Generation whY?
Allright, this may be short and simple, but it's a start. Better to start small than to sit on the sidelines of the discussion.
With all of the talk of GenX and GenY, it has surprised me that nobody has picked up on the possibility of Generation whY... as in
- Why did we spend the last 100 years acting as if the days of oil would last forever?
- Why have we acted as if the test tube in which we live, planet Earth, has the ability to dilute our pollution indefinitely?
- Why do our leaders and elders shuffle continue to ignore the fact that even if the inevitable catastrophes (environmental, economical and certainly social) will not hit until they are well on their way off this rock, they will hit their descendants?
My goal is to find a way off this slide to catastrophe. If not for everyone, at least for myself and those for whom I care the most. Some items I'm focused on currently include:
- Becoming more food-independent, including use of local markets/supply and backyard gardening.
- Converting our lifestyle, especially work, to be less dependent on cars. (But damn if we won't keep enjoying our travel-related hobbies... kayaking, ultimate, foreign travel, etc... -- enjoy 'em while ya can, eh?)
- Building a community of family/friends upon whom we can depend, sharing the load of what will certainly include shortages that we couldn't foresee.
- Shifting assets/investments into those less dependent on "global market" forces. (e.g. more local real estate, fewer Large Cap stock funds.)
Cheers,
shiv
5 comments:
Why? Sometimes a simple question isn’t so simple. It defies comprehension that in the face of overwhelming evidence, we race toward self-annihilation. Asking why isn’t about blame assignation. If you can determine motivation, then you have a chance to change minds, attitudes, direction.
At the most elemental level, I believe the ‘why’ is ignorance and selfishness set on a continuum. Complicity is measured by the unwillingness and lack of effort to address the problem given awareness, the resources and ability of each individual and/or group to contribute to a solution.
All of us, myself included, are selfish (and complicit) to some extent. But the truly selfish are the greedy bloodsuckers at the top of the food chain (just my opinion). The way I figure it, resource protection needs to be seen as more advantageous than resource exploitation. Pretty difficult to achieve in a consumer society.
A smaller localized economy, a home garden plot, close community ties, small schools . . . all are my idea of utopia. So even if the world weren’t headed for disaster I’d be on the relocalization bandwagon. I use the squirrel method to prepare for financial security. But then, I don’t make much more than peanuts.
For me, Activism is as important as changes to personal lifestyle. Stopping the slide is going to require a political and social movement of momentous proportion.
I had to look up ‘ultimate’ -- I figured it must have something to do with heights, depths, speed, or a combination of two or more.
been out of pocket for quite a while. computer has developed some insurmountable hardware issues.
that said, with regard to the gen whY question.
we have been set on this trajectory since the end of ww2.
social scientists and psychologists have managed to develop pretty accurate way to manipulate us and our society. and this has only gotten better as time passed.
as a society, however we functioned in the past, before manipulation (at least manipulation in its current form: we used to be brutally efficient in submerging groups, dominating groups physically), we have found a method whereby we can use the cooperation of the members of our society in its own bondage, and eventually, inevitably, its own self-destruction.
I am reading a very interesting book Without Us by Alan Weisman.
the section about plastic garbage floating in the Pacific is extracted from this book,
Though that problem is severe enough to choke a horse right now, I have to believe that so much of the way humans have interacted with the environment has been without a single thought at worst, or with a very short term understanding of impacts to the environment, our, and countless other species' habitats, and those chickens will certainly come home to roost. sooner or later.
there will be no escape from the consequences of our own actions.
Al (my brother) always used to say, "mutate, or die".
don't know where he picked it up (this was in the seventies), but as cute as it sounded then, the reality of what it will take to continue to live here on planet earth is that some process of mutation, because of all of the chemical, biological, nuclear (as in power plants and their extremely, geological time, long lived poisons, and of course, our nuclear arsenals).
later
another book that I am reading currently that will take your breath away is Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.
still working on it.
I recently picked up a book by Cody Lundin, a local Arizonan who lives off the grid and teaches survival skills at his Aboriginal Living Skills School. The book is called "When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need When Disaster Strikes". It's chock full of information about how to get and stay prepared, how to use what you have to deal with a disaster situation, and good ways to deal with likely situations within a disaster. The book and the author are kinda goofy, but the information is sound and useful.
It doesn't speak to preparing for a gradual disaster (i.e. dwindling oil/gasoline availability, dwindling freshwater in an increasing drought, etc), but it does force you to take stock of what you have and what you know about taking care of yourself if disaster DOES occur.
-rasa
Nice blog -see you and my blog. :)
Post a Comment