Community Family
April 5, 2005
Hank Stone
hstone@rochester.rr.com
It would have been a good thing if after the
Cold War the world had turned its attention to creating a positive human
future.
In particular, it would have been good to negotiate an end to the nuclear threat. It would have been good to begin the long transition to renewable alternatives to fossil fuels, and heading off the threat of global warming and of climate disruption. Debating the optimum sustainable population for each country, and instituting non-coercive incentives and disincentives to get there would have been invaluable. It would have been good to reign in the power of multinational corporations, before they so completely controlled the U.S. government and the media.
It is still not too late for governments to take these steps. It would be immensely helpful if the U.S. government were to realign its priorities, and spend some share of its $500+ billion military budget on getting to democracy and sustainability.
Unfortunately, most Americans are immersed in our prosperity, and are satisfied with the way things are going. This complacency calls into question our ability to make needed changes of direction as a society. So those of us who are concerned about our long-term prospects need to consider what individual actions may be called for.
While admitting that we don’t know the future, let’s talk about some possible scenarios that deserve our attention.
Geologists talk about “peak oil.” The idea, from M. King Hubbard, is that the total production of oil follows a bell-shaped curve. In early years, production per year is modest, but it grows greater as more oil is discovered, as are more uses for oil. Since the total amount of recoverable oil is finite, sooner or later production levels off, and then begins to decline. No one knows exactly when this will happen for world oil production, but most observers think we will reach peak oil in the next few years, if we have not already.
Meanwhile, China’s extraordinary industrial growth is expected to add dramatically to the global demand for oil, also in the next few years. This could send the world oil price sky high.
There is also a fresh water shortage in many places in the world. Most fresh water is being used for irrigation, to feed a large and growing human population. But the water is pumped from aquifers (underground lakes). When the rate of withdrawal exceeds the rate of recharge from rainwater, the water table goes down. At some point the aquifer either dries up, or becomes salty from the intrusion of seawater. Suddenly, irrigation fails and farm productivity drops.
To a great extent, water shortages can be made up using grain imports. But it seems that China may be poised to import more grain than the whole world can export, leading to a worldwide rise in food prices.
For years the U.S. has been exporting jobs to China, and borrowing from other countries to prop up our high-consumption lifestyle, and to finance our growing national debt.
We may be heading into a “perfect storm,” in which unprecedented high energy and food prices absorb consumers’ discretionary spending, collapsing consumption, devastating industry, and leaving very large numbers of Americans unemployed. Should this happen, the effects would be global, leaving no country in a position to subsidize our economy by buying our debt. There could be military adventures. In any case, the comfortable lives we have all been able to take for granted would be over.
What then?
Each of us has a responsibility to take care of his or her family. By world standards, we own a lot that we don’t need. This is a time to consider ways in which we might make do with less. But there are certain essentials—food, clothing, shelter—we can’t do without.
We also need to be near where these essentials can be obtained. Should oil and gasoline become scarce, we might find it problematic to have to drive to where there is food.
This argues for fertile land, with rainfall adequate to enable farming, as the basic resource needed. But not everyone knows how to farm. And even if everyone did, it would not answer the need for clothing, or furniture, or shoes, or heating.
If the society breaks down, we need a community, working together in such a way as to provide the necessities of life, and meaningful work, for everyone.
In the present society, the community is essentially economic. People earn money, which is exchanged for needed goods and services. The system is impersonal, and myriad ways exist to extract money without producing goods or services. Considering where the existing system of capitalism, corporatism, militarism and domination has brought us, we will need a new model of community.
Author Daniel Quinn, in his book Beyond Civilization, says if we humans are to survive into the indefinite future, we must return to the idea of the tribe. To deal with the needs of our families, we need to create community families.
Our present economic / governmental system now protects everyone who has money, and to some extent, people who do not. But what if it fails? Community families, or tribes, could answer the need to bring together families and individuals who can cooperate to meet basic needs. A community family would protect all its members.
