Towards a Polycrisis Consciousness

Challenges and opportunities of organizing amidst societal collapse

Part one in our four-part series: “Local Organizing in a Polycrisis Era”

The polycrisis, which is the result of the compounding pressure of simultaneous global crises, presents a unique threat in human history. Some experts on the subject, including Daniel Schmachtenger, go so far as to call it “the end of history,” – an “extinction-level threat.” While we cannot pretend to know the outcome of humanity’s long and winding road, we know that business as usual will no longer suffice. It will take nothing short of a global shift in consciousness at all levels in order to defuse the ticking time bomb that is the polycrisis. 

This essay explores the nature of the polycrisis and why it requires a different approach for dealing with change. As Jem Bendell explains in his seminal book Breaking Together: A Freedom-Loving Response to Collapse, social change strategies from the past are no match for the polycrisis. From politicians and philanthropists to activists and ordinary civilians, our way of conceptualizing our struggles must shift to coincide with the unignorable new reality. But what kind of mindset is required? How do we organize, fund, and maintain homeostasis in the face of overwhelming systemic chaos?

Albert Einstein’s idea that “no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it,” is particularly relevant in this context. The polycrisis is not another item on a list of issues to consider; it’s a lens through which all issues are called to be considered. The polycrisis era, which we have just entered, requires a fundamental shift in the mainstream narrative, consciousness, and strategy we use to deal with problems. We can no longer think of ourselves as individual actors working towards individual causes within individual contexts, but rather as a collective front – an extended community – working through a myriad of interdependently connected issues towards a future that is better for all. Polycrisis consciousness is the necessary framework that will help us to address the myriad of challenges in the coming decades in a way that does not isolate, but rather integrates, the complex moving parts that make up the whole. 

Social change agents facing what Vox calls “the world’s current tangled mess of problems,” must face existential absurdity, as well as the very possible scenario of collapse,  and incorporate it and transform it. Critical developments, such as Deep Adaptation (Bendell) along with despair and empowerment work (Macy) have been made to support this new activist architecture. However, the magnitude of threat posed by the interlocking nature of future crises has gone largely unaddressed, particularly in mainstream discourse. To change this requires a shared understanding of the polycrisis itself, how it differs from previous crises, and the principles that can guide us forward.

Part 1: What is the polycrisis?

A brief and simplified definition of the polycrisis, sometimes called the metacrisis, comes from Omega Resilience Funders Network (ORFN), which calls it “the sum total of all stressors affecting planetary health.” A more detailed definition is articulated by The Cascade Institute:

A global polycrisis occurs when crises in multiple global systems become causally entangled in ways that significantly degrade humanity’s prospects. These interacting crises produce harms greater than the sum of those the crises would produce in isolation, were their host systems not so deeply interconnected.

Two key words in the definition, “interacting” and “interconnected,” point directly to the unique challenge faced by social change agents within the polycrisis. In addition to the individual crises (outlined below) that overlap and compound to make up the larger polycrisis, the meta-danger is unprecedented. The only way to effectively organize against the polycrisis then, is to first see the larger picture- the interconnectedness of all the parts. 

As forces of change including globalization, digitalization, and social movements increase in speed and intensity across the globe, the intricately connected web of life becomes correspondingly complicated- and ever more fragile. In addition to political, cultural, and social changes in the global order, ecological and environmental shifts pose new challenges to the very nature of life on earth. Innovations in science and technology continue to have ripple effects throughout the world’s already precarious global systems. Digitalization has changed the way in which citizens of modern societies connect with one another and the world around them, with more people engaging more intimately with social media and online news than ever before. To make it worse, from pandemics and wars to climate change and polarization, headlines brandish only the worst of the world’s happenings, leaving a general feeling of dismay and hopelessness in much of the population. A growing awareness of global issues is rising in the collective consciousness. People can sense something, maybe everything, is starting to spin a little off-kilter. 

