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December 12 2020
Review of: Living in the Time of Dying - a 2020 documentary film
by Michael Shaw - run-time 53:51 - free on YouTube [0]
https://www.livinginthetimeofdying.com
Synopsis (from film's homepage):
If we accepted the climate science was true, how would we choose to
live? How did we get to a place like this in the first place and what
actions, if any, make sense at this time. This is my journey, through
a series of interviews, into exploring these topics.
Interviews include:
Prof. Jem Bendell - author of "Deep Adaptation"
Catherine Ingram - author of "Facing Extinction"
Dhar Jamail - author of "The End of Ice"
Stan Rushworth - elder of Chiricahua Apache Nation
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This documentary was an accidental discovery while searching for something
else. I'd not heard of Michael Shaw before, probably because he's down
under in New South Wales. Many say Australia is a preview for what's
in store as climate change unfolds.
Basically this film was Shaw's way of working though the shock and grief
of awaking to the realization that our world is heading into some extreme
turbulence and many of it's current inhabitants will likely not survive,
what Richard Heinberg calls the "toxic knowledge"[1].
Everyone who gleans this understanding generally goes through some sort of
transformation as visions of the possible range of ramifications play out.
Usually it involves a good deal of depression, part of the oft referenced
Kubler-Ross 5 stages of grief. It's the feelings, the coming to terms with
the reality of our global predicament that this film explores.
I was familiar with most of the folks interviewed, the exception being
Stan Rushworth, and most simply reiterated some version of what they
usually say. Shaw is a natural at interviews and people do seem to
open up more, Jamail and Rushworth in particular. Ingram is a long-time
acquaintance of Shaw's and she is fairly forthcoming as well.
I found Stan Rushworth to be quite interesting in that, perhaps given
his background, he was able to frame many of the cultural aspects of
industrial civilization in terms that make it easier to see how we've
ended up staring into the abyss, and what sort of shift would actually
be required to change course. Personally I'm not convinced the the US
is ready for such an intensive psychological rewiring; pretty much the
entire history since the colonialists arrived has been a ravenous pursuit
of wealth through exploitation of various natural resources.
I have to say I'm not really drawn to the touchy/feely crowd -- people
like Joanna Macy kind of make me cringe. That said, we are unarguably
an emotion-driven species and processing strong feelings is going to
be necessary part of any meaningful transition. And really, if such
a transition is going to be successful it's likely going to need to
come from within, something that each of us really feels compelled
to participate in. You can sort of get the sense of that even from
less touchy/feely folks like New Zealand's Susan Krumdieck (see recent
Transition Engineering review).
Making a good life with less means assuming more responsibility and that
is generally only manageable when shared across smallish tight-knit
groups, everyone pulling in the same direction instead of everyone "doing
the own thing" which is in some ways a soft form of divide-and-conquer;
the hyper-specialization of industrial culture means the individual is
also highly dependent on the State, usually reinforced via significant
indebtedness. Things like the Green New Deal are more about maintaining
that dependency than they are about doing anything substantive about
CO2 emissions. It's just more corporate storytelling, a self-serving
meta-narrative that Rushworth comments on at one point in the film.
Speaking of Stan Rushworth, there is a good interview of him on Vimeo [2],
part of the upcoming film 'As Temperatures Rise'. Rushworth has written
a few books but most are hard to find, at least a reasonable price.
I did find a used copy of his 2013 book 'Going for Water' and may write
it up if it seems worthwhile.
See the film's website at www.livinginthetimeofdying.com for supporting
links, podcasts, and film outakes. They also have a "virtual support
group" scheduled (via Zoom) for January 9th, 2021.
And for more "toxic knowledge" along with further explorations of the
psychological and cultural aspects of our predicament check out the recent
Post Carbon Institute (PCI) video series The Great Unraveling [3] and
Post-Doom Conversations with Michael Dowd [4]. Dowd's interviews are a
mixed bag but he has some gems like Rory Varrato, Max Wilbert and Sid Smith.
Most of the interviews in the PCI series are short and concise; Christine
Parthemore, Nafeez Ahmed, and Raj Patel stood out in particular.
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refs:
[0] film trailer: https://youtu.be/thms6-ee-wU
documentary: https://youtu.be/TvzmPyY08ck
[1] https://richardheinberg.com ; museletter #303
[2] https://vimeo.com/399323963
[3] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNCZ_9tYHvGyUeInaLPSgfJzx36dJRHG-
[4] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcAlqMeyeaW91q0fUuOWHKEaGTCL41ItE