Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] preparation / was commune way of living

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Gwen Giffen" <ggiffen@1st.net>
  • To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] preparation / was commune way of living
  • Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 14:54:06 -0400

I read on BBC's website last night that a great draught 70,000 years ago is believed to be what caused the human race to leave Africa and populate the earth. I have an article clipped from the Columbus Dispatch about 15 years ago that tells of a Tsunami that once flooded all of the area Seattle is in. What Art is talking about has already happened here due to a hurricane in New Orleans.

My mother has occaisionally said that it is important to build community despite our differences, because it is when community falls apart that people go to war over their resources. She says it is important to find common ground; to find activities we can do together and relate in a positive way over, rather than focusing on our differences. Our local Farm Bureau group has members about as opposite in political viewpoints as you can get, but we don't fight over it. Some are military families; others are in the local peace group. Some of us like Bush; others of us can't stand him. I don't know about you, but I've avoided people I have different political views from; and to sit in the same room with them and discuss politics and farming is meaningful. To swap antique farm equipment with them is precious. Some probably are collecting homeland security information on the others, but they're working together!!! We are able to and do find common ground. Forces that cause us to see our differences rather than our commonalities are the forces that are the most dangerous of all. Suburbanites are just like us. Many of them descended from farming families, and still have an interest in knowing farm skills. It is not necessarily a sin to live a modern life. They may look "down the nose" at farmers, but I personally have seen several thoroughly enjoy putting up hay when I've invited them to help.

What concerns me is that our country is in the process of making supporting ourselves in small communities virtually impossible, if not illegal. It is true that most of us can't exist alone. We are a complex society, and have become very interdependent. That interdependence has reached a corporate/national level, and those who want to make money, or just can't see, are in danger of making our ability to feed ourselves in the event of disaster impossible. If we can set aside power struggles and greediness, that complexity doesn't need to change, especially not in the event of a disaster. We can't sell milk to our neighbors. We may not be permitted to save our own seed. The government can keep track of how we raise our animals via satellite - even some of our neighbors have access to technology where they can watch us via satellite. I had a patient in the hospital tell me that he and his friends check out properties on the internet before going 4-wheeling on them, for example.

If we don't build a positive community with our neighbors where we are interdependent and support each other - if we work hard and keep the fruits of our labor to ourselves, then yes, those who are starving will point their guns and make us hand it over. If we do build community, now, and make it in vogue to grow your own tomatoes, and know our neighbors and work things out with them in whatever way we can, then when disaster hits, we will be there for each other. We also need to keep the country's laws in a place where it isn't illegal to do what is necessary to survive and eat in the event of a disaster!

Not long ago, before all this discussion on "commune way of living" began, I posted a link to Raven Rocks in southeastern Ohio. It is an intentional community. I know most of the members, but I have never lived there, and most likely never will. I like to visit the rock shelters there, however, and see the spring wildflowers, and I try to buy my Christmas tree from them every year where they set up at a local farm market. They are a successful community, but I don't think they qualify as a "commune." They are very involved in the larger community. They use the means to stay off grid in their daily lives, and educate others about how to do so. The people in that community have inspired me to try harder. That is the way we should all be.

Living in this manner might not stop a disaster that happens in the suburbs and the city, but it would go a long way to helping in the event of one, if we in our small rural farming communities stuck together locally, and nationally stood up for our ability to produce and profit from it; and kept an open, positive relationship with those who may someday need us.

Gwen



You are exactly correct. In the 30's a lot of people were still producing
most of what they consumed and most had enough extra to share it with
others. Just the difference in population in the 30's and now will make all
the difference. If our food supply is cut off for any length of time the
whole nation will go absolutely crazy.


For one thing the people in the 30's has a lot more security for they
depended more on their own efforts. Most of what they had they and they
alone controlled if they would have it or not. They didn't panic when
everything fell apart. They just tightened their belts and rode it out. That
would not be the case now. We don't have anything to ride it out with.

I have no idea what will actually happen but something will and you can bet
your sweet bippy on that. There are a number of things that could happen
that would bring the production of everything in this nation to a screeching
halt. Run-away-inflation is always a possibility. A wrong move by the wrong
people at the wrong could put everything into a tailspin like you wouldn't
believe. Raising the price on fuel is one of those wrong moves. Price
increases of everything caused by the increase in higher fuel prices has
just started and will continue. That one stupid act alone can very easily
start a domino effect that will bring a lot of things down right around our
ears.

I am hoping it will come on slow as you suggest but it may not.

Art in Arkansas





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page