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For a Resilient Future, Put Community First

December 16, 2015

For a Resilient Future, Put Community First 

Imagine a respite from the relentless torrent of bad news! Both The Transition Towns (Transition) and  Intentional Communities movements facilitate secession, to varying degrees, from the exploitive culture that surrounds us, and build alternatives that are supported by broad networks.  Now the two movements have joined together to share lessons learned about egalitarian community building.

The Transition and Intentional Communities movements offer pathways to recovery from an abusive, extractive growth-economy. Their proponents seek wholeness through cooperation. The movements embrace anyone with the gumption to self-liberate from the corrosive mainstream matrix and commit to resilient social practices that foster the unity of people and the planet.

Intentional residential communities are groups of people dedicated to figuring out how to live together cooperatively. Transition Towns, villages, and city neighborhoods are local nodes of people, connected through a global network, who are determined to wean their localities from fossil fuel dependency and move toward resilience.

Neither model is a magic bullet. But both movements can learn volumes from the other. To that end, the Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH), The Fellowship for Intentional Communities (FIC), and the Federation of Egalitarian Communities (FEC)—networks that support Transition initiatives and intentional communities respectively—are purposefully pursuing cross pollination.

Interchange between the two movements is happening in the zone where their missions overlap. That is, in the space where people wake up and summon the grit to live consciously, seek wholeness, and unplug from the dysfunction of the homogenized American norm.The Federation of Egalitarian Communities (FEC) has joined the Spokescouncil of Egalitarian Resilience Networks, an “affinity circle” within the MATH Constellation, to help spark the joint work of the two movements. The Spokescouncil is working to hold both movements accountable to the basic tenets of egalitarian process.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Community, Health and Enterprise

September 6, 2015

Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Community, Health and Enterprise

What are you doing every day to build community, health and productive enterprises?

Every month I have wide-ranging conversations with three long-time collaborators: Gordon T. Long of Macro Analytics, Chris Martenson of Peak Prosperity, and Drew Sample of The Sample Hour.

I do dozens of interviews in the course of the year, with an amazing spectrum of talented interviewers (Max Keiser, Kerry Lutz, and many others), and in many cases I’m lucky enough to be a repeat guest.

But doing a monthly program enables me to really get to know the host, and over time it becomes less of an interview and more of a conversation. I may ask the host a question rather than vice versa.

Gordon and I tend to dig into key macro-economic and social topics (check out our years of programs in Gordon’s Audio/video library), and Chris and I tend to delve into markets and the full spectrum of resilience-related topics.

Drew is 30 years my junior (he’s 30 and I’m 61), and as a result he’s in the dynamic phase of life of exploring and assembling enterprises and projects.

This is where the rubber meets the road: it’s important to understand the larger macro-economic and social contexts, but in terms of daily living (i.e. we are what we do every day), it boils down to what are you doing every day to build community, health and productive enterprises that generate value, wealth and positive social roles for all participants.

This is the context of my latest podcast with Drew Sample (56 min) in which we discuss the progress, challenges and future of each of Drew’s many endeavors, which include community-building and for-profit enterprises.

Here’a a photo of Drew’s garden–a new project he brought to life this year.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Top 10 Reasons to Read “Vermont Dollars, Vermont Sense

August 31, 2015

Top 10 Reasons to Read “Vermont Dollars, Vermont Sense

This week marks the official publication of Post Carbon Institute’s first handbook on local investment, written by myself and Gwen Hallsmith.

Vermont Dollars, Vermont Sense, builds on my 2012 book on local investment, Local Dollars, Local Sense:  How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity.”  The new handbook presents 28 specific tools for promoting local investment, and presents examples of people, initiatives, and programs in Vermont carrying out each of them.  We are now planning similar handbooks for several states in the Pacific Northwest, and hope that ultimately there will be an edition for every state in the nation.

Why did we start with Vermont?   The state has a long history of community resilience, from local food and energy systems to town meetings. More recently, Vermonters have taken the lead in reclaiming that tradition, for example by setting a goal of 90 percent renewable power by 2050 (Burlington, the state’s largest city, has already hit that goal).  We also were impressed with the state’s long embrace of local investment.  One of the earliest and best examples was carried out by two ice cream entrepreneurs named Ben and Jerry in 1984, who insisted that shares in their initial public offering be owned solely by Vermonters.