The biggest danger facing the future of humanity is not climate change, nuclear war, or any other single issue. Rather, it is the cascading challenge of facing all of these crises together. Just as most, if not all, of these crises were caused by human folly, the solution must be a humanist one. It must come from ordinary community members, as well as institutional actors, coming together to recognize the common threat at hand and the common ground required to confront it. This happens both by strengthening adaptation and resilience at the community level, as well as incentivizing collaboration over competition in larger systems. In his profound commentary on the polycrisis, Pope Francis notes that "to suppose that all problems in the future will be able to be solved by new technical interventions is a form of homicidal pragmatism, like pushing a snowball down a hill." Though technological solutions may exist, the will of ordinary people to transcend ideological divides and unite towards finding multi-tiered solutions is critical. 

Unfortunately, although the origins and impacts of these crises are interconnected, the existing means for dealing with them are not. From activism and advocacy to institutional intervention, the current systems of crisis mitigation and response is fragmented, making it shockingly ineffective in the face of the polycrisis. It is all too easy to visualize the polycrisis constellation as separate stars. Because many of the individual crises that make it up appear to be unique and distinct from the rest, social change agents naturally congregate around what appear to be what we see as the primary issues. From this limited perspective, single-issues niches form, restraining us from important collaboration and cooperation. Within each activist camp, there is a justified sense of urgency and priority. Yet, all too often, these camps become competitive, each operating under the view that their issue deserves utmost priority. All too often, each activist camp believes their issue is key and all of the others are secondary or derivative of their cause. For instance, the movement forming around the threat of Authoritarianism may be vastly different than, even at odds with, the Climate Change movement. When understood through a polycrisis consciousness, this separateness is more than a missed opportunity for shared impact; it is a threat to the future of humankind. 

Instead of the most committed activists choosing to build broad-reaching coalitions to galvanize systemic change, many remain enclosed by the idea that their issue is the magic key that will unlock all doors. This lack of collaboration, exacerbated by limiting funding, becomes part of the interlocking crises. When David Gelles in the New York Times writes that climate change "may be the greatest collective action problem in human history," he is obviously partially correct. But his assessment more accurately applies, not to climate change alone, but the polycrisis of which it is an integral part. 

Before deepening our exploration of polycrisis activism itself, let us look at the component crises in turn. Doing so will help us see more tangibly the crisis within the polycrisis.

Part 2: Ten Perspectives:
Identifying the Interlocking Issues

The components of the polycrisis can be described in numerous ways. They can be collectively summarized (as ORFN does) as “biospheric, societal, and technological.” However, to understand the fragmented nature of the current activist response of the current polycrisis, we have outlined ten diverse but interlocking components. The list is non-exhaustive and valid arguments could be made for a seemingly endless array of additional crises. Due to the limited nature of this introduction, we chose to narrow it down to ten of the most distinct issues that make up the polycrisis as we currently understand it. We recognize that this categorization may not be representative of the most “important” issues to every reader. Yet, each is described, as activists often describe it, as the pivotal challenge of our times:

1. There is no more urgent issue than Endangered Democracy. 

“Democratic rights and freedoms are under attack as authoritarianism threatens many parts of the world.
If we lose our capacity for self-governance, we lose the capacity to face any of the issues of the polycrisis.”

A global wave of authoritarianism, fueled by disinformation and heightened emotions, spawns political unrest in countries across the world. As authoritarian regimes, such as Russia and China, make aggressive advances in global geopolitics, many fear not only for a massive loss of democratic rights but for a crumbling of the global order itself. In America, like many places, democracy is continuously on the ballot. Recent elections and insurrections have exposed critical faults in our foundation, evidenced by systemic corruption, gerrymandering, campaign finance laws, and what many believe to be an antiquated electoral system. Citizens’ participation in democracy is becoming increasingly fragile as voter suppression and intimidation efforts increase with time and perpetuate pre-existing systems of oppression. If we don’t rise to contain dictators and defend the democratic values of freedom, liberty, and equality, we will not have the civic capacity to sufficiently deal with other aspects of polycrisis. 

2. There is no more urgent issue than Climate Change.

“We’re squabbling over ideology when our house is on fire. 
Nothing matters if we don’t preserve our planet and protect our species from extinction.” 

We are all on a trajectory for mutually-assured destruction. Unsustainable systems of material production and energy consumption are harmful to the environment in a way that is becoming increasingly devastating in day-to-day life across the world. The future will be characterized first and foremost by conflict directly related to the impact of climate change. Natural disasters, heat-related deaths, droughts, water crises, unexpected immigration flows, agricultural collapse and famine, rising sea levels, and resource wars are just a few of the impending conflicts under this cataclysmic umbrella. Drastic biospheric changes are likely to result in extended global health crises, including pandemics. The threat of life on earth going extinct transcends all physical and ideological boundaries, making this issue absolutely primary.

