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New book from John Michael Greer: The Long Descent
John Michael Greer, New Society (book publishers)
The Long Descent
A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age
By John Michael Greer
Americans are expressing deep concern about US dependence on petroleum, rising energy prices and the threat of climate change. Unlike the energy crisis of the 1970s, however, there is a lurking fear that, now, the times are different and the crisis may not easily be resolved.
The Long Descent examines the basis of such fear through three core themes:
- Industrial society is following the same well-worn path that has led other civilizations into decline, a path involving a much slower and more complex transformation than the sudden catastrophes imagined by so many social critics today.
- The roots of the crisis lie in the cultural stories that shape the way we understand the world. Since problems cannot be solved with the same thinking that created thyem, these ways of thinking need to be replaced with others better suited to the needs of our time.
- It is too late for massive programs for top-down change; the change must come from individuals.
Hope exists in actions that range from taking up a handicraft or adopting an “obsolete” technology, through planting an organic vegetable garden, taking charge of your own health care or spirituality, and building community.
Focusing eloquently on constructive adaptation to massive change, this book will have wide appeal.
John Michael Greer is a certified Master Conserver, organic gardener and scholar of ecological history. The current Grand Archdruid of AODA, his widely-cited blog, The Archdruid Report (www.thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com) deals with peak oil, among other issues. He lives in Ashland, Oregon.
(2 July 2008)
The long-awaited book by a long-time writer for Energy Bulletin (list of articles).
We hope to arrange to publish excerpts and reviews of the book. -BA
A Crash Course in Burning Bridges
KMO, C-Realm Podcast: Episode 110
KMO welcomes Zachary Nowak, author of Crash Course: Preparing for Peak Oil to the program to discus the utility calculus of preparing for tough times. Later KMO gets a head start on next week’s interview with Peak Shrink, Kathy McMahon (http://peakoilblues.com). Finally, Terence McKenna speaks across the years from the early 90’s to share the good news about living in a world that’s out of control.
In introducing Crash Course: Preparing for Peak Oil, I read an excerpt from a review by Frank Kaminski. You can find the full text of that review here: http://www.energybulletin.net/node/45566
(2 July 2008)
Resilient Community
Alex Steffen, World Changing
I think pretty highly of John Robb. I don’t always agree with him — and sometimes I think he’s way off base — but I think he’s really grappling with the new realities of violence, conflict and system instability in our times.
In particular, I find his on-going series of posts on Resilient Community a source of both worry and insight.
First, the insight. John’s posts themselves tend to focus on work-arounds for brittle infrastructure, things like smart local networks (sort of the information equivalent of energy smart grids), community scrip and local fabrication. There are some really thought-provoking ideas here, new thinking applied in new ways, many of which fit well with a strategy of increasing neighborhood survivability. The world is getting bumpier, and preparedness, learning and innovation are called for.
But I worry as well about the role these sorts of ideas seem to often end up playing in the public debate. At the very least, I see these sorts of ideas playing into a misinformed understanding of the possibilities of localism, one which has the potential to seriously drain needed energy from efforts to stave off collapse. At the worst, I see it playing into an insane survivalism, one that’s quite oblivious to the real nature of big systems failures.
Because, it bears repeating again and again and again, responses based purely on localism and scaling-back can’t save us now. We need to remake our material civilization. If we don’t do that, no amount of community preparation or personal bunker-building is going to save our bacon.
(2 July 2008)
The End Of Civilization
Dave Eriqat, The People’s Voice
… I’ve come to the conclusion – and I don’t want to be a “Chicken Little” here – that civilization as we have known it for the last century is doomed. Our wasteful manner of living – heck, the sheer size of our human population – is unsustainable. Everywhere you look you can see signs of strain on the Earth, from spreading pollution of the air, water, and land, to disappearance of life in the seas, to depletion of natural resources. Something’s got to give. Things simply cannot continue as they have.
If I can see this, I would guess the United States Government, what with its thousands of full time experts, probably can too. Now, if you are the government (and I don’t mean Tom “I am the federal government” DeLay), and your experts tell you that civilization as we know it is doomed, what do you do? Well, for starters, you do not tell your population of sheeple. That would precipitate panic and result in premature doom, which would consume the government along with everything else. Above all, government seeks to survive, so you would maintain the facade of normalcy for the benefit of your population while you use what time you have left to prepare, as quietly as possible, for the inescapable future.
What will matter in this future? Commodities, principally energy, food, and water. Everything else is secondary. Money is far down the list in importance.
So how would you, the government, prepare for a future world in which commodities are king? By securing today as many of those commodities as possible. Hence, the U.S. government’s binge of military base building throughout the commodity-rich regions of the world. What would you not worry about? Money. The only concern you might have for money is to prevent its premature demise. Hence, the smoke and mirrors used to paint a pretty but false portrait of the economy. Some will argue that the government needs more than just energy, food, and water to survive. True, but by controlling the bulk of the world’s key commodities, everything else can be procured, including human labor and loyalty.
In preparing for the future demise of civilization you would also seek to increase the government’s power as much and as rapidly as possible. Why? To maintain control over those increasingly precious resources, and equally important, to control people – especially your own people – by force, if necessary. Viewed in this light, the government’s aggressive pursuit of power during the last five years makes perfect sense.
(2 July 2008)
According to his web page, Dave Eriqat is a supporter of Ron Paul and Jesse Ventura. He runs a web design company, Syntel Design.
Contributor Hans Noeldner is very enthusiastic about the essay:
You have to post this essay by Dave Eriqat. HAVE TO!! And do it in a way that sets it off from every other posting (like with a heading “READ! That’s an ORDER!”) Maybe even make it the ONLY posting for several days, to really grab readers’ attention. It’s that important.
