The Transition movement is rooted in permaculture principles, which some people call “social permaculture.” Applied on a social level, the principle of observation leads to some important foundational questions. Where are we? What’s going on? Who’s involved? Where are we going? How are we getting there? How do we work together?
This isn’t something that we can simply read articles about. We need to experience these questions together in shoulder-to-shoulder, hands-on kinds of ways (kind of like my tomato plants) to see—by trial and error- just what makes us lush, green and bountiful! Reading articles can ignite good ideas—but they have to be tried on, worn and felt. We have to experience what works and what doesn’t in order to make choices for our communities (and our gardens) that will give us thriving resilience.
This means getting out there and doing it. It means shucking off the social isolation that, as Americans, we have unquestionably accepted for the past two decades. It means letting go of the concept of ‘rugged individualism’. The Transition movement is about transitioning away from overly individuated singularity toward an integrated synthesis. We, as individuals, will necessarily awaken to our roles as a part of the collective. We will reclaim our rightful place as ‘citizens’ instead of being merely content to be ‘consumers’.
The Tomato Incident | Vermont Commons
25 SepFour Point Plan to Change the World, or at Least the USofA
7 SepHa!
This is going to be quick and crude.
Some Assumptions
I’m making many assumptions, including: 1) Limits are near, 2) Science and technology cannot change that, and therefore 3) the American Century is over. 4) Recognizing and accepting 3 is the chief stumbling block to major political change. It’s a matter of mythology, symbolism, and emotional investment, not rational principle and reasoned argument.
Until this symbolic problem is overcome the reasoning behind 1 (limits), 2 (tech won’t work), and 3 (hegemony gone) is invisible.
The Hegemony Myth
So, how do we create a new mythology to replace that of American Hegemony? Good question. I don’t know.
I do know that, after Japan was defeated in World World II, some Japanese managed to shed the old imperial mythology which had Japan at the center of the world. One can see that process of mourning in, for example, three manga by Osamu Tezuka: Lost World, Metropolis, and Next World. That the Japanese had lost the war was an inescapable fact, and so many Japanese could find their way to a new mythology. Those Japanese grieved for their lost Japan and, out of that grief, managed to create a new one.
Nothing of comparable finitude has happened to America. The recent financial disaster was a shock, and it has had permanent repercussions, but it isn’t the equivalent of having several major cities incinerated, two by atom bombs, and enduring a military occupation. Before that, there was the terror bombing of 9/11. That too was shocking, but American responded to the shock by doubling down on the old mythology and thereby walking into two unwinnable wars half way around the world. Continue reading
Build a Business on Transition Principles?
1 AugWhat might a social enterprise founded on Transition principles be like?
The concept of “social enterprise” has been gathering traction in the U.S. It’s kind of like a hybrid of the business world and the nonprofit world. In its most basic form, there’s the example of a gift store within a museum: the profits from the store fund the cause of the museum. In more complex forms, there are micro-loan businesses that fund third-world startups, bakeries that employ at-risk workers, and a myriad of creative examples.
What might the “social enterprise” model be like if it were founded around the types of business we need for a localized, post-petroleum, leaner economy world?
A Gratitude Economy | Transition US
30 JulGratitude – together with all the volumes that have been written about it – is very much an ingredient of the gift economy. A very beautiful ingredient, which enriches our hearts and spirits, at the same time as it potentially invites more substantial and tangible gifts.
Some communities are beginning to set up “gift circles” — a collection of people who want to engage in gifting practices on a regular basis. But you don’t need to wait for an official gift circle. Here’s how you can get gift economy concepts rolling right now.
In cultivating the gift economy, one of the simplest, baseline starting points is appreciation. Letting people know you noticed. Thanking them, yes, but even moreso, giving them credit, and helping build their reputation as a giver within the community-at-large. “John designed the community garden.” “Karen arranged for the contribution of native plants.” “Deno very generously gives us discounts.” We’re not talking about brass plaques here, those capitalist markers of bragging rights and Mine. Rather, we’re talking about verbal and emotional appreciation – social credit. It doesn’t cost you anything to give people credit. In fact it makes your heart feel good. And it builds a whole lot in community goodwill.
How to stop world catastrophe – Since You Asked – Salon.com
12 JunThere’s always TRANSITION.
What if you could join an army to fight global environmental catastrophe? If you could simply enlist and say, give me whatever I will need to fight this thing, give me a cot, teach me how to fight, and I will fight it?
I’ll bet lots of people would join such an army.
But there is no such army to join.
Perhaps some philanthropist will fund the formation of such an army and equip it to do the kind of fighting that must be done. Until then, millions are faced with the same questions and the same concerns and must individually seek out ways to do their part. You can work for environmental organizations and political organizations and take direct action and send money and sign petitions and talk to your neighbors and many other things, all of which are good things to do, but I am sure many people feel as you do: paralyzed, incredulous.
I wish I had answers. I am, unfortunately, just a writer.
via How to stop world catastrophe – Since You Asked – Salon.com.
Open Letter to Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich: Come Together, Right Now
20 MarDear Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich,
I urge you to put your respective strengths together on a firm foundation built by back-to-basics Austrian and Buddhist economics. A casual reading of G. Bateson, E. F. Schumacher, John Ruskin, anyone who has thought long and hard about the profound evil embodied in “central banking,” war preparations and “Fed manipulations” everywhere, will give you the tools and bricks you need to build a Reform Party and/or an Americans Elect TEAM based on emergent truths and the oldest traditions.
At the Truth & Traditions party website (cranks and planks without a platform or an actual political party) you will find arguments, positions, reports, a Declaration of Interdependence, some of what you will need to create a balanced platform and a beyond-bi-partisan Sunshine Cabinet whose members and many surrogates can campaign with you this summer and fall.
The key to this Sunshine Cabinet is the creation of a Peace Department (Kucinich in charge?) and an Ecology Department (Bill McKibben or Andrew Kimbrell in charge?), each department NEVER to exceed a size sustainable by a quarter of one percent of the current Defense Department budget. In truth, each department needs only a few dozen people to gather up the long-term thinking and best practices of diverse Great Transition communities, colleges, universities, institutes, limited and democratic governments around the world that work for the best interests of their peoples. These two very small and extremely cost-effective departments can shape and pass on as many proposals to Congress, Executive and Judicial branches as are needed. Continue reading
Transition Videos – YouTube
11 JanAbout The Transition is Now!
Inspiring videos about a wide variety of topics including Transition Town Movement, consciousness, culture, Permaculture, Evolver Social Movement, spirituality, philosophy, and much more. We focus on solutions and strategies to create a more beautiful, sustainable world. We love to engage with other like minds through conversations in person and through this world wide web.
Truth and Traditions 