thegreatstory | Finding Meaning in the Dark - Dowd (2020) @thegreatstory | Uploaded July 2020 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
The first video in a two-part “crash course” in post-doom thinking and living. Given how visually rich and dense this presentation is, watching rather than listening and doing so without multi-tasking is recommended. MICHAEL DOWD writes: "I am inviting churches, synagogues, and secular groups (environmentalists, climate activists, friends and neighbors) to email this link to their members and then to schedule a Zoom Q&A / discussion session with me (no cost). My contact information is at the end of the video. TIME-CODED TABLE of CONTENTS follows...
Michael Dowd: "Finding Meaning in the Dark: Sobering Inspiration for Hard Times"
Program 1 (of 2) in 2020 series "Postdoom Thinking and Living" contains 4 sections:
1A . "The Big Picture" - Understanding our predicament and our trajectory
1B. "What's inevitable? futile?" - Accepting reality, and avoiding frustration
1C. "Postdoom Inspiration" - Remember who you are & what matters most
1D. "What can we do?" - Engaging in prophetic and redemptive Great Work
00:00 Introduction
03:02 Dowd's "Eco-Theo Credo"
03:51 Part 1A - "The Big Picture"
Part 1A elements: Dowd's Cosmic Century Timeline, which puts history of Earth life, climate change, and human civilizations in context • Concept of ecological "overshoot" and its bearing on today's human predicament and possible futures • Human-centeredness as root cause, including misplaced "ultimate concern" and "trivial" notions of God.
Sources: Thomas Berry, William Ophuls, John Michael Greer, William Catton, Nick Humphrey,
22:56 Part 1B - "What's inevitable? futile?"
Part 1B elements: Human extinction in context of geologic time, along with list of immediate challenges posed by climate disruption and civilizational decline (and the grief such awareness calls forth).
36:11 Part 1C - "Postdoom Inspiration"
Part 1C elements: Summary of "Postdoom Conversations", series hosted by Michael Dowd and posted on youtube ongoingly postdoom.com Importance of expanding identity, sense of self in place and time. "The Sacred Necessity of Impermanence and Death" ("The Gifts of Death" Litany); "legacy consciousness"; "generational injustice" (owing to overuse of medical technologies aimed at quantity not quality of life extension); "Covid Legacy Pledge for Boomers and Beyond" (by Connie Barlow); "Griefwalker" (Stephen Jenkinson)
Sources: Percy Shelley, Carl Sagan, Brian Swimme, David Brooks; Stephen Jenkinson
46:34 Part 1D - "What can we do?"
Part 1D elements: "The 5 L's for Sane Living" (Love something, Learn something, Let go of something, Legacy in passing something forward). Engage in redemptive "Great Work." "Deep Adaptation." "Honor your sadness and grief." Stages of Grief. "Finding the Gift." "Love-in-action." "Good Grief Network" "assisted migration: (of trees poleward; "The Journeys of Trees"); building topsoil; permaculture, agroecology, indigenuity, regenerative agriculture; LESS (Less Energy, Stuff, and Stimulation); complete your life / legacy. "Live Life Fully and Love the Life you Live" even at TEOTWAWKI (8 practices). List of those "especially deserving of compassion and generosity." "The Great Reckoning" for humanity (the Prodigal Species) and "The Great Homecoming."
Sources: John Michael Greer, Thomas Berry, Jem Bendell, Stephen Jenkinson, Joanna Macy, Paul Chefurka, LaUra Schmidt and Aimee Lewis-Reau, Edward (Teddy) Goldsmith, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul Hawken, Connie Barlow, Zach St. George, David Holmgren, Denise Rushing, Joe Brewer, Daniel Christian Wahl, Stephen Levine, Albert Einstein, Jack Canfield, Robert Louis Stevenson, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Robin Wall Kimmerer
1:04:40 Summary
1:07:36 More Resources
Part 2 of this 2-part video series by Dowd in 2020:
"Embracing Our Predicament" - youtu.be/fyr1l1gOhTI
Michael Dowd's webpage and contact information:
thegreatstory.org/michaeldowd.html
Postdoom videos playlist on youtube:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcAlqMeyeaW91q0fUuOWHKEaGTCL41ItE
The first video in a two-part “crash course” in post-doom thinking and living. Given how visually rich and dense this presentation is, watching rather than listening and doing so without multi-tasking is recommended. MICHAEL DOWD writes: "I am inviting churches, synagogues, and secular groups (environmentalists, climate activists, friends and neighbors) to email this link to their members and then to schedule a Zoom Q&A / discussion session with me (no cost). My contact information is at the end of the video. TIME-CODED TABLE of CONTENTS follows...
