Good Life
Orginally published at Transition Voice
The following dialog is a continuation of one started by Drs. Sherry Ackerman and Guy McPherson a few weeks ago on Transition Voice. In that discussion, Ackerman and McPherson laid out some philosophical considerations about the need for a transition to more locally-based economies of human scale along with a deeper reverence for and consideration of the natural world that we share with plants, animals and other natural forms. In the following discussion, they talk very practically — pragmatically — about how to get there, laying out some of the nuts-and-bolts of preparing for a post-carbon lifestyle.
Going lo-fi
ACKERMAN: Guy, you and I are both essentially philosophers. Nevertheless, we’re not...
Posted: Monday, March 26, 2012 - 08:16
This article was orginally published at Transition Voice
Transition Voice writers Guy McPherson and Sherry Ackerman have some things in common. They both got PhDs, taught and did research at universities and then left the ivory tower, deciding, as Socrates did, to take their message to the streets. And their common concern is how to live in a way that’s not a lie in our time of climate change, peak oil and economic and cultural crisis.
McPherson’s background is in ecology and management of natural resources. Ackerman’s is in cultural philosophy and intellectual history. They both, though, reached a point where they decided to turn their backs on what Scott Nearing called The Establishment and try to find deeper meaning and authenticity in...
Time isn’t part of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which seems like a fairly serious omission to me, since much of the social pathology developing in the Age of Affluenza has to do with people’s perceptions of, and relationship to, time.
This runs deep: people aren’t even taking the time to chew their food anymore.
David Kessler, author of The End of Overeating, notes that whereas Americans, in the past, typically chewed a mouthful of food twenty-five times before it was ready to be swallowed, the average American now chews only ten times. People are becoming more and more stuck in the stress of excess, including possession overload and time famine. They are choosing “stuff” over time.
Glossy, multicolored advertisements for sleep products...
I am pretty sure that it was history in the making, local history anyway. And who knows? Maybe Mount Shasta, California’s example will encourage other towns around the Country to take similar action.
Last week, concurrent with the first snow of the season, a meeting took place between Shasta Commons, the area’s Transition Town movement, and the South Siskiyou Tea Party. While sleet and ice pounded the windows outside the building, warmth and understanding predominated in the meeting room inside.
Over the years, there have been some misunderstandings between these two groups. Actually, that is an understatement. It would be more accurate to say that the two groups have been on opposing sides of a seemingly never-ending tug-of-war. It would...
After months of wrestling with the County Building Department about permits and codes, excruciating financial gymnastics and down and dirty back-breaking spadework, we finally got our solar installation up. It’s a massive 3 kw (stc) photovoltaic pole mount.
We feel like we created the best of two worlds, too, since we live way back in the woods while, at the same time, are generating a lot of electricity. We inscribed a Sun Mantra, OM Suryaya Namaha, around the base of the installation, honoring the Sun as the principal of light, life and love. In Vedic Philosophy, the Sun represents the soul—the causal body or reincarnating entity, as well as the mind of clarity and illumination.
As Charles Eisenstein, in Sacred Economics, points out, he...
Patricia Williams wrote in The Nation this week that, “You know these are interesting times when Glenn Beck, Dianne Feinstein, Rand Paul and the ACLU all stand on the same side of an issue.” She was referencing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Here is what is at stake: Most critical are Sections 1031 and 1032 of the Act, which authorize detaining U.S. citizens indefinitely without charge or trial. The bill would allow federal officials to take these steps based on suspicions only, without having to demonstrate to any judicial official that there is solid evidence to justify their actions. Interestingly, it is now up to President Obama, a scholar of constitutional law, to make the decision as to whether the Bill of Rights he...
Glen W. Bowersock hit the nail on the head when he observed that:
"From the eighteenth century onward, we have been obsessed with the fall (of the Roman Empire): it has been valued as an archetype for every perceived decline, and, hence, as a symbol for our own fears."
I agree.
The parallels between the collapsing US Empire and Ancient Rome are staggering. The Roman Empire was brought to its knees through a confluence of factors, notably a decline in moral values, environmental degradation and associated health problems, political corruption, unemployment, inflation and military spending.
Not much has changed in a couple of thousand years.
The Romans lived in one of the most stratified societies in history. Around 1% of the...
When I first moved to Mount Shasta, CA, people used to ask me “what kind of accent do you have?” Huh? I didn’t think I had an accent. Finally, the light bulb went on and I realized that I had a bona fide New England twang. I still do, actually. It’s kind of a hangover from living so long in Vermont—a nasal, cynical tone that requires proof that fairies exist.
After decades of living in The Green Mountains, I decided to move “where it was warmer.” That’s right, warmer. The sad truth is, that as rotten cold and snowy as it is, Mount Shasta is still radically warmer than Vermont. By comparison, Mount Shasta (even with six or eight feet of snow on the ground) can feel like a tropical paradise—even in February. Let’s face it, people out here...
When author and environmentalist Bill McKibben visited Hardwick, Vermont in October 2008, he offered the following comments:
"After spending a day in Hardwick, I feel a great burst of pleasure and possibility. Deep and transformative things are happening here. Hardwick has all the pieces of a healthy food system connected and ready to fall into place, and is as far ahead in sustainable agriculture as any place in the country."
I just visited there in October 2011….and I agree. Hardwick is a town in transition. And, much like Hardwick, Mount Shasta, CA is also a town in transition.
The Transition Town movement is currently one of the strongest antidotes to an otherwise collapsing social structure. While the old paradigm is unraveling, the...
We all spend a lot of time talking about "Free Vermont"! Of course. But, at some point, we are going to have to pause and ask how Vermont lost its freedom? Who sold out? And when?
The answer depends on who you ask. If you ask the old-timers, they say that it was the "flatlanders", the "out of staters" that moved in and upset the apple cart. On the other hand, if you ask the "out of staters", they'll tell you that the fiesty old timers sold out.
I am actually going to argue that both camps sold Vermont out--which means that both camps are going to have to pull together to get Vermont back on course. Let's take a look at this from both sides.
Let's start with the old timers. The native Vermonter is the salt of the earth. They are some of...