getting some perspective
Rather than allowing ourselves to be stunned into helpless passivity at all the catastrophic news at this moment in history, let's look at interacting trends.
Facebook discussion of Earth Policy Institute video
Lester Brown: The Planet's Scarcest Resource is Time
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DXVgTD2F6ZQ&feature=relmfu
James Bailey - i cant believe that this has been out since march and hasnt gotten more exposure. Jim, i am on a ship in the pacific now. aiming to be home in the spring. next summer, i would like to organize meetings of like-minded folks to talk about setting up an intentional community somewhere outside of pittsburgh. i hope this is something you would be interested in at any level of involvement and participation.
Jim McCue - I look forward. We're in a quantum change moment of history, in which the changes are changing each other so we don't know what will happen except that it will be better if we work together for life in general.
Rosemary McMullen - Young folks are so busy growing up they don't have time to do the analysis. Lester Brown has cogent synthesis: an impressive half hour. But denial and fear of the inevitable die-off -- catastrophe model -- also keeps them in limbo -- party on, think positive, etc.
Jim McCue - I don't think we necessarily will have a massive die-off, but if we do will try to be philosophical about it (Death is but a change, there is life after life, that type of thing).
Rosemary McMullen - Die off taking place already from up front wars, drones, famine, tsunamis, or more hidden as Arundhati Roy documents in India from dam-dislocation tens of thousands starve in camps and in China big numbers killed suppressing restive groups.
Rosemary McMullen - Young people being philosophical about death? Some are doing a lot of inner work; but I think accepting death is a jewel of living long (probably many more times than once).
James Bailey - i expect a big die-off. people are made of food and there will be less food available. my goal and intention is to assist in creating a working example of another option. another way to proceed for those who do carry on. when there is collapse, folks will gravitate toward whatever gives stability. if the only option available is this hierarchical dominator system we're at the crescendo of now, this tape will just replay itself. i hope that if there are examples of partnership communities extant, folks will move toward that instead. i don't see any other way to move forward with any kind of hope for the future at all.
Jim McCue - My personal take on the 2012 singularity is that, first, since energy or the spirit precedes or creates or steps down in frequency to matter, and since at each moment we as a species may change what we're doing, and since there are positive uses for current advanced technologies now being used for competition or war, that it is still possible that we could avoid a die-off much bigger than is happening now...I in fact believe in the scientific basis of the miraculous.
Rosemary McMullen - I believe something similar. And I am working to make it happen with groups in Pgh building "working examples of other options" for food, somewhat less on water, but just at beginning phases. Transition Pgh, PGH and myriad spiritual practices are booming with this impulse. But Lester Brown says: "I don't think people realize how vulnerable we are...." US cities have only a "three-day food buffer."
James Bailey - i mostly agree with both of you. i think, though, that the city is not the place to be, though it is what i know and where i've been all my life. the impulse for me is strong to dig in in place and weather what comes the best i can there. alone, i could manage it. but not with family on tow. the city will quickly become chaotic and likely violent. the best place to be is outside the city somewhere and preferably at least minimally established by the time wholesale collapse ensues.
James Bailey - i've read and listened to a good bit of terence mckenna and i like what he has to say about 2012. like he says, i, too, am a hope freak in many ways. we've got some young children in our clan and with them in mind, i can't justiify putting our eggs in that basket, hoping that there will be a miraculous breakthrough. for my own sanity, i've got to make more concrete moves. food and water will, of course, be the primary issues. security, unfortunately, will also likely be an issue. with that aspect in mind, there are just too many ways, safety-wise, that the city can become compromised. i would like to see, envision, a free school set up along the lines of the albany free school. they have a great website. maybe a community garage. a tool and knowledge library. a community kitchen/meeting space, maybe doubled up as a schoolhouse, and of course cooperative farming.
Jim McCue - I intend to do my part in turning the great city of Pittsburgh into an intentional community with grade a farmland and international advanced tech communication to do its part in transition the world from swords to plowshares and industrial torture farming to appropriate (sometimes industrial) web of life regenerative farming, including the use of microbes in fuel and food production. As ecosystem services provided by the larger life forms like trees decline, smaller ones such as microbes become ever more important.
James Bailey - i wish you luck, Jim, and i'll be a help as i can. if i can get with folks to get my plans off the ground, we'll be tapping you for your knowledge about all things grown, if that's ok.
Rosemary McMullen - This has been just about the best conversation I have ever had on FB. Tonight I meet with some young PGH folks and will refer them here.
Jim McCue - James, I'm only a soil expert and big picture philosopher. There are huge gaps in my knowledge of food, fiber and medicine plants.
