Thinking & Writing in the Shitshow
As I strive to connect more dots, to help un-delude myself, I join forces with others who care and have the courage to imagine better ways of being together in the world.
Hello dear reader. I haven't been posting for a while. Why am I writing here? I write to help me think. I haven't stopped thinking, or writing. Why are you reading this particular newsletter or post? I hope you will let me know.
So much to do, so much is happening. Time is short, attention is scarce. The moment is dire, action is urgent. How does any of this make sense? Maybe that's not the most pertinent question right now. Maybe I need to stop making sense, I ain't go time for that now, and get on with making better decisions today.
My friends and co-conspirators at Absurd Intelligence coined a cogent term for what is others more politely call the Polycrisis: the "multifaceted intersecting shitshow".[1] It all points to the systemic, interconnected nature of our predicaments.
I am fascinated by this evocative expression that we are in a Time Between Worlds.[2] It gives us a sense of our presence at a critical juncture, bearing witness to one of those epic moments in history when things change dramatically from a before to an after. Arguably we always have been, but we believed otherwise. We go around our lives thinking we know what the world is like and we know what we are doing. We are very good at deluding ourselves.
I write to un-delude myself. To wake up from this state of torpor, where one gets on with whatever is at hand while the world burns. What can I do? I am just a person. That's the biggest delusion of all, to think of ourselves as isolated beings. I think therefore I am. No, actually. I am because we are. We exist in a complex web of ever changing relations.
By reading this you become part of my web and I become part of yours. Together we change. The world is something we make as we relate to other beings, places and things. As the great, late David Graeber wrote: “The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.”[3] We see the world through the lens of the values and assumptions which became dominant in our society, among the people we relate to. When we change those values and assumptions, the world changes.
In my day job, I help people in organisations define the values and assumptions which bring them together. How they exist and act as a group, how they relate to others and to each-other, to people within and outside the organisation. In a company, for example: customers, employees, partners and so on. This goes under the umbrella of Brand Strategy. The perception, and the value, of a (company) Brand depends on the application of those fundamental aspects (values, assumptions) to behaviours and actions which build the brand in people's day-to-day experience.
A brand strategy is a story connecting people. It connects the people within a group to each other, and it connects the group to other people outside the group, who may be affected by the actions of the group. This may apply to a company, or a non-profit organisation, but also to a family, clan, community or country.
To share a common understanding of this kind of story, helps us make decisions. It gives people a way to choose together, among multiple possibilities, the course of action which appears more likely to support the values and assumptions at the heart of their story.
In this blog (and public notes) I write about ideas that come through my mind, from experience, reading, living, working and relating to others. I can't stop trying to make sense, but I strive to connect more dots, to help un-delude myself, and join forces with others who care and have the courage to imagine better ways of being together in the world.
- Waterhouse, C. (2025). How time travel is the key to coping with The Shitshow. https://www.absurdintelligence.com/how-time-travel-is-the-key-to-coping-with-the-shitshow/↩︎
- Rowson, J., Pascal, L. (2021). Dispatches from a Time Between Worlds: Crisis and Emergence in Metamodernity. United Kingdom: Perspectiva Press. https://systems-souls-society.com/insight/perspectiva-press/dispatches-from-a-time-between-worlds/↩︎
- Graeber, D. (2024). The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World. United Kingdom: Penguin Books Limited. https://davidgraeber.org/books/the-ultimate-hidden-truth-of-the-world/↩︎
