I live alone on 2000 acres of Australian grasslands and bush. There used to be 2 houses here but one burnt to the ground in a 2016 fire set off by a wind turbine maintenance pickup. I call my untouched weatherboard cottage ‘The Remnant’. It’s surrounded by a big veggie patch and trees and lots of native animals visit and live here. At the age of 70, I know enough locals to get help when I need it but honestly? I prefer the solitude. So few of us Australians said no to mandatory medical intervention that I find it’s more peaceful to be alone with the critters instead of people pretending a line was not crossed in our civil society.
The courageous friends I have left and a few new ones are all looking at how to head in new directions and build new skills. It’s a slow process, even with the rising warning signals nipping at all of us.
May each of us find the peace and fellowship we need to gracefully flow with the unknown.
Your place sounds magical ✨️ I'm a fellow Aussie who also said no to the intervention. You are right- not many did. Here's to looking and taking those first steps towards new directions xX
I hear you and wonder constantly about how, if land were more distributed with more equity, and I, and others, truly relearn what it is to live in mutually supportive community, still with our own dedicated space, as you say, how different that would feel and, to me, that way of being feels like liberation. It is the palpable yearning of my soul. I see us all as custodians and guardians of the land... working alongside the native plants, animals, trees. We take care of each other. And, with a little creativity, surely we can dream this into being?
Thankyou for that lovely comment. I too have long been a loner. Still we do need one another, even if it is other species that bring that interaction into our lives.
Your place sounds beautiful 💚. Worth noting is that "alone" or "disconnected" isn't a relationship status restricted to human to human engagement. You sound far from alone when considering the life that you are connected with and engage with there on the part of earth you inhabit. Your concious (and unconscious) being with real life is a far cry from those that may have many other human beings around them, but have lost connection to the wondrous being of "nature" and all that resides with it.
The root of the all of the pain and suffering on the planet is disconnection from self and from Source. (We know this because we make radically different choices on the outside when we are connected with our innate wholeness.)
This disconnection hurts. When we are in a state of (perceived) disconnection, when we are in this state of pain, every act we take - consciously and unconsciously - is an attempt to restore our awareness of our inner-connection, innate wholeness, and inner peace.
But we have been taught to look externally for something or someone to fill us or make us aware of our innate wholeness - something to change or control or exploit or abuse on the outside, or something to achieve, or we numb our pain using external sources.
As 14th Century mystic Rumi said, “maybe you search among the branches for that which can only be found at the root.”
The true spiritual path, and the path through this situation, is to turn inward and consciously restore connection with self and with Source, restore inner peace and wholeness...and then to bring that innate wholeness to the world by simply doing the next right thing.
And, we must belong to ourselves before we will ever experience belonging on the outside, and know our place in the world and our community.
So well said, Norma, I experience exactly the same - the more I moved into stillness, the more I felt belonging to everything and All - the energy boundaries of my BEING expanded into wholeness while simultaneously my soul~self, my quintessential self, moved deeper into pre-conscious layers of being ( communicating with animals, trees and plants).
The only time I feel disconnected and kind of dirty is when I go shopping. And now all gets worse with the new AI gadgets. Why don’t more ‘explorers of exciting holidays’ go for a dive into ‘Deep Transformation’, especially the ones who develop such a technology BEFORE they are allowed to bring it into the ‘market’ make profit?
Jung called it the disconnection of the self to the Self and the solution, the Sacred Marriage or Conjuntionis, his version of wholeness. There is a problem with it, however. The Conjunctio won't warm your feet in bed on a cold night like your physical spouse lying next to you:)
I don't like writing comments but here goes. I attended your talk in Black Mountain and the very next day found a copy of "Sacred Economics" at a used bookstore. Today I read the chapter on restoring the gift economy. Then, I got an e-mail from another substack, The Peasantry School, where the author, who hosts frequent community meals, shared this note that they handed out on the farm with loaves of bread during covid:
Brush Brook Community Farm
This food is our gift.
It is offered without charge to
anyone who is hungry for any reason.
This is not ‘FREE’ food.
It is not value-less.
It emerges from immense and careful labors.
This food extends an invitation
to trade
transaction for relationship,
commerce for community.
Would you join this Circle of Eaters?
There is no barrier to entry.
Rather, a responsibility
to consider:
What are my gifts?
And how might I join hands with others
to sustain the whole?
So, something something synchronicity, whatever you've tapped into, it seems to be right! Thank you for the inspiration!
This is the link to the other piece. I should also add that upon reading the note the author said this:
"Many people told us the following week that the message had brought them to tears. And we noticed that fewer people asked for dozens of loaves. In fact, the bread numbers at the Stand stabilized after the card went out.
From that point on, we more often had to convince people to take a second loaf amid their steady protestations, “Surely someone else needs it more than me.”"
Thank you for your kind note. I am working on a book now that will try to tell of what I've been granted the opportunity to learn since I stopped selling food. And Charles' book Sacred Economics certainly lit a match years ago when I read it. I have just pulled it off the shelf to refresh my memory, remembering the early influence of the plea contained in those pages. My thank you note to Charles will arrive, regretfully, years overdue. At some point I steered away from the term "Gift Economy," finding that it invited people to try to hold up my work as a victory story. I have found, instead, that shifting the frame begins to illuminate our deep cultural poverties in a way that can be a lot to bear. Grievance can mature into grief, if we are willing to set down our defenses for a moment. There are lots more stories to be found on my site here: https://peasantryschool.substack.com/
I am delighted that you saw the comment as I am not always great at giving proper credit to authors with the pasting functions (not super computer savvy in that way). I will try not to hold up your work as a victory story although to me it is so inspiring and meaningful. And I will continue to be a subscriber. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
Hi Charles, This is Alison, part of the Sanity Project. Thank you for writing this. It reminded me of a time when my daughter was age 9, and we went to La Paz, Bolivia. My old college roommate was from there. There was an avalanche that had destroyed all of the poor people's homes on the sides of the city, which is shaped like a bowl. My friend had a housekeeper, and her niece's birthday was the day we arrived from our home in NY. We went to the party, and the girl about age 5, was in a refugee camp, along with so many. They had no homes but tents, hundreds of people like this. There was garbage everywhere, scrawny dogs, and what seemed like not the best sanitary conditions. The little girl had no food, no games, presents for her birthday party ( I and my friend, had stopped to buy her some clothes, as she had lost them all). All she had was a cake. She wore an American Princess Dress. The irony...but I continue....The house keeper and all of her sisters and neighbors were there. They were a community and joyful, with neighbors sharing. As we left that evening, my young daughter turned to me in amazed and wonder, and said, "Mommy, they have no money or anything, yet they seemed so happy". My daughter has always been so sensitively observant. I remember commenting that money does not necessarily bring happiness. I remember thinking to myself, how much I wished we had a community like this. My circumstances have changed, and I ache for a community like this even more now. I remember when there, we also visited the Amazon Rain Forest. I longed to stay with the tribe we visited. I still long for all of this now.
