Plan for Action

Plan for Action.

Replacing one political economy across the entire planet with another fundamentally different one, represents monumental change—revolutionary change. Throughout human history such change has been violently resisted, and equally violently fought for. Such a transformation is precisely what I am calling for. Yet, I do not believe that violence, beyond self-defense when it is required, need be a part of this process. The reason for this is because the present corporatist system, I’ve demonstrated throughout the last several hundred pages of this book, is the cause of its own demise. No outside force need be applied to it by us to bring it down. It cannot avoid self-destructing itself, by itself. So rather than senselessly attack it, we need to ensure that its self-caused Collapse does not take us down with it.

In furtherance of this objective, our task is to organize both locally and planet-wide a wholly new political economy. Indeed, not only the politics and economics will be new—the ideational foundation itself—culture, values, animating stories, everything that gives purpose to human life—must be created anew as well. For, as I’ve explained above, it was the core values of the old order which made its doom inevitable. If we are to avoid sharing that fate, we must fundamentally change. Adapt or perish—that is the harsh and inescapable logic of the natural world.

Back in Chapter 1, I defined crisis as meaning: “…the occurrence of a set of circumstances which cannot be dealt with by using existing behaviors and strategies, but which must be dealt with quickly to avert serious harm or death from occurring. Crisis causes behavioral adaptation….”

The capture and consolidation of power in the USA by corporatists, in conjunction with similar outcomes in other major nation-states, as I’ve detailed above, has created just such an existential crisis.

The abuse of the biosphere’s life-sustaining natural systems to support the cancerous growth of a neo-fascist/corporatist global political economy, legitimated by religious ideology, compounds this crisis such that it becomes one of survival of the biosphere itself. Under these circumstances, I propose that the widest possible coalition be assembled to wrest control of human civilization’s trajectory away from the corporatist neo-fascists.

As I’ve said, it is already far too late to prevent horrendous disasters from befalling humanity, and the rest of the planetary web of life as well. However, it is not too late to guide ourselves through the vicinity of the crisis-attractor in our learning space and onwards to a sustainable open-ended future on its far side—towards Infinity’s Rainbow.

How to make this a reality? I’ve already discussed individual and group survival strategies. Additionally, we must strive to achieve political power at the local and regional levels ourselves. We must also support all those who run at the national levels who clearly recognize the problems which we are facing, and who are prepared to at least attempt to address those problems.

We should simply ignore all others as irrelevant. A generic, status-quo Democrat is utterly worthless in the shitstorm of crisis that is descending upon us. Wasting time by supporting such a person is actually worse than useless, because it consumes time, energy, and intellectual and organizing capacity that could have been better used to facilitate our survival and transformation agenda. The sad reality is that most politicians are not deserving of support.

We must instigate and coordinate a politically irresistible demand for governmental policies which facilitate entrepreneurial driven renewable energy technology development. This is an area in which new technology entrepreneurs, along with forward thinking Libertarian and new industry New Democrat political assets, all representing new industry entrepreneurs, are useful to us. This grassroots demand can then be transformed into policy at the national level. And that can produce very tangible results quickly.

The split between new-industry and old-industry elites must be exploited at every opportunity and in every possible way. No opportunity should be forgone. We must strive to hinder the old industrial elite’s destructive agenda by all available means, including setting the new industry elites into an intra-elite conflict with them.

The new technology entrepreneurs must be made to understand that only the Collapse of global civilization and likely death await them and their children—and in the fairly near term future—if they continue to adhere to the old paradigm. At the same time, they must be positively induced both by favorable governmental polices, and also by appeal to the interests of humanity and life itself, to actively bring about change by the realization that great wealth potentially awaits those entrepreneurs who rise to the challenges of renewable energy and sustainable living. Furthermore, they will be actively mitigating the severity of the Collapse, thus saving countless human lives, as well as substantially minimizing the ultimate damage to the biosphere and its web of life. Finally, they can participate positively in the rebirth of human civilization. These motives of fear, greed, self-interest, and altruism, when combined into a single package in the context of existential crisis, would seem to offer a powerful motivator for new technology entrepreneurs. All of this said, we must understand that not just our technology—but also and more fundamentally—our thinking and our values themselves must change if we are to succeed.

