Learning to Die in the Anthropocene

Trigger warning: existential dread

Reflections on the end of a civilization is the subtitle of this bleak book published by Roy Scranton in 2015. It’s not without a tiny bit of hope, but he is frank in his assertion that “this civilization is already dead.” We – humanity – are on the way out and there’s nothing we can do to change that. But we can learn to “let go.”

Maybe watching Interstellar and then reading this book right after wasn’t such a great idea – I haven’t fully shaken the malaise I’ve felt since. That being said, if you’re into pondering life’s bigger questions, and examining history while thinking realistically about the future, this book may be for you.

I had to look up Anthropocene: relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

“The problem is that the problem is us” writes Scranton. Bad humans.

This is a short but dense book of essays and it’s not an easy read. Scranton is an eminently quotable deep thinker. He served in Iraq, and it was there that he saw our dry, droughted future, exacerbated by energy production and reliance on coal.

There’s something calming about the matter-of-fact nature of Scranton’s essays. Yes, they focus on our “carbon-fueled capitalism” and easy consumption, but there’s a sense of stoic resignation. We’re on a path and no amount of recycling will alter it.

I was struck by what Scranton calls the “perverse irony” of the 2014 People’s Climate March. The “most common sight was people on their iPhones and Androids, checking email, tweeting and taking pictures. The Global information and communication ecosystem that they were plugged into is now estimated to use about 10 percent of the world’s electricity. That ecosystem relies on coal. Every time you check your email, you’re heating up the planet.”

Some… march, and chant. Some look away, deny…and seek out escape routes into imaginary tomorrows: a life off the grid, space colonies…explicit denial, or consumer satiety in a wireless, robot-staffed, 3D printed techno-utopia.”

Anyway, do peaceful marches work? Scranton correctly points out that in the past, like during the Civil rights era, people “didn’t just march, tweet hashtag campaigns, hold meetings. They fought and bled and died for a world they believed in. “Violence never solved anything” is a comforting lie…”

This quote was especially chilling, reading it 10 years later in the midst of America’s authoritarian drift:

While America’s framing social infrastructure holds together, our fear and aggression can be channeled into labor, consumption, and economic competition, with professional sports, hyperviolent tv, and occasional protests to blow off steam. Once the social fabric begins to tear, though, we risk unleashing not only rioting, rebellion and civil war, but homicidal politics the likes of which should make our blood run cold.

Look, Scranton wasn’t telling us to give up when he published this a decade ago. But he ends with some firm guidance: Learning to die in the Anthropocene ‘demands daily cultivation of detachment and daily reminders of mortality.’ Bottom line, it means learning to let go.

Here’s a recent article if you’re interested in what he’s thinking now – https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/optimism-wont-cool-planet-heres-will-bookbite/56690/