Modern Culture

How psychedelics helped to shape the Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion is an international social movement that aims to put pressure on Governments to radically change or bring about new policies which will support the continuation of life on Earth.

Our method is nonviolent resistance, and our premise is this: extinction, or rebellion? Since launching in October 2018 XR has spread to at least 50 countries across the world. In November our blockade of five London bridges mobilised thousands of first-time activists, including pensioners, teachers, families and at least one vicar … There is widespread denial of the fact that we as humans are not at the top of a pyramid where we get to dictate the terms, we are part of a web of life. Even if we are able to find ways to survive on a severely depleted planet using technology, geoengineering, vat grown food and artificially created oxygen, who will decide who gets access to these life-support systems? How many wars will be waged to decide where the resources go? And – at the bottom of it all – how many of us will survive the heartbreak of witnessing the loss of so much biodiversity. Do we really want to live in a world without the wild beauty of nature? Supported by my experience on psychedelics, what’s made a difference for me with Extinction Rebellion is the ability and willingness to face the grief and the trauma of these times. This means bursting into tears at odd times of the day, it means creating support networks and communities because you can’t do it on your own, because you become alienated if you don’t share with the people around you how you’re feeling. Grief is an essential part of this process because there’s something about grieving that opens the space for love, which opens the space for courage – and courage will be essential in this struggle against climate change. Extinction Rebellion is about coming together, it’s about taking a stand and saying that we have had enough. Enough of being told that we live in scarcity, enough of an economic paradigm that says that there is not enough to go around despite the fact that we live on a planet of abundance based on natural cycles, where all we need is miraculously replenished. It’s about the place in us that knows, very clearly, that we should be living differently. For many of us, this means being willing to undertake civil disobedience and risk arrest, or even imprisonment. We might not know the details but we are willing to leave this broken system behind because our courage is growing by the day and our connections and confidence in each other is strengthening all the while. 

Original Article (Whatisemerging):
How psychedelics helped to shape the extinction rebellion
Artwork Fair Use: WOT

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