Consumerism

I want to talk to you about one of my biggest sources of guilt.  When I tell you in REAL Green about getting out of guilt this is realistic and relative.  You can never leave the guilt of the condition of dualism and what is ideal and what is reality.  This is the nature of the ego and the other.  REAL Green seeks to moderate this guilt which is destructive when unrestrained.  REAL Green is science based, spiritually oriented, and local.  These characteristics are applied to problem solving through attitudes.  In today’s world of REAL limits in a status quo of a perceived no limits you will navigate a dirty road of waste and sloth.  Human civilization is in serious overshoot.  It is the morale of REAL Green that comes from the spiritual meaning of less that will power you through the mental and physical challenges ahead.

Use science, spirituality, and your local of people and place to determine how to build a permaculture of place.  Local goes as deep as the ego so be true to self.  Your ego is unique so respect this when you buildout a permaculture place.  Build means purchasing so you will be consuming which is consumerism.  Take consumerism as green as you can in localism.  It is wisdom found in REAL Green that can manage and adapt something as destructive and dangerous as consumerism to the web of life you have reverence for. 

I approach consumerism with the spiritual permaculture of REAL Green.  I am in acceptance and humility of decline.  I am green prepping which means practicing localism, low carbon capture, and individual conservation strategies to enhance my survivability but also restore my local in a green way.  Green is more prepped so I am combining in a symbiotic way a green lifestyle with a prep lifestyle.  This means being well stocked with the right stuff but also living a life of less.  It is this conflicting condition that a REAL Green wisdom seeks to mitigate.  Together green and prepped mean more resilience and sustainability in relation to the reality of people and place.  Yet, too much prep is not green and too much green may leave you not survivable.  This is a balance only you can determine.  REAL Green is deeply local so know they self.

Consumerism is killing the planet just like its sister the car culture.  In fact, they are really symbiotic.  You don’t have consumerism without a car culture and vice versa.  When you engage in consumerism and the car culture you are destroying the planet so choose wisely.  Consumerism is delocalization.  The barter and gift economy in localism is an ideal alternative so add them were you can.  Yet, in REAL Green you must live the dualism of using the delocalizing status quo to leave it.  Survival means being successful in the status quo.  Spiritual success in regards to green and prepping means leaving the status quo.  The art of the dualism of REAL Green is using the status quo to leave it.  You are in a sense a parasite of the status quo to enhance and restore your local.  A REAL Green will buy as needed and budget what is needed to enhance his permaculture homestead, and spiritual monestary.  This will be governed by acceptance and humility of decline and collpase.  This civilization will produce these things regardless of what you do.  This civilization is ending as they always do so this planet destroying culture will end on its own accord. 

Many greens are delusional and living the life of a build back better in a green new deal so there will be copious green goods to choose from.  Renewables are case in point.  A simple solar and or wind power system is highly recommended.  In REAL Green these are actually not green in a TRUE Green sense.  Buy things that enhance your local.  Keep a lean ship so be careful not to have too many things or you are just corrupting space.  What I mean by this is lowering the value of your place.  A place with junk and needless items will just handicap you in your mission to green prep.  Too many things are an impediment to being prepped.   Too many things inevitably happen so an attitude of triage is needed as much as building up.  The triage is rooting out of your permaculture place things that are dragging down your prep and are dirty.  Get rid of things that are dirty and destroying your green spiritual commitment.  TRUE Green seeks to decouple from carbon intensive activity through dematerialization.  You will experience a tension in the in-between world of REAL Green with being green and being prepped.  TRUE Green which is a more extreme green of leaving materialism altogether.

Wisdom will have to guide you and, in this case, it is the wisdom of less.  This is not don’t buy it is buy what is needed in relation to what you can buy.  A well-functioning permaculture homestead will need lots of goods and it will have to sell, trade, or give lots of things to others.  Buy things that have longevity and dual use.  Buy supplies and hardware for maintenance.  Buy things that can be given a second life.  Practice salvage with an eye to old world value.  This means taking old things and putting them back to use.  In fact, practice a hybrid life of old and new.  The old ways were simple, low carbon and local.  Tools are essential.  Have a shop if you can.  Have a few barns if you can.  Barns are warehouses for essentials.  The problems with barns are they generally are not climate and pest controlled.  Many things don’t survive these conditions so be careful when storing things in barns.  The worst thing is sitting things out in the elements.

Your monestary will contain icons and the written word that are the basis of your permaculture spirituality.  A library of books but also a computer with large storage allows you to save your REAL Green wisdom.  There will be art and there will be fun things.  There will be a section for history of your local of people and place but also of you and your journey.  If you are REAL Green then you have a story to tell.  Your monestary is the sanctuary where your REAL Green spiritual permaculture is manifested.  Here all those ideas combine to serve as a compass for those who follow.  Keep in mind since so few are REAL Green many of our monastic items will end up being an interesting estate sale when you die.  Yet, it is possible that a few things will influence and guide someone.  Maybe something you have done with your life’s work will be useful to those who come afterwards.  Some of you will have all the right stuff and be the birther of the new human coming with the collpase of this civilization.

