At an undetermined time in our dim, distant past, people got together and said, I’ll do this and you do that. Life is richer and easier when we specialize and share. Here’s thanks and praises to each working for us.
Here’s to the growers, gatherers, harvesters, and miners.
Cheers for builders, constructors, educators, teachers, tutors, directors, molders and mentors.
Props to developers, creators, crafters, inventors, engineers, architects, artists, chemists, chefs, scientists, and even philosophers.
Gratitude all around for line workers, preppers, technicians, assistants and drivers.
Much love for kind caregivers, counselors, druggists, and therapists.
Ovations for explorers, competitors, endurancers and performers.
Hearty applause for day labor, handy men and women, hired hands, giggers, and grunters
Heartfelt respect for all hands on deck fighters, defenders, protectors, staffers, civil servants, bureaucrats, and other members of good government for each and all of us.
Yay for our heroic cleaners, sweepers, maintenance workers, repairers, and refuse collectors.
Working together, we make humankind, and may yet develop sustainable civilization. Working together, we may coexist in natural and technological communities.
Trust in specialization helps, and democratic participation is essential. When we let a few decide how to divvy up combined resources, we risk corruption of power, and temptation for managers to corrupt processes for selfish ends.
Value for humanity arises from production. Names are important for history and assigning credit, but they are secondary to production. Producing for people is the point, not promoting individuals and brands.
Many are enthralled with conquering. Destructive conquerors are often revered more than everyday producers. We produce for all of us, not for a few whom we rely on to give us what we need. Producers gave us everything. It is ours. We can take what we need back from society’s elite takers when we work together.
Working together is for all of us. Sustainability won’t develop from unequal division of resources among races, genders or classes. There are no magic elixirs to bypass our inequitable history of division. We can live sustainably together with smaller, simpler and more modular homes and communities, particularly in the United States.
People have been working to live more harmoniously with nature for over a century in back to the land movements. Many intentional communities attempt to live more holistically, including American communities formed by hippies and earlier generations. Many theorists, such as Buckminster Fuller from nearby my hometown of St Louis, have long envisioned and proposed more viable, nurturing, and harmonious communities.
Now, we can connect online. For example, there are numerous resources available online for permaculture, including web sites, videos, podcasts and discussion threads.
Hooray for content creators making permaculture resources available.
Caution to those exploring agriculture and cultural alternatives. Many are seeking to keep what they can on their isolated properties. However, nobody is truly isolated. Homesteaders, back to the landers, and survivalists are free to practice permaculture, as are nationalists, rascists and history deniers, which are common in America.
Historical divisions, unequal distributions, and discrimination remain as relevant issues for us to solve if we are working for us. Bioregions will not be safe, secure and sustainable until we address our differences and how we got here.
We can learn to live within resource availability. Failing to address historical division and inequity will only prolong fighting over limited resources for the benefit of a few. Regions, bioregions, and nations need to account for gender, class and racial situations along with climate, geography, resource limitations, wealth distributions, and impactful consumers.
Thanks for reading and possibly commenting. I have been focusing on my latest West Bank report, and hope this is good for the Anti-Capitalist Meetup.