Whether or not you live in Vermont, here are the  top ten reasons you might want to take a gander at this handbook (Spoiler Alert: the #1 reason is that it’s free!):

(10)  It’s Important – Americans are still putting almost 100 percent of their long-term savings into Wall Street, even though more than half the economy is made up of locally owned businesses that are highly profitable and competitive.  If you think that Wall Street has too much power, then stop wishing for change, and start putting your money where your idealism is.  This handbook will show you how.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

We are all Greece

July 31, 2015

We are all Greece

6909168001_76655d538a_zThe cast of heroes and villains in Greece’s ongoing battle to save its economy varies depending on who’s telling the story. One simplified narrative depicts the German people as rich and callous overlords inflicting hardship on the downtrodden Greeks. The austerity measures they insist upon are essentially meant to punish the Greeks for spending too much on social programs for the sick and elderly.

In an opposing storyline, the Greeks have only themselves to blame: they lived beyond their means, evaded taxation, were generally corrupt, and irresponsibly piled up debts they simply could not repay. In this scenario the Germans are like parental figures administering discipline on the immature Greeks.

Neither of these narratives is accurate or helpful; rather than providing real insight, they merely serve to heighten nationalistic and xenophobic impulses in both countries. In order to make sense of what’s going on, we ­­need to go behind the scenes to look more broadly at the underpinnings of the crisis.

It is widely assumed that the European Union was formed in order to prevent conflict. This notion can be traced to the aftermath of the Second World War, when well-intentioned statesmen promoted the notion that economic integration was a path to peace and harmony. And until this day many idealists support the EU for this reason. However, for many in my network – particularly in Scandinavia – it was clear from the beginning that the EU was primarily about big business.

Before countries were linked together into an economic union, Europe’s many regions were home to a great variety of cultures, languages and customs. But the Union erodes this rich diversity, which was born of human adaptation to different climates and ecological realities. The many borders, currencies, and differing regulations made trade difficult for big business, while the diversity of languages and cultural traditions put limits on mass marketing.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why Do We Ignore the Obvious?

June 23, 2015

Why Do We Ignore the Obvious?

I have a hard time with people not being willing to recognize what’s obviously in front of their faces. It’s a voluntary mind game people play with themselves to justify whatever it is they think they want. This is massively exacerbated by an array of social engineering tactics, many of which are to create the very mind sets and desires people so adamantly defend.

But that’s no excuse for a lack of simple conscious recognition and frankly makes absolutely no sense.

We can’t blame these manipulators for everything. Ultimately we all have free choice. Plainly seeing what’s right in front of our noses, no matter how well sold or disguised, is our human responsibility. That people would relinquish this innate right and capability totally escapes me.

The Handwriting On the Wall

Actually, it’s much more obvious than even that. Pointless wars costing millions of innocent lives, poisoned food, air and water, demolished resources, manipulated economies run by elitist bankers who nonchalantly lend money with conditions for “interest”, corporate profiteering at any cost to humanity, a medical system built on sickness instead of health, media mindmush poisoning children and adults alike, draconian clampdowns for any reason, and on and on.

Why is this not obvious to people that something is seriously wrong, and clearly intended to be just the way it is? Do they really think it’s gonna iron itself out, especially with clearly psychopathic power mad corrupt maniacs in charge?

That’s what they’ll tell you. “Give it time, we’re just going through a hiccup. Everything works out…” yada yada. Why? Because that’s what they want to believe. And the constructed world system is waiting with open arms to reinforce that insanity. And “Heck, if millions of others feel the same as me I can’t possibly be wrong.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Collectivists Hate Individuality, Tribalism And ‘Fast And Furious 7′?

May 14, 2015

Collectivists Hate Individuality, Tribalism And ‘Fast And Furious 7′?

Sometimes in the liberty movement — with discussions of potential collapse, war, revolution, social destabilization, etc. — it is easy to get so caught up in the peripheral conflict between the elites and the citizenry that we forget what the whole thing is really about. That is to say, we tend to overlook the very core of the conflict that is shaping our epoch.

Some would say that it is a simple matter of good versus evil. I don’t necessarily disagree, but good and evil are not defined methodologies; rather, they are inherent archetypes — facts born in the minds and hearts of all men. It’s a gift of comprehension from something greater than ourselves. They are felt, rather than defined, and attempts by institutions (religious, scientific, legal or otherwise) to force morality away from intuitive reason and into a realm of artificial hierarchical and mathematical standards tend to lead only to even more imbalance, destruction, innocent deaths and general immorality.

