How we build an Ecocivilization - Metacrisis Salon #11
It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. Jeremy Lent disagrees.
Salon #9 asked whether empire is collapsing. Salon #10 asks: what do we build in its place?
Described by The Guardian as "one of the greatest thinkers of our age," Lent has spent the last decade tracing how the patterns of meaning we've inherited — extraction, endless growth, separation from nature — are driving our civilization toward collapse. His award-winning books The Patterning Instinct and The Web of Meaning diagnosed the crisis. His upcoming Ecocivilization: Making a World that Works for All (May 2026) lays out what comes next.
Not reform. Not incremental policy fixes. A fundamentally different civilization — one modeled on nature's own design principles: justice, mutuality, diversity, and symbiosis. From the global economy to housing to agriculture, every major system redesigned to work as a coherent whole.
This isn't utopian fantasy. It's a concrete, researched framework for a world that actually works for all life.
We'll be joined by:
Jeremy Lent — Author of The Patterning Instinct, The Web of Meaning, and the upcoming Ecocivilization. Founder of the Deep Transformation Network and the nonprofit Liology Institute. Founding member of the Ecocivilization Coalition.
TBD — We're looking for you! We want to pair Jeremy with a NYC-based thinker, practitioner, or organizer whose work complements or creates productive tension with his vision. If you know someone — or are someone — who can hold a room, go deep, and bring a grounded local perspective, reach out. We'd love to hear your recommendations.
Together, we'll explore what it actually looks like to build something new — not after collapse, but now.
⚡️ Volunteer Early Arrival Starting at 4:00 PM, we'll open the space for volunteers to help cook and set up. If you'd like to contribute to shaping the container — cooking, connecting, and preparing the room — we'd love to have you. Volunteers get in free. Just send a message to let us know you're coming early.
🗓 Evening Flow
6:30 PM — Arrival & mingling
7:00 PM — Welcome & framing
7:05 PM — Jeremy Lent: Presentation + Q&A
8:00 PM — Break (10 min)
8:10 PM — Speaker TBD: Presentation + Q&A
8:40 PM — Facilitated dialogue between speakers (20 min)
9:00 PM — Group discussion (25 min)
9:25 PM — Closing 9:30 PM — Mingling continues
Community-made vegan & gluten-free dinner, snacks and drinks provided!
Searching for volunteer facilitators and cooks!