Pakistani American academic, Ahmed Afzaal, an associate professor of religion at Concordia College in Minnesota, departed from his research and writing on religion when he published Teaching at Twilight: The Meaning of Education in the Age of Collapse (Cascade Books, 2023).
Our paths intersected, Afzaal and I, when in 2012 I co-edited an issue of the journal Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture and Ecology on Islam and Ecology. We accepted and edited Afzaal’s contribution on the “Disenchantment of the Environmental Crisis” (see my own article on Shari’a and Ecology).
I completely identify with Afzaal’s choice to write this book. The environmental crisis keeps worsening, and in spite of the world’s scientists’ dire warnings, it seems that the governments of nations that are most responsible for the catastrophic acceleration of global warming are the ones most dragging their feet. In fact, the president of the one nation most responsible for the present crisis denies there is any crisis at all and has doubled down on the use of fossil fuels while sidelining clean energy production! I myself have posted a good deal on environmental topics.
As the title of his work indicates, Afzaal is issuing two related calls to his main audience, fellow university professors, and by implication, to all educators. The first is to have them reflect on the purpose of education itself. His answer to that question is simple. If love is the greatest value—which he believes it is, then education’s raison d’être is “to promote the welfare and well-being of the younger generation” (p. 74). This is not happening at the present, he avers. Why not? And this is the second message: because curricula have stayed the same for decades and decades, and they make no mention of the dystopian future awaiting these students. In a nutshell, the world’s twin crises of runaway capitalist economic growth and the resulting catastrophic destruction of our planet’s climate and biodiversity are quickly moving human civilization as we know it toward its impending collapse. Yet our educational institutions make little or no mention of it.
This is indeed a bold and jolting double message Afzaal aims to pass on to his fellow educators. But Teaching at Twilight’s emphasis is less about the collapse itself (and even less about potential solutions) and more on the crucially salutary role teachers could play in the lives of today’s students. Let me then rephrase the two messages: 1) the present trajectory of the global economy gravely threatens the planet’s carrying capacity, and so we are headed toward a collapse of the entire system resulting in untold human suffering; 2) not equipping the younger generation for this future is irresponsible and ethically reprehensible. Yet how can we prepare students for the world they will soon be experiencing? If we do our job well, ponders Afzaal, we could potentially transform that inevitable crash into a softer landing.
We’re now in overshoot and the Collapse is inevitable
Afzaal is right: the research is definitive and the literature is abundant: the global economy can only stay afloat if it keeps growing as it has up to now, and yet it is already consuming the Earth’s finite resources, unraveling its climate and generating so much waste that we have already overshot (we’re in “overshoot”) the Earth’s biocapacity. Ice is melting at exponential rates from both polar caps, causing sea levels to rise several feet in the next decades and forcing whole cities to migrate; superstorms will grow more frequent and ever more intense, as will droughts, floods and fires, and the number of climate change refugees will rise to several hundred million, wreaking havoc on poorer and richer countries alike.
And if that were not destabilizing enough, consider the quandary of our global capitalist economy. Its modus operandi goes back to the industrial revolution of the 18th century. See Afzaal’s definition of this “Business-As-Usual” in operation: “industrial capitalism with continuous economic growth, coupled with a culture and a lifestyle whose prime directive is ever-increasing consumption” (p. 20). This has two implications, he argues:
“First, while both capitalism and industrialism can exist independently of each other, it’s really the synergy of capital and technology that has brought the modern world into existence. Second, I mentioned ‘economic growth’ separately just for emphasis; in reality, the imperative to constantly expand the economy is already built into the logic of capitalism. The same applies to consumerism, which is absolutely necessary for maintaining the economic growth without which capitalism is inconceivable” (p. 20-1).
So we must all come clean on this: through our own daily activities and choices, we maintain and support this Business-As-Usual system. And the higher our income and the more lavish our life-style, the more we contribute to the degradation and destruction of the biosphere that makes our human life possible in the first place. That is our current “Predicament,” warns Afzaal. And it’s speeding up the advent of a new “Great Depression,” and this time in tandem with apocalyptic climate effects.
If reading this is causing your blood pressure to rise and increasing your anxiety, you are not alone. And we’re not likely to derive any comfort from sentences like, “All past civilizations have collapsed, and so will our current global civilization” (p. 222). Afzaal is very aware of this, and he has peppered throughout his book little boxes on the page that tell the reader to stop and reflect; also, to get up, walk around to relax their muscles, and then jot down their thoughts and feelings in a notebook. Another helpful feature for readers is his bulleted summary of 3 to 5 main points at the end of each chapter. What’s more, his chapters are short and very readable.
Right brain, left brain
According to common parlance, engineers operate out of their left brain, while artists do so out their right brain. More recent brain research has shown that, actually, “both hemispheres are involved in everything that the brain does” (pp. 98-9). Thus, any function carried out by the brain is carried out by both hemispheres. But the difference comes with the type of attention needed to perform a particular function. “The left hemisphere produces ‘narrow-beam, highly focused attention,’” like a bird hopping on the grass looking for some worms or seeds. By contrast, the right hemisphere displays a “broad, sustained vigilance.” That same bird, while focused on feeding itself by pecking at the grass, also remains alert to potential predators by quickly looking up and scanning its surroundings. It needs both these types of attention for survival.
