Preface
Yes, it is strange that the preface comes before the table of contents, but things are little different here, sometimes in an inverted way. Hopefully, you’ll see why if you read more.
The goal of this preface is to give a sense of the point of all that follows in the contents. Maybe it is to be transparent about authorial intent, if such a thing is possible. Just to be clear: I don’t think this is a manifesto. But honestly, I imagine someone could.
Let’s start with the title. It is called (Foot)Notes on a Pre-Apocalypse. What does that mean?
Let’s talk footnotes first. Does anyone ever actually read footnotes? I am guilty of it, almost all the time. It is sometimes where the most interesting and ironic nuggets are. But beyond that, footnotes signify diligence, depth, that someone has done their homework. But they also act as a collective acknowledgment that ideas build upon each other, that we can think with each other — together — and build and refine ideas together over space-time. Perhaps at this point in human history, all ideas expressed in written works are footnotes to something else, as Alfred North Whitehead suggested all of western philosophy was footnotes to Plato. But here is another inversion. There will be no footnotes here. The footnotes are the work itself. Attribution will come when I can remember where I’ve picked up an idea or a sliver of an idea. Hence, this work is all (Foot)Notes, and that is a blanket acknowledgment that most of these ideas are not mine. Maybe I’ve rearranged some pieces of ideas, or inverted them for what might seem like an original take on something. Maybe I’ve added a fraction of an idea, or conjoined two that seemed unrelated. But then there is the hundred monkey theory. Every hundredth monkey can come up with the same idea. Maybe nothing is original.
Onto the Pre-Apocalypse part:
We (myself and everyone living on earth contemporaneously) are living in a precarious time. We face a series of unprecedented interconnected and interdependent problems, mostly made of our own doing in the last couple hundred years. That should be pretty self evident to most people alive now. And, thus, there is a sense of urgency here.
Sometimes it feels more like an apocalypse than a pre-apocalypse. It can be overwhelming. I get overwhelmed by what we collectively face sometimes. My intention is not to share that feeling of being overwhelmed or to overwhelm you. Rather, I seek to see problems, because only by seeing a problem can we solve a problem. Seeing problems together, gives us the ability to solve problems together to head off the apocalypse, that’s why (Foot)Notes on a Pre-Apocalypse is optimistic. Maybe that is the foundation of optimism: the possibility of working together to make things better (an admittedly complicated and subjective notion itself).
There are sociological studies about how people don’t talk to other people for a variety of reasons. We sometimes live in isolation together with one another, and think in isolation. At least sometimes it can feel that way. Sometimes we don’t talk with each other because we fear the other person will think we are stupid or annoying. Or maybe we aren’t entirely candid because we don’t want to offend someone who we think may view the world very differently than us. And there are countless other reasons we choose not to share ideas with each other, to think together, to be together.
This is hope that we can all start sharing ideas with each other. Thinking together, collaborating. Maybe someone will share some of the perspectives collected and articulated here. Maybe not. Maybe the ideas will make someone think or ask some questions. Maybe not. Let’s call it a social experiment. Let’s see what happens.
What follows is a meditative, choose-your-own-adventure style gameboard (like Chutes and Ladders) or map to test out some of these ideas I’ve collected and rearranged. Or, maybe it is a puzzle. I don't know. Although, puzzles often imply a solution. Are these crazy ideas? Do they resonate with other people? Can they be useful in any way to anyone? Is there anyone else out there who sees the world similarly? Or this time period similarly? Is there a point to reading these ideas? Is the only way to determine if there is a point to reading something to read it? Are you curious? Maybe there is only one way to find out…