Do you see it? All around us, from the largest of our institutions on the world stage, to the very fabric of our national being; the structures we know are fraying from the inside-out. This is a time of realigning and rebalancing, and to see this process in play allows us insight as to how we must proceed for communities of local, livable scale to take root. Almost all of the things in our lives now rely on a global production and distribution network; a network very fragile to start with, which is now dis-integrating before our eyes. It was bound to happen, I’ve felt certain, and we will be dealing with the fallout from our foolishness for many years to come, perhaps generations…
***
I do not believe the Obama administration is substantively different from past administrations, and as the weeks roll on, this will become ever clearer. I do believe, however, that this is our last chance to “get it right” before the collapse becomes irreversible, if it is not already. This “getting it right” will require a deep commitment by Us, collectively, to fundamentally alter our dangerous and destruction lifestyles. Without this, no amount of “stimulus” will save us from the approaching Tsunami, and the wreckage will be monumental to say the least. Perhaps monuments will be erected to our insanity. Perhaps.
***
As the crashing sounds of implosion and disbelief echo around us, I hear the edge of panic in the hushed voices around me; “No one could have known it would be like this!”. But we knew, deep within where the lies cannot penetrate, we all knew. The astonishing thing to me is the grasping at the very way that brought us to this frightening place to begin with! Talk of saving a failed and flawed model is irrational, delusional, and ultimately doomed to horrific failure. We cannot and should not rescue any aspect of our globalized and vastly destructive civilization, and the more energy put to this cause virtually guarantees this Thing which haunts our dreams…
***
These regressive tendencies must be put to rest, because there is so much forward-looking work to be done. A major component of which is the extremely overdue work of cleansing ourselves of the cancerous plague of car culture. This plague is destructive like none Humans have ever known, bringing us to the brink of an unthinkable abyss, to recognize this is to know that we must change our ways, now. Toward this change we ride our bicycles.
A Critical Mass Grows...