The inevitable is coming fast. We know it in our bones—and it’s past time to face it. The
highly anticipated follow-up to Hospicing Modernity : how we activate responsibility nurture
care and grow up in the face of collapse—includes reflections exercises and prompts
Climate collapse social crisis the decline of modernity: colonialism capitalism and our
full-faced denial have ushered in an urgent new era. Hospicing Modernity asked us to grow up
step up and show up for our communities and the living Earth. Outgrowing Modernity helps us
make sense of where we’re going—and deepen what’s possible—in a time of endings. Vanessa
Machado De Oliveira helps us face the logics and workings of modernity bringing us to
clear-eyed terms with its expiration. She explores the impacts of colonialism as
neurocolonization : an oppressive function of modernity that rewires how we think act imagine
and adapt. These impacts are wide-ranging and run deep: they cut us off from our natural ways
of building community and seeking pleasure. They choke our ability to cope with trauma and
embrace complexity. And they trap us in a state of artificial comfort and denial that keeps us
from collectively growing up—even when our existence demands it. This book invites you to
interrupt 5 lies that neurocolonization instills in us—beliefs (and behaviors) that have
condition us to think we’re owed the following regardless of others or the planet: Moral and
epistemic self-righteous authority Unrestricted unaccountable autonomy Arbitrating truth law
and common sense Affirming one's virtues innocence and purity Exploitative appropriation and
accumulation of various forms of capital In moving away from these ingrained worldviews we
can choose instead to develop 4 capacities necessary to our—and Earth’s—survival: sobriety
maturity discernment and responsibility . Machado De Oliveira moves beyond critique into a
praxis of strategic disinvestment: one that invites us to recognize what no longer serves us
and reinvest in nurturing structures and lifeways that restore our knowledge in the value of
life for life’s sake.