While this coalition is being put in place in the USA, along with equivalent ones across the planet, an essential result for us is to ensure that the crises and our adaptations to it include the total and eternal elimination of the obscenity of corporate “personhood.” Collective entities such as corporations are not humans and must never again have the same—or greater—rights than do humans. They must be chartered by, controlled by, and exist for the benefit of people, just as Jefferson intended in his proposed 11^th Amendment, as I’ve detailed above. If this is not accomplished, then nothing whatsoever will have been accomplished. As we have seen, corporatism, neo-fascism, the takeover of the human political economy, leading soon to the wreck of human civilization, and the potential collapse of the biosphere itself, occurred as the inevitable consequence of corporate “personhood.”

Everyone has seen the slogan “Think globally, act locally” on countless bumper stickers. We need to put this slogan into effect. We can do this by organizing ourselves for survival at the local level, while coordinating our efforts across the planet via the Internet. This coordination should include not just idea sharing, but also adopting a coordinated agenda to overthrow the corporatists everywhere and for all time.

We must not only organize politically and ideationally, but physically as well. The survival communities must be pioneered. This entails either organizing existing communities, or, alternately, creating new ones. Given the shortness of time, this must commence right away. As I’ve noted in an earlier chapter, as I write these words there are already existing groups which are hard at work accomplishing this goal.

I believe that it is essential to quickly develop the capacity to put a planet-circling network of microwave reflectors into place. As I’ve already noted, the reflectors themselves are basically just wire mesh. They are very simple artifacts, relatively inexpensive, low-tech, which once placed in geosynchronous orbit, will remain there for tens of thousands of years. These reflectors would also act as an Internet backbone in the sky. Providing them with simple solar-powered ion drive positioning systems could allow them to function optimally for centuries without further human maintenance. This is long enough to bridge the decades of chaos of the Collapse. If the Collapse lasted for centuries, the system would bridge even that daunting temporal gap as well. We are not necessarily doomed if this step is not taken. However, our probability of survival and of transformation is much enhanced if it is taken; and therefore it should be done. R. Buckminster Fuller understood the logic of this very well—as should we all.

Doing all of these things will allow all of the far-flung survival communities across the planet to share energy directly with one, another as I’ve explained above, while remaining in continuous contact with each other. The information, innovation, and energy sharing that this facilitates will give the far flung communities of the Renewal a coherent existence as a true planetary complex adaptive system. Emergent properties, along with the immense powers arising from comparative advantage, would transform what would otherwise simply be isolated hunkered-down survival communities into a true planetary civilization which would, in both a literal and a systemic sense, emerge during the Collapse. Its adaptiveness, in conjunction with its global extent, would be much enhanced, thereby maximizing the probability of group survival for all Renewal communities during the dark years just ahead.

A new global community—a new civilization—would emerge. It would be built upon a foundation of new renewable energy technologies, the development of which would be propelled by the onset of the crises. In conjunction with this energy foundation, it would be based upon permacultural agriculture and new culture. Universities, research centers, and entire new communities could affiliate with this global alternative political economy as it consolidates itself and the crises of the old order deepen. This process of quiet defections—quiet secession—from the dying, planetary-death-inducing, global corporatist-fascist system, would serve to further empower our Renewal movement, while simultaneously hastening and reinforcing the death spiral of the old system as we withdraw from it.

We must encourage all of those who would innovate and pioneer new ways of thinking and of organizing ourselves for sustainable living. Members of the Green Party have much to contribute to this dimension of transformation. The material and spiritual dimensions animating our lives, and of our societies, must work to reinforce one another. We must learn to recognize—and to accept—the fundamental equality and worth of each person. Society must be based upon this recognition of individual equality. Those who pioneer these new understandings of reality are as essential to our survival as are those who will pioneer new material technologies for renewable energy systems.

