I have come to the conclusion after years of living what I preach and investing in it that way of life the world will not change enough and soon enough to avoid some very unpleasant consequence. I am no longer a radical doomer. There are stages of doom and prep one must go through. There are basics of both that must be learned then the rest is an art. It really comes down to attitude in the end. There is no set manual for the undertaking because there are so many setting for doom and prep and so many different states of individual meaning. Isn’t meaning what we are after anyway? Those with a brain realize no amount of prepping will save you. Those with a brain realize consequences of collapse are real and the science is real. The problem nowadays is with solutions. Those who think the world will engineer a way out of this mess are in a fantasy world. The solutions are not reality tested with science and human behavior realistically. Most solutions I see are theory.
This should not matter to you the individual. Quit worrying about society and worry about your little world and meaning can be found. Maybe solutions will occur but probably not. This conclusion has pushed me towards individual solutions and small scale reclamations of life. These efforts may be the seeds of the future if a lucky environment is found for those who come after. You are leaving something like an artist leave art. If they fail then does it matter? It is the journey that matters in the end in my opinion. In the end we are all dead anyway. I find meaning in my way of life. I have learned so much. I feel blessed because I can do it.
I am specializing in dispersed energy gathering and harvesting while still utilizing the high intensity energy the status quo offers us. I do this with animals, solar panels, and biomass from the forest and fields revolving around permaculture. I am using the status quo to leave it. I will give what I learned to anyone interested. I do not claim to be special or above anyone. I am just lucky and enlightened. I have been awakened and so many others remain unawakened. Many because they are not capable but many others who have not had the right circumstances to change their status quo behavior. This is about behavior in the end. It is about the individual. Survival is about the community and landscape but the reasons are individual. This is not concerned with a higher power. What I am preaching is an add-on to what you have now. It is a way to navigate the decline of human affluence and environmental succession.
The numbers don’t add up doing cost accounting unless you place high value on real value. Real value is sustainability and resilience with a lower footprint. I can’t live like I do without the status quo but I do participate in the status quo less than others. I call that the honesty of Real Green. Gardening is not cheap. Wood does not pay and solar is overpriced. I have to use machines to cultivate the fields and gather wood. I could avoid this if I had a large family or slave like the old days. If I made the large investment in work animals I could do more without equipment. It is only the wife and I so I have no choice but to use money from my investments and modern equipment.
For me it is not about leaving the status quo it is about a hybridization of it. It is about localism and collapsing in place. The word collapse is misleading. It is more declining in place. I would love to be totally off the grid and out of the consumeristic world. That is not realistic for anyone but a few. What I am preaching is relative sacrifice that attempts to harness old ways combined with new ways to achieve a more resilient way of life. This is with the understanding the trajectory of the planet and society is in succession with decline, extinction, and dysfunction of human complexity. The individual can navigate this. The individual can yield to larger forces. Many of us will not make it with or without what I am doing. What I am saying is you can find meaning and feel good about something by following a path to a more sustainable and resilient life that acknowledges the awful consequences ahead. We are going to be less affluence. We are going to experience more pain. We are going to see death and dysfunction more. You can face that now and be more prepared when it comes.
You can also just do what you are doing if it is easier. What I am preaching is a lot of work. I am beat by the end of the day. I could have just retired by the ocean in a warm climate. Instead I am pursuing something that is a project of hard work and financial investment. I had the money to do it but many don’t. For those who don’t you can still make some changes. Those who have the money need to realize the economics of the status quo are such that permaculture and homesteading do not add up in the world of financialized globalism. This life does work if you use globalism to leave it creating meaning in the process out of noise and chaos of the status quo. In the process you can make the planet a little better and your life a little more meaningful. That is the best it gets.
REAL Green Adaptation 