't usually fare well in the long term.
Humans, communities, businesses, and civilizations want stability. Not chaos. Not catastrophes.
This one won't be forever.
With that in mind, we can do what we can to try to make it less bad. We can make change from within as we get the chance. And we can plant seeds for what comes out on the other side. 🌱
I suspect that will be our humanity. Love. Taking care of humans. Connecting with each other. Looking after each other. Having systems that do those things as well.
👣 Going to be a long way between here and there. 🔦 But we can find our way.
Keep the faith. There are a lot of humans who are out here mixing it up.
Let's do some good.
💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
PS - I forgot to mention this politically induced catastrophe will absolutely involve intensifying, more frequent disasters from climate change... and may well also involve bird flu going pandemic. 🌪️🔥🌀☣️
Any of those things would make all this way bigger and more intense, but everything above still holds.
We will find ways through. We go together.
❤️🔦⭐
💡 Thank you as always to those of you who are able to help keep the lights on here at this nonprofit. 💵 We’re always grateful for paid subscribers, ActBlue donations, our Patreon contributors, and donations through our events on Eventbrite. 📅 Hold Wednesday nights in February for zooms to talk through this stuff, to share thoughts, to get creative, and to help each other through. 🖥️
Vanessa Burnett is the Founder of Shift the Country, an unusual nonprofit promoting civic action to increase public pressure, handle problems, build resilience, & navigate disruption. Vanessa is a former homeland security professional with 25+ years experience in resilience, big disasters, wildland fire, critical infrastructure, emergency management, land management, continuity of operations, public communication, and disaster information sharing. EMAIL: team@shiftthecountry.com