A community family has to be based on trust, and shared ownership of the group. As in a family it would be unthinkable for the parents to eat while the children went hungry, in a community family the survival and prosperity of the group would be the business of everyone.
Community families are not a get-well plan for America. Our country needs to fundamentally change its ideology of consumerism and unsustainable growth. To do this will require that media, corporations, and government all be operated in the public interest. But community families could help people who are prepared for change to get by in difficult circumstances.
Here are twelve considerations for concerned citizens who might be interested in forming or joining a community family:
1. Non-harm. Though it’s easy to see disturbing signs of our civilization being unsustainable, no one knows the future, and any given mishap may not happen in any given timeframe. We don’t want to make precipitous changes in our lives that only make sense if disaster strikes. But it’s not unreasonable to start thinking about backup plans. For example, do you have friends who might fit into a community family, if the need arose? You might want to discuss the idea with them.
2. Farmable land. Your community family will need food, and if there is a general breakdown of society, that food will have to be farmed. You will need land that can support the community family indefinitely, with minimal goods from the outside.
3. Location. Cities, lacking farmable land, may suffer riots and lawlessness if food distribution fails. Refugees may abandon their city homes in search of better circumstances. All things being equal, farmable land farthest from population centers may be safest.
4. Co-location. Your community family will need to be either on the farmable land, or near it—perhaps a walkable distance from it. We may arrive at a time in which automobile travel, and repaired roads, cannot be taken for granted.
5. Simplicity. If we were talking about a temporary breakdown in services, like power outages in an ice storm, we would want to lay in a power generator and lots of gasoline. But to prepare for the collapse of our society requires different thinking. We will need to simplify our lives, make do with less, work harder, and cooperate more. Hoarding of goods may invite theft, and be counterproductive.
6. Business plan. Of course, a community family would not have to be a business. But it will need rules, that everyone understands and respects. Is it to be run democratically? Who gets to decide? What does it do? What are the obligations of membership? Trust is important, but planning out the basics ahead of time will help anticipate needs and identify solutions.
7. Choosing members. You will need people to supply all the community family’s needs. Essentially this means people with essential skills, and their families. It will be critical to have people with integrity, who can cooperate, and whom everyone can trust.
8. Security. In a breakdown of society, there will be desperate people, including people with guns. Someone will need to be in charge of security, and there will need to be discussion ahead of time defining a security plan. Ideally the community family will be on good terms with its neighbors, will not present a target attractive enough to be worth engaging its security.
9. Farming. Without relying on the (potentially unreliable) society at large, the community family will have to operate a farm to be assured of having food to eat. Think Amish. Think being prepared to make low-technology things, and being able to repair things that break, as in blacksmithing.
10. General store. If the general society does collapse, a lot of people will be become interested in farming. What will they need, and how will they get their needs met? The community family may want to operate a general store, featuring goods like flour, salt, cooking oil; seeds, shovels, hoes, plows, axes; cloth, needles, thread, looms; hammers, saws, nails, tools of all sorts; woodstoves, chainsaws, gloves; guns and ammunition; candles, matches, oil lamps; pens and pencils, paper, and books. The stock of a general store could be tailored to the particular needs of the community family, and could make money with the general society intact.
11. Knowledge. The community family would need how-to books, and would want reference books, good literature, textbooks—a library. Children will need to be educated. What needs to be taught to children deserves serious thought, considering our present unstable global society. What shall we make of religious and economic and military dogma, that has cost us our great country?
12. Re-creation. “Hunkering down,” which we have been discussing, is a poor substitute for transitioning our society to sustainability and justice WITHOUT collapse. But if the government can’t provide for us, we are forced to provide for ourselves, for our survival. But is survival enough? Community families could preserve what is best in the culture through difficult times. But the task remains of creating a human culture that is cooperative, non-exploitative, and actually democratic.
We will be unwise if we give up what’s so good about our culture, and allow it to collapse into barbarism. That will lead to difficult times, and will make rebuilding more difficult. And rebuilding will by no means assure that we will get it right the next time around.
But what choice do we have but to try?