[GJM] *Solutions for a Post-Industrial Age Age"

[marguerite hampton]

Re:  my last message, this is a good "follow up" from 
Timothy Wilkens, M.D. , host of  SnyEarth at Future 
Positive.  

Thanks Tim 

eco  

*Solutions for a Post-Industrial
Age<http://solutions.synearth.net/2007/02/06>
*

[image: James Howard Kunstler]James Howard Kunster writes: Out in the public
arena, people frequently twang on me for being "Mister Gloom'n'doom," or for
"not offering any solutions." I find this bizarre because I never fail to
present audiences with a long, explicit task list of projects that American
society needs to take up in the face of the combined problems I have labeled
The Long Emergency. That the audience never hears this, and then indignantly
demands such instruction, only reinforces my sense that the cognitive
dissonance in our culture has gone totally off the charts. Insofar as I just
returned from a college lecture road trip, and heard the same carping all
over again, I conclude that it's necessary for me to spell it all out
a'fresh. I think of this not so much as a roster of "solutions" but as a set
of reasonable responses to a new set of circumstances. (Not everything we
try to do will succeed, that is, be a "solution.") So, for those of you who
are tired of wringing your hands, who would like to do something useful, or
focus your attention in a purposeful way, here it is. •Expand your view
beyond the question of *how we will run all the cars by means other than
gasoline*. This obsession with keeping the cars running at all costs could
really prove fatal. It is especially unhelpful that so many self-proclaimed
"greens" and political "progressives" are hung up on this monomaniacal
theme. Get this: the cars are not part of the solution (whether they run on
fossil fuels, vodka, used frymax™ oil, or cow shit). They are at the heart
of the problem. And trying to salvage the entire Happy Motoring system by
shifting it from gasoline to other fuels will only make things much worse.
The bottom line of this is: *start thinking beyond the car*. •We have to
make other arrangements for virtually all the common activities of daily
life. We have to produce food differently. The ADM / Monsanto / Cargill
model of industrial agribusiness is heading toward its Waterloo. As oil and
gas deplete, we will be left with sterile soils and farming organized at an
unworkable scale. Many lives will depend on our ability to fix this. Farming
will soon return much closer to the center of American economic life. It
will necessarily have to be done more locally, at a smaller-and-finer scale,
and will require more human labor. The value-added activities associated
with farming -- e.g. making products like cheese, wine, oils -- will also
have to be done much more locally. This situation presents excellent
business and vocational opportunities for America's young people (if they
can unplug their Ipods long enough to pay attention.) It also presents huge
problems in land-use reform. Not to mention the fact that the knowledge and
skill for doing these things has to be painstakingly retrieved from the
dumpster of history. Get busy. ... •Life in the USA will have to become much
more local, and virtually all the activities of everyday life will have to
be re-scaled. You can state categorically that any enterprise now supersized
is likely to fail -- everything from the federal government to big
corporations to huge institutions. If you can find a way to do something
practical and useful on a smaller scale than it is currently being done, you
are likely to have food in your cupboard and people who esteem you. An
entire social infrastructure of voluntary associations, co-opted by the
narcotic of television, needs to be reconstructed. Local institutions for
care of the helpless will have to be organized. Local politics will be much
more meaningful as state governments and federal agencies slide into
complete impotence. Lots of jobs here for local heroes. ... So, that's the
task list for now. Forgive me if I left things out. But please don't carp at
me, by letter or in person, that I am not providing you with anything to
think about or devote your personal energy to. If you're depressed, change
your focus. Quit wishing and start doing. The best way to feel hopeful about
the future is to get off your ass and demonstrate to yourself that you are a
capable, competent individual resolutely able to face new circumstances.
(02/06/07)