Really letting the consequences of climate change and ecological crisis sink in causes irrevocable stress, says philosopher Wouter Kusters. “Looking the monster in the mouth helps you understand it better and decide how you want to deal with it.”
Aren’t we mostly rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? In his recently published book Shock effects. Philosophizing in times of climate change philosopher Wouter Kusters (56) asks more such uncomfortable questions. It is not about looking for solutions, but about in-depth analysis. His focus is on what he calls “the bleak parts of the climate concern”: trauma, anxiety, and depression. ‘I want to explore the depths and investigate what happens when the doomsday messages really penetrate your soul,’ he says in his office in a multi-company building in Reeuwijk, South Holland.
Negative feelings are often seen as getting in the way of practical climate action, which is why we are moving too quickly towards optimism, Kusters believes. “Soon the gaping emptiness of doom is clothed with words. With measures, statements, discussions, actions, perspectives, words about words, practical elaborations, feasible…