I think it's the exact opposite, Charles, with respect. If we've been reduced to a dependency on money, our lives revolving around getting money, monetizing our time and every relationship, just to have a roof over our heads and pay someone to take care of us if we need it, is that privileged? Wondering who would actually be there for you if you didn't have money? How many of my relationships are transactional? Would the people I call my friends at the farmer's market or my fitness classes still give me food and services if I didn't have money? Would anyone take me in? How pathetic is it that we've been driven to this. I don't call that privilege.
The Australian lockdowns brought the kabuki of casual relationships into stark focus. Theatre is everywhere. Authentic generosity and maturity, not so much.
Nice writing. I well remember the still intact, small town, small farm Midwest agrarian society of my childhood and teenage years in the fifties and sixties. As a teenager inflamed by 60’s music and culture I thought it was all so dreary (except for the joyous community polka dances at weddings and other events) that looked so much fun I taught myself how to polka and whenever possible still do so. Do you know you can polka to the song “Born to be Wild”! I look back now and can recognize the real health of the community now hollowed out by economic forces that destroyed the viability of small farms and businesses. According to a long running poll American self perceived happiness peaked in 1956. I know of an actual example of how an African village in Guinea wanted their new water system done. I have a friend who 15 years ago was running a small American charity. When told by the charity water could be piped to each residence the elders said no because that would eliminate a vital social connection of people regularly walking by their neighbors and gathering. So a water source was installed in the center of the village instead.
Charles. As always food for thought but you have carried your argument to extreme lengths. For example:
"Is it, however, an advance to have running water in every home? From the perspective of an American, it seems obviously so, as we are reminded when a power outage cuts off the water supply. But traditional villagers say that the spring or river or well is central to village life, one of the primary gathering places — especially for women. Are we better off sequestered each in our own homes, never needing to interact with each other to procure food, water, play, child care, or entertainment?"
Running clean water doesn't mean we are sequestered in our homes.
Running clean water does mean we don't see our child die from contaminated water.
Running clean water frees up hours a day so that we possibly escape from grinding poverty and malnourishment.
I agree, I don't know who is happier but before we romanticize primitive African life we might want to reflect on the tribal hatred and violence that plague many of these countries. We might want to notice that people move from one way--from these countries, if they can, not to them.
Agree. Romanticized views of "simpler lives", especially when they're tribal, far removed from the wishful thinker's life. I know Charles was making a point about the Amish. But with that Amish communal help comes strict doctrine, oppression & overwhelming sexism.
Yes, i've been thinking about this too, and this seems to be the challenge of our times - can we take the good of both worlds without the bad? Can we create places (villages, communities etc) of BOTH communal solidarity and help but WITHOUT the dogmas, oppression, doctrines, intolerance and forced conformity that often goes with traditional rural communities? I think that requires a great deal of psychological maturity, being conscious of one's shadow (the repressed fears, terrors, angers, shame and pain that often leads to attack on non-conformism), and truly understanding tne meaning of suffering, and threrfore embodying genuine compassion and love (not ideational, but visceral).
I dream of living among such peers, in such an environment that honours the heart and embodies the best of both antiquity and modernity.. yet i wonder how many such psychologically-mature non ego-centreted human beings actually exist. They don't seem to be online.. When i look around the many new communities being established, all i see is focus permaculture and outward designs etc. This is of course important, but in my book only secondary to being psychologically-mature, concious, aware, heart-based, compassionate, and not lost in only the head. I've never seen any comminunity where this is the main focus. Perhaps i need to start one..
Excellent observations. I grew up in NYC & now live in a rural, small college town. Meanness & judgement are a constant, as is social stratification. A woman's teenage daughter was murdered. While there was an outward show of superficial support, the sniping that went on behind her back was staggering. "Knew that child would come to harm because she was a terrible mother. Know mom smoked pot so daughter must have done drugs. She was too permissive." Stupefying to blame murder by a stranger on the mother. Another family had a son with a genetic blood disease. Staggering medical bills. Though upper middle class they had to fund-raise. Again, outward show of support with bone marrow testing for a marrow donation & sniping behind the scenes. "They bought a new car. Wife's pregnant hoping the baby will be a donor match." Pretty much non-stop gossip of any private event. The more tragic, the more judgement. Whether this is deflection (won't happen to me because I'm a good mother), social control or just being nasty, it's common. So, I caution people who think small town life is community warmth & security. I prefer the anonymity of cities.
Thank you for this. You articulated questions that I am living with. Plus, I struggle with how it feels elitist or superior or in contrast of what CE holds dear, for me to think that the kind of community I want to live in requires "psychologically-mature, concious, aware, heart-based, compassionate, and not lost in only the head" residents, but I can't imagine how it would otherwise really work. I wish I had thought to ask this question last night during CE's talk in MA.
Yes... I remember reading about people -- I believe mostly women and children -- that basically spend their whole day walking to get water, and then carrying it home. (I always felt that engineers and plumbers are the true heroes in regard to ending diseases!)
I lived for 5 years without running water or electricity in rural Ireland, with three small children and carrying buckets of water wrecked my back - I began to see why so many older local women looked many years older than their actual age.....I spent every morning doing the washing in buckets , rinsing nappies in the freezing mountain stream. In some ways it was living out a dream of the simple life but it was a life with no time for anything apart from the business of living, and I as the woman did far more of the manual work of making a home - as my husband was often not around - living simply is not simple and it presupposes that people have ideal relationships which they mostly don't, and small communities are often places where non conformity is judged very harshly , and where you need to be happy for everyone to know your business, and from where in order to become yourself you need as a young person to go away from . However I still do live in a very local way, in a loose rural community, 5 miles from a small town , knowing my neighbours and knowing that i can ask them for help when I need it - I think there is a middle path that is maybe the path we need to seek .
I think some people are just romantic about the idea of going backwards, instead of learning how to appreciate what we have and remember what makes those people alive, which we forgot in chasing the American dream.
You didn't read what you quoted. He didn't say that clean water is a problem. He said running water in each home is a problem. Big difference.
As for migration being one way.. It is a case of imagining the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. David Choe visited the Hadza tribe in Tanzania, and found that they suffered zero mental illness. He asked if they would like to come to America to model, since their bodies were so stunningly beautiful. Their response was, "we heard that in America, people kill themselves and each other. Why would we want to go there?"
Thank you Charles for giving us a theme to ponder on and discus.
On the theme of romanitic simple living, I agree with you Rob and Barry, we need to find a new way, which is more free and abundant for all (women, men, animals and other creatures).
I live in a valley in the South of Spain and must say, with its challanges (it is still a very patriarchic society), we are getting closer to a new way of living in community.
We have drinking water from the tap, but we, the valley dwellers, also own the tubes, we builded the system, we maintain the tubes and fight for the right of fresh water together.
Everyone has his or her own patch of land, on one of which i live in my own cabin with the owner of the land in her own house.
