Happy Landing
Hey.
I spent the majority of the last 6 years discussing, researching and expanding the idea of tribalism as a viable and sustainable alternative to the Culture of Maximum Harm. The dillemas involved with transitioning included:
1 - Altering the infrastructure to support tribal rather than civilisational life
2 - Changing enough minds to reach a Malcolm Gladwellian 'tipping point'
3 - Trying to increase the presence of Leaver memes in a global Taker meme pool that is protected by a Nash Equilibrium, making it resistant to invasion by other memes; not to mention that the global peer polity system plays annihilator, meaning they may just crush the hosts of alternative memes
4 - Figuring out how to reduce the population in a meaningful way without the need for draconian Chinese style single-baby law
5 - Figuring out how to reduce global production, thereby stemming the rape of the world's resources and biomass pool, the outpouring of pollution and carbon and ultimately reducing the global population
6 - Getting it all done before hitting a secondary limit to growth like an ecosystem collapse or peak oil
Among other dillemas I just can't think of off the top of my head.
I've been living in Toronto on and off for 2 years now. It's a much bigger city than I'm used to. I live downtown. I see the urban life every day. I have a better picture of the sheer magnitude of the investment in civilisation. From markets, to jobs, to plastics, to the absolute avalanche of products, to the comfort of the lack of war in the homes of the first world, to the sheer savagery of war everywhere else, it's indifference to life and suffering and it's casual use to secure power and resources for those in power.
All of this is to say that I have a new appreciation, nay, fear of that which I have pitted myself against.
I spent the last few years operating under the assumption that it was possible to make a change that would save the human race and that if I didn't believe that, what was the point of getting up in the morning? Why bother if we're doomed? Just ride the bomb cowboy style until it all blows up and be done with it.
For some time now, I've lost faith in the notion that this crazy ship of ours can be brought in for a safe landing. I've lost faith that we can reach the tipping point. I feel like... like there is no changing the flow of this river. The Nash Equilibrium has too strong of a strangle hold.
So I question what my role is. My own attempts at achieving a tribal lifestyle have failed. My attempts to foster change in others seems to have failed. I feel that I have not found fulfilment in the give support/get support world because of my failure to live tribally, and that I have ignored seeking fulfilment in the make products/get products world, leaving me unfulfiled.
I no longer know how to proceed to pursue the tribal life and I feel an incredible pull to become a materialist, because, well, what else is there. Perhaps I should just ride the bomb to the bottom.
I just don't know where I'm at any more.
Peace and Love and Empathy,
Matt
10K roads in a wood
Submitted by nene on Sat, 2009-11-07 14:29.
Hey Sweetheart --
I'm sorry.... I know how you are feeling, but I cannot give you an answer.
What I can do is tell you where I have come to find myself after these last years of chaos....
I have come to terms, on a deep instinctual level with the coming changes.... I think I was mostly there intellectually by the time of Fall IshCon '04.... but instinctually/emotionally it didn't even start to come togethr until I found the courage to step up and start making some hard choices for <i>myself</i>. It involved leaving my relationship, changing absolutely the day to day nature of my life, putting myself into a new situation that got.. well... really bad... but also gave me a totally different view of the immediate world around me and far more strength of will than I ever had before. And as I went through these changes, I began to find myself discovering, from the inside out, what I really wanted to be doing with my time, with my life... what exactly I had to offer and how I could use that to <i>create</i> something different.
I'm finding this really hard to explain, without giving the whole story and letting you pick it out..... I just saw Jim and Kath and Dayna... and met Adam Hintz a few weeks ago.... Adam wouldn't know, since we just met, but I think if you asked Dayna or Jim, they would say that I was still the same person, yet somehow different. Maybe they could even define the different. I dunno...
The point is that everything I have experienced these last few years has led me back to where, intellectually I just <i>knew</i> I had to go... and just as sevengen stressed... back to focusing on what I want, what I am good at, what I love to do and what gives me the greatest sense of pleasure. Back to finding complimentary people, focusing on cooking and permaculture and foraging..... and being willing to give up anything and everything that doesn't fit into that pardigm. Maybe that's the key I am getting at....... fun, yes. fulfilling, yes. And a willingness to let go of anything that I don't find a simple way to keep.
I'm babbling.......... i don't know if I am helping at all...... the whole story..... from the one I sent you years ago, through the end days between Jim and I, the time I have been in Colorado... all of that has been written... if you would like to read and try and pick it out, let me know........I'd be happy to send them to you. Because I think the story shows, while all I can do here is tell...........
I have faith in you, sweetie... you'll figure it out......
Janene
I say embrace your
Submitted by Tony on Sat, 2009-11-07 19:40.
I say embrace your materialist natures, they are a part of you. Keep working one those other natures you have been nurturing for the last ten years too! Civilization is A WAY, not ONE WAY, and the ONE WAY is a LIE. You already have many ways, You can choose many more ways, 10,000 if you choose, but what are the ways you can choose that fit with you best?
Choose ways over way any day and in your future you'll have a say!
Love you bro, keep your head up!
ya
Submitted by Wheres Raven on Fri, 2009-11-27 07:10.
Cool posts yall.
I think that listening to people is a really good way to build something unforseen. And that's not as easy as it sounds. Listening without too much judging. Showing them that you are there for them, in that moment. People like that. It gives them a boost of confidence, for them to go try something. Creative ideas are helpful... and those seem to come when you are really THERE for someone. Whoever may be infront of you.
I think that TRYING to make something happen is not always the approach that we should take.... because it seems to me, that allowing life's process to shake the pieces into place, is often easier than trying to place them all ourselves... by hand. Procrastination is an artform :)
If we are 'changed' people, than GOOD!, we know it now, so forget about it, and have faith in ourselves, and the community of life, as a wave, that will take us precisely where we were to be. Always. There is no other place.... so have it all now.
Go with your flow. Keep your animal eyes open. Keep a connection to ground. Look where you haven't looked.
Man... I feel your pain. I
Man... I feel your pain. I think this is about the most confusing time to have ever lived. I guess all I can say is what does your heart tell you to do? I like to think that our feelings and passions guide us. It may not make sense to our minds, which have been conditioned to... well.. have things make sense hehe. Have fun man. Do what makes you happy, or what you are passionate about. That may have the best affect on the world. More then we can know. You may never know what comes of your actions. Maybe we don't have to figure out all those things you said before. Maybe we just need to figure out where we best fit in and do our little part, which affects everything.
I have a feeling that the Earth has a lot of lessons in store for us. Some of which we may not want to experience. I don't know that we can do this without going through the pain. I don't see a soft landing through all this. I just don't know. I hope you wind up doing what feels right. I read once that a native american tribe (I can't remember which) said that your feelings and urges were the way the rest of creation and the creator guided you as to finding what you could do for the community of life. If we knew exactly why then we wouldn't need the guidance. Those are all huge problems you said. It will probably take 6 billion people while we still have them all to solve them, and it probably won't be in a way we can forsee. Good luck finding where you will fit in, shedding your old assumptions, and in riding the waves!