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Resilient Citizens Building Their Own Economic Security
Pioneers of the New Normal
http://www.mediaforum.org/RecentDisplay.cfm?ID=3199
by Sarah van Gelder   Tuesday, September 14, 2010 by American Forum


Americans are facing a troubling reality. The economic recovery they were 
promised has not materialized. There’s growing talk about a “new normal” — a 
new way of life to take us through a long period of failed recoveries.

There are, indeed, good reasons to believe we won’t go back to the old ways. 
But this new normal doesn’t have to be a time of chaos and decline.

Instead, many Americans are building stronger families and communities, 
rejecting the waste and greed that made our economy implode, and turning 
instead to self-reliance and the sort of neighborliness that embraces 
diversities of all sorts.

Why not go back to the consumer ideal that was the foundation of the American 
Dream? Many who live paycheck to paycheck have lost jobs, homes and hopes for 
an education, retirement security and belief in a more prosperous future. CEO 
pay is on the uptick, as are corporate profits. But the anti-tax, 
anti-regulation fever that enriched some undermined the real wealth of our 
country: our education system, infrastructure, communities and natural 
resources. And much of our economy has been outsourced, making it difficult 
for stimulus spending to get growth going again.

But it’s not only a stalled economy that is threatening our future. Leading 
scientists now say that climate disruption is behind the massive flooding in 
Pakistan and the record-breaking fires in Russia. Shortages of food, water 
and energy — with attendant price spikes — along with displacement and 
migration, are likely, not just abroad, but here in the United States.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Gulf oil disaster is showing the limitations of 
another sort of security we once took for granted: cheap oil. As the 
easy-to-exploit oil is used up, oil companies are turning to increasingly 
difficult-to-reach sources of oil. This means we are likely to see still more 
expensive disasters associated with oil, whether caused by human error — as 
in the Gulf — or just part of the extraction process, as seen in the 
communities devastated by mountain-top removal or tar sands exploitation. 
Analyst and author Michael Klare says we have reached the “Age of Tough Oil,” 
and every barrel of oil we extract will be more difficult and expensive to 
get than the last one.

That brings us back to the prospects for an economic recovery. With cheap oil 
a thing of the past, an economic recovery that increases demand for energy 
will drive prices even higher. That energy price increase would stall any 
recovery.

So what are Americans doing about these very real threats to our security?

Some are exploiting citizens’ fears for their own political ends, blaming 
President Obama, immigrants or climate scientists for the bad news. These 
strategies not only distract us from the real threats, they divide our 
country while offering nothing that can help solve our challenges.

Others are choosing to ignore or deny the depth of these challenges.

But there are people across the political spectrum, in every part of the 
country, gathering with friends and neighbors to build sources of security 
close to home.

These folks are turning lawns into vegetable gardens and organizing their 
neighbors to start pea patches and farmers’ markets. They’re getting together 
with neighbors to swap preserves and skills, and to relearn the skills their 
grandparents had. They are protecting local resources — water, land, forests 
and fisheries — that can offer sustenance into the future, and they are 
starting up energy and weatherization cooperatives.

They’re paying off their debt, moving their money out of big corporate banks 
to local banks and credit unions, and supporting local businesses. As they 
do, they are freeing themselves from the global corporate economy that moved 
jobs overseas and fueled the speculation that undermined the real economy of 
jobs, goods and services. These folks have chosen instead to use their 
resources to strengthen local economies and the small and medium-sized 
businesses that are most likely to create the new jobs of the next economy.

These are the pioneers of the new normal, and you can find them building the 
foundations of a hopeful future in urban centers, small towns and suburbs. 
Maybe you’re one of them.