> [!meta]- Document Info > **Author**: [[Timothy Morton]] > **Full Title**: Surviving the Cult of Climate Doom > **Category**: #articles > > **Summary**: The text discusses how doomsday narratives in journalism can evoke religious prophecies and lead to despair, contrasting this with William Blake's message of hope and openness during times of upheaval. It emphasizes the urgency of addressing ongoing societal struggles and the importance of embracing innocence and positivity in the face of cynicism and oppression that Blake portrayed in his works. Blake's perspective offers a way to navigate chaos and disaster with optimism and a focus on building a better future free from tyranny and despair. > > **Source**: [Original URL](https://iai.tv/articles/surviving-the-cult-of-climate-doom-auid-2874?_auid=2020) ## 📄 Full Document → [[Surviving the Cult of Climate Doom]] ## 🔦 Highlights & Commentary - The late 1700s were an age in which people fought for democracy. We, at least in “Western” countries, have tended to think that battle was won. But it is very important that we wake up and realize that the struggle is far, far from over. The continuity between Blake’s age and ours is not a historical curiosity: it is a matter of the utmost urgency. Democracy is fragile, and tyranny is a constant risk. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jc8mg0b5naa5my5yemcx7vyd)) ^4020dc - Who can blame younger people for despair? We older people shouldn’t add to this grizzled-before-its-time vibe. We should be singing what Blake called [Songs of Innocence](https://blakearchive.org/copy/songsie.r?descId=songsie.r.illbk.01), reminding the kids that the world is open, the future is not fixed, goodness is real and easy to find. “Innocence” doesn’t mean “ignorance”: Blake rightly announces that it means “harmlessness.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jc8msqyce12bew4abc8fm58d)) - We older people shouldn’t add to this grizzled-before-its-time vibe. We should be singing what Blake called [Songs of Innocence](https://blakearchive.org/copy/songsie.r?descId=songsie.r.illbk.01), reminding the kids that the world is open, the future is not fixed, goodness is real and easy to find. “Innocence” doesn’t mean “ignorance”: Blake rightly announces that it means “harmlessness.” Blake’s innocence, however, is special, like the child who sees the emperor has no clothes. Greta Thunberg became powerful on the world stage because of what I like to call this “weaponized harmlessness. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jc8pk4w6nxmc7ac743709fdh)) - Blake’s Songs of Innocence cry out that we don’t have to live in a world where master versus slave, human versus nonhuman, male versus female define everything. There is always a lovely, innocent excess of reality over what we think we see, our eyes dimmed by conflict and rage and fear. This is what Blake meant when he wrote, “To see a world in a grain of sand” ([*Auguries* *of Innocence*](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43650/auguries-of-innocence)). ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jc8q358zt30jeztvby6gctwc)) - Ideas are like demons: they last forever, indestructible, just waiting for someone to repost them. Brexit and MAGA are just two examples of how ideas from the past can turn into manacles to shackle the future. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jc8mvpe1g8jppst5pwtmbq23)) - And it’s all about religion, whatever you (think you don't) believe. Hell and Heaven are all about the here and now, how we treat each other and how we treat our planet. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jc8mwrgg9bjc95rn3rrhk6sw)) - even when writers of [doomy essays](https://nautil.us/the-collapse-is-coming-will-humanity-adapt-626051/?_sp=f76ed328-0706-4c7d-bbe5-c280154b1444.1717369968220) think they’re being scientific, they’re being religious. So we have to change how we are being religious, or spiritual, or what have you. There’s no getting around it: we’re talking about the most basic connections between our individual bodies and selves and the “neighbor” bodies and selves we relate to, both human and nonhuman. Those connections don’t go away. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jc8mxp9q1d5rqdhcw9vpqdc7)) - Forget thinking in terms of “ecology” versus feminism, democracy or anti-racism (and so on). Blake fought against dividing these issues up, because he thought that was part of a “divide and conquer” strategy of tyranny. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jc8my9ydmdva1h25zmh5s880)) - All we’ll need is one tiny piece of our planet: that tiny grain of sand will do. If we can imagine our Earth differently, we can treat it differently. If we can imagine Earth in such a “granular” way, where even the smallest things have a power to resist the worst in us, we can use those grains to build a better world. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jc8mynmcrgw2tepeq2m04nc8))