And i feel priviledged knowing most of my neighbours, being able to step into their doorway for help or for joy, sharing what comes from the lands and still also have one foot in society 'down below'.
I think connection in one way (the ones we need to restore) doesnt automaricly reject the other, only that one we need to change. And that is up to us by walking, living, the talk 🙏
The thousands of migrants coming across the Southern border where I live typically are coming from village cultures in South America and Central America. They're not fleeing a richer better life to come here. They must see something that we have here as being better than what they had there.
Don't forget that most of the migrants fleeing Central America are fleeing from violence and poverty in countries run by corrupt elites who were installed in power for decades by our arrogant, power-mad US government which will do anything to dominate original cultures around the world, and even destroy them from the inside out by sucking out their resources for American corporate profit!
When I “reflect on the tribal hatred and violence that plague many of these countries,” I remind myself that these situations are the result of 200+ years of colonial rule by mostly European powers. The violence is not inherent to the people or their cultures anymore than any other people or cultures are prone to violence. Wouldn’t you agree?
Yes, people are people. We all can choose between love and fear. Yet, ideas are not equal and in some areas of the world they have set up their societies based on mistaken ideas that are not to be romanticized.
BINGO. Very well-said. Such modern advances give us freedom to choose, and we need both negative AND positive liberty for true human flourishing. And it's all too easy to for us modern folks take progress for granted. The grass may look greener on the other side, but it still has to be mowed all the same.
👏👏👏A return to localism I believe is the direction your discussing. As I hope more will, one day soon.
Its interesting to note the pushback to the concept. People seem to assume that a return to community cohesion and localised connection comes only at the cost of sanitation or safety.🤨🤦♀️🤦♀️
If that were the case, then my question is how on earth did we survive millennia as civilisations before now, the majority of which was at 3rd world/developing country standards, than the highly developed westernized countries we consider now the "standard" to aspire to. At the risk of pointing to the obvious, electricity, running water, modern transport, conveniences, have only been around for 100+ years. 🤨🤔 And no, people were NOT keeling over in the streets by the thousands!! We know this because we can use our eyes and look around at the underdeveloped countries.🤗🤗
A privileged person is one lucky enough to live the "Good Life". Of living a life in partnership with Nature, on a homestead with good soils and good water, that can provide a healthy portion of their own food supply, free of the chemicals and preservatives of the modern industrial complex.
Modern privilege is the ability to escape the madness of the modern world. To know that when the chemically treated water - that has already been through the human body several times - stops flowing due to a city-wide breakdown in the sewerage and waterworks supply, that your natural spring water will still flow to your taps.
Privilege is belonging to a small community of caring, rugged friends, who have all been lucky enough to forget the traffic jams and madness of the city. As Alan Watts once said, "to live a life that people who are only rich find most annoying, in that it cannot be bought with money."
True wealth lies in the quality of your soil, and the freedom it provides to feed yourself and to be completely non-dependent on anyone, or anything. The simple act of composting is not only one of the greatest things we can do to help Nature build soil, but it is also your path to freedom.
That truth which has long been known remains true today:
"That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below, to do the miracles of the one only thing (Love). And as all things have been and arose from one by the mediation of one, so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation. The Sun (Fire) is its father, the Moon (Water) its mother and the Wind (Air) carries it to its Belly (Earth). Feed the Earth from that which is subtle, with the greatest power."
Ultimately, real privilege is having the time to Observe Nature, and then to Work with her in symbiosis. "LABORARE EST ORARE". Choosing the path of the servant heart, and doing the work that is ours to do, opens our eyes to the majesty, peace and joy of the Divine.
I hear you. I think it's both a privilege and a blessing to have a piece of land that we can look after and work ourselves to the bone on. Not everyone is able to have that opportunity.
Very true! And it's a crucially important truth at this time in history, as the luxury-based and luxury-dependent consumer-capitalist-industrial system begins to seriously fray in the so-called "developed world" (a.k.a. global North, rich world). I myself am landless. My small rented casita has a yard too tiny and shaded to grow any significant quantity of food (understatement). And no bank would give my partner or I a mortgage, etc., and every time I've come close to "acquiring" an acre the deal fell apart.
But I'm a communalist to the bone, so it's strange as hell to me that folks believe they can own land, anyway.
If we were a reasonable and sane culture / society, no one would be prevented from having access to land for subsistence living. Period.
I have to agree with the Quakers. The elimination of poverty need be the No 1 priority of life. There in we would have equality. Compassion would be our guide not individualism. The western ideal of plenty, has a hoarding instinct and also has prejudice interwoven into it.
While I appreciate your writing and thoughtful approach to most subjects you take on, please please please do not glorify the Amish. They treat their animals absolutely deplorably, and there are many organizations out there rescuing these poor broken beasts from the hands of these people who work them to death and then drop them in a kill pen, sometimes pregnant with young ones. No matter how they might gather in human community, one absolutely cannot turn a blind eye to our responsibility to creatures in our care. They are very much our community as well. Thank you for listening, carry on with your good work.
Actually I do. I have worked draft horses in the past, and belong to many rescue sites that rescue these poor animals from kill pens that were Amish owned and abused. I boycott everything that is produced by the Amish people for that reason. And you are correct, there's not all bad people or all good people anywhere obviously. My bad on that. This is the last I will comment on this, but thank you for reading and caring about the people you work with.
Omg, how could I forget about those? We have friends who have adopted several dogs from these mills just to get them out of the horrible conditions. You know, I wasn't commenting just to trash the Amish, honestly it was more to raise awareness that these people and their supposed simple, enviable lifestyle has a very dark side to it. I'm sure there are good people in the Amish community, however by and large as a group, their treatment of animals is deplorable. And to me, inexcusable. If we are to ask our animal friends to make our workload lighter, the least we can do is give them the best care. Keep them warm, well fed, feet cared for, etc. And the puppy mills, that's a whole different subject in the hall of horrors. Ugh. 😟
Hall of horrors, indeed! An ongoing a discussion in animal rescue about people buying puppymill dogs with good intent. Basically, that's supporting the cruelty & totally understand the compassion in wanting to do it. What those of us in rescue do with puppymills is report the abuse, over & over, to hopefully get action from humane investigators & animal control by offering rescue for many of the animal victims. Our first priority is getting the poor mommies out. Same approach with farm animals, or any animal being abused.
Yes, you have a point, thanks for enlightening me. All the best in your reacue work. Animals need all the help they can get when they are put in positions they cannot get themselves out of. Take good care, Gerri.
3 meals a day my whole life, a roof over my head, I was just thinking about how privileged I have always been and how I have mostly taken it for granted. I used my privilege to found a mostly latino intentional community in a paradise in Ecuador (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aopmklhT88) in 2012.
However, I would hate to be the fat cat on the hill eating a sumptuous meal every night while the minions below struggle for a crust of bread. I would prefer to see everyone living a fulfilling and dignified life. As a life-long activist I don't have to feel like a hypocrite, living as I do, because I am driven with a passion to help create a more beautiful world for everyone and to stave off the cruelties of totalitarianism.