Historian, and former psychotherapist, Carolyn Baker[1] has recently written a thoughtful essay entitled “Post Petroleum Women.” In it she notes that most of the leaders, activists, and writers involved in the various strands of what will become, in my words, “the Renewal”, are almost invariably male. This means that particular ways of seeing, understanding, and dealing the world, are emphasized, while others—those more pronounced in many women—are if only because of benign neglect—ignored. Referring to this as the “feminine principle Baker states:

By feminine principle, I mean the ancient archetype of "the feminine" which I believe is an enormous universal motif residing in the psyche of every human being. Thousands of archetypes exist, but a few common ones are: mother, father, child, savior, healer, warrior, trickster, teacher. They are common to all cultures around the globe, and besides feeling them in our bones, we see them depicted in art, literature, and music. When discussing them, however, it is crucial to distinguish between real people and archetypes. For example, the feminine principle is defined in a variety of ways which include: nurturance, acceptance, generativity, eroticism, warmth, generosity, openness, introspection. Specific women embody these qualities in varying degrees, as do many males. Particularly relevant to the Peak Oil issue, the earth itself for millennia has been archetypally experienced as feminine.[i]

I believe that Baker is correct in her assessment: We are facing unprecedented existential crises. To meet these challenges successfully we need to avail ourselves of all possible ways of perceiving, understanding, and interacting with phenomenological reality. We need to check our preconceptions of “strong” and “weak” and all our implicit gender biases at the door so to speak.

We must also leave the old left/right, liberal/conservative paradigm behind us. Smaller government, with local control over it—as will be the case in the Renewal communities—can certainly be considered as being a “conservative” idea! Members of any political party or no party are potentially welcome in the Renewal. Believers of any religious tradition—or of no tradition—must be welcomed, so long as they are tolerant of those who believe somewhat differently than themselves. Tolerance and reciprocity are essential prerequisites for participating in the Renewal. We are creating a new tomorrow—not rehashing petty divisions, and reaffirming old prejudices, from what will soon become antiquity.

Basically, initiating the transformation comes down to playing out a three-level game:

1) Macro Level Political Actions: Humanity is presently politically organized at the highest level into nation-states. Because we all live in one of these nations, the governments of which potentially affect our lives to an enormous degree, we must seek to influence the decision-making of national governments, at the highest levels in order to prevent interference in our actions at all levels. Although the Collapse is now unstoppable, we still must influence governmental policies towards development of renewable energy technologies along with mitigation of the most environmentally destructive actions. Also, we must influence government policies to ensure that the chances of survival for the greatest possible numbers of people are maximized. In doing this we must actively seek to block, ward off, to impede, all government actions which are disruptive toward the furtherance of our transformative goals.

2) Micro- to Meso- Level Political Actions: Acting politically at the local level, at the county level, at the local regional level, and possibly at the state level, we must seek to gain control over all levers of power in order to facilitate the furtherance of our goals. Energy and transportation projects and infrastructure are logical issue agendas at these levels. Local energy co-ops can mesh together into a regional or statewide system of electric rail transportation, replacing energy-innefficient18 wheel truck transportation. This can further mesh into electric powered mass transit in area cities. During the chaos at the onset of the crises, national governmental control will inevitably break down, so being in position and prepared to spring into action as this occurs, is essential to the successful achievement of our agenda. The survival communities must be created, or existing communities must be transformed into survival communities, planet wide, as these will be the physical foundations for all of our efforts. We must be prepared in advance for the Collapse, if we are to be able to act effectively during it, and after it, to bequeath a transformed successor civilization to the post-Collapse world.

