We're now in a post-WTAF era
here we go, 2025
Courageous New Year to you all! My break was fruitful, thanks. Challenging, sad, maturing; but I got clear and sturdy. Which was my goal.
Alright, so let’s get back to work.
Over the past couple of weeks I was able to rest my nervous system and pull right back and see everything we’ve been talking about here for the past six months with a more birds-eye view, above the noise and electrical charge. I realise this is a technique I’ll have to deploy regularly in coming months and years (pull back; vigilantly rest my nerves, albeit briefly; return).
What I saw from my calm perch: The “masses” are catching on.
Did you see the influx of anti-system memes over the festive period? Did you notice a vibe shift? Did you detect a different flavour of comment and feedback from people in your orbit?
In mine, the response was overwhelmingly this, or a version thereof: “WTAF?!”
Things are not at all well in the post-industrial, techno-feudalist, multi-polar matrix. The cracks have been there for a while, as most of us here know. But literally in the time it took to have a bloody Christmas break they widened into chasms.
And out spurt the truth.
The oligarchs and despots are now rolling in and taking over the joint. In plain sight. With no couching of terms. This is no longer theory or hyperbole. Trump means what he has been saying. Elon is on a K rampage (or something) and taking down diplomacy. The Israeli genocide in Gaza continues unchecked. The German and French governments keep collapsing. The Australian Labor Government boasted on social media they’d approved no new coal mines minutes after they approved four mining extensions (semantics, people!). And barely blinked. Afghanistan banned windows. Prisoners are fighting the fires in California. And Mark Zuckerberg joined Trump’s congo line two days ago, declaring he was done with truth on his Meta platforms.
For anyone who has been unaware of the systems patterns that have led to this moment, all of this is arriving as a complete shock.
WTAF?!?!
I can sense many people around me don’t really know who to issue their exclamation at. It’s dawning that there is no one in charge to blame or implore.
For many, I think, sharing the memes provides some agency. As we covered in this chapter, placing a pithy, intellectual stake in the social media landscape or dinner party conversation is a form of single action bias that can assuage your fear and helplessness for a bit
.
I’ve been amazed how quickly a lot of people have caught on. Just a few months ago, very few people I know or commentators I follow were willing to declare that the system that had happily been serving them (and anyone rich enough to have access to a smart phone and be a candidate for a Shein targeted post), had turned on humanity. But the capitalist beast that kept us snug and smug has suddenly spun around and is preparing to devour us. The top 0.00000001% , of course, figure they’re invited to the dinner and are laying the table. The rest of us have suddenly clocked the plot twist. And, WTAF, it’s terrifying. It’s rude.
For my Jewish friends, realising the Israeli state is not committed to serving their faith or their people has had the same dizzying effect. Ditto for those who’ve rested easy for decades that the Christian West was the more noble entity.
I have been having conversations with friends who have just stared at me as I tried to answer their questions about some of the news events unfolding. I can see their entire world view is being obliterated. The rug - indeed, the entire planet’s crust - has been pulled out from under them. What becomes of us when the snug, smug meta-structure that we assumed was an always-already feature of life is snapped away from us?
It’s like when you first realise your parents are wrong; you’re going to have to navigate the rest of this story on your own!
And it’s like when a partner cheats on you; you’re going to have to head out solo with just the clothes on your back and your moral compass to guide you.
I am still in this WTAF?! terror myself. I am having more and more realisations daily. I shake my head at myself - how did I not “get” that no one was going to stop the slaughter in Gaza? That the destruction of Palestinians serves the West, and now the oligarchy? How did I not fully fathom how colonisation has worked? For decades I relegated the debate to a shelf marked, “A bit extreme and niche”.
Another observation: the pivot - or pain - point is very clearly wealth inequality and the failure of capitalism. Some tragic climate headlines also poured in over the break, and of course, the “unprecedented” Los Angeles fires have been raging. But what’s bringing collapse to light for the bulk of people is the obscene disparity between a handful of mega-rich, morally stunted tech bros and the rest of the world.
Which fits with Russian-American polymath Peter Turchin’s thesis I cover in the long Collapse chapter of the Book Serialisation - that collapse occurs when the educated elites (those with X accounts and a voice for sharing pointed memes) get the memo.
But what comes next?
The realisation-to-revolution pathway tends to be very quick. Shame, shock, grief and fear are processed very fast when truth presents so clearly and the escape route is being paved over before our eyes. Witness the French Revolution1. Flipside, fascism also infiltrates fast. Hitler took just 53 days to dismantle democracy in pre-war Germany.
