Life can be strange even for REAL Green that seeks surreal for footing. I have been rereading all my writings that go back to August 6, 2019. For several years I published something weekly so I have a pile of paper. I am doing this to leave something on paper for somebody someday. In my opinion the digital will deteriorate quickly. Paper has a much longer shelf life. I am not a writer. I am more a modern-day green shaman living on the edge of civilization which for me is spiritual not physical. Physically I am just a normal guy albeit a bit odd.
I am amazed at how relevant and useful my writings are. I have not revisited my writings until a few weeks ago because I am not a writer, so I feel a kind of disappointment at what I have written as less than quality. Yet, rereading what I wrote turned out to be a real pleasure. In fact, I feel inspired by the forces of nature that I allowed to flow through me. Being a green shaman means embracing the land and its low-level power. What I wrote was what this power pushed me to write. It is from this power not me.
Yea, that sounds nutter and is but look around you and at all the nutter that is nuttier. I find modern life absurd mainly because I live in the surreal of REAL Green. I see things differently because I live a way of life that purposely is a satire of modern life we are so proud of.
I remain anonymous and desire no reward not that REAL Green is worth anything. This is mainly because I do not feel any of this is mine. I do not want to win the lottery. I am more interested in seeking simplicity. I seek a wisdom of less. I want no recognition even if REAL Green amounted to anything.
Anyway, the reason I am posting this latest post is the odd occurrence of multiple articles on the current Iran conflict coinciding with my present position of rereading my REAL Green posts (see end for articles). I just finished 3 posts that discuss collapse from December 2021.
These posts are very timely and worth a read. I did not go into detail about collapse because there are so many possible locations, degrees and durations. There are large books in my library on the subject. I chose to REAL Green it instead.
Collapse is a process and it is active currently. I call it the decline process. It should be mentioned that decline is much more rapid than growth because of the turbulence of the forces of chaos which are abandonment, dysfunction, and irrational. There is no formula for this, but this process is not all noise. There is also signal and REAL Green seeks the signal that is a fractal of the sacred.
I am rereading REAL Green collapse posts, and we are now in a very dangerous time. More dangerous than Covid which was a grand elite lie of the globalist left. The dangers are hinted at in the news. There are clear facts about what is going on. These facts are dealt with in a cavalier detached way. Markets are at all time highs to make this time even more absurd. It centers around the significant fossil fuel resources in the middle east being restricted and in danger of being destroyed.
We as a civilization are pushing energy boundaries. It reminds me of Chernobyl. They tested that system and lost control. If the energy systems of the world get drawn down too far there could be some dangerous results which is obvious. We have never gone this far which is less obvious. This may be nothing but worth reflection, nonetheless.
It appears last I looked that a memo of understanding has been agreed upon but that memo is different for each side. Even if this energy bottleneck is resolved there will be problems for many months. This is an example of Peak Oil but not the geologic but instead the economic and geopolitical. Peak oil is alive and well but scoffed at these days.
If this restriction is not resolved there could be a systematic bifurcation where localized energy failures that propagate. In this global world of unstable confidence and just in time value chains this is not something to take lightly. Always remember confidence is liquidity.
The fact that we got to this point should be a wake-up call for some of you of the realities of a world running into a brick wall. My latest posts were on AI which I feel is a bubble that will burst. The sooner the better. If AI proceeds too far it will not be the machine that takes over and kills us.
AI will be the slow boil of losing education, skills, and human networks given over to the machine for safe keeping that risks a waking up one day to a world of dysfunction because the machine quit working. Complexity and complicated have a sweet spot. An AI world to me is a world teetering on collapse the more it is incorporated into our daily lives. Oil is similar in that things quit when it quits. Oil is finite and located poorly.
I recommend REAL Green for those who can and have the right stuff. I am a REAL Green master of green prepping, but I am no longer what I was. I am now in my early 60s and slowing down. I have lots of built-up infrastructure and experience but a lot less energy. My 18 year old boys have the energy and muscle but not much interest. Basically, I am just a preacher of this way of life now. I am keeping up with my permaculture homestead but just barely. I don’t see me continuing this effort into my 70s.
So, I am going to end this by saying very few of you can be REAL Green. Even fewer with the right stuff will do it because it is a road of much sacrifice with mostly a spiritual reward. I am not even recommending this for many people because unless the lifestyle appeals to you if will be a downcycle of personal value. I will say this if you are enjoying life, give thanks for all those special things you have right here right now because they might be gone tomorrow.
