3/30/09

Retribalizing and the Remnant

There's a counter-wisdom running against the Summer of Hell/Inevitable Riots/Martial Law meme being pushed on us like Ecstasy manufactured in Israel. It's gaining traction. To wit:
The solution is to re-scale and make your world small but still extensible. The technologies are already there. Grow vegetables and swap them with your neighbors. Get your ass on facebook your face on assbook on Twitter and introduce the transgender girl you met in Thailand to Louie up the street and share pics of kohlrabi. Invest in good things near you like a brewery or a share in a farm's crop. A cow's milk. You've heard how it was the Vandals and Visigoths who took down Rome but that's not the big history. It was Christ took Rome because he took down their puppets. Thing was the Romans built great roads and couldn't close the Appian Way to Christians. Close the roads and close the commerce so the Christians used their roads and brought in a stronger network. Like the internetz are now. Emperor Constantine in the East converted and his empire lasted another century. Only thing matters in the end is what your family your friends and neighbors think of you. They are your credit score.
And look, here's another one, a week later, different smart guy:
Because the best protection isn't owning 30 guns; it's having 30 people who care about you. Since those 30 have other people who care about them, you actually have 300 people who are looking out for each other, including you. The second best protection isn't a big stash of stuff others want to steal; it's sharing what you have and owning little of value. That's being flexible, and common, the very opposite of creating a big fat highly visible, high-value target and trying to defend it yourself in a remote setting.
That is retribalizing. Charles Hugh Smith goes on in the next post to talk about the Remnant, the tiny slice of people who with their individually miniscule but mysteriously coordinated behavior will swing the door on the hinges of history and get this retribalizing going. Well worth reading. I'll cut to the chase.
Note that the Remnant is not engaged in any one pursuit; smart people are just doing what they think is right and good, which includes being skeptical of the received "wisdom" of the media and government pronouncements/propaganda, trying to avoid the financial vortex which is pulling down the non-elites (and maybe a few elites, too), living lighter, cheaper, better lifestyles away from the stomping masses of the Consumption Is Our True God mainstream, working to improve the soil of a patch of earth, and a thousand other projects and interests.

If anything characterizes the Remnant, it is skepticism, a disdain for pomp and aggrandizement, and an awareness that doing with less is actually a happier, more fulfilling life than Always Chasing Bigger and More in the Public Eye.

It's the same thing you can read about daily at Urban Survival, Cryptogon when he gets personal, and a few other places. This is the way forward. Find your people, hook up with them, and take care of each other. The mystery ingredient that coordinates the Remnant's behavior is also known as love in the agape sense.

Agape has been expounded on by many Christian writers in a specifically Christian context. Thomas Jay Oord has defined agape as "an intentional response to promote well-being when responding to that which has generated ill-being."

We are here now, in exactly that predicament. The correct response is to make the social connections rich and complex and the material requirements simple, and that will maximize the survival of people who are not sociopathic.

14 comments:

Sis said...

(psst. Looks like you scared away all the sociopaths today)

A. Peasant said...

excellent. progress. may they rot in hell.

Greg Bacon said...

OMG!!! You want me to stop living at the mall?

But, but, but, how can I live without the Mall in my life?

A. Peasant said...

well...you know how it goes, like, if you can't, like, live without the mall, you just, like, die, right?....like omg. that's what we mean by population die off.

Greg Bacon said...

OMG!!! It's another Mallocaust!!!!

A. Peasant said...

HAHaH! Touche!

Sis said...

". . . You will leave everything you love most:
this is the arrow that the bow of exile
shoots first. You will know how salty
another's bread tastes and how hard it
is to ascend and descend
another's stairs . . ."
Paradiso XVII: 55-60

I'm sure gonna miss Macy's.

MarcLord said...

Sis--

but maybe you won't mind having a bakery right next door.

MarcLord said...

Pez--

hey thanks for the quote and link!

A. Peasant said...

don't mention it
i support brilliance

Pete said...

Disconnecting from it is the only way. That weakens it, strengthens us.

J. Benjamin Franklin said...

I like this theme of localization. It rings of joyful Epicurianism. It is also like the lesson at the end of Candide, a profound work of another chaotic era.

I would have avoided commenting on Israel, though. After all, the culture of the Kibbutz, which has been fundamental in the rise of Israel, is built around these exact ideas of shared community, the shared raising of children, the shared growing of food and sustaining of the community.

qb said...

Posted (and appreciated) at Daily Paul - http://www.dailypaul.com/node/139277

A. Peasant said...

hi qb, i noticed that & thanks. it's an older post but still relevant, and the info re: pareto principle is good to keep in mind -- keeps us hopeful anyway.

legal mumbo jumbo

Disclaimer: The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.

Fair Use: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.