By S. Brian Willson (September 21, 2016)
As much as we choose to blame politicians, corporations, the military industrial complex, capitalist economics, etc., for causing our severe problems, in the end, virtually all of us moderns are complicit. None of these institutions have been created in a vacuum. They are creations of human beings like ourselves, and most “First World” peoples demand continuance of incredible material consumption at the expense of outsourcing unspeakable consequences to other people and the Earth. We have become slaves to money, things, technology, and comfort and convenience (me, too). This is totally unsustainable – ecologically, or morally.
Our own lifestyles provide the political and economic fuel feeding this system. Our lives are now totally dependent upon the elaborate infrastructure of imperial plunder, gouging the earth and other cultures of their lifeblood, including electricity, requiring mining of and burning carbon. And most of us are in debt to sustain this modern materialism, precluding the kind of fierce independence needed for serious collective obstruction of business as usual while abandoning our dependence upon the system.
We have been the problem; now we have the opportunity to save ourselves by becoming the solution – not by obeying or abiding by the system, but by re-configuring ourselves in very local, simple tool and food sufficient communities – thousands of them in communication with one another. The stakes are high – our survival with dignity, even if with substantially reduced numbers.
RX: Radical downsizing/simplicity, replacing national currency with local community cooperation and sharing. In essence, sharing and caring in communities within each bioregion.
Brian is the first person I knew to live completely off the grid in his Northern California home. He now lives in Portland and rides his recumbent bike everywhere, travels by train, etc. On a related note, see Denis White’s superb “As I See It” in today’s (9/21) G-T opinion page on *cooperatively* preparing our community for ecological, financial and other crises.
http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/opinion/as-i-see-it/as-i-see-it-seeking-a-broader-vision-for-corvallis/article_c8b7573c-9781-5034-88e4-9cdf7e39921a.html