Is that the best you can do?
The Show up or Shut up Manifesto
It’s hard not to be cynical these days. The world is unraveling in front of our eyes yet the vast majority of folks carry on as usual. We face a rise of authoritarian populism (aka fascism), a return to diplomacy by brute force (complete with moral outrage to justify any brutality), a global economic system that’s working great for the 1% while the rest of us circle the drain, and nearly daily evidence of the clear and present danger already caused (and accelerating) by climate change.
If Pew Foundation public opinion data is to be trusted, a sizeable majority of people recognize the threat. In a survey of adults in 19 countries, a full 75% saw climate change as a “major threat to their country.” Over two-thirds see disinformation and cyberattacks as a threat and over 60 percent see problems in the global economy as major threats.
So, while there may still be some who try to shout down the unpleasant truth, they represent a tiny sliver of the population. Unfortunately, it’s a minority who are amplified beyond all reason by those currently in power who will use any trick available to maintain their privilege.
Sadly, it’s working. Just look at this graph if you want a reality check on progress. It’s been over 30 years since the first IPCC international assessment report and yet the increase in emissions has risen steadily, unperturbed by any accord, agreement, or pact. 2023 has set records for the highest ever CO2 emissions and the hottest year on record by a long shot. We just finished a streak of the 13 hottest months on record and we have already passed the “red line” of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temps. It’s almost as though all those big, important, international meetings didn’t accomplish anything.
So even as the daily news documents the accuracy of the science and the inadequacy of the response, it attempts to cloud that truth. The media uses fear to gain ratings then sows confusion to make sure it doesn’t have an adverse effect on advertising. Our corporate masters require eyeballs glued to the screen, but they can’t risk allowing you to question the addictive lifestyle that is causing all those problems in the first place. The buffed and polished sycophants posing as journalists are happy to comply, and their privileged audiences longing to hear those comforting words “it’s not your fault” adore them. Any excuse to avoid giving up privilege is welcomed with open ears.
But how can there be any confusion, really? If anything, scientific predictions have been too conservative. Actual changes to global temperatures are following the “worst case scenario” pathway (which, given the graph above is no surprise) and climate impacts are happening faster and more dramatically than anticipated. But, hey, just don’t look up, right?
So the media manufacture confusion by suggesting that the problem is somehow so complex and baffling that we need to wait around for some boffin to invent the “no-muss / no-fuss / actually makes us more money” solution. The fact is that the solutions are already available, tested at scale, affordable, and will produce massive economic benefits in the medium-term and even significant economic benefits in the short-term. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Project Drawdown, the world’s #1 resource of tested climate solutions.
Many of them are things that anyone — you, for example — could actually do right now. Likewise, there are countless articles and organizations out there offering up their favourite “X things you can do to respond to the climate crisis” with remarkably consistent suggestions. Most of them are simply getting people like you and me to stop doing damaging things — like engaging in pointless consumerism, fast fashion, recreational flying, eating a carbon-heavy diet or ‘not being interested in politics.’
So, it isn’t like we don’t know there’s a problem and it’s not like there aren’t lots of people offering practical solutions. Yet, here we are. All y’all flying around, indulging in nearly constant retail therapy and media-induced comas, compromising your values every day because, well, you gotta pay the rent, right?
But when I express my frustration that no one is actually doing anything — that all my friends and neighbours who check the right boxes on the opinion surveys continue to live Business as Usual lives — I always hear the same thing: “hey, everyone is doing the best they can.”
If this is the best we can do, we’re screwed!
On this trajectory, we are looking at catastrophe at an unimaginable scale. If I tell you what the “business as usual” trajectory will bring, you will instantly reject me as an “alarmist” not because it isn’t true, but because you don’t want to feel alarmed.
If you are under 60, you will likely be alive when we simultaneously run out of oil for all practical purposes and reach 2.0 C. of global warming. Bad things are already happening at 1.5 C of change, but things get really interesting at 2.0. Young people alive today — maybe your kids or grandkids — might live to see 3.0 or 4.0 degrees. Imagine how “interesting” thier lives will be.