But as long as we have vertical governance, governments, like everything, are for sale. And only the super rich and the large corporations can afford to buy off politicians and/or intimidate or murder leaders, to maintain control at the expense of the 99%. And they will halt at nothing to maintain their power. This is our history (everywhere). Voting for anyone just perpetuates the system and creates false hopes.
To move into a just and caring world we need to make monumental structural changes like changing from vertical to horizontal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wywMhg604W8) with citizen participation, ending politicians and political parties. To do this, we need new constitutions that guarantee human rights and dignity, incorporating transparent horizontal governance, and to make all human needs as easily accessible in the most equitable way.
To give every village and city autonomy under this agreed upon new constitution we need to confederate. Blockchain and AI can be used to make this as smooth, uncorruptible, and transparent as possible.
But most people have never conceived of the idea of "horizontal governance". We need to make the changes so that everyone enjoys "privileges". Spread if you agree.
to do this it seems we must actually remove our consent to the current structure and take risks to live differently. so many - most - and myself included - long for something different then participate in the system we decry.
if we continue to enable the status quo, it will remain.
Generally speaking it is true what you say, Charles. Only not all ‘relationships’ and all ‘communities’ are wholesome. Also you choose (again!) to not mention the roles women play in the above and the extra work and stress women carry by not only giving life to kids, men and community, but now also grief for the loss of the whole beautiful planet and its creatures. Isn’t it time you included the input of your beautiful wives and their life experience in your generalised wordy ejaculations?
Thanks, Bela. We have to speak for those who can't speak. People make a ton of money from puppymills. Afraid I have to shoot down any unrealistic views of the Amish as kind, salt-of-the-earth types. Certainly, there are some but the general ethos is rigid & domineering.
My wife is indigenous Guatemalan and grew up before roads, running water and electricity were in her village. Her house was made of wattle and daub with a straw roof. Her father was a fisherman before the water got so contaminated and over fished. She did not have shoes until she was 12 years old. Where we live in the highlands of Guatemala it is warm to hot in the day and chilly to cold at night. This was the peasant life until recently and some remote areas still live close to this.
My wife and I have been married since 2006 and together since 2004. When I met her family, they still had a dirt floor, cooked over an open fire with no chimney and went to the bathroom in the coffee fields. The smoke was so unbearable that I couldn't be in the kitchen, and this is where they slept on reed mats, 20 people to a room.
Yes, the children were full of smiles and giggles playing, but the suffering was palpable. The women had children until they had uterine prolapse and the men drank until passed out in the gutter. The children grew up with their parents beating each other and the children on a weekly if not daily basis. The young girls had to fight off their brothers and uncles to ensure that they were not violated or taken advantage of.
My wife was so fed up with her life growing up that she became a live-in house servant and nanny at 12 years old to escape the advances of her male family members, and subsequently moved out of her village. This was when she learned Spanish since her family only spoke Kaqchiquel, a Mayan dialect. As she got older she continued to work as a "muchacha" in people's homes, but even there she had to fend off the advances of the men in the homes where she worked. When I met her at 18, she was still working in people's homes and fighting to maintain her virginity.
With all this said, we have since lived in Florida, Oregon, and Silicon Valley where she worked as a nanny for 8 years and greatly prefers our way of life. We have moved back to Guatemala to start our family, and live in a nice home that we have built, but after living in the US, she has let me know that she would prefer to return to the US and raise our children their.
Please keep in mind that not everyone romanticizes the peasant lifestyle. And please do not think that her life was unusual growing up. In fact anyone and everyone that can escape does. This is why you see people willing to pay $20k and risk dying in the back of a tractor trailer to get to the US and work in manual labor jobs.
No, they are not on SSRI's, because they cannot afford them and are not aware of them, but their life is not glorious. And drugs are starting to become part of the problem as people feel hopeless to escape the poverty.
Does this mean that we are going to raise them with all the bells and whistles of modern life? No. My goal has always been to live within the sweet spot on the bell curve of technology. Too much tech and we suffer. Too little tech and we suffer in different ways. So I will raise my children much like I was raised. When I wanted a new luxury item, I saved up to pay for it. My parents did not give me everything I asked for. I had to earn it. At most, they would pay for half. I bought my first tv for my room at 15. I bought all but my first skate board. I payed for my first car at 18.
What I have seen is that when you give your kids things without having to have any skin in the game, they do not appreciate them and only want more for nothing. When you have to suffer to acquire things, you appreciate them more. From what I can see, much of the suffering in the US is because people have no understanding of the real value of things, because they were given too much without having to truly earn them. Most all of the issues I see in the US could be titled diseases of affluence. Anyway, good luck finding your sweet spot. May you have to work hard for it!
Though I agree with you on many points, I don't get why so many seem to lump the US into middle and upper class. I have lived in the city ghettos as well as poor rural areas, and the palpable suffering going on are not diseases of affluence. They are suffering from grotesque poverty and utter despair.
Until our poor are cooking on open fires, with no electronic devices in their homes, no hot showers or even showers, no food stamps or food kitchen, they are not truly poor by world standards.
You have obviously not spent time with the poor in the US. Plenty have no running water or electricity, and live in squalor. And they survive on food bank food, most of which has zero nutritional value. But I have no interest in arguing this point. This substack comment section is primarily well off people, who are profoundly ignorant of what lies outside their bubbles and fantasies. I wish you and your family the best. She has already endured much. Many blessings to you both.
I live next door to Mexico and your description of poverty is real, though here it is urban poverty rife with cartel violence. The thousands of migrants pushing at the gates to enter here are escaping what you describe, not an idyllic rural lifestyle.
I live alone on 2000 acres of Australian grasslands and bush. There used to be 2 houses here but one burnt to the ground in a 2016 fire set off by a wind turbine maintenance pickup. I call my untouched weatherboard cottage ‘The Remnant’. It’s surrounded by a big veggie patch and trees and lots of native animals visit and live here. At the age of 70, I know enough locals to get help when I need it but honestly? I prefer the solitude. So few of us Australians said no to mandatory medical intervention that I find it’s more peaceful to be alone with the critters instead of people pretending a line was not crossed in our civil society.
The courageous friends I have left and a few new ones are all looking at how to head in new directions and build new skills. It’s a slow process, even with the rising warning signals nipping at all of us.
May each of us find the peace and fellowship we need to gracefully flow with the unknown.
Your place sounds magical ✨️ I'm a fellow Aussie who also said no to the intervention. You are right- not many did. Here's to looking and taking those first steps towards new directions xX
Amen, sister. 🙌🏻
I hear you and wonder constantly about how, if land were more distributed with more equity, and I, and others, truly relearn what it is to live in mutually supportive community, still with our own dedicated space, as you say, how different that would feel and, to me, that way of being feels like liberation. It is the palpable yearning of my soul. I see us all as custodians and guardians of the land... working alongside the native plants, animals, trees. We take care of each other. And, with a little creativity, surely we can dream this into being?
