4 May 2006 @ 17:15, by jobrown
http://greeningtheapocalypse.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Hello! Let's green the apocalypse
Written by rabbit
Tuesday, 13 December 2005
This website is to help facilitate and document a series of informal self sufficiency and emergency preparedness workshops in Melbourne Australia. Because they usually take place in backyards and loungerooms, they're generally not 'public' events. Take a look around the site, and if you decide you'd like to be involved register as a user for the website.
Greening the apocalypse: notes on 'Enlightened Survivalism'
“Your chances in the next few decades will depend very much on whether your region manages to build local economies, and whether the people living there are willing to shift to frugal, co-operative and self-sufficient ways.”
-- Ted Trainer, University of NSW
[link]
“Political independence and the ability to engage in society has a lot to do with from what position of autonomy do we stand. And if we stand totally dependent on a one or two or three day food supply chain we don't really have any position of political autonomy.”
-- David Holmgren, Permaculture co-orginator
[link]
“Survival preparation should be regarded as a social obligation, one that every individual owes to his family and community and his nation. The nonsurvivalist is simply a poor and irresponsible citizen.”
-- Anonymous
[link]
Yesterday a gentle and thoughtful woman revealed to me that learning about Peak Oil has lead to fantasies of killing – torturing and killing – select people who are in a position to mitigate some of the worst impacts of resource depletion, but do nothing.
I recognised this feeling, near enough, and I surely wasn't repulsed or shocked. Numbed by convenience and distractions too often, these kind of emotions seem a bit like a rare contraband, something of truth and value. Disturbed and misdirected or not, they at least match in intensity what intellectually we know we should be feeling. In every direction forests are destroyed, oceans die and children starve to death. Meanwhile the industrial machine, our teetering mechanical sugar-daddy, has left us – the materially wealthy – pampered, institutionalised, unskilled and unprepared for uncertain times ahead. Perhaps soon, perhaps too late, Peak Oil will be in our face with that waste and destruction. It's quite sensible to be feeling anger and fear. It looks like we are in for a shit storm.
'Survivalists' feel the fear, and try to build a lifeboat, an escape route to ensure the short term survival of themselves and their family from collapse. 'Enlightened' environmentalists tend to spurn and mock this approach for it's individualism, isolation, and lack of higher goals. But environmentalists also tend to ignore the possibility, at least publicly, that collapse might be inevitable, and instead promote hopes of a compelling but ecologically unlikely eco-tech vision, and a widespread spiritual 'awakening.'
These approaches are both perhaps incomplete or misguided, however both might have something to offer. A complementary approach is possible: Environmentalists are given much more authenticity, and can offer proven solutions if they have personal experience with examples of functioning, local self sufficiency. On the otherhand, with a positive low-tech vision and ecological perspectives, self-sufficiency advocates are able to offer more hopeful reasons to relocalize than pure desperation and fear.
This is not a new idea, as many politically engaged permaculturists, eco-villagers and others are well aware of. 'Enlightened survivalism' is simply a catch phrase for describing this complimentary approach of greater and personal good, one which captures the sense of urgency.
Only the most strong willed personalities – and therefore often quite difficult and perhaps lonely individuals – tend to be able to work alone for long against flow of social norms. The rest of us to a greater or lesser extent must rely on mutual support, shared ideas and encouragement. That's ok – we create that support so we can direct it, just not alone.
If we are able to find a 'prosperous way down' the post-peak oil energy slope we'll need to mutually re-skill ourselves in practical and social and organisational skills. This is how we lose our sense of hopelessness. It's hard to be depressed when you are learning skills. It's hard to feel stranded or ineffective as your capacity for action grows.
We will develop eyes to see far more possibilities in the world around us. 'When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail'. If you have a leatherman, an eggplant seed, a lock picking device, an electronics manual and a pile of compost, everything looks like an opportunity.
OK, you all NEW CIVILIZATION Members, here are some Naked Truths and what to do (about "it all", so to speak)
Nobody will come from the sky to save us.It really is up to each and everyone , how and "how much" one wants to be in the NEW!...and "how to" get to the New! Not all who (think and say they) want to be there, will be there! Why? Because Life is all about behaviour and actions matching one's thoughts/words. That is the Cosmic LAW and hence it is true to ALL. No exceptions.
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