And, if you haven’t noticed, our institutions and our “leaders” are in completely over their heads. At this point, they are likely to make things much much worse in the near term. That can’t see past this quarter’s record profits or the next election cycle.
Of course, this isn’t only going to happen to “those people” and “over there.” This is coming for you. It’s coming to every corner of the globe. And it’s happening now. You can run, but you can’t hide. No amount of numbing will save you from what’s coming.
But, then, is this really the best we can do?
In some ways, yeah, of course it’s true. You can hide behind that if you want.
Aside from the rare psychopath, everyone wants to do the right thing. So everyone is, by definition, doing the best they can right now given what they’ve experienced and the resources they have to work with. Even when people are acting with malevolence, they are still doing the best they can do. Even violent people are doing the best they can. They are simply limited in their ability to respond, usually because of old wounds and deep fears that make malevolence and violence seem unavoidable.
So, yes. Hitler was doing the best he could. So is Trump. And his supporters.
But is that enough? Is that a “get out of jail free” card… that you’re doing “the best you can do?”
Talking about the “best we can do” implies that there are other options — something less than our best. Otherwise, the term is meaningless.
So, what would doing less than your best look like? Are you willing to ask that question?
Karma. Dharma. Flow.
Karma is simply the law of cause and effect. Actions have consequences. Some actions have fairly predictably negative consequences. Some actions have fairly predictably positive consequences. So, the logic goes, do less of the former and more of the latter. That’s the best we could hope to do.
The opposite — continuing to do things that consistently result in negative consequences — would be doing less than our best. It’s also the definition of insanity. Sadly, most of us have gone crazy, repeating the same mistakes over and over.
That’s how I know a lot of you aren’t actually doing the best you can do, because you keep doing the same things and somehow expect a different result. Then you act surprised when you keep getting what you always got, going into overdrive to find the culprit “out there” — the one to blame for all these consequences that keep happening to you because of the choices you make.
What did you actually think was going to happen!?!?
But, I hear you ask, how could I possibly know? How can I tell the good karma from the bad? My best from less than my best? It’s all so mysterious! It’s all so confusing!!
Bupkis! There’s no mystery. You just don’t want to do the work.
The dharma tells me so.
DHARMA, Dharma, dharma.
So, dharma roughly translates as “the law,” but it goes deeper than that. The dharma can be approached at three levels of reality. It’s the same dharma, but it takes on different appearances.
The DHARMA is Ultimate Reality — That Which is Really Real. How does the universe actually work? What’s it really all about? What matters and what doesn’t? What makes life worth living?
Over the generations, millions and billions of us have pondered this question and we leave little breadcrumbs of learning for others to follow. Gathered together, we call this the Dharma — the collection of all wisdom ever gathered. Science. Art. Ethics. Religion. Poetry. Philosophy. The stories of our ancestors.
Of course, the challenge is that the tao that can be named is not the true Tao. We can only ever hint at Reality. It can never be fully captured in words or even in the experience of one puny human brain. All Dharma is metaphor — a useful lie; never literally true because it’s truer than that.
Luckily, though, we have dharma to guide us. The dharma is your own personal guide to reality. The dharma comes to you in the guise of every challenge you have ever faced. Every hard choice. Every rainbow after the storm. Every regret. Every moment of contentment. Every moment of utter failure and surrender.
Karma is not a distant principle. You experience karma every day thru your dharma. Whether that is a blessing or a curse depends entirely on your choices; your actions have consequences. Every choice, every action is like a little karmic experiment.
Bernard Bocklebrink defines an experiment as “doing what you think will work, but doing it in a way where you can tell if it’s working or not.”
The key is that second part — can you tell if it’s not working? Are you actually doing the best you can? Or are you operating under the Einsteinian insanity principle — continuing to do the same things and thinking somehow, magically, you’ll get something different this time?
