Hospicing humanity is the recognition that humanity, as currently organized under capitalism and settler-colonial expansion, may be in a process of terminal decline — and that the appropriate response is to care for it through its dissolution.
The hospice metaphor is precise: hospice care does not aim at cure. It aims at dignity, reduced suffering, and honest presence with what is happening. Applied to humanity, this means the project of total liberation does not require believing that the current form of human civilization can be saved. It may involve helping it end with less suffering and more grace.
This is not a position of despair or passivity. Hospice workers are active, skilled, and committed. The shift is in what they are working toward: care within the condition. For those working toward ecological recovery, land return, and the end of domination, “hospicing humanity” names a specific orientation — one that holds the possibility of transformation without requiring optimism about preservation.
Related terms
- Total Liberation — the broader political project this orientation emerges from