I have always enjoyed reading the words of John Michael Greer, aka the Archdruid. He writes about his views on the coming world, and for the most part, I find his views are close to mine.
His latest thoughts are found in his piece called The Downside of Dependence. He discusses the musings of Roger Kay in Forbes about the life of an intelligent beer yeast, and the writings of George Monbiot, often associated with The Guardian, about the choice between getting in a lifeboat of a sinking ship or going to the bar for a martini.
Greer uses the analogies presented by Kay and Monbiot to present his case for living a life that is less dependent upon the things around us. He talks about
"...the kinds of steps that leave people in possession of a home, a garden, a career doing something people need or want badly enough to pay for even in a depression, and other desiderata of hard economic times. These are also the kinds of steps that make it easier for people to offer help to their families, friends, and neighbors, to teach vital skills to those who are willing to learn them, and preserve precious cultural legacies through the crises of the present to they can be handed on to the future. That’s the payoff for living with less; it’s a lot easier to avoid getting trapped by the downside of dependence on a society moving steadily deeper into systems failure."
This is one of the calmer discussions of the whys for learning to live sustainably. It is worth your read.
Sam Penny