Thankyou for that lovely comment. I too have long been a loner. Still we do need one another, even if it is other species that bring that interaction into our lives.
Now that’s a vivid and unforgettable place description.
Gosh, thanks Lisa.
We have started a fairmarket in our community unfortunately not many people get it!
It has no system other than the principal of 'responsibility'
I sense it's my way of being part of creating a decentralised parallel environment for our children to inherit.
Regardless of outcomes it feels great as a sensemaker/caretaker of planet earth,
While everyone wants to ascend,
I happily desend back to the soil (home) remembering who we are and have always been hu man!
Your place sounds beautiful 💚. Worth noting is that "alone" or "disconnected" isn't a relationship status restricted to human to human engagement. You sound far from alone when considering the life that you are connected with and engage with there on the part of earth you inhabit. Your concious (and unconscious) being with real life is a far cry from those that may have many other human beings around them, but have lost connection to the wondrous being of "nature" and all that resides with it.
The root of the all of the pain and suffering on the planet is disconnection from self and from Source. (We know this because we make radically different choices on the outside when we are connected with our innate wholeness.)
This disconnection hurts. When we are in a state of (perceived) disconnection, when we are in this state of pain, every act we take - consciously and unconsciously - is an attempt to restore our awareness of our inner-connection, innate wholeness, and inner peace.
But we have been taught to look externally for something or someone to fill us or make us aware of our innate wholeness - something to change or control or exploit or abuse on the outside, or something to achieve, or we numb our pain using external sources.
As 14th Century mystic Rumi said, “maybe you search among the branches for that which can only be found at the root.”
The true spiritual path, and the path through this situation, is to turn inward and consciously restore connection with self and with Source, restore inner peace and wholeness...and then to bring that innate wholeness to the world by simply doing the next right thing.
And, we must belong to ourselves before we will ever experience belonging on the outside, and know our place in the world and our community.
So well said, Norma, I experience exactly the same - the more I moved into stillness, the more I felt belonging to everything and All - the energy boundaries of my BEING expanded into wholeness while simultaneously my soul~self, my quintessential self, moved deeper into pre-conscious layers of being ( communicating with animals, trees and plants).
The only time I feel disconnected and kind of dirty is when I go shopping. And now all gets worse with the new AI gadgets. Why don’t more ‘explorers of exciting holidays’ go for a dive into ‘Deep Transformation’, especially the ones who develop such a technology BEFORE they are allowed to bring it into the ‘market’ make profit?
Jung called it the disconnection of the self to the Self and the solution, the Sacred Marriage or Conjuntionis, his version of wholeness. There is a problem with it, however. The Conjunctio won't warm your feet in bed on a cold night like your physical spouse lying next to you:)
Well, it was -7 Celsius here recently. I use a hot water bottle to good effect. After 5 husbands, it’s a more directed way to get the feet hot. 😅
Ha!! I can relate!
Impressed by Charles’
I think this is a reciprocal relationship.
I don't like writing comments but here goes. I attended your talk in Black Mountain and the very next day found a copy of "Sacred Economics" at a used bookstore. Today I read the chapter on restoring the gift economy. Then, I got an e-mail from another substack, The Peasantry School, where the author, who hosts frequent community meals, shared this note that they handed out on the farm with loaves of bread during covid:
Brush Brook Community Farm
This food is our gift.
It is offered without charge to
anyone who is hungry for any reason.
This is not ‘FREE’ food.
It is not value-less.
It emerges from immense and careful labors.
This food extends an invitation
to trade
transaction for relationship,
commerce for community.
Would you join this Circle of Eaters?
There is no barrier to entry.
Rather, a responsibility
to consider:
What are my gifts?
And how might I join hands with others
to sustain the whole?
So, something something synchronicity, whatever you've tapped into, it seems to be right! Thank you for the inspiration!
Karina
Definite synchronicities happening here... in my life, as well. (This is beautiful, btw... thanks for the tip re: The Peasantry School!)
Karina, this is beautiful.
This is the link to the other piece. I should also add that upon reading the note the author said this:
"Many people told us the following week that the message had brought them to tears. And we noticed that fewer people asked for dozens of loaves. In fact, the bread numbers at the Stand stabilized after the card went out.
From that point on, we more often had to convince people to take a second loaf amid their steady protestations, “Surely someone else needs it more than me.”"
https://open.substack.com/pub/peasantryschool/p/a-prayer-for-something-forgotten?r=92zi9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Karina,
Thank you for your kind note. I am working on a book now that will try to tell of what I've been granted the opportunity to learn since I stopped selling food. And Charles' book Sacred Economics certainly lit a match years ago when I read it. I have just pulled it off the shelf to refresh my memory, remembering the early influence of the plea contained in those pages. My thank you note to Charles will arrive, regretfully, years overdue. At some point I steered away from the term "Gift Economy," finding that it invited people to try to hold up my work as a victory story. I have found, instead, that shifting the frame begins to illuminate our deep cultural poverties in a way that can be a lot to bear. Grievance can mature into grief, if we are willing to set down our defenses for a moment. There are lots more stories to be found on my site here: https://peasantryschool.substack.com/
With great care, Adam
Adam,
I am delighted that you saw the comment as I am not always great at giving proper credit to authors with the pasting functions (not super computer savvy in that way). I will try not to hold up your work as a victory story although to me it is so inspiring and meaningful. And I will continue to be a subscriber. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
Karina
Hi Charles, This is Alison, part of the Sanity Project. Thank you for writing this. It reminded me of a time when my daughter was age 9, and we went to La Paz, Bolivia. My old college roommate was from there. There was an avalanche that had destroyed all of the poor people's homes on the sides of the city, which is shaped like a bowl. My friend had a housekeeper, and her niece's birthday was the day we arrived from our home in NY. We went to the party, and the girl about age 5, was in a refugee camp, along with so many. They had no homes but tents, hundreds of people like this. There was garbage everywhere, scrawny dogs, and what seemed like not the best sanitary conditions. The little girl had no food, no games, presents for her birthday party ( I and my friend, had stopped to buy her some clothes, as she had lost them all). All she had was a cake. She wore an American Princess Dress. The irony...but I continue....The house keeper and all of her sisters and neighbors were there. They were a community and joyful, with neighbors sharing. As we left that evening, my young daughter turned to me in amazed and wonder, and said, "Mommy, they have no money or anything, yet they seemed so happy". My daughter has always been so sensitively observant. I remember commenting that money does not necessarily bring happiness. I remember thinking to myself, how much I wished we had a community like this. My circumstances have changed, and I ache for a community like this even more now. I remember when there, we also visited the Amazon Rain Forest. I longed to stay with the tribe we visited. I still long for all of this now.
