We live in a time of social, economic and ecological unravelling. All around us are signs that our way of living is already passing into history.

The concept of liminality applied as a term for thinking about modern societies is connected to the study of theatre and performance. The liminal experiences of tribal cultures – in which ritual is a collective process for navigating moments of change – are different from the liminoid experiences available in modern societies, which resemble the liminal, but are choices we opt into as individuals, like a night out at the theatre. This distinction comes with a suggestion that true liminality, the collective entry into the liminal, is not available within a complex industrial society.

Perhaps this has been true. The consequences of that very complex industrial society are now bringing us to a point where we get reacquainted with true liminality. We begin to recognise that we now face a crisis which has no outside. The planetary scale of our predicament makes it as much a collective experience as anything faced by the tribal cultures.~

—Clay Shirky

collapsology links

• Dark Mountain Manifesto
• Unearthed
• Policymakers
• Effective Altruism Forum
• Deep Adaptation
• Energy Slaves
• Dark Ecology

TAGS:bluephilosophytechnologyoptimismsafe

• Six ways to die
• Lands End

incoming(1): about