A lot of unrest is ahead in 2025. This is certain. It is going to get ugly fast.
Me, I’m deciding to cope, to hold and to be of service by, first, vigilantly prioritising my sturdiness and, second, being gently blunt with those currently in the WTAF?! stage.
I’m doubling down on practices to ensure I keep seeing things calmly and clearly. I am back to meditating. I am back to decaf.
I’m softening my eyes.
I’m saying - bluntly (but gently) - to people coming to me with their terrified WTAF shock that there is no one to blame now. It’s the system. It’s all of us. I point them to the Moloch/Blame chapter.
I’m also explaining (bluntly, gently) that this issue has been present a long time; it just suited us to ignore it. We knew five year-olds were mining the parts for our iPhones. We still upgraded our technology because we wanted the new version.
I’m also saying, to those in the WTAF stage of things that we will have to stop defenselessly saying WTAF?! Of course, it’s the actual fuck. How could it have turned out any other way? So, don’t stand there shocked as though Ashton Kutcher is going to come running in and yell, Punk’d.
I’m claiming some agency in the new wild west that Musk and Zuckerberg have created. I am stuck with social media for about another year; I can’t delete my accounts. Further, I feel the online space needs counter views2. But I’m emitting only. I’m not following and I’m not getting sucked into the comments. I’ve also shut down incoming feedback (direct messaging).
I am sitting fully with the fact things are *the actual fuck* going to be ugly and shocking. The train has left the station. But I am going to be here, standing sturdy, dearly holding onto my morals and my humanity. I am going to choose to live as I feel we should be living. I am going to be defiant.
I’m also going to keep speaking up and sharing the memes. As we covered right off the bat in the Book Serialisation, when hope becomes absurd, we must turn to truth. As I write in that chapter:
“Indeed - and here’s the really hope-full reality - when we let go of hope, truth emerges as a far more gloriously solid and enlivening thing to peg a life to.”
Ok, let’s go.
Sarah xx
PS Next week I will continue the Book Serialisation. We have about 4-5 chapters to go!
I’ve been following the multi-part series on the French Revolution on The Rest is History. I highly recommend it.
I feel the same about AI and its use of my creative content. I’d rather the LLMs have my content in their algorithmic mix than not. These models are currently pulling from a heavily skewed internet of information (overwhelmingly male, extremist, polarising etc). To be transparent, I recently allowed one of my US publishers to sell the rights to one of the LLMs to use my books for their models for this very reason.
I'm one of the "masses" who have fully caught on. I've followed and dabbled in your collapse series since you started, but to be honest I've been too scared to read and take it in properly. Over the past few weeks I've consumed the Wild collapse series and finally given myself space to take it in.
While I still can't fathom it, it gives words to what I've been feeling about the world for a long time.
The message from you, and those like Meg Wheatley,about this now being the time to show up withI'm one of the "masses" who have fully caught on. I've followed and dabbled in your collapse series since you started, but to be honest I've been too scared to read and take it in properly. Over the past few weeks I've consumed the Wild collapse series and finally given myself space to take it in.
While I still can't fathom it, it gives words to what I've been feeling about the world for a long time.
The message from you, and those like Meg Wheatley, about this now being the time to show up, connect and serve with the skills and kindness that you have.
I am a farmer and a psychologist. I sometimes hesitate showing up in these spaces, because we are not regenerative farmers. We farm in very marginal country in South Australia, and like you say, we absolutely are at the face of climate change. But as I've watched my 10 year old son work through the heat over the past few days, I've realised that what we do is vital. Food production is going to get harder, and less comfortable - although everyone is working to make it more comfortable - so those that can slog it through the discomfort are vital.
I'm also a psychologist, and I'm passionate about farming mental health and wellbeing. As farmers, I don't think we will be able to make any of the changes and adaptation we need to make if we aren't taking care of our wellbeing and emotional resilience. Your work has reaffirmed for me, the importance of my work. And of community, and big-hearted courage, and the work for all of us in learning how to really be human.
So, thank you.
Oh gosh Sarah, yes I felt it exactly as you articulated. I’m no longer ‘Mad Mother’ the pattern recognition and ability to see outside this system has been hard to live with. It’s never been about being right, but prepared and ready to be of service. Why would it be any other way, for gentle, intelligent people? I can feel my kids respect, no longer swayed by the old capitalist narrative. There is a dramatic shift and I feel calm, ready and rested. Thanks for your wisdom and leadership, I’ll continue my hiking and challenge my caffeine addiction. The memes are brilliant!