What to do in the mad, mad world?

Exactly. Even the situation in Libya seems very calculated. Things like that are going on in countries all over the world, but the UN has a vested interest in Libya because thats the nation where an American-led, UN invasion will drive up oil costs, thus putting billions of dollars of profit into someone's fat pockets.

I think much of what is going on in the world is very calculated.

 

there is so much to do where shall I start?

self sufficient community to start with is quite good already

 

Truly powerful need no defense. We don't live in a political world but a physical/biological one. Mastery is to pick your life up or lay it down at will.

Look at how the asymmetrical tactic of suicide bombing is so successful at projecting a sense of insecurity.

 

Well I don't think it's some outside process in the sense that it is beyond our control. I think people actively make it happen because it's what they want. If you look at history, it's been nothing but a massive transference of power from one group or person to the other, and onward and onward.

 

Money does not just disappear. Hence all the bonuses after the bailout. Funny isn't it corporations are more profitable than ever but pay fewer taxes, yet all our governments are bankrupt...go figure who could have imagined that? While Wall St. enjoys a subsidized recovery the rest of us have to learn to enjoy austerity.

 

money may not disappear but watch credit dry up and then try and find some . . .

money seems to be a bit of a fiction that we all believe at this point anyways

 

I've found dealing with life easier since I gave up relying on credit. Credit like most things only works for the rich and powerful.

 

Ok, I think we need to differentiate between the two sides of that question, "What do we do about it?"

One the one hand, there is what we do as individuals walking our own separate paths.

@thedope: I agree with everything you have to say, about my life for me. Part of what I'm personally doing about it is disengaging from it and not giving it power over me or my own human soul. Power is only ever held over us by those we relinquish our own power to, I know that. I no longer want to be a part of it, and I have the luxury to do so. My kids are grown and self-sufficient, I'm divorced from my wife, and I have little to be responsible for anymore. I can drop out and go back to farming somewhere and participate in a much more localized community, removing myself from the overstimulated environment of modern society and minimizing my personal participation. I will attend my own inner needs and find peace for my days. I can see that you have a great inner tranquility and a very healthy perspective for the path we walk through our each and every moment. I always enjoy your very centered perspective. And you also seem to know that it is only ever our very own selves that prevent us from reaching such a peace. I hope one day to get out of my own way enough to attain a similar serenity.

@Melial, midgardsun: I also believe that smaller, sustainable and localized communities are the way to go for one's individual survival. If the whole show collapses, I don't want to be close to a major city. A much more rural existence is clearly more sustainable. Being as self-sufficient as possible and finding others willing to barter, along with accepting a less power-driven life appears to be the future that won't fall apart.

And there are other good ideas that get floated around. Don't speed so you don't end up supporting the government by paying that fine. Don't buy lottery tickets, same reason. Don't contract for goods and services, live a cash based life as much as possible. Don't buy labels or eat processed food. Basically, just don't buy into it; literally or metaphorically. I'm sure I forgot some other good ones, but they're in the same ballpark. All these ideas, which are actually possible to do, are great and someone who is aware can employ them all and know that they personally have removed themselves as much as possible from continuing the cycle.

But on the other hand, what about everyone else? I don't know what the answer is here, or even if there is one, or even why I seek it. Be it flaw or strength, blessing or curse; as I stand on the hill after escaping the prison, I can't help but look back at all the people still in the cage. And I wonder, if I choose to simply ignore them all and just focus on my own self, what would that say about me? Would that be a step in the direction that eventually leads to the kind of selfish apathy towards others that is at the very heart of most of society's problems? But what can I really do? The beast has become so huge and I am so small. There are others of like-mind, but they are quite few. The methods for spreading ideas are mostly controlled by the enemy, and the average prisoner doesn't even realize that they're captive. We have forums such as this one, but they are a small and disjointed fringe. Greater exposure requires an involvement with the agents of the enemy and comes with the immediate risk of it being co-opted and used to perpetuate that which should not be. Any individual rallied behind would enter the arena and then have to play the game. But the only way to win is not to play.

I live in america, and no I don't capitalize it so my apologies if that offends. We have 308 million residents according to the 2010 census. 80% of that is in cities or suburban neighborhoods. That's 246 million people who live in symbiosis with the grid. In some way they depend on it, and it depends on them. Not to say that rural populations aren't also caught up in the web, but the tendrils are far fewer and easier to cut. If there was a major crash...correction, when there is a major crash, what about those cities and the people living there? Right now I live in the northeast and there are dying cities all around. In Syracuse, NY they are disassembling a Carrier plant. Unemployment is the highest it's been since 1982, the majority of it in urban population, and they're taking apart a factory. They'll probably build a parking lot there or something... It's hard to not be cynical. I know good people caught up in the perpetuation of this monster that continues to slowly consume them. As much as I want to turn my back on the system as a whole, I don't want to ignore the plight of those who don't see it. The good simple souls that believe the lie and trudge ahead trying to live up to the dream they've been fed, never knowing it was laced with arsenic. When the ship sinks...who goes down with it? 4th class passengers in steerage, no doubt. And those are my peeps, working hard, partying hard, loving hard.

If we're adults, we've probably learned that you can't save anybody. One can only save oneself. So the best we can ever do is plant the seed, hope it grows. But our seeds are being cast amongst a pretty small group. How do we get the message out in a way that comes across as credible to a larger audience and not get caught up in the web ourselves?

