Building Community

The Preponderance of the Small

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Halloween may be over, but monstrous robosigners and zombie banks still stalk the midnight streets of the American psyche, and the decision of the US government to begin financing its debt via the printing press moves us into a dangerous new phase of history. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that big problems must have big solutions, but if the rising spiral of crisis no longer leaves room for solutions at all, the Archdruid suggests, it may be time for a counterintuitive approach.

Economy: The competitiveness of local living economies

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Economic localization offers the key to solving a growing number of global problems, including peak oil, climate disruption, and financial meltdowns. Yet the perception remains that this solution is very costly, because local goods and services supposedly are more expensive than their global alternatives.

In fact, local goods and services are already competing remarkably well in the marketplace—and they are likely to do better in the near future. This chapter lays out why cost effectiveness actually is a reason to embrace localization and argues that the only thing standing in the way of localization flourishing is, oddly, policy-makers committed to propping up increasingly noncompetitive global corporations.

The election is over – Now what do we do with all the fear?

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The election is over and the results are depressing, much as expected – it was not a good night for anyone who believes that the most important work of government in hard times will be protecting ordinary people. This is a stretch to imagine at the best of times, and this was not them. There’s a larger question, however, that emerges out of the ashes of our usual political self-incineration – what will ordinary people will do with their fear now that the election is over?

Observations on local governments’ preparedness for fuel supply disruptions

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In the wake of the oil supply shocks of the 1970s, the U.S. DOT encouraged the development of regional transportation energy contingency plans. But by the early 1980s, regional and local governments stopped developing transportation energy contingency plans as the threat of fuel supply disruptions diminished, as funding and support for the development of these plans discontinued, and as other more pressing issues emerged. Nearly 30 years later, there are warnings that we are again at risk for potential fuel shortages.

Argentina’s collapse and the grassroots of resilience

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When people think of the 2001 Argentinean collapse, they automatically think of riots, looting and violent unrest. It’s true. Social cohesion did break down in large cities as they negotiated both the erosion of societal norms and the carrying capacity of the land beneath them. On the other hand, in rural Patagonia a different dynamic existed that allowed for the spontaneous emergence of barter markets. These markets self-organized to create a flow of trade in necessary goods and services when access to standard currency was radically reduced and even ultimately removed from society. Community cooperatives also formed to provide the means for a higher level of local function and, thus, greater regional stability.

Election day — Reflecting on our failures

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Let’s not fool ourselves. There is a considerable challenge in making the best of a bad situation, for what is required is a serious, wide-reaching revival of American families, communities and old-fashioned Christian charity. Americans will have to take care of each other in the absence of a benevolent government.

Global Village Construction Set – explained in a 2-minute video

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We are developing the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) – an advanced industrial economy-in-a-box that can be replicated inexpensively anywhere in the world. The GVCS is like a Lego set of modular building blocks which that work together for creating sustainable, regenerative, resilient communities. Our prototype village aims to demonstrate that we can create a complete economy from local resources on ~1000 acres via regenerative resource use – for ecological living with modern-day comforts, minus resource conflicts.