What I learned about the collapse of the world at Stockholm Impact Week

I promised last week to share some of the stuff I learned and reflected on at Impact Week in Stockholm.

The event was put on by Norrsken, a Swedish impact investor group, and featured some of the world’s top planetary boundaries and metacrisis experts giving keynotes and workshops. And if you find the idea of high net-worth investors and strapped in existential philosophers schmoozing in breakout sessions and over after-event canapés somewhat surreal, you’d be picking up on the exact vibe of things there.

I found the week very somewhat unsettling, intensified by the fact the event was staged (within an inch of its life) with futuristic effects, strobing lights and smoke machines. Oh, and all potable water came in plastic bottles (I brought my bottle but there was literally nowhere to fill it up).

Please please please…🙏🏻 if you’re an event organiser and you’re even making passing reference to climate leadership, please supply tap water at your shindigs. And minimise strobe lighting. And ensure zero food waste.

Snark aside¹, I gleaned much from the five days I was there. It wasn’t cheery stuff, however.

Social philosopher Daniel Schmachtenberger headlined…

…and was asked what he’d been thinking about during the week. That’s the video above and I encourage you to watch it. He lets rip.

Takehome = Be careful before asking Daniel Schmachtenberger what he thinks about your event. Our group, assembled by the Small Giants crew who I also went to Israel and Palestine with last year, spent quite a bit of time with Daniel. The guy channels some serious spiritually informed flow when he talks about where we are at in the collapse spiral. If you don’t know much about his work, read here. He’ll be on Wild in a few months.

• Daniel spoke several times about how he copes personally, how he lives as a human while being fully aware of the existential timeline and the destruction ahead, and while being surrounded by fellow humans who don’t want to can’t wake up to the truth of it all. In essence he chooses to see all fear and resistance as reactions to love. “We only suffer if we love something,” he says. He offers the challenge to us all to bring nobility to suffering.