Reading list:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/when-grid-dies-how-single-blackout-could-unravel-modern-world
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/meet-americas-largest-doomsday-bunker-community
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-stable-systems-fail-illusion-institutional-control
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/japan-crude-imports-fall-66-record-low
Everyone should read what this Exxon executive has to say about the oil price surge coming in the next 2 weeks…
REAL Green Adaptation 
Hello Real Green:
Thanks for your most interesting recent post: Mexican Standoff.
I want you to know that you are not alone. I’m 76 and I’ve lived a simple life most of my adult life, sometimes not by choice, but always by satisfaction.
Though I use a computer, my wife and I eschew most other technology that dominates the world today. No cell phones, no Teevee, never have, never will. We have a car, a 1972 VW Bug that my wife bought second hand in 1973, now with 450,000 miles on it, which I have maintained for the past 26 years. We walk or bicycle everywhere, driving the car less than 100 miles a year. The few times we travel we take the bus or train.
We garden in our small mobile home space; fruit trees, berries, all manner of greens, tomatoes, beans of several varieties, grapes, limes, apricots, apples, cherries, loquats, peaches. We eat a plant based diet and get the food we don’t grow from a local food pantry and excess food distribution where we volunteer our time.We live in an 850 square foot trailer a mile from the Pacific Ocean. We heat our home with the sun and, when it’s raining, a small wood stove fueled with wood we gather on our daily walks among nearby tree stands. We collect rain and fog water to water the gardens. Our electricity and natural gas uses are minimal as we both have learned to use these resources at a minimum.
We’ve never been into “prepping” as a philosophy. We just live a simple satisfying life, pleasing ourselves with a life close to the earth and all that within it lies. As a result, we’re well known in the neighborhoods as the hand-holding couple, remarking “We see you walking everywhere!” providing an example of a satisfaction of a simple life well lived.
We’re watching the decline coming on without trepidation, as we know we will live well and help our neighbors to adjust to the reality that was always there and always ignored by most.
All the best to you and yours,
Michael Lewis
Arana Gulch Watershed
Pacific Plate
Gaea
LikeLike
Michael, what you wrote is REAL Green. I emphasize in REAL Green that it is about a deeply personal of the local of people and place. I of course talk about mine which is different. The part where we overlap is local, simplicity, and permaculture. You are an example for the others around you.
I felt I wrote a little arrogantly yesterday when I said “very few can be REAL Green”. What I meant, so few are farmers today, so few live rural, and so few embrace voluntary simplicity. This is relative and realistic and a process. This means somebody with none of those conditions but seeking them is REAL Green. It is 80% mental which means lots of spiritual and psychological.
I very much enjoy hearing from people like you from far away that are doing similar things. It makes me feel less alone in my endeavors. Keep up the good work and remember this lifestyle is a journey. The destination is somewhat pessimistic for me since I embrace collapse and failure but with the optimism of a fulfilling lifestyle.
LikeLike
WOW!! What a wake up call, especially the article from energyskeptic.com ; I was shocked to see we’re on track for a global temperature increase of 1.5 Celsius. Perhaps I’ve seen predictions similar to this before, but I am living in the US and clueless of the coversion to Fahrenheit, so I ran the numbers and was floored that it’s over 34 degrees!!
I’m sad your sons aren’t interested in carrying your Green lifestyle forward. I’m 62 and still full of energy, however, I don’t have a husband or any children and not even any friends or extended family who see the situation as I do and therefore they lack any urgency to make changes.
I’m glad that some of your writings have touched on the importance of having a strong sense of the spiritual nature of being a human being. I’m not religious, but I do believe my soul chose this time and my job is simply to love as much as I can, obviously not just human beings but everything (animals, plants, minerals, weather , etc. etc.)
Thank you for your thought provoking writings, they inspire me and also provide a certain comfort knowing there are other kindred spirits attempting to live in a way that honors the beautiful planet and life we’ve been blessed with.
Take good care,
Heather
Sent from my iPhone
LikeLike
Heather, good to hear from you. Yes, there is so much below the surface to have worries about yet, life goes on. Now that I too am 62, I would rather not go through a serious decline. Life is good now for me but I always live with my eye to danger.
My boys are not much interested in the farm, but I believe they will remain here because it is such a nice place. Probably over time they will get more interested. Maybe they will marry and their wives will have a deeper interest. They are going into firefighting and are members of the local volunteer fire department.
I focus so much on spirit because it is here, I believe a renewal will come once decline steepens. It is here where life is so lacking.
Don’t weeken it sounds like you are on the right path with internal strength. If you reed my writing then you must have spiritual strength because of the difficult topics.lol.
shoal
LikeLike