Discover more from Charles Eisenstein
A couple weeks ago I spoke to a couple hundred people in Boulder, CO on the topic, “The Next Five Years.” (Video here). The main theme was how to stay sane in crazy times. We are facing a period of turbulence, not only in external affairs, but in our ways of making sense and meaning. We are in the midst of an accelerated unraveling of our collective stories and agreements. The redoubts of the old reality are crumbling. Their garrisons (such as mainstream media) are looking nervously over their shoulders. Those who would narrate to us what the coming social, economic, and political upheaval means have lost their credibility and their confidence. In the next five years, all manner of new stories, new meanings, and new identities will offer themselves as replacements for the old order. Few of them will be wholesome, yet all will carry at least a grain of truth. How do we maintain sanity in the maelstrom?
The Covid era was a foretaste of what is to come. The pandemic madness may be over, but none of the social or political conditions that fostered it have changed. I do not think we will face another pandemic, much as some would like to use that possibility to keep us on a war footing. No, some other flavor of madness will take root in the fertile ground of society’s phobias, divisions, and unhealed traumas. We need to be ready for it. We have learned a lot over the past few years: what is courage, what is madness, how the mob forms, how it is manipulated, what powers are at work behind the scenes, who is vulnerable to them and who is not. We now have the opportunity to apply this learning to stay sane and hold sanity for others.
This speech inaugurates the preparation for a new program I will announce in a month or so, called the Sanity Project. As I say in the speech, staying sane isn’t simply about hearing correct information or having correct opinions. Ultimately, it is about restoring relationships. A disconnected person goes mad. The reality of human and non-human others becomes theoretical. Stories about others replace direct experience of others. Sanity is a group project.
The Next Five Years
I shared this article because I was just having a conversation with a family member regarding how they spoke to me during the Covid Experience. They were angry to the point of insanity, shouting at me to "just take the shot" to save my Chiropractic practice and not "loose everything I worked for". They (and others in my family) were content having their holiday meals without my wife and I because we were considered lepers for not taking the shot. We were called 'murderers' for not taking the shot because somehow someone who had natural immunity from infection was somehow still going to get our relatives who were vaccinated sick and kill them if we visited them without having the shot.
And they asked me just this week if I was still upset with them. Honestly, that caught me off guard. Was I still upset with them? Honestly, I thought I had forgiven them until they asked. The honest answer was YES, I was still upset with them... but... I told them I had forgiven them and that was not the answer to their question. I was still VERY upset with them even though it was also true that I had forgiven them for the Nazi like treatment I received from my own family and friends.
Your article and talk were about about a new story. About rebuilding and restoring relationships and reconnecting with the disconnected. I desperately want to join you in doing this good work, however, I'm not ready to do that just yet. I agree with you that though the Plandemic may be over, the social and political landscapes remain unchanged. I think the Plandemic was a great tool for those who were able to stand our ground and stick to the Truth while those around us were fooled into believing a Story, an evil false narrative. I think that the greatest thing that came out of the Plandemic is that I now know who will turn on me like a viper when the next evil story is fed to them and who I can trust to defend the truth with me.
Typically I'm a pretty optimistic person. In fact, before the Plandemic I was an incurable optimist. Now, I'm an incurable realist who believes that a Sanity Project is an awesome idea for those that would choose to be sane however I spent the last 3 or 4 years watching people choose Insanity over sanity both willingly and when coerced by a free donut, a hamburger or a lottery ticket.
We just got done watching people first overlook evil. Then they permitted evil. Then they legalized evil, Then they promoted evil. Then they celebrated evil. Then they persecuted those who still called it evil. Then they threatened people like me with Prosecution for calling it evil. I'm not sure they're ready for a Sanity project. I think they're ready to usher in the next evil story like CBDC or a Digital Passport. Again, although that's not optimistic, it's realistic at this point. Do I forgive them? Yes. Am I still upset? Yes.
"We have learned a lot over the past few years," you wrote. No kidding! The primary lesson we've taken to heart, I hope - beyond the life saving priority of community relationships - is to speak up. This recent debacle featured millions of us (including me) going along sheep-like, following insane declarations from those in power. Perhaps we got this lesson good now, that in the very moment we are ordered to do something stupid without question, that we speak up and resist. However we might word it or do it, I believe the sentiment would be something like: "No fucking way dude!"