The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)
Both Peter Turchin, a Russian-American scientist and author, and Sarah Wilson, an Australian author and minimalist, agree that political disintegration can produce “an excess of elite men.” Sarah writes in her latest book that “today, these disenfranchised (mostly) male elites launch podcasts that spread conspiracy theories, they champion the sovereignty movement, they start up the alt-right think tanks (*1).” And what follows is inequality and polarization. Of course, the emergence of these “elite men” coincides with other significant emotional events — pandemics, climate and planet degradation, and wars.
As recently as 2024, Policy Horizons Canada publicized the following statistics as an eight-year forecast of the disruptions that are collapsing not just one human system but multiple systems.
NOTES on Top 10 Disruptions: In the image above, year 0 is 2024; year 6 is 2030, barely 3 years away.
- People cannot tell what is true and what is not: Misinformation and AI-generated content flood the information ecosystem.
- Biodiversity is lost, and ecosystems collapse: Environmental damage triggers cascading ecological failures.
- Emergency response is overwhelmed: Severe climate events and disasters outpace rescue and relief capacity.
- Cyberattacks disable critical infrastructure: Essential services like power, transport, and internet face debilitating digital strikes.
- Billionaires run the world: Extremely wealthy individuals bypass democratic rules and directly influence public policy.
- Artificial intelligence runs wild: Rapid tech advancement outpaces safety regulations and control.
- Vital natural resources are scarce: Clean water and critical minerals run low because of overuse and conflict.
- Downward social mobility is the norm: Standard economic advancement stalls for broad segments of the population.
- Health-care systems collapse: Medical infrastructure fails under sustained systemic stress.
- Democratic systems break down: Public trust and governance structures fracture under external and internal pressures.
The Yogic Response to a Collapsing World
Yoga does not advocate for nihilistic detachment or passivity when the world is in turmoil. Instead, the sutra texts offer two core strategic defenses against a collapsing environment:
Sutra 2.1:
What is needed — A practical yoga of action, consisting of self-discipline, self-study, and surrender to the divine.
Application — Action, self-reflection, and humility. Rather than spiraling into paralysis or doom-scrolling, individuals cultivate mental resilience and adapt cleanly to emerging changes.
Sutra 1.33:
What is needed — A blissful, clear, serene mind.
Application — Social equanimity. Cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the suffering, joy toward the virtuous, and neutral clarity toward the destructive to protect your own mental reserves.
Ultimately, the Yoga Sutras understand that civilization cannot be saved by restructuring external systems alone. True stabilization requires a mass shift in consciousness. When the external world enters a period of collapse, a yogi’s primary duty is to keep inner clarity so they can act as a stabilizing anchor for others.
Doom and gloom-ers, among others, call this era the “end times” (*2), identifying its key signs as wars and conflict, famines and disasters, moral decay and loveless behaviour, and the fake news of false prophets. As a global community, many citizens feel overwhelmed, if not hopeless. These feelings are signals that our nervous system is overloaded and stuck in a deep mental-emotional rut — that is, focusing only on negative events and experiences. The resulting long-term stress drains our energy and motivation, potentially triggering a freeze response. When everything looks heavy, dull, and impossible to fix, we have lost perspective.
What we need is a perspective shift. So, try this one on —
I just want you to remember. That we live in a world where octopuses dream, otters have a favorite shell they carry with them all their lives, cows have best friends, and bees have different “dialects” of dance depending on the region. Cats purr at a frequency that accelerates bone healing, the forest grows flowers first after a fire, and dolphins give each other names and respond to them. Penguins make proposals by giving each other the most beautiful pebble. David Ross Lawn
Did David’s reminders bring a smile to your face and expand your heart again? If you are still feeling the darkness of our current times, switch your perspective by playing the “What if” game with your negatively looping mind.
What if … “what we are going through now—this terrifying truth and collapse process—is our break-apart-and-open event? Exactly the right kind to take us to the profound collective awakening and maturing required to… handle things? (*1)”.
What if … your yoga and meditation practices are exactly what you (and collectively, we) need to shift us from combative competition and manipulative greed into cooperative collaboration and compassionate loving kindness. Is this even a “what if”? We know this to be true, right?!
What if … instead of dread and doubt, we delight in discovering what each emerging moment reveals about who we are and who we can become.
What if … “practicing forgiveness gives us more of a sense of agency in compromising scenarios than seeking revenge or blaming (*1)”. Again, is this even a “what if”?
What if … we show up in this collapsing world by saying yes to whatever Life offers, loving it, and wisely making the most of it.
What if … we step fully into our maturity and wisdom so we can serve up the support and guidance needed for all to cross this threshold.
What if … we create an Island of Sanity … Islands of sanity are intentional spaces, conversations, even ways of being, in which calm, considered, accepting, forgiving responses and approaches are lived out. These islands are not places where we fix the whole system. They are where we preserve human values, sanity, and coherence in small communities in advance of the chaos ahead. They exist as a gentle invitation for anyone who chooses to lift that scab of denial and finds themselves tumbling into that lonely, frightening realm most of you reading this are in. Hey, you’re welcome over here. We totally get where you’re at, and we’re already working through the dark, deep, important questions you’re asking (*1). Again, we know this to be true.
As antidotes to fear, Islands of Sanity are everywhere. Seek one out, create your own, or join one of mine — my Cauchon neighbourhood, my family and friends, my yoga sangha. Yoga teaches us to be the change we wish to see in the world. This is where growth is truly limitless.
*Sources:
1. Wilson, Sarah (2026). I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World, Hay House UK.
2. Turchin, Peter (2023). End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites and the Path of Political Disintegration, Allen Lane.
For more yoga actions and teachings, click here. Namaste.