If you’ve missed the Claiming Space mini-lecture series, you’ve got one more chance this Saturday, February 13 at 2pm with what should prove a fascinating talk by T. Harlan Morehouse: “Better Living through Future Catastrophe, Or, How I learned to appreciate ‘The Revelation of Saint John the Divine…’”
Here’s a taste of what Harlan’s got to say:
The End of the World – or, its rougher (albeit more agreeable) equivalent: the collapse of societal order – seems to be much en vogue these days. Whether we conjure it in conspiratorial whispers, or it comes to us in the creping anxiety of insomniac thought, we often seem struck dumb by the horror of total collapse and, in turn, write it off as nonsensical. However, what if the specter of societal collapse could be understood in less pessimistic terms? What if it could serve to reorient us to our present with liberation in mind? That is, in what ways could future catastrophe offer positive visions for how we might relate to each other and the environments within which we carve out the trajectory of our lives? In this lecture I draw from field research conducted at a ‘primitive’ survival skills school located in rural Vermont in order to advance a theory of better living through future catastrophe. To do so I focus on three aspects of life in the shadow of collapse: (1) Preparatory skills for post-societal lifestyles; (2) Methods of radical reorientation of self-to-environment; and (3) Techniques of struggle for community autonomy.
Note: This is a change from Harlan’s original lecture topic. If you were geeking out about geological depths and the subterranean, come out anyways. Maybe he’ll let you pick his brain about it.