Doing your best doesn’t happen in the comfort zone. It only happens when you are ready, willing and able to recognize where things you’ve been doing aren’t working like you thought they would or should. You are only doing your best if you’re willing to consider the possibility that you aren’t.
So, to all those who are saying “we’re doing the best we can” — Prove it!
The world is on fire. What is the best you can do to address the crises we face?
Where are your choices contributing to the very problems you rail against every day? Where does the news pinch? Where is karma a bitch?
And where is there some light? Some space? Some room to breathe? Where does making the hard choice pay off? Where is discipline rewarded? Where is your still quiet “yes?”
What’s the best you can do to make this place, right here, right now, more livable, more sustainable, more resilience and more just?
That’s the only question you should be focused on right now, because if we don’t figure out how to live with each other on the planet without degrading it further, then whether it’s next year, or in 20 years, or even 100 years, we’re just leaving a mess for someone else to clean up — the very definition of immaturity and irresponsibility.
So, here’s my challenge to you — simply do the best you can do. You don’t need to be a superhero. You don’t need to fix it all. Just do what you think might work — even a little bit — and do it in a way where we can see if it’s working or not. Then be ready to change course based on the feedback you receive. Do more of what works. Do less of what doesn’t. It’s that simple.
Take a minute to think about what “doing the best you can do” to address the current environmental and social crises we face today would look like. This year? In a month or two? This week? What does doing your best for the planet, all the children, and all living things look like today?
Here’s your simple 5 step plan to save the world:
- Start with an honest assessment of your assets. What resources do you currently have to work with? Skills? Relationships? Passions? Financial resources? Material resources? What privileges are you willing to trade in to make the world a better place?
- What would “better” look like? What are some of the positive changes you would like to see in the world? How could it / should it work? Or conversely, what are some of the biggest / deepest challenges? What’s really the root of the problem, and how do we address that? Be specific. How could you see it in the room if it was working?
- Get strategic, given your idea of what better looks like, what’s the best you can do? Where’s the 20 that gets you 80? And what changes in the world would you expect to see if you did the 20 regularly?
- Make a plan and run your experiments.
- Learn from your successes and your mistakes.
If you’re willing to try, I’m willing to help. How can we support each other in our experiments? How can I help you? How could you help me? And let me know how it goes. Let me know what I can learn — what worked and what didn’t? There is immeasurable potential there. Let’s see what we can do with it!
Sadly, I know from experience that the majority of you will spend most of your energy justifying why you couldn’t be expected to do more. As someone who has dedicated my life to figuring out what’s the best I can do, I can attest to a constant string of armchair quarterbacks and middle manager types sitting in the comfort of their privilege, thinking that helping means giving me advice to do things they are unwilling to do for themselves, while they do little more than cluck their tongues and clutch their pearls.
So, if you are unwilling to set up your own experiment, taking the time to challenge yourself to do the best you can, then shut the fuck up! Get out of the way and stop wasting my time!
If you’re confused about where to start, ask one of the millions of folks who are doing the work NOW how you can help THEM and THEN JUST DO IT! Don’t quibble. Don’t try to negotiate making another buck for yourself. Don’t ask me to guarantee your privilege. Fuck your privilege! Fuck your comfort and convenience! Support the people who are doing the work or shut up and sit down!
So, “if you’re doing the best you can” and that looks a lot like a life of business-as-usual comforts, I get it. I have learned there are no words I can use to burst that bubble of self-justification. Just let me know when the reality of our current situation finally sinks in through all those defense mechanisms. Reality always wins, so I’m willing to wait.
But know that the harm you cause happens whether you acknowledge it or not, and therefore you are only adding to your own (and our shared) karmic debt. Your denial and delusion won’t protect you. The longer you wait, the greater the harm, the bigger the debt, the harder the restorative work required of you when you are finally willing to show up.
Karma’s only a bitch if you are.
