Welcome to Unravelling Together

Hi, I’m Olivia, author of Unravelling Together. I imagine you’re wondering: what are we unravelling? 

I recently became friends with Rachel Donald, the indomitable mind behind Planet: Critical (go, read and listen). Amongst the many eye and mind-opening conversations we had together, she introduced me to the concept of ‘The Great Unravelling’: the idea that our established systems and structures are collapsing under the weight of interconnected societal, political, and environmental crises. 

It resonated with me as the phrase that captures how so many people I speak to have been feeling, not only about what’s happening at a macro level but also at the micro level of our own personal sense of how the world should be and how we should be in it. And it’s bloody scary. 

It’s so scary, and in many ways incomprehensible, that it can feel an impossible concept to engage with. But you know what’s even scarier? Continuing to live our lives as we are and watching it all happen. 

Why Now?

Relatively speaking, I come from a position of immense privilege and have benefited hugely from a lot of our established systems and structures. And yet so often in recent years I have looked around at the world in despair. I’ve struggled to see the positives or to maintain any of the optimism that I’d previously viewed as an important part of who I am.

Earlier this year, I decided to believe one very important and life changing thing: despair doesn’t help anyone. I believe that the most important thing that I can do right now is to get positive. We have no choice but to engage if we want to use this moment of crisis and take the opportunity it presents to rebuild systems and structures that actually work a lot better for all of us. 

When I talk to people about this, I’m commonly met with two reactions:

1. The systems are too entrenched and the people benefitting from them will never change
2. I want to do something but I don’t know what or how

Both very valid responses. However, they both feed the self-perpetuating and self-fulfilling narrative that we are powerless. That either our current systems cannot be unravelled, or that their unravelling is something that happens to us, not something that we have any agency in shaping. 

I want to challenge that narrative and to help people to believe that, together, we can affect change. I want to do this because I think it’s incredibly important to adjust our attitudes from thinking that, just because we can’t do everything, we can’t do anything. It suits the people benefitting from our current systems for us to feel powerless and divided, but it absolutely doesn’t suit me and I bet it doesn’t suit you either. 

So, if we can actively unravel, and do it collectively, we can then ‘re-ravel’ something better. Let’s unpick the stories we tell ourselves about how the world must be and reimagine one that prioritises human and planetary health. 

I believe that the first step to unravelling is to start talking to each other and to realise that we’re not alone in wanting a different future. As Brian Eno says in his introduction to Jon Alexander’s brilliant book, Citizens, “Social revolutions happen in two phases. The first is when everybody realises the current system isn’t working any longer. The second is when everybody realises that everybody else has realised it too.” 

I’m not claiming to know what to do or to have the answers, but I’m starting a journey to find some and maybe even to create some. And I’d love to bring as many of you with me as possible. 

What’s this Substack going to be?

If all it ends up being is a way for me to make sense of what I’m learning and to find what individual action I can take, that’s a good outcome. But it would be great if I could inspire a few more of you along the way. 

I intend to use this forum to write about:

• Unpacking our assumptions and understanding about how society currently works 
• Inspiring stories of change makers who are already making a difference and reimagining the status quo
• (Attempting to) digest and summarise complex topics that we need to understand sufficiently to imagine viable alternatives

It’s important for me to say upfront that I will never claim to be the expert and that this isn’t going to be a place for lengthy analysis. I want to write accessible content about the things that have made me think differently. I’ll probably get things wrong along the way and will (try to!) always welcome being told as much by people who know more - that’s all part of the learning journey. 

And I will attempt to always end each piece with the one thing that you can go and do after you’ve read it.

So what’s the one thing you can do today?

Well, this one’s going to be obvious and, while it might not change the world immediately, hopefully it’s a good start: subscribe, reach out to chat and, please join me on this journey. 

If there’s even the smallest part of you that believes that change is possible, stick around and let’s see what we can achieve, together.