3. There is no more urgent issue than Economic Injustice. 

“Basic needs must be met before people can focus clearly on long-term threats. Poverty and economic inequality represent the biggest obstacle to dealing with the critical challenges facing humanity.”

Many Americans are not engaged with the numerous existential issues of the polycrisis because they are focused on a more tangible, immediate, personal dimension of survival — economic survival. Worrying about multiple long term threats is a luxury of the privileged who know their rent is paid, food is in their fridge, basic health care is guaranteed and they are not one crisis away from bankruptcy. However, the current economic system, growth-oriented capitalism, is not sufficiently ensuring these basic needs are met for the majority of American families. Big corporations and their mega-rich owners control not only the economy, but directly influence the decision-making of our government, therefore dictating the day-to-day capabilities of our citizenry. As an industrially-developed, technologically-advanced liberal democratic state, there is no excuse for the level of economic disparity, poverty, and homelessness in this country. Until we come together to fight for economic justice, many citizens will not have the capacity to focus on the critical issues of our time.

4. There is no more urgent issue than Toxic Polarization. 

“Trust between citizens, and trust between the citizenry and government, has been poisoned by a plague of hatred and division. That’s why we can’t solve anything else until we solve this issue.”

Extremism has become commonplace not only in mainstream political discourse but in families, workplaces, and social circles across the country. Radicalized social movements (which have increased across all regions of the world in the past decade), “woke”/cancel culture, and the phenomenon of “threat perception and counter-mobilization” elevate strong opinions as a form of social capital. Rampant polarization has magnified an “Us versus Them” narrative, increasing the illusion of separateness, and intensifying cultural fault lines. A “house divided” cannot work together for the common good, much less on the complex interconnected challenge of the polycrisis.

5. There is no more urgent issue than Artificial Intelligence/Tech. 

“This is not a sci-fi plot; it’s real life. Cyber-intelligence is taking over the world at an unstoppable rate. 
Keeping it under control is the issue of our time.”

Some argue that technology is advancing at a dangerous rate- one we can’t keep up with. The increasingly lucrative industry of data mining has allowed social media platforms to create wickedly advanced algorithms that, instead of bringing users together, create unhealthy yet addicting spaces of division. Mass media often provides us with information that only confirms what we already believe, even if that means promoting fake news and misinformation. In addition to changing the model of warfare with developments like drones, lethal autonomous weapon systems, and weapons of mass destruction, AI’s ability to produce art, music, emotional writing, and other elements of human culture threatens the very essence of what makes us human. Publicly-accessible AI platforms allow ordinary people to easily generate harmful disinformation that can be used to support scams and propaganda that undermine entire political systems. Deep fake videos and voice-over audio technology pose a serious danger not only to democratic free-thinking and elections but to the very fabric of human civilization. The threat of losing our capacity to know the difference between what is real and fake is the paramount issue of our time. Without this, reality may become so distorted, we cannot effectively work towards solving any of the issues on this list. 

6. There is no more urgent issue than Mental Health.

“If we can’t raise mentally healthy children, and if levels of depression and anxiety continue to skyrocket, we will lose the human capacity to work together and make sound decisions.”

Life expectancy has begun to decline in America for one overriding reason: a decline in mental and behavioral health. This is fueled by a number of things, but notably opioids, a growing sense of isolation, distrust, and melancholy about the future of the world. Social media, a go-to gathering space for much of humanity, is eroding the social fabric of current times. How we interact with each other is being distorted by toxic comparison, confirmation bias, dehumanizing extremism and systematic distractions. The continuous promotion of unrealistic standards only leads us further from our true selves, and the widespread addiction to these digital spaces only leads us from real human connection, resulting in what many call an epidemic of loneliness, only intensifying the mental health crisis. Additionally, underlying all of this is the realization that unresolved trauma creates dysfunctional behavior leading to rising suicide rates, an epidemic of gun violence and mass shootings, and a populace increasingly dependent on both legal and illegal psychoactive drugs. Individual health and wellness is a prerequisite to properly facing external threats and challenges. Until we shift our focus to the inner dimensions of mental health and healing, we cannot expect individuals to be well-suited to tackle the coming issues that make up the polycrisis. 