I think it's the exact opposite, Charles, with respect. If we've been reduced to a dependency on money, our lives revolving around getting money, monetizing our time and every relationship, just to have a roof over our heads and pay someone to take care of us if we need it, is that privileged? Wondering who would actually be there for you if you didn't have money? How many of my relationships are transactional? Would the people I call my friends at the farmer's market or my fitness classes still give me food and services if I didn't have money? Would anyone take me in? How pathetic is it that we've been driven to this. I don't call that privilege.
I hear you both saying the same thing with different dictionaries.
I suspect you're right, Clay.
The Australian lockdowns brought the kabuki of casual relationships into stark focus. Theatre is everywhere. Authentic generosity and maturity, not so much.
Well said.
Nice writing. I well remember the still intact, small town, small farm Midwest agrarian society of my childhood and teenage years in the fifties and sixties. As a teenager inflamed by 60’s music and culture I thought it was all so dreary (except for the joyous community polka dances at weddings and other events) that looked so much fun I taught myself how to polka and whenever possible still do so. Do you know you can polka to the song “Born to be Wild”! I look back now and can recognize the real health of the community now hollowed out by economic forces that destroyed the viability of small farms and businesses. According to a long running poll American self perceived happiness peaked in 1956. I know of an actual example of how an African village in Guinea wanted their new water system done. I have a friend who 15 years ago was running a small American charity. When told by the charity water could be piped to each residence the elders said no because that would eliminate a vital social connection of people regularly walking by their neighbors and gathering. So a water source was installed in the center of the village instead.
Charles. As always food for thought but you have carried your argument to extreme lengths. For example:
"Is it, however, an advance to have running water in every home? From the perspective of an American, it seems obviously so, as we are reminded when a power outage cuts off the water supply. But traditional villagers say that the spring or river or well is central to village life, one of the primary gathering places — especially for women. Are we better off sequestered each in our own homes, never needing to interact with each other to procure food, water, play, child care, or entertainment?"
Running clean water doesn't mean we are sequestered in our homes.
Running clean water does mean we don't see our child die from contaminated water.
Running clean water frees up hours a day so that we possibly escape from grinding poverty and malnourishment.
I agree, I don't know who is happier but before we romanticize primitive African life we might want to reflect on the tribal hatred and violence that plague many of these countries. We might want to notice that people move from one way--from these countries, if they can, not to them.
Just one the 'tribal" places that doesn't seem so happy to me: https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/why-taming-our-inner-tribal-beast
Agree. Romanticized views of "simpler lives", especially when they're tribal, far removed from the wishful thinker's life. I know Charles was making a point about the Amish. But with that Amish communal help comes strict doctrine, oppression & overwhelming sexism.
Yes, i've been thinking about this too, and this seems to be the challenge of our times - can we take the good of both worlds without the bad? Can we create places (villages, communities etc) of BOTH communal solidarity and help but WITHOUT the dogmas, oppression, doctrines, intolerance and forced conformity that often goes with traditional rural communities? I think that requires a great deal of psychological maturity, being conscious of one's shadow (the repressed fears, terrors, angers, shame and pain that often leads to attack on non-conformism), and truly understanding tne meaning of suffering, and threrfore embodying genuine compassion and love (not ideational, but visceral).
I dream of living among such peers, in such an environment that honours the heart and embodies the best of both antiquity and modernity.. yet i wonder how many such psychologically-mature non ego-centreted human beings actually exist. They don't seem to be online.. When i look around the many new communities being established, all i see is focus permaculture and outward designs etc. This is of course important, but in my book only secondary to being psychologically-mature, concious, aware, heart-based, compassionate, and not lost in only the head. I've never seen any comminunity where this is the main focus. Perhaps i need to start one..
Excellent observations. I grew up in NYC & now live in a rural, small college town. Meanness & judgement are a constant, as is social stratification. A woman's teenage daughter was murdered. While there was an outward show of superficial support, the sniping that went on behind her back was staggering. "Knew that child would come to harm because she was a terrible mother. Know mom smoked pot so daughter must have done drugs. She was too permissive." Stupefying to blame murder by a stranger on the mother. Another family had a son with a genetic blood disease. Staggering medical bills. Though upper middle class they had to fund-raise. Again, outward show of support with bone marrow testing for a marrow donation & sniping behind the scenes. "They bought a new car. Wife's pregnant hoping the baby will be a donor match." Pretty much non-stop gossip of any private event. The more tragic, the more judgement. Whether this is deflection (won't happen to me because I'm a good mother), social control or just being nasty, it's common. So, I caution people who think small town life is community warmth & security. I prefer the anonymity of cities.
Please do start one that honors compassion.
Thank you for this. You articulated questions that I am living with. Plus, I struggle with how it feels elitist or superior or in contrast of what CE holds dear, for me to think that the kind of community I want to live in requires "psychologically-mature, concious, aware, heart-based, compassionate, and not lost in only the head" residents, but I can't imagine how it would otherwise really work. I wish I had thought to ask this question last night during CE's talk in MA.
Indeed, it comes with a major downside. Not for nothing, the Amish apparently have a 50% attrition rate when they come of age.
I didn't know it was that high.
Yes... I remember reading about people -- I believe mostly women and children -- that basically spend their whole day walking to get water, and then carrying it home. (I always felt that engineers and plumbers are the true heroes in regard to ending diseases!)
I lived for 5 years without running water or electricity in rural Ireland, with three small children and carrying buckets of water wrecked my back - I began to see why so many older local women looked many years older than their actual age.....I spent every morning doing the washing in buckets , rinsing nappies in the freezing mountain stream. In some ways it was living out a dream of the simple life but it was a life with no time for anything apart from the business of living, and I as the woman did far more of the manual work of making a home - as my husband was often not around - living simply is not simple and it presupposes that people have ideal relationships which they mostly don't, and small communities are often places where non conformity is judged very harshly , and where you need to be happy for everyone to know your business, and from where in order to become yourself you need as a young person to go away from . However I still do live in a very local way, in a loose rural community, 5 miles from a small town , knowing my neighbours and knowing that i can ask them for help when I need it - I think there is a middle path that is maybe the path we need to seek .
Well-said. The grass may look greener on the other side, but it still has to be mowed all the same. A middle path would likely be appropriate.
I think some people are just romantic about the idea of going backwards, instead of learning how to appreciate what we have and remember what makes those people alive, which we forgot in chasing the American dream.
You didn't read what you quoted. He didn't say that clean water is a problem. He said running water in each home is a problem. Big difference.
As for migration being one way.. It is a case of imagining the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. David Choe visited the Hadza tribe in Tanzania, and found that they suffered zero mental illness. He asked if they would like to come to America to model, since their bodies were so stunningly beautiful. Their response was, "we heard that in America, people kill themselves and each other. Why would we want to go there?"
Thank you Charles for giving us a theme to ponder on and discus.
On the theme of romanitic simple living, I agree with you Rob and Barry, we need to find a new way, which is more free and abundant for all (women, men, animals and other creatures).
I live in a valley in the South of Spain and must say, with its challanges (it is still a very patriarchic society), we are getting closer to a new way of living in community.
