“The collapse is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”

WHAT'S INCLUDED

One enamel pin badge, one-inch (25mm) diameter + one laminated card.

The card carries a QR-code pointing to the Collapsonomics.info website, our one-page hub for links to useful resources.

Wear the badge to find each other and start conversations with the curious. Carry the card in your wallet so you can point people to the Collapsonomics site.

FIVE PRINCIPLES OF WEARING THE BLACK ELEPHANT PIN

Wearing the pin is a way of saying that these principles resonate with you:

(1) It is time to face the realities of collapse: the unravelling of systems and structures that many of us grew up taking for granted.

(2) Framing this as a set of “problems” to be solved doesn’t help us face these realities – because it suggests that, with the right solutions, our societies could get back on the path they appeared to be on.

(3) Refusing the “problem–solution” mindset doesn’t mean giving up and doing nothing – there is still plenty of work worth doing that has a chance of affecting how things play out.

(4) To catch sight of the work worth doing and to become capable of contributing to it, we need multiple lenses, new maps and tools for orientation, practical and cultural skills.

(5) We also need to find each other, in the in-between spaces of the internet and in the on-the-ground places where we start from.

WHY THE BLACK ELEPHANT?

Since 2009, the Black Elephant has been the emblem of collapsonomics. It's an unholy hybrid of two widely used metaphors:

The Black Swan is a hard-to-foresee event which changes everything.

The Elephant in the Room is an enormous issue that everyone knows is there, but no one wants to talk about.

So the Black Elephant is an event that, when it happens, everyone will try to pretend was a Black Swan, when all along it was the Elephant in the Room.

The phrase was coined by our friend Lloyd Davis on 24 April, 2009, as told here: https://bit.ly/blackelephantday

There are many forms of collapse on the horizon – financial, biophysical, resource depletion – all of which might fit the profile of a Black Elephant.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO "LOOK DOWN"?

The call to "look down" comes from a passage in the Dark Mountain Manifesto:

"And so we find ourselves, all of us together, poised trembling on the edge of a change so massive that we have no way of gauging it. None of us knows where to look, but all of us know not to look down. Secretly, we all think we are doomed: even the politicians think this; even the environmentalists. Some of us deal with it by going shopping. Some deal with it by hoping it is true. Some give up in despair. Some work frantically to try and fend off the coming storm.

"Our question is: what would happen if we looked down? Would it be as bad as we imagine? What might we see? Could it even be good for us?

"We believe it is time to look down!"

LEARN MORE

For more information, visit the Collapsonomics.info website: https://collapsonomics.info/

The original Institute for Collapsonomics website is available here: https://collapsonomics.org