Re: {PBJFlorida} The End of Growth, The Start of Community

One of the biggest barriers to  building genuine community, the kind that Heinberg, and Peck and  Block and Palmer and Eisenstein and Hedges all talk about, the kind where lots of large neighborhoods are made self-sufficient and resilient to the forces of economic, social and envvironmental collapse --- the biggest barrier to creating this kind of community is thinking we are already there. This kind of thinking ends the inquire, it lets us off the hook; we stop listening to each other and stop creating new possibilities together. 

On Sep 10, 2012, at 3:58 PM, Penny Villegas <pennyvillegas31@gmail.com> wrote:

This article confirms what Jim has been saying.

But I think many of us are already community. Aren't friendship and common interests community? It requires one more step, perhaps a tragedy. I was at a funeral this past weekend; His death was not a tragedy but a natural end to a long life, but it brought us who had not seen each other for years together to comfort each other, to feed each other.

It's not a commune or ashram but it is community. 

Penny, hopeful... 

On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 2:36 PM, Michael Rodriguez <fireryphoenix@hotmail.com> wrote:

This is what Jim Belcher has been saying all along. Chris Hedges's article, found in the link below, is sad, but should be read by us. For what he states in the concluding paragraphs is the very reason why PBJFlorida exists.
 
Excerpt:
 

Heinberg says this is our fate. The quality of our lives will depend on the quality of our communities. If communal structures are strong we will be able to endure. If they are weak we will succumb to the bleakness. It is important that these structures be set in place before the onset of the crisis, he says. This means starting to "know your neighbors." It means setting up food banks and farmers' markets. It means establishing a local currency, carpooling, creating clothing exchanges, establishing cooperative housing, growing gardens, raising chickens and buying local. It is the matrix of neighbors, family and friends, Heinberg says, that will provide "our refuge and our opportunity to build anew."

 

"The inevitable decline in resources to support societal complexity will generate a centrifugal force," Heinberg said. "It will break up existing economic and governmental power structures. It will unleash a battle for diminishing resources. This battle will see conflicts erupt between nations and within nations. Localism will soon be our fate. It will also be our strategy for survival. Learning practical skills, becoming more self-sufficient, forming bonds of trust with our neighbors will determine the quality of our lives and the lives of our children."

 

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/growth_is_the_problem_20120910/

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