The key to REAL Green consumerism is attitude of what is relative and realistic to your local of people and place.  Your spiritual orientation governed by your higher power plus your nature and nurture will guide you.  This is the best it gets in REAL Green with consumerism.  This is attitude driven consumerism that understands the dirty and destructive nature of modern consumerism.  You are honest about the killing machine of globalized consumerism so you will limit it as much as you can.  If you practice this blood letting you will do it with respect and reverence.  When Native Americans took the life of an animal, they gave thanks to the Great Spirit.  REAL Green is something similar.  Give thanks and appreciate the value of what you buy and have humility for the destructiveness.  There is nothing worse than extreme guilt from partaking in consumerism which results in disgust for what you just bought.  The reason being the waste is magnified by your psychological downcycling.  Consumer dissonance is such a waste but all will experience some of this because it is very hard to optimize green purchases in todays cluttered world.  So many pleasures are peddled.  So many unneeded items are required.  Your local of people and place will be littered with junk.  Just get used to it and accept it.  Wade through the cesspool of modern life.

Below are some thoughts on the type of consumerism you will encounter.  Use my REAL Green as a guide for yours.  Remember REAL Green is about unique locals of people and place.  It is also about unique spiritual and psychological locals of your ego and soul.  This means my REAL Green is not your REAL Green but there is a common thread to this and that is green prepping in localism.  It is about spiritual permaculture of your higher power.  This is about an age of decline on all level physical and metaphysical and how you navigate this on your personal REAL Green journey.

FOOD

Have a deep pantry and frozen foods.  Have backup, if possible, like a generator and or solar to keep freezers running.  Be sure to rotate items because of shelf life.  I buy many items that are higher value.  I make attempts to avoid the processed foods with high sugar and high fat.  The net effect is an averaging out of what is healthy and what is not healthy.  Food should be local and should be the basics whenever possible but this is hard to do because of delocalization and modern preferences.  There are so many comfort foods that are just in effect food drugs that reduce health.  So much food is waste in the green sense. 

Walking through a modern grocery store for me is a surreal experience when you look at the world as I do.  There are so many needless products.  The energy intensive nature of our stores is mind blowing.  The fact that we have all this and at such a low price should be a clear indicator of just how far humans have gone into overshoot both spiritually and physically.  I buy lots of food that is not local.  I buy lots of food from Amazon because I cannot even get them at the local grocery.  I also buy locally.  A component of my diet is yogurt and butter.  My kids drink milk.  I buy this from a local Mennonite dairy.  We have a garden we eat out of and my wife goes to the farmer’s market.  So, in my REAL Green there is some local balance but not enough and this is a source of guilt for me.

We have very little food waste.  Our food left overs either go to the dogs or the chickens.  In the old times people had a few pigs.  I would have them too but I have enough to do with what I have.  My wife knows I have issues with food waste so she makes and effort to avoid it.  She is Italian (real Italian) so she tends to make sure there is too much food than not enough.  She like presentation and taste.  So, I have to balance this with my obsession with food conservation. 

I give thanks for the food I have.  It is amazing to me I can have the choices I have.  I am also always aware of how these choice might end because remember I am a doomer.  I live decline.  Food choice will be one of the first casualties of a decline shock when it comes and I feel it will come.  Practice fasting and eating simple as preparations for the future of less.  I think about what I will eat when the shock comes.  I wonder how my body will react mainly because I eat a lot of super foods that will not be available.  I fast twice a week where I do not eat anything for 36 hours.  This is training for when food is scarce but it also is a way of limiting food and allowing my body time to clean itself of the poisons we inevitably put in our system.

WATER

If you are green prepping then water is very high on your list.  You will need purification devices.  You will need storage tanks.  You will need gathering devices.  A cistern is very wise thing depending on your situation.  Water strategies in a permaculture place are for plants, animals, and humans.  This is an expansive topic which I do not have time to go into detail.  Water should be at the very top of importance.

CLOTHING

Clothing is a big consumable and a place where REAL Green is important.  I buy technical clothing.  I have many boots, shoes, and flip flops.  I have lots of work shirts and pants.  I buy quality and choose to have less.  I am not concerned about looks as much as application.  I spend most of my day outside so it is critical to dress properly to maintain my work effort.  I have the minimum of dress up clothing mainly for funerals.  I was one of the first when I was in corporate life to go work casual.  I am a bit like Johnny Cash and the man in black instead I am the man in green.  When I do go out and need to clean up, I wear simple things that reflect REAL Green.  In the summer a simple quality tee-shirt and shorts for example.  I never follow consumer fads

If my clothes are not dirty, they do not get washed.  If some of my work cloths get damaged, I have my wife sew them up.  Many work shirts have stains on them even after washing but I still wear them.  In REAL Green decline is the number one variable of change.  In this spirit is my belief that one day my cloths choices will be greatly minimized.  If I have multiple clothing items and foot wear.   This will supplies into a future of less so I do not get rid of cloths that are still functioning.  I often buy on-line because I do not like driving to a brick-and-mortar store.  If I do get rid of cloths, I take them to a place to help the poor.

