This is yesterday's future... the moment we have been waiting for and co-creating with our imagination, thoughts, words, deeds, fears, hopes, desires - and our silence.
Looking at the bright new shiny, and shrunken, coins I wonder if any one else notices how much they have devalued? A friend pointed out to me the similarity between the bright new shiny copper 10c piece, and the 1c coin we used to have - the main noticeable difference is that the new one has a zero on it the old one didn't. Is that how much value the money has lost?
I hear the cry: "It's too complicated" How are we to understand these serious and complicated economic issues, and if we did what could we do about them? We easily pass on the responsibility to others who know better - and they work in our best interests, no? A paragraph by David C. Korten in his latest book "From Empire to Earth Community," clarified this very succinctly for me. Maybe it will help you.
These financial games [interest bearing loans, manipulated interest rates, financial speculation, and more] contribute nothing of value to the larger society. They do, however, significantly increase the buying power of the ruling elites and their claims on the real wealth of society relative to the claims of those persons who contribute to the creation of that wealth by producing real goods and providing real services. They are the most successful of financial cons because the mechanisms are invisible and the marks—the object of the con—rarely realise they have been conned. Even if they were to recognise they have been conned, there is nothing they can do about it because the con is both legal and culturally accepted. - David C. Korten
Those words stopped me in my tracks. Of course. Has anyone noticed that many of the productive people in our community, are living on the same or similar incomes they lived on 10 years ago when our money could buy more? We are working longer hours, or now we constitute part of a two income family, just to maintain the same level of purchases. And it goes on. While we look at local economics, we are not isolated from the economies of the world. And those economies are even harder to comprehend. However the secretive nature of those institutions who control the world economics is worth noting:
"Today the world is run by three of the most secretive institutions in the world: The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, all three of which, in turn, are dominated by the U.S. Their decisions are made in secret. The people who head them are appointed behind closed doors. Nobody really knows anything about them, their politics, their beliefs, their intentions. Nobody elected them. Nobody said they could make decisions on our behalf." – Arundhati Roy
And they are working in our best interests, right?
Destroying the demand for oil and gas is one possible strategy to address Peak Oil - albeit a deceptive one which hides the truth.
The following brief excerpt from Michael Kane, writing for Michael Ruppert's From The Wilderness Publications has a different perspective on the "liquid bombers" arrests and the consequences which have eventuated.
Demand destruction has been discussed in both financial and elite circles for quite some time, especially as it pertains to the consumption of hydrocarbons.
Jet fuel makes up 10% of total oil consumption, or 12% of total liquid fuel consumption. North America and Western Europe consume more jet fuel than any other regions on the planet, totaling 112.5 million gallons per day as of 1998. That number is certainly higher today.
The recent arrests of suspects said to be conspiring to blow up planes headed from Britain to America occurred at a very convenient time in light of current events. As the world stands on the brink of an unprecedented energy crisis, the question is whether there is going to be a fast collapse or a slow burn.
Elites can attempt to avoid a fast collapse by manipulating the public's perception of reality in order to modify our behavior. As FTW's Carolyn Baker recently wrote:
If the empire will not tell the truth about Peak Oil, then it has only two options:
1) Create wars to take the resources it needs, and/or 2) Create demand destruction.
The arrests in the U.K. caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled or delayed. The ramifications will last for months, if not years. This terror-scare will likely be seen as a hallmark moment in the decline of the airline industry...
... A terror scare is good for the Bush Administration and the Republicans. Wall Street was virtually unaffected by the news of a thwarted terrorist plot on August 10, 2006, but European markets took a tumble...
...It is more likely that we will see continuous "terror scares" that further lead the population towards consuming less liquid fuel, and jet fuel seems to be the easiest target since social, political, economic and geological factors have naturally aligned against the airline industry.
When we see how our actions effect the planet and our life support systems, why don't we change what we do?
Derrick Jensen has this to say:
Jensen: If your experience is that your water comes from the tap and that your food comes from the grocery store then you are going to defend to the death the system that brings those to you because your life depends on that; if your experience is that your water comes from a river and that your food comes from a land base then you will defend those to the death because your life depends on them. So part of the problem is that we have become so dependent upon this system that is killing and exploiting us, it has become almost impossible for us to imagine living outside of it and it's very difficult physically for us to live outside of it. Read more...
Do a search on youtube for "peak oil" and you will find a wide range of clips - serious and comedy, professional and amateur, archival footage and animation. This one is quite hip:
I only wish there were at least some videos to show people how to grow food without dependence on oil. I'll keep looking.
There is so much being written about the present level of conflict and all too often the history is forgotten. This 10 minute film clip from the film "We - the unauthorised" gives some eloquent background to the issue, which I found very helpful.
Another clip which shows a well educated and no nonsense British MP - Mr Galloway, ripping apart the assumptions of his interviewer's questions and taking a bigger view of the historical landscape.
We are living though a time that is pregnant with possibility. I have spent 3 years supporting the New Zealand Transition Towns relocalisation movement, and welcome opportunities for dialogue, with serious people, about what is possible for us to do right now.
