What now? The power of us.

A diversity of native and domestic plants working in harmony.

I was recently challenged by a fellow kossack when I posted that we the people have the most power in our society, even after losing the  election, “Please, point to what power we have.” 

I responded, “We have the power to completely rebuild our culture to one of equity and abundance for humans and the biosphere, if we feel like it. From the individual, neighborhood, city, state, and even regional level. Nobody is stopping us.”

Here I will expand on this idea a little, including links to resources I have found helpful and inspiring.

Individual Level

Starting at the individual level, we can first envision what kind of society we want to live in.  All humans share the same core needs;  water, food, clothing, shelter, security, community, and self-fulfillment.  As progressives, we want all humans everywhere to enjoy these core aspects of life. So our ideal society would provide them to everyone at least at a basic, but comfortable, level. We also must place value on preserving and restoring the biosphere, which exists at every level from a pinch of soil to the entire planet and upon  which we utterly depend.

Video: Robin Greenfield on individual change

www.robingreenfield.org

Household Level

Next, we can move on to designing our own household to provide these core needs at the most basic level.  For the vast majority of our time on this planet, as hunter-gatherers humans evolved to try to gather as many resources as we could when they were available. Until quite recently it was very difficult for people to amass more possessions than they actually needed unless they were wealthy.  As Americans, most of us have possessions far beyond the basic. The average American uses only about 20% of our stuff, yet we continually accumulate more. This isn’t our fault. Evolution and culture have raised us up this way.  But it has become counter-production to continue these collections.  Having too much stuff is stressful to most people. We can choose to focus down to what we need, to what makes us comfortable.  This needn’t be taken to the point of “Minimalism” but to what is comfortable for the most sensitive person in the household.  This is known as The Clutter Threshold, the maximum stuff the person can manage without stress.

Food and water can be provided at the household level for those who have a yard, or even a balcony, no matter how small.  We can’t provide all our own food or water, usually, but we can provide some.  Small amounts of energy not dependent on the grid can be provided with RV-scale photovoltaic systems. Even a small amount of “self-sufficiency” can provide a tremendous feeling of security and self fulfilment.

Managing our household and stuff

Urban gardening

Cold climate yard

Hot dry climate yard

Neighborhood Level

Once we get our own house in order, the next step in exercising our power is to move into the neighborhood.  Sometimes this happens spontaneously as people see what you’re doing and ask questions about it.  Sometimes it takes more aggressive outreach such as putting up signs telling passersby what you’re up to, or even visiting the neighbors and telling them about it, asking if they would like to do it too.

Reaching out to neighbors

Neighborhood as village

Neighborhood forestry

City Level

When we have a good start in our own neighborhood, now might be the time to reach out to city officials to get them interested in what everyone is doing there.  Be sure to have some nice examples to show and if possible a good spokesperson.  Here’s where the “people people” really shine. ( I’m not one, personally.)  We can, with community effort, turn our cities into healthy, bountiful habitats for humans and other living things.

City becomes habitat

Habitat can be anywhere in the city

Rehydrating the Urban Jungle

State and Regional Level

This is the expansion of success at the city level to state and regional level.  This will mean having to deal with much more bureaucracy and paperwork.  But it is possible to do, as people are doing it worldwide. Projects at this level tend to deal more with land and water on a broad scale than with human habitation.  But land and water are vital to our survival and must be given priority. At the state level traditional politics steps in and some actions and projects may be promoted by new laws.

Socio-economics

Restoration of the prairie

Restoration of an entire Indian state

Restoration of the African Sahel

Worldwide: The Big Picture

There’s really no limit to what we might accomplish if we join in community with our neighbors and kindred spirits around the world.  Even if one is not capable physically to do this work oneself, supporting others who are doing the work and sharing this information are two of the most important tasks.

Learn permaculture

Discover permaculture

Permaculture a designers manual

Conclusion

These are not the only actions available - there are many more - but this plan lays out simple steps we can take at every level to move ahead to the culture we want in spite of current politics.

Additional resources

www.paanifoundation.in

The Minimal Mom

Clutterbug

www.harvestingrainwater.com

planetwild.com

Planet Wild videos

Edible Acres

Green Dreams

And just for the heck of it, a couple of movie recommendations:

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) — featuring Greenland! (doubled by Iceland, actually)

Tomorrowland (2015)