Thunderdome or Eden?

Wendy over at Home is asks “What would you be willing to give up.” While I applaud what she’s doing, I think the question itself is telling. What would you be willing to give up? I’d ask, what are you willing to give up, today? and what have you given up already? That’s why I applaud the 90% folks in so far as they really reduce stuff, which can pretty much broadly be lumped into consumption. I prefer that the question be out of the hypothetical and about what you are willing to do right now to meet the challenges as you see them. Because for sure, we also see the challenges differently.

One thing I don’t see how people can not see is that there is a crash and it is going on now. So this isn’t going to remain an intellectual exercise even for people who think themselves very well off indeed.

What would I be willing to give up? In the hypothetical the thing I would most LIKE to give up would be cars. How would this happen? A Kunstler type crash, maybe. If there is no gas, there are no cars. But also, as prices rise, public transportation (private businesses that transport the public, not government boondoggles) should become feasible. I should be able to walk about three miles and catch a bus which would be totally cool by me. Also, there could be bulk delivery services for those of us in the boonies like this -- most probably someone who lives out here who goes to town every so often and brings back everything everyone needs for a little cut of it. Another favorite of mine is horses of course. I think with our geography, saddle and pack horses make more sense than buggies by and large. I am ready to be wrangler there. Trains could provide efficient transportation for places like Lowe's, Wal-Mart, and Southern States (feed store), all of which happen to be directly on railroad spurs already. Of course, just in time marketing wouldn't work anymore. And Wal-Mart might become a mom-&-pop again and storekeepers would live in their shops. Whatever it is, it certainly won’t be what it is now. But my point is there wouldn't have to be no gasoline for no personal passenger vehicles on the road to be a reality. As it is now, however, we must maintain a vehicle, and occasionally fuel it.

What I have given up, the one thing that I think makes absolutely the most difference in the most dimensions is personal income. Last year our income, for a family of six, was about $6K. That is very little, let me tell you, and hopefully this year it will be a bit more than that. At that level there simply isn’t even the temptation to consume. Still I’ve maintained a stockpile of food, and we’ve increased substantially our every day eating off the place. Money has had an artificially high value for far too long and in its devaluation we find that real skills really are valuable, far more valuable than cash.

There are, of course, tons of other things we’ve “given up” -- but the truth of it is that it is embracing a positive way of life rather than giving up a negative one.

Maybe I’m just the Klingon on board the ship that is disintegrating, saying, “Invigorating, isn‘t it?” Yes, that’s it, CG is a Klingon. It is like the Olympic games, except for real. The tsunami, the cyclone, is coming and what you choose right now will make a difference in how you make it through. Or don’t. If you are going to trust the government to look after you, you are going to end up in the Superdome. But for those who got themselves back to the garden, it could be a post-industrial utopia. Or something quite like it.