Hospicing Modernity: Parting with Harmful Ways of Living

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The future for humanity is uncertain, but knowing who we really are and where we came from at least gives us a chance to build a kinder, more beautiful world. Modernity, she claims, is not about being contemporary or cutting edge, nor is it about technology or science. For fans of adrienne maree brown, Sherri Mitchell, and Arundhati Roy, Hospicing Modernity challenges our assumptions and dares to ask more of us, for the sake of us all. A destabilised climate, pollution, inequality and endless war are all testimony to the failings of modernity. She asks us to imagine a future that is free of the cruel constraints of modernity and then pass through modernity’s death to embrace that future.

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. 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 not an ordinary book and it may not be for everyone: it is a thought experiment that skillfully and creatively creates conditions for us to shed our arrogance and to get our proverbial shit together. 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.It does not suggest that we become Buddhists or socialists or Scientologists or indeed any type of “ism” to solve our problems. 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 book “ Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism” was published in September 2021. 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. A hospice is a place of kindness, not only for those about to die but also for those who will survive them.

This book is most certainly for you, and although the ideas may be new, they will resonate with the deep disquiet within you. The reader (and the world at large) must now make a choice: does our agency lie in tentatively plaiting the gloom we’re in, to make sense of our predicament and to try and grapple with it, or do we default to the brilliant intellect and its offer of comfortable certainty? 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. This is an outstanding book—truly original and profoundly perceptive in its contents and arguments, and multimodal in its pedagogic approach.

It is a book that is not only thought provoking but also helpful in guiding genuinely worthwhile discussions.

She explains how our habits, behaviors, and belief systems hold us back…and why it’s time now to gradually disinvest. There are clues to how we find the paths that lead to the unknown world ahead, beyond the end of the world as we know it. Rather, we should recognise that modernity is expiring, that it no longer has anything to offer and that we must move it to the hospice where it can gracefully die.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.