There have been many nightmare regimes throughout history that have claimed to understand and obey moral “laws” and standards while at the same time having no personal or spiritual connection to those standards. In other words, some of the most heinous acts of immorality are often stamped with the approval of supposedly moral social and governmental institutions.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Becca Martenson: Building Community

May 11, 2015

Becca Martenson: Building Community

How to increase the value of the relationships in your life

As we often stress here on PeakProsperity.com, nearly none of us can expect to become completely self-sufficient. It’s the (very) rare individual who can successfully live as a true ‘lone wolf’ — and being honest, who would want to? That’s a hard, lonely road.

Which is why we so strongly advocate integrating into a supportive community, or building one of your own if there’s none readily available. Having multiple trusted social relationships is a form of wealth in many ways more valuable than money. These are what support and sustain us when our plans fail us, when the situation calls for skills we lack, when we’re physically or mentally compromised. They also enrich our lives in ways money simply cannot, nourishing us as well as encouraging us to become our better selves.

But building community takes time and real effort. Especially in today’s society, where many of the old social norms that fostered community during our grandparents age have been severed by suburban fences, the rat-race workstyle, and the false sense of belonging offered by television and the Internet. So how exactly does one do it?

In this week’s podcast, we invite Chris’ wife Becca to share her expertise on the subject. Those who have attended our annual seminars in the past know her deep experience in this area, experience that she’s honed over the years advising Peak Prosperity readers looking for ways to better forge valued relationships in their own lives.

Community is built around a nucleus of relationships. So, you can think about community building as just starting with relationships. Think about building relationships with people where you have shared passion, shared interest, and shared values. Because it’s through the activities that you do where you intersect, overlap, and meet up during the week with others that you build that continuous connection that then expands to become community as more nuclei of these relationships come together.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article and listen to the podcast…

SOLVING CRIME AND INEQUALITY, WITH A SEED

March 23, 2015

SOLVING CRIME AND INEQUALITY, WITH A SEED

A sense of community itself goes a long way towards building the kind of trust and equality necessary for safer and more just communities. [1] Indeed, many of today’s social improvement programs, from arts to sports, to jobs, housing and political forums, are choosing to base their efforts on community cultivation, as strong communities are often springboards for social and economic well being. [2]

But what if this kind of trust and community could be built while simultaneously undertaking another type of cultivation, the kind where individuals work gently and carefully together to cultivate the land. What would the benefits be?

Is it possible for a humble seed and a patch of soil to be the catalysts for stronger, healthier, more equal urban communities?

Countless studies have shown — and frankly if they didn’t, then common sense should show — that through cultivating a relationship with the land, individuals and communities learn how to be better connected to each other, and more appreciative of life at a basic level. [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
— Mahatma K. Ghandi

In the years we have spent producing the Final Straw film, Suhee and I have seen repeatedly, that in the community garden in general — and the natural farm mentality specifically — there is an understanding of self paired with anappreciation for all life which can not be learned anyplace else. As an active participant in this learning where we create harmonious relationships and nurture other living things, individuals are also, sometimes unknowingly, creating the building blocks for a society which has far less crime and conflict.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

How ‘The Power to Convene’ can transform Transition

January 10, 2015

How ‘The Power to Convene’ can transform Transition

I had seen it in lots of different places. I’d seen it in the 30 people who turned out to plant nut trees on a grey Sunday morning in Totnes. I’d seen it in Liege in Belgium, where representatives of many local organisations had come to an event to discuss creating a ‘Food Belt’ around the city. I’d seen it at the launch of the Brixton Pound, in a hall packed with local traders.  What I didn’t have was a name for it.

It was in a small sideroom at the Resilience Hub in Portland, Maine, that I first heard the term ‘The Power to Convene’.  It fascinated me, and finally gave me a name for this thing I’d been seeing for years.  I was doing an interview with Chuck Collins of the fantastic Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition (JPNET) group.  “One thing we have”, he told me, “is the ‘Power to Convene’”.  He continued:

“Somebody comes and has a great idea, such as “I really want to start a bicycle taxi business”, and young people who are graduates of a local bike mechanic programme say “we know how to take care of bikes, we’d like to start a business.

So we pulled together a community event, and got 70 people there who were interested, and we got a whole bunch of new stakeholders and allies, and now they have a working group and are working on setting up that business.  I think we just keep doing that in every area where there is both a problem and people who want to do something about it.  We can get a crowd together, help identify resources and spark them”.

‘The Power to Convene’ put a beautiful, succinct term to something you will no doubt recognise. We’ve noticed more and more groups working in this way and exploring the potential of their own, place-based, ‘Power to Convene’.  We see it in different forms:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

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