Most humans alive right now are broken. Our communities have been stripped of gathering places. We find ourselves isolated and alone, with heads in the digital cloud and eyes fixed to the screen. We are not ready to look one another in the eye. The shame we feel as we strive to do everything right (the way we were taught) — as we fail to get jobs, are unable to keep up with growing rental prices, and are displaced increasingly from our homes — that shame and humiliation is why we don’t come together.
When I wrote about the mental disease of late-stage capitalism, I didn’t expect it to go viral. While I did know the feelings of shame and isolation have become commonplace in our broken economic system, I was not yet prepared for the immense healing that would flood through me as hundreds of thousands of people found solace in my written words.
And now — a few weeks later — I realize that my activist friends have been going about their efforts to create positive change in the wrong way. They have been fighting against their cultural enemies when healing is actually what we need. The “great transition” away from runaway consumption that will destroy the planet; intensifying wealth inequality that is starving billions as these words hit the page; and toward an inclusive, participatory society that meets the needs of every human being while finding harmony with the Earth… all of this will require purposeful actions from the largest social movement in human history.