Michael Dowd: "Finding Meaning in the Dark: Sobering Inspiration for Hard Times"
Program 1 (of 2) in 2020 series "Postdoom Thinking and Living" contains 4 sections:
1A . "The Big Picture" - Understanding our predicament and our trajectory
1B. "What's inevitable? futile?" - Accepting reality, and avoiding frustration
1C. "Postdoom Inspiration" - Remember who you are & what matters most
1D. "What can we do?" - Engaging in prophetic and redemptive Great Work
00:00 Introduction
03:02 Dowd's "Eco-Theo Credo"
03:51 Part 1A - "The Big Picture"
Part 1A elements: Dowd's Cosmic Century Timeline, which puts history of Earth life, climate change, and human civilizations in context • Concept of ecological "overshoot" and its bearing on today's human predicament and possible futures • Human-centeredness as root cause, including misplaced "ultimate concern" and "trivial" notions of God.
Sources: Thomas Berry, William Ophuls, John Michael Greer, William Catton, Nick Humphrey,
22:56 Part 1B - "What's inevitable? futile?"
Part 1B elements: Human extinction in context of geologic time, along with list of immediate challenges posed by climate disruption and civilizational decline (and the grief such awareness calls forth).
36:11 Part 1C - "Postdoom Inspiration"
Part 1C elements: Summary of "Postdoom Conversations", series hosted by Michael Dowd and posted on youtube ongoingly postdoom.com Importance of expanding identity, sense of self in place and time. "The Sacred Necessity of Impermanence and Death" ("The Gifts of Death" Litany); "legacy consciousness"; "generational injustice" (owing to overuse of medical technologies aimed at quantity not quality of life extension); "Covid Legacy Pledge for Boomers and Beyond" (by Connie Barlow); "Griefwalker" (Stephen Jenkinson)
Sources: Percy Shelley, Carl Sagan, Brian Swimme, David Brooks; Stephen Jenkinson
46:34 Part 1D - "What can we do?"
Part 1D elements: "The 5 L's for Sane Living" (Love something, Learn something, Let go of something, Legacy in passing something forward). Engage in redemptive "Great Work." "Deep Adaptation." "Honor your sadness and grief." Stages of Grief. "Finding the Gift." "Love-in-action." "Good Grief Network" "assisted migration: (of trees poleward; "The Journeys of Trees"); building topsoil; permaculture, agroecology, indigenuity, regenerative agriculture; LESS (Less Energy, Stuff, and Stimulation); complete your life / legacy. "Live Life Fully and Love the Life you Live" even at TEOTWAWKI (8 practices). List of those "especially deserving of compassion and generosity." "The Great Reckoning" for humanity (the Prodigal Species) and "The Great Homecoming."
Sources: John Michael Greer, Thomas Berry, Jem Bendell, Stephen Jenkinson, Joanna Macy, Paul Chefurka, LaUra Schmidt and Aimee Lewis-Reau, Edward (Teddy) Goldsmith, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul Hawken, Connie Barlow, Zach St. George, David Holmgren, Denise Rushing, Joe Brewer, Daniel Christian Wahl, Stephen Levine, Albert Einstein, Jack Canfield, Robert Louis Stevenson, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Robin Wall Kimmerer
1:04:40 Summary
1:07:36 More Resources
Part 2 of this 2-part video series by Dowd in 2020:
"Embracing Our Predicament" - youtu.be/fyr1l1gOhTI
Michael Dowd's webpage and contact information:
thegreatstory.org/michaeldowd.html
Postdoom videos playlist on youtube:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcAlqMeyeaW91q0fUuOWHKEaGTCL41ItE
