PowerSwitch

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2 ... avoid-rush

John Michael Greer:

(snip) I finished talking about catabolic collapse and started fielding questions, of which there were plenty, and somewhere in the conversation that followed one of the other participants made a comment. I don’t even remember the exact words, but it was something like, "So what you’re saying is that what we need to do, individually, is to go through collapse right away." "Exactly," I said. "Collapse now, and avoid the rush."

(continues)

Just about to post that myself.

Very good article. I suggest we discuss ways in which we can do a managed collapse. What kind of lifestyle changes do you think are good in light of Greers comments.

I don't know about anybody else but that is quite something. It crystallises my thoughts almost exactly. I'll forgive the thorium reference

To be blunt I'm really in 'carry on while I can and then die' territory at the moment. All I've done is delay the inevitable a bit. I really think I've been painting the window frames while the house collapses.

But what can we really do? I'm open to ideas. The problem is basically that I don't think there's very much time left before TSHTF.

Housing's the biggest expense in this country. So downsize or share.

Be as flexible as possible: mentally and physically. Learn when to stand still and when to let go. Move if you have to. Have the mental freedom to live in a caravan for example. I see lots of 'stealth' vans about now. Not saying move into one. Just accepting things like this as a possibility, and not the end of the world.

Don't be like the fool who loses his well paid job and gets ill and overstressed about not being able to keep up the lifestyle his family's gotten used to. Don't trap yourself into a lifestyle that's no longer possible is what I'm saying. Get your head right. Be thankful for the basics of food and shelter.

Stop buying useless crap too. Want a mandolin. try making one.

Sleeperservice:

The problem is basically that I don't think there's very much time left before TSHTF

You think SHTF will affect everybody at once? Maybe that's what'll happen but there's only so much an individual can do. So better maybe not to try and anticipate everything - which is impossible anyway.

There's plenty people can do to prepare for individual SHTFs. For me, that mostly involves cutting spending to the absolute minimum, and being as free (thinking and location) as possible. And accepting that there's only so much I can do, and trying to be as content with the PRESENT as possible.

Wise words from Snail

There really is no point in trying to maintain your current lifestyle, it's going to change, so why not choose changes now while you still have some control ?

It's a big step, to sell up and move somewhere more suitable, but I suspect many people realize it is the only option - they just can't quite bring themselves to jump off. Snails advice might help.

Definately applies to me and I think I'm not alone.

Freaky event no2 on this thread. Got laid off last night with the rest of my team had a Good Bye coffee and one of the guys said exactly the same thing about being content with the present. He's a Buddhist and very calm indeed.

Back on general topic

After housing I'd think that energy would be the next biggest expense for most people, especially if they're unemployed. Doubly so in this weather So insulate, warm jumpers, selective use of synthetic fibres, slipper socks.

If you're carrying too much weight start losing it. You'll be amazed at how much your food shopping bill will drop. Processed stuff is expensive for what it is and neither satisfying or wholesome. It's also rubbish and puts money into multi national's pockets. To give you all an example after nearly six months I've saved enough to pay for a new washing machine, the first I've ever had, unfortunately secondhand ones have disappeared around here. In the interim I've got to double my healthy weight from two and a half times. Well I was a lorry driver

Sorry to hear that you've been laid off, sleeper. I hope that you find something else reasonably quickly.

Catweazle wrote:There really is no point in trying to maintain your current lifestyle, it's going to change, so why not choose changes now while you still have some control ?

Exactly and +1 to Snail.

The preparations are scattered throughout this forum. Get on with it, you'll be ahead of the pack even if you only think about it.

And I also endorse the thought that not everyone/where will feel effects of climate/pollution/energy/financial chaos equally. We have both momentum and inertia in systems as 'buffers'. Just pray you're in a buffer zone.

I was talking to an American friend yesterday; she mentioned several things about California but could apply to other parts of the US generally, such as:

1) People go there for the good weather.
2) It's more or less bankrupt.
3) Whole streets fill up at night with homeless people arriving with their shopping trolleys.
4) The social safety net is in tatters - according to my friend, you can now only claim benefits for five years total in your life.
5) There's massive food waste, which is what many homeless are surviving on.
6) There's a lot of very rich people.
7) Soup kitchens are numerous and busy.
8) Lots of people in vehicles (she reckons $4 a gallon is very dear!).

Bad luck to Sleeper. Hope things work out for you.

We have just made the "wrench" to a new location and lifestyle, deciding to move to Scotland (although it has been planned for a while). One thing that occurs to me, is how Business As Usual continues to exert a pull as one is planning these things. It needs a lot of personal attitude-control to plan and act on what you know is coming, when everything and everyone around you is carrying on as normal (apocalyptic headlines aside). I suppose Noah would have had the same problem.

Changing the physical environment has helped. Being in the South East, surrounded by people "in the game" of chasing exponential growth, it seemed alien to be thinking of rejecting those values and lifestyle, but now we are up here, it all makes more sense. Doesn't stop me feeling strangely "guilty" though.

In the past I have often speculated on what would happen if a crisis developed that required a "bug-out" (e.g. threat of nuclear conflict). At precisely which point would I burn the bridges; walk away from job, take kids out of school, pack up and leave? Or would I continue to sit there thinking; "There is too much to lose. Besides, it's bound to all blow over, then I'd look pretty stupid."

What would the frog in the boiling pan do....?

Tarrel wrote:At precisely which point would I burn the bridges; walk away from job, take kids out of school, pack up and leave? Or would I continue to sit there thinking; "There is too much to lose. Besides, it's bound to all blow over, then I'd look pretty stupid."

It's difficult to leave the easy pickings in the South East for a harder life elsewhere, but long-termism is the only sensible choice now.

Many of us have actually been playing the long-term game for a while, by taking out a mortgage when our friends were still renting, saving up for a car instead of getting one on finance, going to university instead of taking that paying job.

Now it's time to look even further ahead and consider how you will support yourself when you are 65 years old and the welfare state is just a fond memory. For me, it means a large drop in income now for a better life later. If business does carry on as usual I won't feel stupid, if you make a decision based on your best interpretation of the information available, sometimes you'll be wrong.

Forget about 'feeling stupid', that's just another link in the shackle.

Take yourself out of your comfort zone, interact with people that already have, absorb yourself in permaculture, think big and expect little.Community is everything.

I jacked my job in, went Wwoofing, went to the south west of Éire, then up through Wales, onto north west highlands in Scotland... where I was given some land.

Most... of what most people think.. is important in life, is in actual fact, just a distraction from having one.

That's just IMHO.

Forget about 'feeling stupid', that's just another link in the shackle.

That was in the past. I've now made the move. Are you still in the North West Highlands?

peaceful_life wrote:think big and expect little.Community is everything.

Well said.