The arc and poetry of hope...
If we are to survive the coming multiple crises of wars, scarcity and economic decline, global climate change, disease and population growth, we have a clear choice to make: Reject the separate, individualistic approach and embrace community-based self-reliance, or. . .die desperately clutching on to an obsolete paradigm. The arc and poetry of hope has a vital role to play in our success in achieving the more positive of the two possibilities.

What will ease our feelings of impending doom and gloom? Hope in the face of no reason for hope is the answer. I try hard to practice a willful disregard for the temptation to abandon hope. Hopelessness is no longer a luxury we can afford. We can take great comfort from the fact that there are a huge variety of rising movements for change that are all contributing to a better world in their own way. Sometimes we see them as opposing or conflicting, but I see it differently. The movement for human rights, the movement for a spiritual re-awakening, the movement for empowering voters in poor and minority communities, the movement for a life that is simpler and closer to the land, the movement for taking control of our own health and vitality. All these movements and many more represent different lines of attack against an obsolete and corrupt system of death-worship: modern civilization. We need a new way of seeing the world. We need a new way of solving our problems. And that new way is already coming up, as a flower that forces its way through cracks in concrete. Slowly, with sureness of its right to live in the sunlight.

The single most important, if inadequately expressed, notion arising out of all these trends or waves of change is a healthy skepticism of the institutions of our modern society. I happen to share that skepticism. Any society that has institutions that promote the status quo, with little or no regard for what makes sense for the citizenry, is suspect for me.

As I reflect on my adult life, I have found that the motivation for any political action has been a rejection of a culture of selfish, irresponsible, decadent, self-destruction. We are awash with activities and media that entice us to think of ourselves first and everything else last. The antidote, I believe, is for us to embrace a general concept of what I call self-reliance. While the temptation is to interpret that as another aspect of a society hell-bent on worshiping individualism, I wish to clarify. When I think of all the things that are not life-affirming about modern society, I have discovered that there are two fundamental errors that emerge:
a) the scale of our institutions and economic and political activities
b) and the speed that we are expected to pursue these activities, which has, according to my experience, increased dramatically in the past 20 years

Self-reliance is the only way to get off that treadmill. It is an expression of an attitude and a moral compass that can re-orient us in a way that coincides with the way we, as human beings, were designed: to live in small communities of people we know and trust and at a speed that closely matches the speed with which nature unfolds. By self-reliance, I mean a spirited rejection of corporate culture that subtly beckons us to fill the void of our loneliness with the purchase of things. “Work, buy, work, buy and shut up!” our daily dose of mainstream media screams at us. It is, to say the least, a false God, but the complexity comes when we examine HOW to do be free of the mess. Developing community and focusing on the simple pleasures of living and being are some of the first steps to fight back.