The Great Unravelling
Excerpted from the forthcoming book, The Relationship Revolution: Weaving Wholeness in the Great Unravelling, by G. Scott Brown:
The multi-dimensional tapestry that holds the web of life together—including our human existence within that matrix—is unravelling. There are environmental, social, and political dimensions. There are psychological and spiritual dimensions, and they are all interwoven. But the weave is loosening, the integrity of the whole weakening, leading to a collective crisis that threatens the existence of life on Earth as we know it. This is the Great Unravelling.
At the most fundamental level, this collective crisis can be seen as an unravelling of beliefs and mindsets rooted in the illusion that we as humans are separate from each other, from the Earth, and from the spiritual dimensions of existence. It shows up in the inevitable collapse of systems and ways of being that were never sustainable because of the various ways they violate people and the planet. In a reality characterized by relationship and interconnectedness, it was never going to be possible to continue to operate so at odds with that inherent wholeness. The root meaning of the word insane is not whole. The illusion of separateness is the fundamental insanity underpinning the dominant paradigm, and because of the failure to respond accordingly and change course, we find ourselves facing a confluence of crises and existential threats.
The most consequential example of the illusion of separateness at work is the devaluing and undermining of the Earth’s capacity to support life. Humanity has already overshot that capacity, and given that there is no meaningful course correction in sight, the degradation and imbalance will continue.1 By definition, when a population exceeds the carrying capacity of its environment, that population is destined to experience mass die-offs.
Catastrophic climate disruption may prove the vehicle for that die-off. There is 99% consensus within the scientific community that global warming has us heading toward catastrophe. The fact that the most powerful (and polluting) countries in the world block international action, while also failing to act at home, represents separateness writ large. The same could be said about the species extinction crisis, with more than one million species on track for extinction in the coming decades.2 The Center for Biological Diversity sums up that tragedy well, “Each time a species goes extinct, the world around us unravels a bit.”
It is only through a profound belief in separateness from the Earth—of human superiority and entitlement—that we could somehow consider ourselves immune from the trajectory of extinction and the unravelling it represents.
Organizing society as if humans were separate from nature establishes a baseline from which the multiplicity of other expressions of separateness arise. Many of those who, like myself, have studied how our physiological and psychological development as humans is influenced by the natural world think of the separation from nature as the original trauma, the original insanity.
Through the belief that we are separate from the Earth, we came to treat our life support system as a commodity to be bought and sold, paved, plowed, mined, and otherwise despoiled. It’s a level of disconnection that breeds a profound existential homelessness and deep insecurity, which, in turn, feed further disconnection, division, and desire for domination.
The phrase, The Great Unravelling, was coined by the Buddhist scholar, activist, and author Joanna Macy.3 Other pioneering activists, including David Korten, a prominent critic of corporate globalization, and researchers at the Post Carbon Institute have used it as well.4 Others simply call it collapse. The polycrisis is another way to talk about the confluence of crises, while the term metacrisis points toward the interior aspects (the consciousness) underlying the predicament.5 All of these labels point toward a systemic failure on a global scale, not attributable to “bad” people but to an oppressive, dominant worldview that is disconnected from the wholeness of the reality we inhabit.
A big picture view exposes the ways in which disconnection from the whole epitomizes the dominant paradigm and its toxic essence. It is inherent in the degradation of the Earth and climate, nuclear weapons proliferation and perpetual wars, entrenched patriarchy and white supremacy, predatory globalized capitalism and gross inequality, and violence in all of its many forms. Disconnection from the whole is plain to see in systems such as the profit-driven health care we know today, global trade with total reliance on fossil fuels, industrial-scale agriculture dependent on chemical poisons, and an overall economic system based on continual growth and the exploitation of workers and the environment.
To say that systems and civilizations premised on separateness and exploitation are unsustainable at the core is not enough. They are murderous. In Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire, the political scientist David Michael Smith finds that the U.S. empire alone is responsible, or shares responsibility, for close to 300 million deaths,6 a death toll that rises virtually every day. While on the truly universal scale, the mindset of domination, and the systems arising out of it, are undermining life itself on planet Earth. These systems are not broken! They are doing exactly what they were designed to do: extract as much short-term wealth out of people and the planet as possible, as quickly as possible.
