...I think that’s really something that has been missing. I think the movement has lost its feminine side. I have a bit of a thing about how we have to stop looking at the Earth from space – like with the astronaut’s eye view. I understand that theme of the planet being fragile as a breakthrough in environmental consciousness, but now I think we need to get over the idea that we’re hovering over the planet and can see it from space, and get back down in the dirt! ...
...we shouldn’t be surprised that there is a collapse in the belief in climate change on the right, because it is more of a challenge to that ideological world view. One thing that the women’s movement did really well was to understand that if you’re going to critique patriarchy, you’re essentially critiquing the world we all grew up with, right? But if you do that, you have to be around to pick up the pieces. You can’t just explode someone’s world view and walk out – “go be an activist!” I think it’s intensely political, that that component is so embedded here [in the Totnes, UK Transition movement] and that there’s so much collective wisdom around the psychology of change.
...the place where I had seen a Transition process up close and dramatically was when I was in Argentina for a couple of years, with the economic crisis that started in 2001. I was realising talking to this group of women today, all of whom are psychotherapists, that one of the things about Argentina that makes it really interesting is that it has the highest percentage of psychotherapists per capita! I think it was part of the reason why there was such a sophisticated political consciousness and a lot of psychologists and psychiatrists in Argentina are activists, and they do diagnose the wider society beyond the patient! That discussion of everyone understanding that they’re up against fear is quite unique.