Our Collective Imagination: The Stories We Ingest

These were trying times, even before COVID-19. 

In January, I was at Transmediale in Berlin, a symposium for critical reflection on culture and technology and the impact of that interplay.

The yearly symposium brings together artists, researchers, activists, and thinkers in Berlin. This year’s symposium, End to End, focused on surveillance capitalism, our move from the internet as a creative space to one owned by platforms and the impact of this shift. (Videos from End to End are now available on YouTube)

QUESTIONS WE ARE ASKING OURSELVES NOW

One audience member's question haunted me.

After almost every talk where the impact outlined seemed bleak towards our climate, our human relations, and our freedom, an audience member asked the same question.

What can be done in the face of the crisis of our planet? How do we mobilize conversations about resistance?

He posited we were running towards extinction.

In fact, in England there is a youth movement called Extinction Rebellion. That movement has been growing in Europe and across the world as global mean temperatures continue to rise.

The symposium speakers, most of whom were academics, shared their research findings on the impact of digital capitalism on the environment (in the form of GHG emissions from data centers), culture (looking at the problems with online search when only one global historical narrative is told), freedom (the impact of new digital surveillance technologies) just to name a few.

These talks highlight the dark side of our technology revolution and its impact on the planet. The outlook on our current trajectory was not bright.

This audience member’s question, asked in a room full of researchers, artists and thinkers, of what we can do, stayed with me.

What can we do? 

LOOK AT THE DATA

I was reminded of talks by Greta Thunberg who sites IPCC, economic, scientific and other statistics.

Those statistics came from researchers doing their jobs. And it came from her deciphering their work. 

Have you looked at the IPCC website?

If you go there, you will find no obvious warning of the impending climate disaster.

Even in the 2018 report, Long-term Climate Change: Projections, Commitments and Irreversibility Executive Summary, the first section focuses on Scenarios, Ensembles and Uncertainties. 

The second bullet reads:

New experiments and studies have continued to work towards a more complete and rigorous characterization of the uncertainties in long-term projections, but the magnitude of the uncertainties has not changed significantly since AR4.

Okay, so they are getting more scientific and specific. About what? Until this point in the summary, there is no mention of a problem. The first part of the summary talks about research methodology and the “unprecedented” amount of information on which their modeling is based.

The first mention of something being off is found in the third bullet, under the next section, Projections of Temperature Change:

It is virtually certain that, in most places, there will be more hot and fewer cold temperature extremes as global mean temperatures increase.

If you read the summary, nowhere is there any indication that these statistics are cause for alarm.

Any emphasis given is on the certainty of the predictions. At several points in the report, the term virtually certain was italicized. With so little context, I wasn’t sure if the emphasis was because this wasn’t a scientific term or if it was a scientific interpretation.

The IPCC needed storytellers like Bill McKibbon, founder of 350.org, Vandana Shiva, Indian scholar and seed activist, Greta Thurnberg and hundreds of others interpreting the facts and taking up calls to action.

READ WITH INTENTION

We are not all going to become activists. There are so many avenues to change and each is important.

It is important that academics keep doing research and it is important that we as individuals keep going and sitting in the room.

When the gentleman asked his question, I felt that he was frustrated that we were sitting in a room talking about the issues on our doorstep and not being active. 

But without the research, without the facts, we would have no knowledge of what is happening and what we need to do. 

Sitting, reading, watching media can feel like inaction.

But it is not.

It is feeding our brain and influencing how we think, what we think, how we solve problems, how we interpret the world, even how we dream of the future of the world.

As we are home, I think it is important to be intentional about what content we are we are consuming and what stories we are sharing. 

Right now, sharing knowledge, sharing facts, sharing science is important. 

Reading facts, reading reliable sources is important.

Reading literature. Reading history. Reading stories that nourish the spirit.

I think now it is time to go to the source for our news. We need to watch lectures, read books, read reports.

If you don’t want to read you can go to YouTube and watch talks like those at Transmediale and in one hour learn from years of research into topics essential to the human race that have little to no coverage in our current media outlets, at least the mainstream media. 

Many museums have put their lectures on YouTube or on podcasts. 

On several YouTube channels the hosts have begun to read. People are reading poems, scientific journal articles, excerpts from their own books, and posting them for others to listen.

ASK YOURSELF QUESTIONS

It is also important to monitor the stories we tell ourselves and the stories we tell others.

Can you practice curiosity rather than certainty?

If you encounter disturbing facts, can you ask:

What does this mean? How did we get here? What can we do differently? Who else is looking at this issue? What are the various interpretations and recommendations? Is there something I can do differently today?

Or more generally, if there is an issue that concerns you, can you look at your response and then go deeper and ask yourself:

What is working and what is not working? What is causing harm and what is bringing health? What lessons can we learn from the past and from people making an impact today?

During this time of physical distancing, be intentional with your time. Spend this time reading, asking questions and reflecting.

SUGGESTED READING
STILLNESS IS THE KEY, RYAN HOLIDAY

Ryan distills lessons from Lau Tzu, Buddha, JF Kennedy, Churchill, Seneca, Epicurious and many others on the importance of stillness and deep listening for making good decisions and having creative insights.