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Crisis

2019-09-27 · letter vlog · Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Science & nature) · mode: Personal essay · tags: heavy topic

Facing a 'crisis of crises', Hank says panic is understandable but unhelpful and crowds out connection with ourselves and others; using climate change (US carbon dioxide below 1995 levels) he argues imperfect progress is still progress and we find solutions only by taking steps.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The crisis of crises: constitutional, housing, existential, climate, banana

  • ★★ Hank lists the crises on offer: constitutional crises a couple of times a week, housing, existential always, and climate, where scientists would like people to panic. (playful) — 00:00:00 · climate change
  • ★ Googling for a crisis, Hank finds Chiquita explaining what it is doing about the banana crisis, and declares a crisis of crises. (joke) — 00:00:20 · Google
  • ★ Hank says he and John are proper middle-aged men and should know how to deal with this. (playful) — 00:00:30 · John Green

00:00:40 — Find your shaky shaky: connect with yourself; panic is normal but unhelpful and crises crowd out connection

  • ★★ Hank's first strategy is avoidance: listen to 'Shaky Shaky' by Daddy Yankee, or find solace in YouTube videos, poetry videos, potato plants, a friend or a dog. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:40 · YouTube

  • ★★★ First you have to find your 'shaky shaky': connect with yourself as a living sack of thinking flesh, which is amazing and, as far as we know, unique in the universe. — 00:00:50

    “find your shaky shaky”

  • ★★ Hank says being in a crisis is isolating: you think everything is going terribly and there is no path forward. — 00:01:05

  • ★★★ As a climate advocate, Hank says panic would make sense and is a normal emotion given the circumstances, but it is not the most helpful one and solves nothing. — 00:01:15 · climate change
  • ★★★ Hank says having all these crises makes it harder to connect, because the things out there seem more important than caring for and valuing yourself and the people in your life. — 00:01:30
  • ★★ Hank says yes, he is writing a book about this right now, so he thinks about it a lot. (playful) — 00:01:45

00:01:48 — Writing a book about this, Australia-tired; engaging without gorging on every tweet (the peanut M&M analogy)

  • ★ Hank is very tired and 'Australia hungover': he jokes about too many VBs, then says he just didn't sleep enough. (playful) — 00:01:50 · Australia
  • ★★ Hank says paying attention to and engaging with the crises is important. — 00:01:58
  • ★★★ Grabbing every tweet the moment it comes out is like stuffing peanut M&Ms in your mouth: four is not better than two, and 17 is unhealthy, messy and not enjoyable. (playful) — 00:02:05

00:02:24 — Climate as example: imperfect is not nothing, US CO2 below 1995 levels, the mountain we cannot see

  • ★★★ Hank's middle-aged take: just because we are not doing something perfectly doesn't mean we are not doing it. — 00:02:24
  • ★★ On climate, Hank grants that denial is discouraging and many deadlines have been crossed, but says we have started down many promising paths. — 00:02:30 · climate change
  • ★★★ Hank says the United States is now below its 1995 level of carbon dioxide, which he calls wild. — 00:02:45 · United States
  • ★★ Hank could not have said in 1995 how the cut would happen; likewise nobody knows now how we will get through our messes until we solve them. — 00:02:53

  • ★★★ Hank says it is deeply important to him to find a place between panic and complacency, and he knows that place exists. — 00:03:00

    “a place between panic and complacency”

  • ★★★ Hank pictures the problem as a huge mountain whose ground, path and top we cannot see: all he can do is take a step that feels right and urge his leaders to do the same. — 00:03:05

00:03:23 — All past crises were solved in ways no one foresaw; we get there by working, so far

  • ★★★ Hank says every crisis so far was solved in ways nobody foresaw; not knowing how is normal, and by working as individuals and as a collective we get there, so far. — 00:03:30 · collective action

Humor (significant)

  • Googling for crises, Hank finds Chiquita explaining what it is doing about the banana crisis — 00:00:20

    “So apparently we're having a crisis crisis.”

  • Hank says he is very tired because he is 'Australia hungover' — 00:01:50

    “Had too many VBs! No, I just... didn't sleep enough.”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: climate change

Also: Works: Shaky Shaky

Organizations: Chiquita Brands International · Google · YouTube

Concepts: anxiety disorder · carbon dioxide · climate change denial · collective action · constitutional crisis · existential crisis · housing crisis · Middle age · poetry (concept)

Places: Australia · United States

Products: M&M's · Victoria Bitter

Only in the description or credits: Daddy Yankee

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