Facebook discussion of Earth Policy Institute video
Lester Brown: The Planet's Scarcest Resource is Time
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DXVgTD2F6ZQ&feature=relmfu
James Bailey - i cant believe that this has been out since march and hasnt gotten more exposure. Jim, i am on a ship in the pacific now. aiming to be home in the spring. next summer, i would like to organize meetings of like-minded folks to talk about setting up an intentional community somewhere outside of pittsburgh. i hope this is something you would be interested in at any level of involvement and participation.
Jim McCue - I look forward. We're in a quantum change moment of history, in which the changes are changing each other so we don't know what will happen except that it will be better if we work together for life in general.
Rosemary McMullen - Young folks are so busy growing up they don't have time to do the analysis. Lester Brown has cogent synthesis: an impressive half hour. But denial and fear of the inevitable die-off -- catastrophe model -- also keeps them in limbo -- party on, think positive, etc.
Jim McCue - I don't think we necessarily will have a massive die-off, but if we do will try to be philosophical about it (Death is but a change, there is life after life, that type of thing).
Rosemary McMullen - Die off taking place already from up front wars, drones, famine, tsunamis, or more hidden as Arundhati Roy documents in India from dam-dislocation tens of thousands starve in camps and in China big numbers killed suppressing restive groups.
Rosemary McMullen - Young people being philosophical about death? Some are doing a lot of inner work; but I think accepting death is a jewel of living long (probably many more times than once).
James Bailey - i expect a big die-off. people are made of food and there will be less food available. my goal and intention is to assist in creating a working example of another option. another way to proceed for those who do carry on. when there is collapse, folks will gravitate toward whatever gives stability. if the only option available is this hierarchical dominator system we're at the crescendo of now, this tape will just replay itself. i hope that if there are examples of partnership communities extant, folks will move toward that instead. i don't see any other way to move forward with any kind of hope for the future at all.
Jim McCue - My personal take on the 2012 singularity is that, first, since energy or the spirit precedes or creates or steps down in frequency to matter, and since at each moment we as a species may change what we're doing, and since there are positive uses for current advanced technologies now being used for competition or war, that it is still possible that we could avoid a die-off much bigger than is happening now...I in fact believe in the scientific basis of the miraculous.
Rosemary McMullen - I believe something similar. And I am working to make it happen with groups in Pgh building "working examples of other options" for food, somewhat less on water, but just at beginning phases. Transition Pgh, PGH and myriad spiritual practices are booming with this impulse. But Lester Brown says: "I don't think people realize how vulnerable we are...." US cities have only a "three-day food buffer."
James Bailey - i mostly agree with both of you. i think, though, that the city is not the place to be, though it is what i know and where i've been all my life. the impulse for me is strong to dig in in place and weather what comes the best i can there. alone, i could manage it. but not with family on tow. the city will quickly become chaotic and likely violent. the best place to be is outside the city somewhere and preferably at least minimally established by the time wholesale collapse ensues.
James Bailey - i've read and listened to a good bit of terence mckenna and i like what he has to say about 2012. like he says, i, too, am a hope freak in many ways. we've got some young children in our clan and with them in mind, i can't justiify putting our eggs in that basket, hoping that there will be a miraculous breakthrough. for my own sanity, i've got to make more concrete moves. food and water will, of course, be the primary issues. security, unfortunately, will also likely be an issue. with that aspect in mind, there are just too many ways, safety-wise, that the city can become compromised. i would like to see, envision, a free school set up along the lines of the albany free school. they have a great website. maybe a community garage. a tool and knowledge library. a community kitchen/meeting space, maybe doubled up as a schoolhouse, and of course cooperative farming.
Jim McCue - I intend to do my part in turning the great city of Pittsburgh into an intentional community with grade a farmland and international advanced tech communication to do its part in transition the world from swords to plowshares and industrial torture farming to appropriate (sometimes industrial) web of life regenerative farming, including the use of microbes in fuel and food production. As ecosystem services provided by the larger life forms like trees decline, smaller ones such as microbes become ever more important.
James Bailey - i wish you luck, Jim, and i'll be a help as i can. if i can get with folks to get my plans off the ground, we'll be tapping you for your knowledge about all things grown, if that's ok.
Rosemary McMullen - This has been just about the best conversation I have ever had on FB. Tonight I meet with some young PGH folks and will refer them here.
Jim McCue - James, I'm only a soil expert and big picture philosopher. There are huge gaps in my knowledge of food, fiber and medicine plants.
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 7:16 AM
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