TOOLS

Tools are something I never have enough of.  I am alone in a way on 400 acres and it is very hard to find help both professional and labor.  This means I have to do what I can.  One thing I do with the complicated systems related to plumbing, electricity, and mechanical is diagnostics.  I dig into the problem and determine what is wrong.  I then schedule people.  You may not get a professional for weeks so it is very tricky to schedule because sometimes they all come the same day and then you are rushed and make mistakes.  Tools allow me to do this diagnostic.  It is often the case I can fix the problem and save lots of money that pays for the tools.  I also collect tools for barter economy that may develop from the decline process.

Supplies and hardware are very important because if you are well stocked then you won’t need to go to town.  Being well stocked is tricky because sometimes you will buy things that won’t be used so this can be a waste of money and dirty from a green point of view.  Keep things organized so you can find them.  Cycle out things that are not used because they become clutter.  For prepping you will need to stock up on all those things to get you through a crisis.  Your crisis inventory should be divided up by short term and longer term items.  Shorter term would be wear-items and maintenance items.  Longer term are those things that may not be around one day that will be needed.

GUNS AND AMMO

Guns and ammo are good to stock up on for security but also hunting.  This is not something many greens want to buy but if you are a green prepper in certain locations you will need them.

STORAGE

Things for storage and organization are very important because if you are invested in homestead and monestary then you will have lots of things.  This is the reality of green prepping.  You are going to be confronted by storing and organizing all the things I described.  If you are like me as an individual this is daunting because of all the other things I do.  Storage and organizing is of the highest importance because the value and maintenance of these items requires accessibility when needed.  Accessibility is readiness in a crisis.  Improperly stored and maintained items yields spoilage, breakdowns, and degrading of quality.  The result is a waste of things.  This is not green and a waste of carbon.  This ends up being just another of the struggles of being REAL Green because of the trade-offs of values and value.

MACHINES

Machines and devices that will have use in a post declined world are important because remember REAL Green is about decline and failure of civilization.  It is about a planet in abrupt change.  It is about the web of life in decline.  All these things point to adversity and struggles.  The proper machines and devices will help mitigate these difficulties.  One has to be careful what things are retained because of the nature of storage and maintenance.  In REAL Green you will be limited with time, money, and help so choose wisely.  Sometimes it is smarter to have less even if you have time, money, and the help.  The amount of work needed maintaining and the education to operate these things must be balanced with all the other things you will have to do in your permaculture place.  I buy many things that are antiques.  I find enduring value in many of these things.  This includes new things that are the modern production of old things used in earlier times.  I also find value in things that are solid and robust and do not need much maintenance.  Those things pre plastic and electroin always had good longevity.  These would be pre-70s.  I try to avoid complex things like electronic and motors but these things are easy to invest in because of the status quo.

BOOKS, MAPS, ART

Your monestary of ideas, history, and sources of wisdom is a very important part of the permaculture of spirituality.  When I am dead, I want to leave things to the young who come after me.  I realize my stuff may end of just an interesting estate sale but hopefully some wisdom will stick.  This is about wisdom and meaning.  These are paramount because the struggle with the affluence of things and comforts is only going to get worse.

MEDICAL

Medical stuff is important.  This includes skills and literature.  Medical stuff suffers the same storage, maintenance, and training the above items.  In fact, it is really hard to keep up will all these things and training.  The issue is when needed they could be life saving so you must have something.

PERSONAL HYGIENE

It is important in REAL Green to avoid unneeded hygiene items.  I have a beard so I don’t need to shave wasting water and energy intensive hot water.  I shower when needed.  Luckily, I don’t smell readily like some, no fault to them.  I work on the farm so I am typically dirty and sweaty but this does not mean a daily shower and cloths do not need to be washed daily.  I go as long as I can before a shower.   

I clean cloths as little as possible.  Washing cloths is a huge waste of energy and water plus it wears cloths out quicker.  I wish my wife would line dry items but she doesn’t.  I have this set up for her.  This is an example of realistic and relative of REAL Green.  I can’t force these things on my wife.  Another prep item along with line during set up is a manual wash tub.  If a crisis comes we can wash like the old times. 

Avoid buying cosmetics and personal hygiene product.  Many of them are unneeded and very dirty in regards to green.  Focus on the important things like teeth.  Make sure you have sunscreen.  These things matter where being pretty not so much in regards to survival.  I realize the young have a different opinion because they are finding mates but once you get over this time in your life focus on the basics in a green way.