We have drinking water from the tap, but we, the valley dwellers, also own the tubes, we builded the system, we maintain the tubes and fight for the right of fresh water together.
Everyone has his or her own patch of land, on one of which i live in my own cabin with the owner of the land in her own house.
And i feel priviledged knowing most of my neighbours, being able to step into their doorway for help or for joy, sharing what comes from the lands and still also have one foot in society 'down below'.
I think connection in one way (the ones we need to restore) doesnt automaricly reject the other, only that one we need to change. And that is up to us by walking, living, the talk 🙏
The thousands of migrants coming across the Southern border where I live typically are coming from village cultures in South America and Central America. They're not fleeing a richer better life to come here. They must see something that we have here as being better than what they had there.
Don't forget that most of the migrants fleeing Central America are fleeing from violence and poverty in countries run by corrupt elites who were installed in power for decades by our arrogant, power-mad US government which will do anything to dominate original cultures around the world, and even destroy them from the inside out by sucking out their resources for American corporate profit!
That's why we send them to DC :)
When I “reflect on the tribal hatred and violence that plague many of these countries,” I remind myself that these situations are the result of 200+ years of colonial rule by mostly European powers. The violence is not inherent to the people or their cultures anymore than any other people or cultures are prone to violence. Wouldn’t you agree?
I don't agree. Tribalism unfortunately has been the way of much of the world for way before the time of colonial rule. Think for example Shiite-Sunni. Here are a few more examples: https://fee.org/articles/is-tribalism-the-worst-idea-in-history/
Yes, people are people. We all can choose between love and fear. Yet, ideas are not equal and in some areas of the world they have set up their societies based on mistaken ideas that are not to be romanticized.
BINGO. Very well-said. Such modern advances give us freedom to choose, and we need both negative AND positive liberty for true human flourishing. And it's all too easy to for us modern folks take progress for granted. The grass may look greener on the other side, but it still has to be mowed all the same.
👏👏👏A return to localism I believe is the direction your discussing. As I hope more will, one day soon.
Its interesting to note the pushback to the concept. People seem to assume that a return to community cohesion and localised connection comes only at the cost of sanitation or safety.🤨🤦♀️🤦♀️
If that were the case, then my question is how on earth did we survive millennia as civilisations before now, the majority of which was at 3rd world/developing country standards, than the highly developed westernized countries we consider now the "standard" to aspire to. At the risk of pointing to the obvious, electricity, running water, modern transport, conveniences, have only been around for 100+ years. 🤨🤔 And no, people were NOT keeling over in the streets by the thousands!! We know this because we can use our eyes and look around at the underdeveloped countries.🤗🤗
#localismisliving #thelocalist #localwisdom
We are only fully and truly human in the presence of and in community with other humans.
I totally agree with this.
A privileged person is one lucky enough to live the "Good Life". Of living a life in partnership with Nature, on a homestead with good soils and good water, that can provide a healthy portion of their own food supply, free of the chemicals and preservatives of the modern industrial complex.
Modern privilege is the ability to escape the madness of the modern world. To know that when the chemically treated water - that has already been through the human body several times - stops flowing due to a city-wide breakdown in the sewerage and waterworks supply, that your natural spring water will still flow to your taps.
Privilege is belonging to a small community of caring, rugged friends, who have all been lucky enough to forget the traffic jams and madness of the city. As Alan Watts once said, "to live a life that people who are only rich find most annoying, in that it cannot be bought with money."
True wealth lies in the quality of your soil, and the freedom it provides to feed yourself and to be completely non-dependent on anyone, or anything. The simple act of composting is not only one of the greatest things we can do to help Nature build soil, but it is also your path to freedom.
That truth which has long been known remains true today:
"That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below, to do the miracles of the one only thing (Love). And as all things have been and arose from one by the mediation of one, so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation. The Sun (Fire) is its father, the Moon (Water) its mother and the Wind (Air) carries it to its Belly (Earth). Feed the Earth from that which is subtle, with the greatest power."
Ultimately, real privilege is having the time to Observe Nature, and then to Work with her in symbiosis. "LABORARE EST ORARE". Choosing the path of the servant heart, and doing the work that is ours to do, opens our eyes to the majesty, peace and joy of the Divine.
I hear you. I think it's both a privilege and a blessing to have a piece of land that we can look after and work ourselves to the bone on. Not everyone is able to have that opportunity.
"Not everyone is able to have that opportunity."
Very true! And it's a crucially important truth at this time in history, as the luxury-based and luxury-dependent consumer-capitalist-industrial system begins to seriously fray in the so-called "developed world" (a.k.a. global North, rich world). I myself am landless. My small rented casita has a yard too tiny and shaded to grow any significant quantity of food (understatement). And no bank would give my partner or I a mortgage, etc., and every time I've come close to "acquiring" an acre the deal fell apart.
But I'm a communalist to the bone, so it's strange as hell to me that folks believe they can own land, anyway.
If we were a reasonable and sane culture / society, no one would be prevented from having access to land for subsistence living. Period.
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-05-23/a-portable-hospitality/
I have to agree with the Quakers. The elimination of poverty need be the No 1 priority of life. There in we would have equality. Compassion would be our guide not individualism. The western ideal of plenty, has a hoarding instinct and also has prejudice interwoven into it.
While I appreciate your writing and thoughtful approach to most subjects you take on, please please please do not glorify the Amish. They treat their animals absolutely deplorably, and there are many organizations out there rescuing these poor broken beasts from the hands of these people who work them to death and then drop them in a kill pen, sometimes pregnant with young ones. No matter how they might gather in human community, one absolutely cannot turn a blind eye to our responsibility to creatures in our care. They are very much our community as well. Thank you for listening, carry on with your good work.
Yes, thank you for posting about their deplorable treatment of animals & Amish puppymills.
And they apparently don't treat their own kids much better, either. No wonder they have a 50% attrition rate when they come of age.
My post didn't show. Trying again. I had no idea the percentage was that high.
Actually I do. I have worked draft horses in the past, and belong to many rescue sites that rescue these poor animals from kill pens that were Amish owned and abused. I boycott everything that is produced by the Amish people for that reason. And you are correct, there's not all bad people or all good people anywhere obviously. My bad on that. This is the last I will comment on this, but thank you for reading and caring about the people you work with.
Amish puppymills are a fact. I work in animal rescue.
Omg, how could I forget about those? We have friends who have adopted several dogs from these mills just to get them out of the horrible conditions. You know, I wasn't commenting just to trash the Amish, honestly it was more to raise awareness that these people and their supposed simple, enviable lifestyle has a very dark side to it. I'm sure there are good people in the Amish community, however by and large as a group, their treatment of animals is deplorable. And to me, inexcusable. If we are to ask our animal friends to make our workload lighter, the least we can do is give them the best care. Keep them warm, well fed, feet cared for, etc. And the puppy mills, that's a whole different subject in the hall of horrors. Ugh. 😟
Hall of horrors, indeed! An ongoing a discussion in animal rescue about people buying puppymill dogs with good intent. Basically, that's supporting the cruelty & totally understand the compassion in wanting to do it. What those of us in rescue do with puppymills is report the abuse, over & over, to hopefully get action from humane investigators & animal control by offering rescue for many of the animal victims. Our first priority is getting the poor mommies out. Same approach with farm animals, or any animal being abused.