In the same way, human beings have always used both hemispheres of their brains to both survive and thrive as a species. Their left brain’s single focus has enabled them to problem-solve and expand their “practical rationality” so as to create a variety of tools to better their environments and organize their communal living. In addition, contextual behavioral science tells us that, unique to our species, we learn also through “contingencies of meaning”—that is, through language and cognition, we put to work our capacity for “symbolic learning.” While practical rationality allows us to learn from the immediate causal chain produced by an action (just as dogs and other animals are capable of doing), many actions produce a second causal chain, one that may be discerned only in retrospect, simply because of time lapse. That is where humans shine. Their right brain uses its sustained attention over time to acquire symbolic learning.
In this way, along with our human capacity for practical rationality, we deploy “substantive rationality,” and as a result we have evolved religious and moral traditions, with each culture developing its particular trove of rules, guidelines, proverbs, myths, which all contribute to its repository of wisdom, allowing its people to lead a good life. Afzaal explains:
“These teachings almost universally emphasize the importance of delayed gratification, self-control, empathy, altruism, sharing, reciprocity, and prioritizing the distant future over the here and now—either for the benefit of the ‘seventh generation’ or one’s own salvation in an afterlife. Similarly, there are prohibitions against waste and greed, against taking more than what is truly needed, against selfishness of all kinds, and against conspicuous consumption” (p. 93).
Thus, in the eighteenth century in particular, with the benefits of the industrial revolution, Europeans drilled down on their practical rationality and sidelined their substantive rationality, either because they thought it had produced outdated notions and superstitions, or because it impeded “progress” and their conquest of other nations. Unfortunately, that mode of industrialization and capitalist organization that requires insatiable consumerism, greed and capital accumulation benefitting the haves and impoverishing the have-nots, has spread globally. Now it is on an ominous trajectory that threatens our survival as a species, and perhaps even life on Earth.
Injecting values in our teaching
It is urgent that humanity restores the rightful balance between our practical and substantive rationality, insists Afzaal. But Business-as-Usual is protected by extremely powerful business interests and a class of billionaires around the world who have a vested interest in the status quo. “Moreover, higher education is part of Business-as-Usual, which is why it must produce the human resources in accordance with what the market needs” (p. 84).
Those are systemic issues that, as individuals, we are powerless to change. But university professors are best placed to sow seeds of awareness of what is to come in their students and the motivation to resist the Business-as-Usual system that currently runs much of their lives. But most academics are not aware, or only partially aware if they are at all, of the coming Collapse of our global civilization. I have no room here to delve into all the reasons Afzaal gives for this. Part of the problem is that academics are forced into silos of specialization and therefore struggle to get the big picture (a right-brain substantive reason function). Another is that they are overworked and poorly paid. Who wants to add to their already heavy load? Let’s admit that to ask someone to change their whole worldview, deal with the added anxiety it creates, and then find ways to tweak their teaching in a way that can bring their students on board—that is a “big ask”!
And yet, if teaching is truly a vocation, and not just a job, then we should find it in ourselves to prepare the younger generation to mitigate the worst harms of today’s Predicament and thereby, if possible, “to manage our [human] response to the ongoing Collapse so that it proceeds in a relatively peaceful, humane, and equitable manner” (pp. 189-90). And it is not as if Gen Z is unaware of some aspects of this Collapse. Think of the global impact of one Swedish school girl (age 15) who in 2018 initiated a strike in front of the Swedish Parliament. Greta Thunberg ended up sitting alone on the steps of the Riksdag during three weeks instead of going to school, holding a sign that said, “School Strike for Climate.” Remarkably, that action sparked a global youth movement calling for decarbonization—the so-called “Friday for Future” movement.
I remembered hearing of a study that documented the eco-anxiety of the youth. I found it. I was published in December 2021 by the journal The Lancet (Planetary Health). The article (“Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey”) to which nine specialists contributed, analyzed a survey of 10,000 youths, ages 16 to 25, from ten countries (Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, India, Nigeria, Philippines, Portugal, the UK, and the USA). The Findings in the Summary are worth quoting:
“Respondents across all countries were worried about climate change (59% were very or extremely worried and 84% were at least moderately worried). More than 50% reported each of the following emotions: sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty. More than 45% of respondents said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning, and many reported a high number of negative thoughts about climate change (eg, 75% said that they think the future is frightening and 83% said that they think people have failed to take care of the planet). Respondents rated governmental responses to climate change negatively and reported greater feelings of betrayal than of reassurance. Climate anxiety and distress were correlated with perceived inadequate government response and associated feelings of betrayal.”
Perhaps we can gratefully look back to one or two teachers who inspired us to learn better, or believe in our own abilities, or even nurture our sense of idealism in serving others less fortunate than ourselves. Teaching at Twilight is a must-read for all educators, and honestly, for all of us who have a voice in our children and grandchildren’s lives. As we seek to read more and educate ourselves about our current planetary Predicament, more than anything we are called to pass on a different worldview and model viable alternatives to the pressures of consumerism by living simpler, more communal lives built on sharing. To this end, I believe that those of us who are people of faith have a wealth of spiritual values and sustenance to help us resist Business-as-Usual, love God, care for his creation, and love our neighbors, whoever they may be. We should be taking the lead in this urgent and important task.