3) Within the Renewal, transformation: We must seek to develop a new energy foundation for ourselves, and our communities, while creating the values needed to live harmoniously and sustainably with others, and within nature. By organizing an ever-growing number of local communities across the entire planet, while co-opting the most forward thinking new industry entrepreneurs and scientific researchers, we can integrate new and transformational sustainable energy technologies into each of these communities. By developing holistically integrated energy, agricultural, and cultural systems based upon respect for life—all life, and the fundamental equality of all humans—we can keep the flame of civilization burning brightly through the dark years and decades that are to come. By weaving together a global community, we can and will transform the entire world. Because the world’s governments will collapse of the weight of their own folly, we can supersede and replace them without major war, conflict, or violence. Indeed, the entire surviving human world outside our communities, which becomes disordered during the Collapse, can and will be re-integrated into our new order as the Collapse abates. We can and shall make the world anew!

Conclusion.

Following the strategy I’ve outlined just above would instigate the willful creation of a new political economy within the belly of the old one. No wars of secession would need to be fought, since what is being created is a non-material, borderless, web of linkages across the planet between territorially based, forward-looking groups, each of which is acting locally. The vast powers of between-group cooperation would be fully harnessed by the new locally-based, globally-extensive complex adaptive system of the Renewal and its emergent political economy.

The global communications network would also serve as a planetary “brain” allowing the most difficult existential problems confronting the Renewal during the Collapse decades to be fully worked out and optimal survival strategies created.

My strategy would also keep alive the advanced technologies pioneered in recent centuries, even during the darkest years of the Collapse. If our knowledge of these technologies is ever wholly severed, then I fear that humanity would be condemned to exist in a pre-industrial state permanently, since all of the easily obtainable materials and energy sources needed to bootstrap an industrial civilization would be gone. Only high technology can sustain a high technology civilization.

Think of the microwave reflectors in geosynchronous orbit as the “place to stand,” and of the Renewal as the “lever” by which we shall indeed move the world. More generally, think of within-group cooperation as being our place to stand, and of between-group cooperation as being our lever, with our resultant emergent system of cooperation as moving the world.

Beyond this sketch of the Renewal, it is up to all of us to just go out and make things happen. Once we start connecting and innovating, the web of interactions will begin to weave itself in a sense, as the emergent global properties of our new system begin to take shape. We will very literally take back control of human civilization from its corporatist hijackers. We will create an alternative political economy to replace the neo-fascist corporatist one, as it fails during the Collapse years. Remember, that not everything need be created from scratch. There are many people, many groups, and many organizations working toward discrete parts of our transformative Renewal right now. These need to be woven together into a much larger tapestry in which the actions of each enhance the actions of all—into a complex adaptive system—which exists, as a whole, to create a new ideational and political economy. Remember that the whole is always greater than the sum of the individual parts in such a system.

As I’ve said, it’s now too late to avert an encounter with the crisis-attractor, however; we, as individuals, and as a species, can and will, learn from that experience. New, adaptive, sustainable memes will be created to replace those which have brought the world to the precipice and soon will drive it over that precipice. By our actions, by our realizing our dreams, we can and will bequeath an open ended future to all who come after us.

I’ve laid out a sketch of how and where to begin this transformation. Now it is up to each of you to bring it about! There is a world—a universe—to be transformed or created!

Chapter 13 Postscript.

I’d like to end this work where I began it, with this quote:

It has often been said that, if the human species fails to make a go of it here on the Earth, some other species will take over the running. In the sense of developing intelligence this is not correct. We have or soon will have, exhausted the necessary physical prerequisites so far as this planet is concerned. With coal gone, oil gone, high-grade metallic ores gone, no species however competent can make the long climb from primitive conditions to high-level technology. This is a one-shot affair. If we fail, this planetary system fails so far as intelligence is concerned. The same will be true of other planetary systems. On each of them there will be one chance and one chance only.[ii]

This is our one and only chance. Let’s not blow it!

[1] Author Carolyn Baker has an interesting website featuring many of her writings, along with numerous interesting links, at: http://www.carolynbaker.org/. Her current book entitled “US History Uncensored. What Your High School Textbook Didn’t Tell You” includes an excerpt from “Jefferson Was Right” which appears above in this work.