Is XR ready to die?

To be very brief, I am more interested in the question, what is emerging from our current perplexities (whether you see it as ashes, wreckage, compost or vitality)?

Yeah, not an easy question to answer and probably yet more sensitive. Honestly I don't think all that much is actually emerging yet in practice beyond a rally to support the general effort in September (which seems like a good thing to me!); my feeling is anything more than this is latent in the form of ideas, and might emerge post-September. (Possible exceptions to this being 'Beyond Politics', and the continued separate lives of Animal Rebellion and XR Youth. And the whole colourful international tableau)

The truth of the upcoming action is whether XR is prepared to pay the price so that others can live? I draw upon the analogy of the wounded animal being more dangerous now it knows it is in danger. If the government and it's entrenched political party system awakens to the fact that it is no longer able to maintain the status quo, it's business as usual modality, it will lash out to protect it's vested interested oligarchs. The closer we get to change the more dangers the situation becomes. Then the divide and conqueror techniques of mass control will be implemented against XR. I say once this starts we know that we are on the right path. Change is inevitable and if we are not prepared for it then we are doomed. Our regenerative principles and values are our bedrock upon which we were founded. For as long as we hold firm to them and build upon them in our upcoming struggle then we will have paid a price worth paying.

XR needs to refocus back to source. That said, it is necessary to consciously acknowledge related issues that exist, but don't get distracted by these issues which relate in so many ways (eg. covid, black lives matter, animal welfare, feminism etc). Ie. after a brief acknowledgement of other issues and that they are important become tough conversationally and refuse to talk about them anymore and return to being focused on global warming. EG." I am only interested in how to reduce greenhouse gases and civil disobedience actions which compel government to address this" .

To me it would be a waste of energy for XR to disintegrate. It think its combination of expressed approach/philosophy, structure, networks of relationships, and even 'brand recognition' are very valuable, well worth keeping. And I don't think other movements like US Civil Rights or Ghandian independence made progress by disintegrating, even though I understand they also had their struggles and controversies. Should we all be working harder to learn the lessons of 'This is an Uprising' by the Englers? I felt they had a really comprehensive and insightful analysis of what's required to make causes like ours succeed. Perhaps more efforts to make a range of learning/training materials (from simple intro to in depth explorations) would help us find better ways forward, whatever happens in September?

I think it depends heavily on what you/we mean by disintegration. As I understand the 'Purposeful Disintegration' described in WWAWWA, it wouldn't (intentionally) forfeit really any of what you say beyond structure, and even this only partially, and wouldn't really be equivalent to the US/Indian comparisons

Yes I think I'd endorse all that. I liked WWAWWA's analysis, and I strongly feel XR needs to keep reinventing itself anyway, just to keep up in this rapidly-evolving scene.

Agreed! It makes me wonder if our early successes sort of stand in the way of that willingness to reinvent: I've met plenty of people who are steadfast in their confidence that XR's 'theory of change' etc. is the perfect approach, and so see most/all talk of this kind of evolution as redundant. (They may well be right, of course, but yeah I'd agree with your view on this)

I think we should focus strongly, if not wholly, on Joanna Macy's The Work that Reconnects. People are generally in a state of despair, and they need help to individually and collectively deal with those feelings, which are huge and currently tie down their great potential for love and engagement which could be released. It is in the heart and soul of each person that the changes are needed. XR started so well in putting Joanna's ideas at the heart and start of its plans, but it has not kept that as central.

The shared despair and fear, which on some level seems universal, and which covid has made more prominent for each of us, means that this is something that almost all people could be open to looking at. And it transcends all divisions.

I haven't read Macy (yet) but I guess my question would be to ask what caused us to lose touch with regenerative culture in the first place, and how we can stop those forces us from this work which I agree is essential