The illusion of separateness doesn’t only run from the top down; it permeates society as the big lie which so many of us live in our day-to-day functioning with our many comforts, conveniences, and distractions. Even with the feedback signals that are registered as more and more people experience the impacts of climate chaos, economic insecurity, authoritarianism, and violence, the wheels grind on as those at the top continue to reap their short-term benefits, while so many others continue under the spell of the status quo.
Our collective predicament and the inertia in addressing it are not surprising. As disconnected from wholeness as we are, insecurity and disempowerment are built in—and this is not a strong foundation for bold, collaborative action, much less the changing of underlying worldviews.
We’ve been operating way out of balance for a long time, not only with the natural world, but with actual human needs and longings, such as those for safety, peace, health, dignity, connection, justice, and belonging.
The old (but still dominant) paradigm thrives on what goes against healthy human relating. It thrives on us-versus-them thinking, self-centeredness, and fear. It creates conflict for the sake of conflict, while carefully avoiding actual conflict resolution. It is utterly disconnected from the health and wellbeing of the whole. Its collapse is inevitable because it represents disastrous short-term thinking and the dead end of endless conflict, war, and environmental destruction.
Short-term thinking is baked into the political systems that have failed to seriously address existential threats. Those systems, too, are now unravelling. Global insecurity is leading to the rise of authoritarians who live the illusion of separateness without apology, and turn what once may have been nearly unthinkable into reality. Here in the U.S., the degree of Donald Trump’s power grab, disregard for the Constitution, weaponization of the federal government, and full scale attack on social programs—with the support of a majority in Congress and the Supreme Court—has been shocking to anyone who thought it couldn’t happen here.
But our shared predicament is much bigger than any particular president or weakness in the two-party system. Throughout history, the state itself has been the central player in perpetuating violence and separateness. Toward the end of his life in the 1890s, Leo Tolstoy forcefully made the case that people all over the world want peace and it is governments that won’t let them have it. We see it today in genocide and ever-expanding military budgets, in mass surveillance and the hardening of borders, in propaganda which instills fear of “the other,” and in the overall deepening of divisions.
Along with the unravelling of government function also comes the unravelling of government dysfunction. Acknowledging this is part of the big picture and helps us see certain aspects of the unravelling as necessary. Can we stay present with the unravelling of the helpful services provided by the health care system while also recognizing its disconnection from actual wellness, its increasingly prohibitive costs, and the costs to the Earth of its high-tech, plastics-based pollution? Can we bear witness to disruptions of global trade regimes, as well as to the potential benefits from reductions in fossil fuel pollution and the exploitation of workers? In terms of the U.S. as a whole, can we hold the paradox of sadness over the authoritarian attack on democracy, while also admitting that the U.S. has never been a true bastion of freedom and democracy? Holding paradox as creative tension helps us to stay awake and empowered in the chaos and discomfort.
To live in right relationship with the Earth and each other has always been our most basic task. The illusion of separateness handicapped that project a long time ago. Now, here in the age of consequences, we have the opportunity to get honest about the challenge. We can see the unravelling of systems rooted in the degradation of the Earth and the domination of people, as necessary and even lifesaving in the long run. With an understanding of both the crisis and the opportunity, we have the incentive we need for reimagining ourselves and our ways of being. We have the opportunity to weave wholeness right here in the midst of the fragmentation and breakdown.
Notes
1. “Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries,” ScienceAdvances, vol. 9, no. 37, Sept. 13, 2023; William Rees, “The Earth Is Telling Us We Must Rethink Our Growth Society,” Post Carbon Institute, April 7, 2020; and William R. Catton, Jr., Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, 1982.
2. Humans Are Driving One Million Species to Extinction, Scientific American, May 6, 2019.
3. Joanna Macy crossed over on July 19, 2025, at the age of 96. She left a lasting legacy that will continue to inspire people around the world. A full biography of Joanna can be found at joannamacy.net, the website dedicated to uplifting and continuing her work.
4. Welcome to the Great Unraveling: Navigating the Polycrisis of Environmental and Social Breakdown, Post Carbon Institute, June 2023.
5. Living in the Metacrisis with Jonathan Rowson, PERSPECTIVA, YouTube, Oct 24, 2023. This 30-minute film offers thoughtful commentary on the metacrisis.
6. U.S. Empire Named Most Murderous Killing Machine In History, CovertAction Magazine, May 30, 2023. See also Caroline Elkins, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire, 2022.