Quote:
Originally Posted by sjkted
Hello All,
When I first bumped into Project Camelot a few years ago, I was inspired by George Green's concept of the groundcrew and communities. It seems like a community is the model that will ultimately work today and well into the future. With all of the research I've done, I feel we are reaching an ending point: our current structures are crumbling including government, industrial food, transportation systems, environment, monetary, moral/ethical standards. There is no doubt in my mind that these are all completely unsustainable -- the big question is when they will fall apart and by what will they be replaced?
I've set about to research Intentional Communities or Self Organized Communities and have been a little disappointed by what I have seen. The majority of communities I have found are for followers of a specific religious path. Many of the others are basically real estate deals to buy a parcel of land with the opportunity to build your own home and join a Home Owner's Association with a eco-friendly bent.
I have nothing ill to say about either of these paths, but I have found that neither is right for me and I am unconvinced that these models are the solution to the above issues, although they are a big improvement over the concrete empire that many of us loosely call home.
I'm writing a blog on the major issues regarding the creation of a community and how a tribe of people can be as self sufficient as possible and live off the land with minimal dollar/money cost. In order for these solutions to work, they must be renewable, good to the environment, and relatively inexpensive and easy to use. There are many survival guides on topics such as surviving in the woods or surviving a nuclear catastrophe, but none of them seem to detail how to survive the long-term destruction of our civilization. It has been said that no man is an island unto himself. Just as it is nearly impossible to survive by oneself in a system dominated by money, it will be almost impossible to make it in the future alone. Any topics discussed must be applicable to groups who can split up tasks and create new ways of organization never before seen.
Here are the main topics on the list:
1. Sanitation / Hygiene
2. Water
3. Communication
4. Living / Shelter
5. Security/Protection
6. Health/Medical/Healing
7. Transporation
8. Food / Cooking
9. Energy
Following these are a discussion on topics such as financing, legal issues, property ownership, rules, community organization, etc.
The goal is to produce some sort of a "business plan" on how a small number of individuals can take ownership of a land and create a community and sustainable economies with other local communities. It need not be a rigid plan, but it should be able to guide urbanites to switching over their lifestyle without making too many mistakes.
I am proposing that I post these topics and my research here on Avalon first and then after receiving comment from other members and input who have topic experience and expertise on other methods. Once this is done, I'll post in an edited (condensed) form on the blog.
I'm writing here not as an expert who has been there, done that but as a researcher who is very interested in creating a model that people could use to transition from the corporate world into a community/nature world.
I would appreciate your comments and ideas here.
-- sjkted
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all the answers to your question can be found in the past. The world didn't get this way on it's own. What we are in is the last stages of a failed economic experiment started in 1950. The economy we grew up with is not the economy that was originally here.
after ww2 a linear economy system based on consumption was established. Prior to this economic model the economy was based on recycling and using few resources.
If you go back prior to ww2 you will find exactly how they did it. Material was more expensive, so was labor. however, money was sound and inflation non existent.
to get back to that model we need to change a few fundamental ideals:
fractional banking, credit cards, federal reserve all need to end.
minum wage needs to end
government needs to get out of private industry
anti-monopoly laws need to be placed back in.
how to start:
you cannot due this all be yourself but there is a number of things you can do to start the ball rolling.
first stop wasting money on convenience foods, things you don't need.
I suggest you get some old books that tell how things were done before the 1950's. Cooking, gardening, ect.
it is legal to make your own community money, backed by gold in a community bank. As long as the money doesn't look like federal reserve notes and you don't mint coins.
Get your community accustomed to a community owned bank, with gold stock, print own money. This is a key part.
set up an exchange for the federal reserve note to community money as well.
utilities:
depending on area, you will have to address water, sewage, electric. Those are all easily fixed.
Taxes: this is tricky. Unless you can get your community declared a sovereign entity and no subject to taxes, like an Indian reservation or religious compound you are screwed on taxes.
To be more self sufficient you simply need land to farm or product to produce to sell. Everyone in rural communities used to have their own farms. Small family farms to have food.
Electricity is only been around 100 years. Solar panels are good and so is non electrical units...like oil lamps.
It doesn't matter how off the grid you house is...without reestablishing sound money and a recyclable economy you won't get that new community. You must start with a community bank, gold stock and community cash.