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  • From: Kelly Simmons <kelly@bouldersustainability.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] 12 Simple Things You Can Start Doing Right Now To Prepare For The Coming Financial Apocalypse
  • Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:55:40 -0700

I just read a book of interest to permaculturists entitled A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit, which I highly recommend. In it, she thoroughly debunks the myth of looters and rampagers running wild during disasters (of which an apocalypse surely qualifies). In actuality during and after disasters the vast majority of ordinary people pull together and help each other out. A robust and connected community arises out of nowhere. According to her book this has been documented over and over again by "disaster sociologists" studying the behavior of citizens in disasters all over the world, including the economic collapse in Argentina.

What is far more dangerous, according to Solnit, are the mythological beliefs in looters and rampagers held by the elite. She terms it "elite panic". In cases of elite panic, which are legion in disasters, law abiding citizens are frequently shot for no reason, because the elite, and their minions the police and the military, believe that citizens will loot and rampage and must be stopped at all costs. Katrina is the most recent and glaring example of elite panic coupled with racism, wherein national guardsmen and private security forces were sent in to New Orleans to "quell looting and rampaging" where none existed, while citizens were dying on rooftops and highway overpasses waiting to be rescued, or just given some water. These forces passed by the stranded with guns pointed at them in their fruitless searches for the rampaging black men supposedly killing and looting.

Solnit documents case after case of ordinary citizens working together without authority structures during disasters to help each other, rescue each other, and care for each other, as well as elites panicking and ordinary citizens getting shot or harmed.

It's actually quite a positive portrayal of human nature in general.

Quite an interesting read and highly recommended.

Kelly


On Dec 6, 2010, at 9:06 AM, Toby Hemenway wrote:

This was John Schinnerer's response to those "12 simple things," from a different list. Since I'm not a believer in the Apocalypse, I thought John about summed it up.

Toby

Aloha,

*12 Simple Things You Can Start Doing Right Now To Prepare For The
Coming Financial Apocalypse
*http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/12-simple-things-you-can-start-doing-right-now-to-prepare-for-the-coming-financial-apocalypse*

I think the use of the word "simple" in the title must be some kind of a cruel joke on those who don't understand satire.
1, 2, and 3 are good advice in general.
In a true "apocalypse" 1, 2, and 3 might be pretty much irrelevant because jobs, debt and 'expenses' as we know them will cease to exist.
4 might be useful if one would prefer to die miserably (exposure, starvation or both) mostly or completely alone somewhere out in the sticks rather than with large numbers of others in urban centers.
5 ought to give a good laugh to anyone who really has spent some time working on feeding themselves adequately by their own efforts without prior experience or knowledge (or manufactured imported fertility).
6, 7, 8 and 9 will also likely be rather pointless in a true "apocalypse" since one will either be taking said resources from another by force, or having them taken from one by force (except for 9, since gold and silver have no nutritional or insulative value and don't burn worth a darn either).
10 has got to be intentional satire, or written by someone who watched way too many B-grade war/samurai/chop-socky/western movies. By definition one cannot defend much of anything from "crazed looters." They're crazed, after all. If the first hundred don't get ya, the next five hundred will.
11 is a good idea in any case, apocalypse or no.
12 gets my only unconditional satire-free approval. If we all focused primarily on 12, we might not even need an apocalypse.

cheers,
John S.

On Dec 4, 2010, at 8:23 PM, Keith Johnson wrote:

*12 Simple Things You Can Start Doing Right Now To Prepare For The Coming Financial Apocalypse
*http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/12-simple-things-you-can-start-doing-right-now-to-prepare-for-the-coming-financial-apocalypse*
*
--

Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN 47407
(812) 335-0383
- Permaculture Activist <http://www.permacultureactivist.net/>
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- Local Growers Guild <http://www.localgrowers.org/>
- Permaculture & Regenerative Design News Blog <http://kjpermaculture.blogspot.com/ >
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- Transition Indiana <http://transitionindiana.blogspot.com/> - Blog <http://transitionindiana.blogspot.com/>

- TransitionBloomington.org <http://transitionbloomington.org/>

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- Bloomington Permaculture Guild Blog <http://bloomingtonpermacultureguild.blogspot.com/ > - Calendar <http://my.calendars.net/bloomingtonpccal/>
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