Greer absolutely nails it....

[UndercoverElephant]

https://www.ecosophia.net/strange-days- ... rwfgM354KU

[clv101]

Yes, that's great! Same thinking that led me to abandon professional climate science 5 years ago to spend most of my time with age-old (outdoor) activities of growing food, building shelter, rearing livestock and above all minimise consumption and reliance on the system.

Collapse now and avoid the rush, amen.

[kenneal - lagger]

I came to this conclusion almost fifty years ago now and have been working towards a more self sufficient system ever since. I need to work harder though to reduce our reliance on a diesel genny. Having built a house with a hip roof didn't help; it should have had gable ends so that I could fit more PV on it, probably twice as much!

Living in a larger group with the same ethos would also make things easier and work could be shared and when killing a bullock the meat could be shared around the community for more immediate use rather than having to rely on freezers for longer term storage. Must pull finger out and get planning permission for my ecohamlet.

[BritDownUnder]

A surprisingly concise (for Greer) and readable essay and I agree with most of it. I have spent a lot more of 2020 in the garden, growing and tending to things, than any other year and feel better for it.

A pity that LordBeria is not still around to lend us his opinions on Greer. Such is life.

[Catweazle]

In 2013 I thought that collapse was on the way, so I sold my land and house and bugged out from the South East. It still hasn't happened, and the signs that it will are pretty much as I saw them in 2013. I still think it's on the cards, but it's going to be a long slow descent. Most of my preparations are for my children and grandchildren.

[Potemkin Villager]

I am not a great fan of Greer who spouts an awful lot of verbose bullshit. However in this case what he has produced is spot on and mercifully concise for once.

I particularly can relate to :-

"To a quite terrifying degree we are threatened by psychic epidemics.” The flight from reason I chronicled in those three 2019 posts, it seems to me, has become the kind of psychic epidemic Jung talked about, and it’s therefore crucial for those who want to stay clear of the collective craziness to take steps to distance themselves from it."

Psychic epidemic is the expression I have been in search of for some time as it is everywhere all around us including this forum.

[sweat]

In 2013 I thought that collapse was on the way, so I sold my land and house and bugged out from the South East. It still hasn't happened, and the signs that it will are pretty much as I saw them in 2013. I still think it's on the cards, but it's going to be a long slow descent. Most of my preparations are for my children and grandchildren.

Yes, Greer's point is that the collapse is slow and ongoing. It's already happening.

[kenneal - lagger]

The sooner a person puts their bug out plot in place the cheaper and easier it will be to buy. I bought my bug out plot in 1982 but to buy one similar now would cost at least five times the price even if I could find one. The 5.3ha, 14 acre, plot that I bought back then would now be a much sought after "horsey culture" plot and I would probably end up in an informal auction for it. As collapse becomes more obvious the market for small plots about the size of mine will grow exponentially as will the cost so get in quick before its too late and too expensive for all but a London *anker.

[clv101]

Indeed, we bought our field (couldn't afford anything as sophisticated as a house!) in 2013 and we wouldn't have been able to afford it had we waited another 5 years... And currently, the rural market or any house with even a large garden is crazy money.

[Catweazle]

A couple of years ago it was possible to buy a Welsh smallholding with a couple of detached houses, huge outbuildings and 10 acres of decent land for the price of a 3 bedroom semi-detached in the South East. The lack of work is what has kept the prices down, but Covid has shown many people that they can work remotely and they're looking for smallholdings.

The Smallholding Centre estate agents used to have pages of properties for sale in West Wales, now they have been stripped bare. The community facebook pages regularly have people asking for properties to buy.

http://www.thesmallholdingcentre.co.uk/

This might be a bubble brought on by lockdown, or it might be a longer trend because of remote-working and people wanting a better quality of life. Either way, it has good and bad effects on the rural locations. It pushes housing out of the reach of many locals and dilutes their culture. On the other hand it brings new skills into the area, and if people are retiring here then that frees-up housing in the South East where the jobs are, allowing young Welsh to move to the work.

[kenneal - lagger]

Does your first sentence above describe what you have got, Cat?

[Catweazle]

Does your first sentence above describe what you have got, Cat?

Yes, but 12 acres.

[BritDownUnder]

Some lovely properties on that website but many are "Sold STC" in line with what you say. All I can say is that i do miss a good Rayburn even in a country where it is too warm for them 9 months of the year.

One even has an overgrown waterwheel. What a joy it would be to renovate that into working order.

I am always keen to hear stories about people's smallholdings.

[Catweazle]

One even has an overgrown waterwheel. What a joy it would be to renovate that into working order.

My friend has done that, he has a workshop next to his house that used to be a wool mill. The water wheel powers a large steel shaft that runs the length of the building and once had belts driving looms.

The "leet" is a ditch 400yds long that delivers water to the top of the wheel, it was originally slate lined but that is all gone now, he's looking for a used length of quarry conveyor belt to re-line it with.

[BritDownUnder]

There's a working mill near to Manchester owned by the National Trust that has been restored, or it never went derelict. I think it is called Styal Mill - I have not checked but it sounds right. Very interesting seeing it in action. Not so sure we want to go back to 12 hour plus days and 6 and a half day weeks though.

My 91 year old father still remembers belt driven mills and his much older brother, now dead, who I went round the mill with, was even telling the NT people there a thing or two about how things worked.

The 400 yard leet sounds interesting. I suppose they could just use a pipe and bury it but the 'man from the council' would probably not approve.
I once read that if all the old mills in Britain were restored to providing electrical power the generation would be in the region of 100 to 200 MW of power.