7. There is no more urgent issue than Racism. 

“Humanity cannot move forward until we heal this ancient deep wound. As long as we dehumanize other human beings, our future will be undermined by our own divisions.”

No matter how far into the future we look, our capacity to make true change will always be held back by our unresolved past conflict. This country was founded on the ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Africans. People of color continue to experience every institution from a point of historically-embedded trauma and cross-generational disenfranchisement. White supremacy cannot coexist with the foundational democratic values of liberty and justice as the founding fathers may have envisioned. As long as we operate from a mindset of domination rather than partnership, solving any of these crises will be impossible.

8. There is no more urgent issue than Nuclear War. 

“Avoiding at all costs the use of nuclear weapons should be the universal priority. Associated risks range from total ecosystem poisoning to the immediate annihilation of life on earth, making this the most important crisis of all.” 

While nuclear weapons have continued to develop across time and borders, the treaties and international efforts aimed to control them have dwindled and even expired. Regardless of legal jurisdiction, the fact of the matter is that a select few individuals, some of whom do not hold the electoral mandate of the people they are said to represent, have the ultimate power to begin the end of the world with the press of a button. Even non-military nuclear power has proven to be a point of existential concern, as Europe’s largest nuclear power plant rests in the geographical center of an active war zone. The threat of nuclear fallout is the most urgent because it puts the most people in danger the fastest, and its consequences cannot be undone for centuries to come. 

9. There is no more urgent issue than Gender Discrimination. 

“The global upholding of archaic gender roles severely limits non-male participation in democratic decision-making. We cannot address the polycrisis until we ensure that all people, regardless of their gender, have an equal opportunity to contribute to progress.” 

While slow advancements in women’s rights and reproductive health have been made in many parts of the world, there remains a seemingly unshakable inequality. It is a pervasive, even defining, factor in many political, economic, and social systems. Even when subtle, the subordination of women, as well as transgender, gender-fluid, and queer individuals, ensures that power is automatically easier for traditionally masculine men to achieve. Women and queer representation in business and government leadership is astonishingly low worldwide. Hypermasculinity, which is at the root of patriarchy, is a crisis that endangers not only women and queer people, but also men themselves, as many are increasingly unable to meet the unrealistic expectations of traditional male gender roles. One could argue that systemically suppressed and socially unaddressed mental health challenges among men are the underlying cause of many of the crises we face. 

10. There is no more urgent issue than the Illusion of Separateness.

“Underlying all of these crises is a mindset that we human beings are not connected to each other or to nature. As long as we remain at this level of consciousness, the polycrisis will only deepen.”

Every one of the crises above can be traced back to the same root psycho-spiritual affliction: the blatant and continuous disregard for the interdependence of living things on this planet. The dominant belief that we are all fundamentally separate from others and from nature renders us incapable of finding social systems that lead to peace, justice, and sustainability. From hyper-capitalist economies to hierarchical neoliberal global relations, a global order of separation, domination, and division reigns in place of collaboration, unity, and inclusion. This arrogant human sense of separateness infects everything we do and every society we create, and has led to the current polycrisis. 

Part 3: How must social change work evolve in the polycrisis era?

Within each of these ten crises comes a corresponding group of staunchly dedicated individual actors, all committed to the belief that their cause is most important. The result is a disjointed network of aspiring change-makers, at odds with one another, competing for resources and relevance. This raises fundamental questions: How can shift both the inner mindset as well as outer strategy to make social movement more effective in the face of the polycrisis? 

Strategically, it is necessary to focus on part of the polycrisis but with an awareness of the whole. Every organization today must make a strategic choice about where to focus. One’s chosen issue(s) will inevitably be at the center of one’s strategy. Yet, in the polycrisis era, we have to organize and act with the broader awareness that our particular cause impacts, and is impacted by, all of the others. Regardless of where one chooses to focus as an agent of change, a collective shift-in-action towards polycrisis consciousness would expand our way of thinking about problems from being isolated and narrow to broad-reaching and integral. If we hope to make progress in any of the aforementioned areas, it is critical that action is grounded in this  broader understanding.

