The Great Forgetting
“But if we have learned nothing else, we have learned this: humans can walk away from, and forget, anything. Civilization can go back to 'normal' after anything.”
Forgetting is a feature, not a bug. It makes us feel like we’re moving forward through time, rather than standing still or running in circles. My grandmother and her ancestors knew this all too well. Artful forgetting, editing, and curation allowed them to craft narratives that helped their children understand the past and orient towards the... See more
Aaron Z. Lewis • The garden of forking memes: how digital media distorts our sense of time
The climate crisis and the Anthropocene have made it clear that our old stories – often fixated on human heroes conquering nature or extracting resources – are inadequate. We need narratives that foreground entanglement: the interdependence of humans, non-human creatures, and the Earth itself.