'We May Have to Adapt Very Quickly': Reflections on Transition Towns and Collapse

In recent weeks and months I have had to re-evaluate things.

I have had to re-evaluate the way in which I live my life and how I use my energy;  - what is most important for me.

I have also had to re-evaluate my  ideas, which may be characterised as liberal and left-wing.

I have had to recognise that most of these ideas that I have cherished throughout my life have become rendered as redundant as capitalism.

The reason for this is that any idea, whether it is liberalism, capitalism or socialism is predicated upon infinite growth and the existence of  an abundant source of raw materials and also credit to fund this growth.

What I am seeing instead is that this growth has well-and-truly reached its limits due to an increased population that cannot be sustained by resources that have, or  soon are to peak.  

What wealth that is produced cannot or is not distributed because of a moribund and corrupt political and economic system that may be called a ‘kleptocracy’W that caters to the interests of a tiny, super-rich elite.

Concepts like democracy have become perverted over recent years (since September 11, 2001, but also before that), and basics rights to determine what we eat, how we medicate ourselves and now our rights to barter seeds or food may  well be threatened.

What this brings up for me during this period of collapse is that of cherishing the idea of bringing about positive change through the political system may  be redundant.  

This may have implied rebellion or revolution in the past. But no longer. 

Now it is simply that the answers cannot be found in the political system and there is nothing that can be done about collapse -  by getting rid of the Nats,  voting Green or even Labour.

It becomes more a situation of what we can do with collapse.

Transition Towns

As someone who has always liked a central idea to organise my thoughts and actions around I have always found the Transition Towns movement frustrating.(at least where I am, which is New Zealand).

For a start it seems to be very middle-class and mostly populated by people that could be described as ‘leftie-liberal’.

For me, you cannot start with a vague concept of vision. First we need to recognise  what is and then on that basis build up a plan of individual and community response.  

There has to be a  recognition that the political system, the media and the vast majority of society is in total and abject denial of what faces us - which is no less than the collapse of ‘business as usual’, of  infinite growth - ultimately of society as we now know it.

People in Transition Towns are generally good at looking at alternative technologies, sustainable living, conflict resolution etc., just as people in the Green Party have excellent values of social and ecological justice or reaching decisions by consensus.

Sometimes there seems to be a lack of robustness in thinking which is demonstrated by a comment I heard recently - that very few people have in fact read the Transition Handbook.

Perhaps it is a reflection of my own lack of patience, but I also see few signs of a recognition  that things are changing very quickly and we may  have to adapt very quickly.  

It is not just a matter of growing vegetables or riding an electric bicycle in a future oil crunch (perhaps with the emphasis on ‘future’), but actually making preparations on the level of the personal and your most immediate social group to survive changes which may  manifest not as a shortage of petrol at the pump, but as the complete and rapid collapse of the financial system.

Mike Ruppert said recently he had been contemplating the question he is often asked - how long before it happens?  What is ‘it’? he asked.  It, he decided, was when the only thing you knew about what was happening is within a five-mile radius of  where you live.

There seems to be an in idea in NZ that ‘it won’t happen here’.  I think it can and I think it will.  When and how we don’t know; but soon.

The ‘Lifeboat movement’ as a model?

Since becoming acquainted with the work of Michael Ruppert and Collapse Net I have quite liked the concept of a ‘lifeboat movement’

It comes of course, from Ruppert’s analogy  of the various reactions of passengers on the Titanic, so immediately carries the idea of  a lifeboat as something that can carry those of similar intent to safety. Inherent in this is that society is in decline and headed for collapse so that people should come together to form the communities that are necessary to survive the transition to a post-carbon world.

Collapse Net has a lifeboat hub -  maps which locate members (there are just below 5,000 in 63 countries); so that it is possible  to contact lifeboat members in the same locality and to use the software to invite them to be friends (as in Facebook).

There is also a Lifeboat  Directory - which is a directory of goods and services offered by members.

Through Transition Towns my  partner and I have recently  built up a small community of people within a reasonable radius that share a vision with us, and I am sure this will act as the basis for mutual support when times get harder.

However, this has taken some time and has depended on building up an informal network.  There has been little in Transition Towns that has actually helped this process.

Perhaps there are some things to ponder and reflect on.

In the meantime I should get my own copy of the Transition Handbook.