Due to their urgent yet intractable nature, each aspect of the polycrisis alone is enough to cause anxiety, and even paralysis. Though it can feel overwhelming to fully consider the real potential of societal collapse, experts like Jem Bendell and Karen Perry emphasize that there is a certain freedom, even empowerment, in acceptance. By recognizing the larger issue for what it is, we can create space to move towards realistic, united action. Only by working to integrate the inborn power of civil society and that of larger systems, such as government and philanthropy, can we begin the slow but noble work of diffusing the polycrisis. 

In order to make real steps towards change, it is critical to first develop a holistic way of thinking around the matter at hand. In order to develop a polycrisis consciousness, it is worth exploring the following practical concepts more in depth.

• Think like a mountain range.

The polycrisis requires that we think like earthlings first and foremost. But we are not raised to think that way. We are raised to think like Americans or Russians, like economists or geologists, like Christians or Muslims. This is why “thinking globally” is easier said than done. Each of us are raised within a culturally specific context; we tend to see the world — and the polycrisis which afflicts it — through that lens.  

In 1949, when Aldo Leopold wrote The Sand County Almanac, he advised human beings to “think like a mountain,” which meant seeing ourselves holistically as part of, not separate from, the entire interdependent ecosystem. We deeply appreciate his wisdom, which has been informing eco-activists for more than seventy years. However, we are adapting it by referring to a “mountain range” because the polycrisis requires that activists not think alone. We need to think as a team.

The polycrisis makes clear that no social change agent, no matter how rich or famous, can possibly be effective alone. At most, one person might have a positive impact on one crisis, for a while. But to have a positive impact on many crises, over time, we need to see ourselves as a humble part of something larger — something vast, majestic, and greater than the sum of our parts. We need to see ourselves as a mountain range.

• Our passion requires detachment from outcome.

While linking “passion” and “detachment” may sound contradictory, the polycrisis shows us that it is not. We cannot let the sheer complexity and profound dangers of the polycrisis make us less passionate about our work. At the same time, it must entail a certain level of detachment. If we make our action conditional on achieving linear progress on our chosen cause, we may give up when those goals are not reached. In the current circumstances, “making things better” on our timetable may elude us for reasons that are far beyond our control. However, this does not invalidate or make the work less important. 

Crisis X may get worse, not because we have not been effective, but because Crisis Y has undermined our efforts. If we are “thinking like a mountain range,” we will understand this. Doing so will enable us to continue being passionate about our work but be less attached to the outcome, which leads to our next working principle:

• Retire optimism and pessimism and focus on possibility.

Both pessimism or optimism are like shooting in the dark because we don’t know with certainty how much, how quickly, or where things might get better or worse.

For generations, people engaged in social change have asked each other whether they were “optimistic or pessimistic” about the success of their efforts. Activists tended to choose the former because, if nothing else, we needed to keep our spirits up. We had to assume, for example, that race relations could be improved, otherwise why would we keep trying? We had to maintain that the rise of the earth's temperature could be controlled, otherwise, how could we inspire others to get involved in our cause? We had to argue that human beings could manage the risks of Artificial Intelligence, otherwise, how could we argue for regulatory safeguards and other government oversight?

But the polycrisis throws into question this optimism/pessimism calculus. The fact is: we don’t know the outcome. Even if we are fairly confident that Crisis X can be handled, there are scores of other crises that can make Crisis X far worse. 

Far better, it seems then, to be possiblists. As William Ury persuasively says in his new book Possible, let us maintain that human survival is just that: possible. The polycrisis makes clear that neither our survival nor our extinction is guaranteed. Both, in fact, are possible. Learning to live with that fact will make us not just wiser, but more effective agents of change.

• Avoid anachronistic “—isms” altogether.

While we are releasing these two “isms,” pessimism and optimism, we should consider releasing others as well. The polycrisis, if nothing else, is a reason for humility. We humans have been cultivating “-isms,” and combating them, for eons. Whether it is theism or atheism, socialism or capitalism, conservatism or liberalism, asceticism and consumerism — all of these opposing conceptual frameworks pre-date awareness of the polycrisis. None of them alone fully acknowledge the existential threat we are facing, and none of them alone can fully provide a solution.

