“One of the things we learn that can be most powerful is there are always those able to be the calm in the storm. Not only to be the place of grounding and centeredness and love and compassion and generosity and inclusion, but to also be an inspiration for others.” – Michael Dowd
To kick off the new year, the Post-doom team is announcing some website changes. In alignment with the Featured Content each month, there will also be a Challenge based on the 15 Benefits of Collapse Acceptance to further enhance adopting a Post-doom mindset. After January, this will only be found in the new Challenges tab, rather than on the home page, so be sure to check back there each month. We have also added a Benefits tab to aid in easier exploration. Additionally, Audio is now housed under newly named Resources – Tributes and Contact are found in Team. We welcome feedback!
CHALLENGE of the MONTH
This 2020 “blast from the past” 3-Part Series Michael Dowd called his Post-Doom Primer is now available for the first time in a playlist on the Post-doom YouTube channel
Michael writes in this 2023 article
“A post-doom perspective is practical without promoting nihilism or lethargy. Trust, a secular name for faith, is its foundation. From there, generous and compassionate actions can continue, but they tend to be smaller in scope. They are here and now. They are free of frantic imperatives to engage in protests with the aim of transforming “the system.” Post-doom overall is hope-free. Dipping even one toe into this cool pool of acceptance can begin to yield benefits — emotional, spiritual, and relational benefits. How to begin?”
May these resources be a guide this month to explore and put into action how Freedom, the first Collapse Acceptance Benefit, can help launch this year out of the shoulds into the open doors of coulds…
(See more in the new Challenges area)
PART I
PART II
PART III
Doom
definition
1. A normal feeling of disgust or dread upon realizing that technological progress and economic growth and development are the root of our predicament, not our way out.
2. A name for the anxiety and fear called forth when living in a corrupt, dysfunctional civilization causing a mass extinction.
3. The mid-point between denial and regeneration . . . with or without us.
Post-doom
definition Wikipedia
1. What opens up when we remember who we are and how we got here, accept the inevitable, honor our grief, and prioritize what is pro-future and soul-nourishing.
2. A fierce and fearless reverence for life and expansive gratitude — even in the midst of abrupt climate mayhem and the runaway collapse of societal harmony, the health of the biosphere, and business as usual.
3. Living meaningfully, compassionately, and courageously no matter what.
THE REALITY: A foreboding doom sense of climate chaos and societal breakdown is now widespread. Global Industrial Civilization is collapsing from overshoot and taking the biosphere we depend on for life down with it. Acknowledging our predicament brings us only to a point of collapse awareness with an enormous amount of grief. What lies beyond?
POST-DOOM: The founder of this website, the late Michael Dowd, was an early explorer of collapse understanding and acceptance. His mission was to find and share a renewed sense of balance, even peace, in an increasingly dark world. Traditional activism now shifts to love-in-action. The focus becomes wise responses over false solutions, calling attention to community localism and valuing the more-than-human web around us. Natural outcomes of a willingness to walk through the dark tunnel of doom offers many BENEFITS needed to emerge with fresh vision on the other side.
THE PATH: Along the way, Michael Dowd created educational VIDEOS for understanding the complexities of our predicament, also recording many of his religious naturalist sermons and Post-doom presentations. He expanded his vision through insightful CONVERSATIONS with those on a similar path. Michael used his talented voice to AUDIO record supportive content. Additional RESOURCES of aligning education are also available on this site.
THE OUTREACH: Finding connection and community to be key Post-doom components, Michael launched ways of hosting online communities for discussion and support. Additional group facilitators emerged and continue to offer a variety of ways to GATHER.
BEYOND: All relevant Post-doom content can also be accessed on the Michael Dowd page located on The Great Story website he shared with his mission partner wife Connie Barlow.