 

As an adult I know that my actions can save others, not just myself. In fact acting as an advocate I think a few times I have saved someone else. And I am proud of that. In fact it's what keeps me going. If my only role was saving myself I think I'd find that an empty exercise.

When planting any seed you always plant with the hope that it will grow and be fruitful. But sometimes you have to be satisfied that it managed to break it's way through the soil and surfaced at all. Many times you pat yourself on the back only to come out the next morning and find that the snails and cutworms have devoured all the new seedlings. That's never discouraged me from planting again and hoping for the best. I used to run out and buy snail and cutworm bait. Today I realize those snails and cutworms provide food for the birds, and rather than poison them I try to plant in such a way that they can do the least damage.

 

While our increasing taxes are what finance that recovery. Dooh Nibor... reverse Robin Hood.... Robbing Hood?

Robbing from the poor to give to the rich
Makes bourgeois an eventual bitch
Whose tooth and nail won't scratch the itch.

 

My peeps too. Not like those stale marshmallow ones we all buy at Easter.

 

The majority of people (which is those in the cities) will actively participate in the downfall until it happens in the desperate game of 'getting theirs'.

The majority of them will also eat or at least kill each other when/if a serious crash happens.
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Some of them will realize that they should have left when they could, and try to leave. They will form groups (think locusts) that will spread from the cities and devour and destroy everything in their path, until they too, eat or otherwise kill each other.

A very small minority will try to hold out in their apartments or houses in the cities, trying to rely on the tomoatoes in their window and their small garden out back.... They will be eaten by the others along with their tomotoes before the spread mentioned above happens.

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Some of those who are just now realizing that they need to get out and away from the cities, will try to make a go of it in semi isolated (but easily accessable to the mobs from the city), between not being ready, and being overrun... they will not last long either.

Those who have already started on a path to being able to survive, will be the ones with the best chances...

Unfortunately... most of them will be eaten, overrun taken over because they want to be 'nice' and help everyone they can.

A very small segment of the population, who have started already towards self-sufficiency, security and self reliance, who recognize that not all those who come will be good people and need to be dealt with, will do the best...

On the otherside of the issue... as to whether 'people' as a whole could change things...

Of course they could...

But they won't.

 

I agree there my friend. I guess I meant more along the lines that though you can help someone save themselves through action, you can neither do it for them, nor can you help someone who isn't willing to save themselves.

Quite true. But what about the guy who just goes around and steps on the seedlings so they don't blossom into something that will compete with his own crops?

 

It's a sad and frustrating thing to sit and watch it all. When we say things like this, more optimistic minds see a jaded cynicism. But I think it's still true. People get herded as a group and though some may notice it, most don't care and are too busy just getting through each day. I keep my optimism very personal and directed at my own path. The "big-picture" view I have might be called pessimistic, but it feels to me more like realistic. We're already past the peak, and the speed of our plummet is only likely to increase. Exponentially. Sometimes I feel like I'm in ancient Pompeii and telling everyone that the volcano is going to erupt, better get away from it, and they all look at me like I'm covered in scales and suggesting that they feed me their children. But it isn't their fault they can't see, and that's the great conundrum. Only drastic change can jostle people out of the collective mind-haze, but by the time it gets to that it'll probably be too late.

 

It could even have the effect of making one angry at the average person... (or even more so at those who claim to know better)

Of course... that would just end up with that angry person being labelled as an asshole and negative about people...

shit happens...

 

there's a difference between using credit personally and having it disappear for everyone else

what happens when the farmer who grows your food cannot get a loan?

what happens when the small businesses on main street cannot get a loan?

what happens when workers cannot buy houses because they cannot get mortgages?

the rich and powerful may see a greater profit in denying credit some day . . .

 

Exactly. Most new "money" gets created through credit nowadays. You fill out the application and get approved, and then bang that money suddenly exists under your agreement to pay it back, with interest. It's all just numbers on a computer and with the push of a button that mortgage you just took out makes the money appear. The whole system is predicated on continuing growth to pay back into it, and that growth is unsustainable. That dollar in your pocket represents the stored efforts of your labor to be used in the conducting of commerce. But what if it became valueless? The simple fact that it's been pretty solid for a longtime may impart a feeling that you can trust it not to fail, but it doesn't actually make it infallible.

 

the end of the dollar
http://www.examiner.com/international-trade-in-national/it-s-the-end-of-the-dollar-as-we-know-it-1

 

I cant agree with this. Land ownership is needed. The sooner one can buy a property and pay it off the better. Whether its a farm or small plot with a trailer or an old garage. Stop paying rent and own. THat will free you from the slavery of renting. If you lose your job or income making ability you still have a place to stay out of the weather and to keep your things. 15 yr loan or less and pay it off as fast as you can.
Find some place with a well or cistern and rain water collecting ability. You may never need it but its there if you do. My brother drives his water company crazy with his cistern. He uses very little 'company' water and uses cistern for clothes, bath and dish washing. Uses the water companies water for the toilet. lol

 

Ownership is liability. You must pay rent, taxes, on property you own, and the more you develop or improve your property the more taxes you pay. Also the productivity of any parcel of land can be gravely affected by drought, flood, fire, or geologic disturbance. You should be able to live free and be free to freely mingle. To be prepared to adapt to any exigence.