Small Is Beautiful

The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 08/29/2021 - 6:28am

Homesteads, Farms, and Hanging on to Harmony

Have you noticed how the grocery store shelves seem rather thin? Not as bad as right after the start of the pandemic, but a slow steady drip of missing items and a rather rapid rise in prices is happening in my area. The last couple of weeks I've been suggesting getting to know your area farmers and producers. We've recently met a few around our neighborhood. We're now buying milk (sold "for pets") from a farm a couple of miles down the road. I've made contact with a pastured chicken producer who often runs workshops. As grocery store shelves thin out, knowing your local producers might be a good idea. So I thought it would be fun to visit some farms and producers this week and celebrate working with nature and enjoying the bounty. Our summer harvests have been plentiful (Not pictured: peppers, peas, figs, and okra)

The Weekly Watch

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 05/03/2020 - 7:51am

Alternatives?

Have you watched the new film "Planet of the Humans"? It takes on corporate large scale alternative energy, and presents it in a negative light. Many prominent environmentalist are responding in a hair on fire manner. The film makers discussed the criticism on The Rising this week. I think the film makes important points like chipping up forests for electrical production is NOT 'green' energy, several large scale expensive alternate faculties are in disrepair or totally off line, and that we must deal with the root cause of environmental destruction, over population and over consumption. However, the film never visits small, local, home scale alternate energy systems. So I thought it might be fun to do so in today's column.

Resilience: Democratic-Socialism Part 4/4 - Organization And Ownership

Submitted by Gerrit on Tue, 05/10/2016 - 8:27am

Corporatist economics creates giant, global business organizations and concentrates property ownership into the hands of oligarchs. Corporatist economics creates massive obstacles to property accumulation for ordinary individuals.
"True dat, G, but how does that relate to local or personal sufficiency? Such topics seem to be more macro-economic in nature, rather than local or personal. What gives?"
Well, I have little hope of democratic-socialism ever being imposed from the top down. Nor should it. Democratic-socialism should be built from the bottom up. We need to work democratic-socialist principles into the social fabric of our local communities and spread the good news from there.
Very, very few progressives know anything about democratic-socialist principles; we've been immersed in corporatist culture all our lives. We know what we're against, but we struggle to imagine the alternative and how to implement it. This series presents the alternative; you can find it in the Resilience Group's essay queue. Part 4 starts below.

Resilience: Democratic-Socialism & Appropriate Tech Revive A Rural Town

Submitted by Gerrit on Fri, 04/29/2016 - 7:07am

Would you like to find ways to make your local community more resilient, more viable, more self-sufficient? Democratic-Socialism emphasizes appropriate technology to develop local communities, especially in rural areas. We'll look briefly at E.F. Schumacher's chapter on Appropriate Technology in Small Is Beautiful. Then we'll look at the example of a small town in Bavaria, called Wilpoldsried, which macgyvered its way out of where corporatist "development" had left it for dead and into a profitable future using Renewable Energies, the very best appropriate technology for small communities. More below.

Resilience: How Democratic Socialism Can Help Our Local Communities

Submitted by Gerrit on Sat, 04/23/2016 - 9:07am

This series explores the outlines of democratic socialism...um, snooooooozzzze...too academic, too dry, and relevance, please. "G, your planned series needs a makeover and fast." Well, resilient people are good at troubleshooting, so here goes.

Would you like to find ways to make your local community more resilient, more viable, more self-sufficient? Have you thought about how to develop your local community more organically? Consider banning the corporation within your local jurisdiction. Seriously :=)> More below.

Local Resilience: Democratic Socialism - Small Is Beautiful 2/4

Submitted by Gerrit on Sat, 04/16/2016 - 8:54am

How well do you know the democratic socialism that Bernie is reviving across the continent? When you discuss with friends what Bernie means, do you have the full picture? Corporatist capitalism has erased most of FDR's New Deal democratic socialism and today's people have no memory of it. It is most helpful to have a general overview of the benefits of democratic socialism when talking with capitalist-formed people.
Here's Part One: http://caucus99percent.com/content/local-resilience-democratic-socialism...
This diary series explores the outlines of Bernie's economic philosophy. We do so using a famous book that came out when a young Bernie Sanders was forming his economic philosophy: Small Is Beautiful (1973), by the post-WWII British economist E.F. Schumacher. It is subtitled "Economics As If People Mattered." We follow the four parts of the book very closely and attempt to tie it to Bernie's economics. Have no fear: there's no technical language, or math, or any Marx. Well, it's a long-form essay and the language is from the 70s, but so am I :=) Don't be deterred: read it in stages.

If you'd like to see a town that has transitioned to democratic socialism, see Totnes, a small market town in Devon, England, the town that created the Transition Town movement:
http://caucus99percent.com/content/local-resilience-transition-town-totn...
http://www.transitiontowntotnes.org/
Please follow me for more below for the democratic-socialist corrective to the dismal science.

Local Resilience: Democratic Socialism - Small Is Beautiful Part 1/4

Submitted by Gerrit on Sat, 04/09/2016 - 7:00am

The impact of Bernie Sanders is becoming the topic of 2016. Folks everywhere are marvelling at the popularity of his ideas. They're so mainstream! What is this democratic socialism he's on about? This diary series will explore the outlines of Bernie's economic philosophy. We will do so using an oldie, but a goodie, the post-WWII British economist E.F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful (1973). It is subtitled "Economics As If People Mattered."

We will follow the four parts of the book very closely and attempt to tie it to Bernie's economics, beginning in part two and onward.
Have no fear: there's no technical language, or math, or any Marx. Well, it's a long-form essay and the language is from the 70s, but so am I :=)
Please follow me for more below for the democratic-socialist corrective to the dismal science.