Hospicing Modernity: Parting with Harmful Ways of Living

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We take more than we give; we inoculate ourselves in positive self-regard while continuing to make harmful choices; we wreak irreparable havoc on the ecosystems, habitats, and beings with whom we share our planet. The author puts it beautifully but bluntly: she lovingly does not care about ‘what’ you think: your delusions of ends and means and your sense of self-importance are part of the problem. The claim at the heart of this book is that modernity is an all-embracing mindset that dominates the contemporary world.

It is a book of acute vision and insight, and taps into that most underused faculty we so desperately need to attend to ‘the end of the world as we know it’: the imagination. Machado de Oliveira breaks down archetypes of cognitive dissonance—the do-gooder who does “good enough,” then retreats to business as usual; the incognito capitalist who, at first glance, may seem like a radical change-maker—and asks us to dig deeper and exist differently. This is an outstanding book—truly original and profoundly perceptive in its contents and arguments, and multimodal in its pedagogic approach.Instead, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira presents us with a challenge: to grow up, step up, and show up for ourselves, our communities, and the living Earth, and to interrupt the modern behavior patterns that are killing the planet we’re part of. Machado de Oliveira breaks down archetypes of cognitive dissonance--the do-gooder who does "good enough," then retreats to business as usual; the incognito capitalist who, at first glance, may seem like a radical change-maker--and asks us to dig deeper and exist differently. I invite you to read this book as a ritual that can prepare us to do the work that is necessary to interrupt the harm humanity is inflicting on itself and on the planet.

Publication dates are subject to change (although this is an extremely uncommon occurrence overall).

For Indigenous communities, the teachings that are necessary for engagement with sacred plants are very rigorous and require a lot of discipline. It’s a book for the future, yet written to meet us where we are at right now as individuals living with trauma and facing ethical dilemmas about what it means to take meaningful actions under conditions of complexity. Asking the question ‘What if racism, colonialism, and all other forms of toxic and contagious divisions are preventable social diseases? A destabilised climate, pollution, inequality and endless war are all testimony to the failings of modernity. Instead, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira presents us with a challenge: to grow up, step up, and show up for ourselves, our communities, and the living Earth, and to interrupt the modern behavior patterns that are killing the planet we're part of.

And right there—my fellow modern citizen—right there, in the author’s cosmological rudeness, lies her deepest medicine. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.Proceeds from the sale of this book will be forwarded to Indigenous communities in Brazil who are part of our broader network. She explains how our habits, behaviors, and belief systems hold us back…and why it’s time now to gradually disinvest. Instead, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira presents us with a challenge: to grow up, step up, and show up for ourselves, our communities, and the living Earth, and to interrupt the modern behaviour patterns that are killing the planet we’re part of.

It is fitting that the author is someone who genuinely has a foot outside of the tent of modernity and can bring a unique perspective to its study. Beyond a mere critique of modernity, this is a book written for us as people who struggle with the everyday manifestations of modern power.

Navigating her rigorous work is an exercise in defamiliarizing modernity as the air we breathe, the site of our persistent illnesses, and the earthly thing that can give way to something else. It examines a range of urgent philosophical issues about modernity and its deep contradictions, and the ways in which its inevitable demise might be steered toward more morally and culturally productive futures.