The distinction between the collapse of industry (survivable) and the collapse of our biosphere (existential) is very important. Thank you for sharing.
I also have a personal question I wanted to ask, I left it inbox, when you have time please check it out.
Is there a word for levels of discourse surrounding civilization and its future? I think, anyway, that what I'm trying to describe are levels . . . Right now, at what I currently consider the lowest (highest? most fundamental?) level, I'm reading about indigenous thought. It's important to me now because indigenous lifeways have been practiced widely before--whole peoples have exhibited it--and these peoples have lived in a sustainable way. (One aspect of indigenous thought that I've read about, however, it not to live in the past but to apply its life ways to current situations.)
Another level would be how to become a nation of just laws. But that is informed by my more fundamental level because the question presumes the advisability of nation-states, presumes the need to relate by a written code--two things that indigenous thought doesn't presume. Maybe presumptions or assumptions are what separate these levels.
It's getting more difficult for me to write about things that presume so much. It's difficult to write about things that would, for instance, persuade someone whom to vote for. Voting presumes the advisability of continuing an election system geared to keep oligarchs in power and to give democracy a bad name (guilt by association). Why not write about and model something more fundamental--real political participation, for instance?
Absolutely, we need writing that breaks out of our current thinking. We need to challenge the presumptions you named, and more. Free people don't need laws to live by, nor do we need to be governed. Free people are not bound by contracts and capital, but by the relations we have with each other and the land, and the mutual obligations that arise from them.
So we are prepared to make a new life before, during, and after the collapse :-)
Some the "Non-Electric Atilier" popped into my mind. It's run by an engineer in Japan named Yasuyuki Fujimura, a physics PhD who decided he was fed up with the way innovation and technology was headed, and took in the opposite direction. His belief is that "It should be possible to live happily and richly while enjoying a moderate level of comfort and convenience without depending on electricity".
He makes all kinds of inventions without electricity, to accomplish things that we normally think need electricity. At one point the mayor of Seoul invited him from Japan to do a long-term workshop series. Inspiring guy.
There are a lot of stories like his in the world. So, maybe that is another possible place to aim for writing?
Even within electrical appliances, how about better materials and fewer electronics? Why can't I find something like the Instant Pot that doesn't have electronics, has better materials, and will last a lifetime? It's just an electrical pressure cooker in the end. All it needs is an on-off switch.
Definitely, planned obsolescence is so gross, and so unnecessary. We could be making things to last decades, esp with the tech we have now. Less is often more.
Amazing! And I totally agree — spreading stories to a wider audience, thereby spreading the ideas behind them, is an excellent function of writing. I've done some of that here, and plan to do more.
The distinction between the collapse of industry (survivable) and the collapse of our biosphere (existential) is very important. Thank you for sharing.
I also have a personal question I wanted to ask, I left it inbox, when you have time please check it out.
"So what I won’t be doing in these letters is telling anyone what to do or how to do it."
Exactly! Anarchism is built on the principle that you can lead a horse to water but definitely should not try to force it to drink.
Is there a word for levels of discourse surrounding civilization and its future? I think, anyway, that what I'm trying to describe are levels . . . Right now, at what I currently consider the lowest (highest? most fundamental?) level, I'm reading about indigenous thought. It's important to me now because indigenous lifeways have been practiced widely before--whole peoples have exhibited it--and these peoples have lived in a sustainable way. (One aspect of indigenous thought that I've read about, however, it not to live in the past but to apply its life ways to current situations.)
Another level would be how to become a nation of just laws. But that is informed by my more fundamental level because the question presumes the advisability of nation-states, presumes the need to relate by a written code--two things that indigenous thought doesn't presume. Maybe presumptions or assumptions are what separate these levels.
It's getting more difficult for me to write about things that presume so much. It's difficult to write about things that would, for instance, persuade someone whom to vote for. Voting presumes the advisability of continuing an election system geared to keep oligarchs in power and to give democracy a bad name (guilt by association). Why not write about and model something more fundamental--real political participation, for instance?
Absolutely, we need writing that breaks out of our current thinking. We need to challenge the presumptions you named, and more. Free people don't need laws to live by, nor do we need to be governed. Free people are not bound by contracts and capital, but by the relations we have with each other and the land, and the mutual obligations that arise from them.
So we are prepared to make a new life before, during, and after the collapse :-)
Some the "Non-Electric Atilier" popped into my mind. It's run by an engineer in Japan named Yasuyuki Fujimura, a physics PhD who decided he was fed up with the way innovation and technology was headed, and took in the opposite direction. His belief is that "It should be possible to live happily and richly while enjoying a moderate level of comfort and convenience without depending on electricity".
He makes all kinds of inventions without electricity, to accomplish things that we normally think need electricity. At one point the mayor of Seoul invited him from Japan to do a long-term workshop series. Inspiring guy.
There are a lot of stories like his in the world. So, maybe that is another possible place to aim for writing?
Even within electrical appliances, how about better materials and fewer electronics? Why can't I find something like the Instant Pot that doesn't have electronics, has better materials, and will last a lifetime? It's just an electrical pressure cooker in the end. All it needs is an on-off switch.
Definitely, planned obsolescence is so gross, and so unnecessary. We could be making things to last decades, esp with the tech we have now. Less is often more.
Amazing! And I totally agree — spreading stories to a wider audience, thereby spreading the ideas behind them, is an excellent function of writing. I've done some of that here, and plan to do more.
To record the collapse.
That's a good reason!