First, a quick bit of feedback from our resilient brain trust. It was in response to my claim, in last week’s letter, that Greece is in a level 4 social collapse (on the Orlov scale):
Bailey says: John, I actually thought this level 4 assessment was way off, more media driven drama than truth, but after speaking with a acquaintance there I’d have to say it may be spot on. He’s a working class guy not prone to drama or doom n gloom, but it sounds absolutely horrid there. No confidence in the govt leadership to make things anything but worse, and it truly sounds like it’s turning ugly. You can trust family and perhaps your tight knit crew but beyond that, trust is gone.
It’s pretty clear that Greece, or situation as bad but for other reasons, is our future. It’s just a future that’s just not evenly distributed yet (Gibson). It’s also a very good indicator that we are on the right track with our efforts to build resilient communities. This makes the following question important:
Rusty asks (I’ll paraphrase): How do I explain what a resilient community is?
I suspect that many of us have the same problem. So, here you go.
A resilient community is the path to a safe, prosperous, and vibrant future for us, our kids, and our neighbors — despite an increasingly chaotic world.
This answer should spark this question: What (the heck) do you mean by that?
Here’s the short version. The world’s economic, financial, and political systems are breaking down. You can smell the stench of financial panic, sovereign bankruptcy, economic depression, and political chaos in the air.
It’s pretty clear that our situation is going to get very ugly over the next decade and that isn’t even taking into account the global pandemics and environmental catastrophes that are lurking on the horizon.
But what really concerns me is how dependent we have all become on this out of control global system. We are as reliant on it as newborns. If it starts to periodically fail, as global conditions deteriorate, our lives will become intolerable.
Despite that nearly inevitable future, nobody seems to be doing anything to prepare for it. The loss of jobs, income, and pensions. Government bankruptcy, corruption, and repression. Food, energy, and water shortages, rationing or pricing of those basic items at levels beyond our means. Social breakdown and soaring crime.
So, what do we do? What can we do?
We take control of our future. We implement the only solution that can give us the a safe, secure, and prosperous future. We become resilient. We find ways to help local people, businesses, and municipalities to PRODUCE, and that’s and important word, more of what we rely upon.
Fortunately, we now have the technology and the insights required to produce with quality and efficiency at the local level like never before. In fact, the changes are so dramatic, they could almost qualify as a revolution in local production.
Here are some examples. Local food from intensive gardens to high quality organic mini-farms. Local energy from home solar to community energy systems. Local products from personal fabrication machines (if you don’t know what this is, I’ll explain).
The capacity to produce is there. But we don’t need to replace 100% of what we need to become resilient. Most of what we need and the capacity, from skills to infrastructure to produce more, is enough.
How do we do it? That’s the journey. It’s definitely possible since people around the world are doing something close to it right now. We’re also finding the ways to make it happen in this online community and if you are interested, I hope you join us.
One last thing friend. What I think we’ll find, when we’ve successfully completed the work to build this resilient community, is that we’ve actually built an amazing future for ourselves, our families, our friends, and our neighbors. A future that is truly worth living in.
Your happy to be on this journey with you analyst,
John Robb