The notion that any centuries-old “-ism” will have the magic key to managing the polycrisis is, to put it bluntly, arrogant. Both capitalist and socialist societies are contributing to the polycrisis, and both need to become more earth-centric in order to defuse it. The odds of survival are far better turning to humility than relying on a one-size-fits-all “-ism” that presumes not only to understand but to “fix” an unprecedented polycrisis. Instead of know-it-all “isms,” it is far wiser to be humble and begin with the truth that we don’t know.
 

• Inner work is not optional but indispensable.

Imagine you discover a toxic waste site near your home and you organize with your neighbors to get it cleaned up. While this will be a serious disruption in your life, you can engage in this environmental project without significantly shifting your way of living. Within the framework of this threat and your response, you don’t need to adopt some new spiritual practice in order to keep yourself centered.

But the polycrisis is not a single, local, potentially manageable threat. The polycrisis consists of many, multi-local, potentially unmanageable threats. If we allow ourselves to experience its full magnitude, it can be overwhelming enough to throw us off-center.

A spiritual practice or some other form of inner work is therefore highly relevant in the polycrisis era. Such a practice is a humble recognition that we are facing a “devil” far greater than any religion could imagine. Even ancient religious foreshadowing of “Armageddon” or the rapture of “end times” could not foresee the intimate yet omnipresent threats of the polycrisis. 

All of us, then, will benefit from engaging in our own polycrisis-informed spiritual practice. It may be something classical, like meditation or yoga. But it is far more likely to be something idiosyncratic, our own unique personal way of resourcing ourselves. We may also wish to engage in these practices with others because, as “thinking like a mountain range” suggests, we are interdependent with each other.

While the privileged always have more options than others, the polycrisis will ultimately touch all our lives. So part of our spiritual practice, whatever it might be, involves recognizing that we are not alone. The good news of the polycrisis is that this overwhelming, potentially depressing, challenge may enhance our spiritual lives by taking us out of our towers of separateness and into interwoven connection to others, and to Life itself.

These are few practices and principles that strike us as relevant. However, the list is by no means exhaustive, and we welcome and invite readers to reflect more deeply on what their own list may look like. What additional evolutions, in consciousness and action, would be beneficial to consider in your specific context? If these are some of the principles that may guide us, the practical question is: what next?

Part 4: Next steps

Our answer to the question must be collective. No single person or organization can define the “next steps” for dealing with the polycrisis. “Thinking like a mountain range” requires a team of activists working synergistically on most, if not all, of the major component crises.

We at Mediators are forming this project in order to find our way to serve among the many organizations and people stepping up to join the national and global collective addressing these issues. The Resilience Funders Network is already pioneering this general approach. In addition to their remarkable work, it would be helpful to expand polycrisis awareness to include the various “crisis activist communities” outlined above. Our intention in doing so would be to broaden public understanding of the situation at hand and catalyze a deeper dialogue about the scope and strategy of working within the polycrisis

In addition to pushing for change at the highest level of our national and global institutions, we must not forget that power originates in the individual acting as a collective front. Because of this, there may be no better place to begin elevating this shift towards a polycrisis consciousness than at the local level. Though major crises like those listed above may seem far-off and non-localized, we know that as the effects worsen in the coming decades, it will be local communities that are forced to adapt if they wish to survive. There is no better time than now to invest in bottom-up civic engagement and incentivize community resilience. In times of existential crisis, we cannot rely on other powers alone to do the work. It will be not only the collective responsibility, but the open opportunity for ordinary citizens to come together in preservation of something larger than ourselves. 

For citizens, organizations, and institutions across the issue spectrum to explore some variation of polycrisis consciousness is not a matter of morality or special interest. It is a crucial and strategic decision. Only when actors acknowledge the total reality they exist within, can they hope to conduct their work most effectively. Whether you are working in sectors typically engaged with social change or not, developing a bigger-picture way of thinking that accounts for connectivity between all of the parts, will not only make the work more meaningful, but also elevate the impact it has. 

Ultimately, the polycrisis may best be seen as a sacred opportunity – to change our unsustainable, divided way of living and work into something more integrative, effective, and life-affirming. The chance to co-create a better future for generations to come is at our doorstep if only we choose to turn the handle, forgo ignorance, and embrace possibility. The choice is yours.