Yes, you have a point, thanks for enlightening me. All the best in your reacue work. Animals need all the help they can get when they are put in positions they cannot get themselves out of. Take good care, Gerri.
3 meals a day my whole life, a roof over my head, I was just thinking about how privileged I have always been and how I have mostly taken it for granted. I used my privilege to found a mostly latino intentional community in a paradise in Ecuador (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aopmklhT88) in 2012.
However, I would hate to be the fat cat on the hill eating a sumptuous meal every night while the minions below struggle for a crust of bread. I would prefer to see everyone living a fulfilling and dignified life. As a life-long activist I don't have to feel like a hypocrite, living as I do, because I am driven with a passion to help create a more beautiful world for everyone and to stave off the cruelties of totalitarianism.
But as long as we have vertical governance, governments, like everything, are for sale. And only the super rich and the large corporations can afford to buy off politicians and/or intimidate or murder leaders, to maintain control at the expense of the 99%. And they will halt at nothing to maintain their power. This is our history (everywhere). Voting for anyone just perpetuates the system and creates false hopes.
To move into a just and caring world we need to make monumental structural changes like changing from vertical to horizontal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wywMhg604W8) with citizen participation, ending politicians and political parties. To do this, we need new constitutions that guarantee human rights and dignity, incorporating transparent horizontal governance, and to make all human needs as easily accessible in the most equitable way.
To give every village and city autonomy under this agreed upon new constitution we need to confederate. Blockchain and AI can be used to make this as smooth, uncorruptible, and transparent as possible.
But most people have never conceived of the idea of "horizontal governance". We need to make the changes so that everyone enjoys "privileges". Spread if you agree.
to do this it seems we must actually remove our consent to the current structure and take risks to live differently. so many - most - and myself included - long for something different then participate in the system we decry.
if we continue to enable the status quo, it will remain.
Decentralized and diffuse power structures. Energy; food; money; governance.
Yes!!! I think this might he of interest to you as it reveals the root causes of the conundrum you spoke about, and offers a possible way out https://oneworldrenaissance.com/2021/01/23/holism-fragmentation-and-our-endangered-future-a-new-vision-and-a-new-hope/
Generally speaking it is true what you say, Charles. Only not all ‘relationships’ and all ‘communities’ are wholesome. Also you choose (again!) to not mention the roles women play in the above and the extra work and stress women carry by not only giving life to kids, men and community, but now also grief for the loss of the whole beautiful planet and its creatures. Isn’t it time you included the input of your beautiful wives and their life experience in your generalised wordy ejaculations?
Thanks, Bela. We have to speak for those who can't speak. People make a ton of money from puppymills. Afraid I have to shoot down any unrealistic views of the Amish as kind, salt-of-the-earth types. Certainly, there are some but the general ethos is rigid & domineering.
My wife is indigenous Guatemalan and grew up before roads, running water and electricity were in her village. Her house was made of wattle and daub with a straw roof. Her father was a fisherman before the water got so contaminated and over fished. She did not have shoes until she was 12 years old. Where we live in the highlands of Guatemala it is warm to hot in the day and chilly to cold at night. This was the peasant life until recently and some remote areas still live close to this.
My wife and I have been married since 2006 and together since 2004. When I met her family, they still had a dirt floor, cooked over an open fire with no chimney and went to the bathroom in the coffee fields. The smoke was so unbearable that I couldn't be in the kitchen, and this is where they slept on reed mats, 20 people to a room.
Yes, the children were full of smiles and giggles playing, but the suffering was palpable. The women had children until they had uterine prolapse and the men drank until passed out in the gutter. The children grew up with their parents beating each other and the children on a weekly if not daily basis. The young girls had to fight off their brothers and uncles to ensure that they were not violated or taken advantage of.
My wife was so fed up with her life growing up that she became a live-in house servant and nanny at 12 years old to escape the advances of her male family members, and subsequently moved out of her village. This was when she learned Spanish since her family only spoke Kaqchiquel, a Mayan dialect. As she got older she continued to work as a "muchacha" in people's homes, but even there she had to fend off the advances of the men in the homes where she worked. When I met her at 18, she was still working in people's homes and fighting to maintain her virginity.
With all this said, we have since lived in Florida, Oregon, and Silicon Valley where she worked as a nanny for 8 years and greatly prefers our way of life. We have moved back to Guatemala to start our family, and live in a nice home that we have built, but after living in the US, she has let me know that she would prefer to return to the US and raise our children their.
Please keep in mind that not everyone romanticizes the peasant lifestyle. And please do not think that her life was unusual growing up. In fact anyone and everyone that can escape does. This is why you see people willing to pay $20k and risk dying in the back of a tractor trailer to get to the US and work in manual labor jobs.
No, they are not on SSRI's, because they cannot afford them and are not aware of them, but their life is not glorious. And drugs are starting to become part of the problem as people feel hopeless to escape the poverty.
Does this mean that we are going to raise them with all the bells and whistles of modern life? No. My goal has always been to live within the sweet spot on the bell curve of technology. Too much tech and we suffer. Too little tech and we suffer in different ways. So I will raise my children much like I was raised. When I wanted a new luxury item, I saved up to pay for it. My parents did not give me everything I asked for. I had to earn it. At most, they would pay for half. I bought my first tv for my room at 15. I bought all but my first skate board. I payed for my first car at 18.
What I have seen is that when you give your kids things without having to have any skin in the game, they do not appreciate them and only want more for nothing. When you have to suffer to acquire things, you appreciate them more. From what I can see, much of the suffering in the US is because people have no understanding of the real value of things, because they were given too much without having to truly earn them. Most all of the issues I see in the US could be titled diseases of affluence. Anyway, good luck finding your sweet spot. May you have to work hard for it!
Though I agree with you on many points, I don't get why so many seem to lump the US into middle and upper class. I have lived in the city ghettos as well as poor rural areas, and the palpable suffering going on are not diseases of affluence. They are suffering from grotesque poverty and utter despair.
Until our poor are cooking on open fires, with no electronic devices in their homes, no hot showers or even showers, no food stamps or food kitchen, they are not truly poor by world standards.
You have obviously not spent time with the poor in the US. Plenty have no running water or electricity, and live in squalor. And they survive on food bank food, most of which has zero nutritional value. But I have no interest in arguing this point. This substack comment section is primarily well off people, who are profoundly ignorant of what lies outside their bubbles and fantasies. I wish you and your family the best. She has already endured much. Many blessings to you both.
I live next door to Mexico and your description of poverty is real, though here it is urban poverty rife with cartel violence. The thousands of migrants pushing at the gates to enter here are escaping what you describe, not an idyllic rural lifestyle.