My latest take on the national crime is to promote voting as voodoo (hey, you never know) and music as paradigm dissolver — I’m thinking rock & roll, Middle Eastern/African trance music, anything Celtic, and John Coltrane’s “Ascension,” but anything that takes one out of the mind will do.
Afterwards, you might want to take a look at this…
Sites like Off Grid (from the UK) have lots of news stories, links, and useful information that could empower the bejesus out of poor blog-addicted bozos like me. I mean, think of it: what if we all just acted like we had already won and simply lived like we wanted, right now (duh)? Me, I want to live lightly on the earth and get off the grid. Let’s say “untied but floating nearby.” You’d think that would be a no-brainer, wouldn’t you?
Meanwhile, I was looking around the “Off Grid” site and found this heads-up about “visionary environmental scientist James Lovelock” whose latest book, The Revenge of Gaia, expounds on the following ostensibly unsettling theme:
Lovelock says the planet is now past the point of no return, and its self –regulating feedback mechanisms are turning from maintaining a liveable planet into a downward spiral of warming and flooding that will soon lay waste to civilisation as we know it. Now we must prepare to survive as best we can.
His recipe is simple: move out of the city if you can, to a temperate region well above sea level, and prepare for energy rationing.
I’ve already accomplished the first two, but not because Lovelock or anyone else told me to, no sir. No, I moved away from the East Coast and into the mountains because that’s what I wanted. I wasn’t consciously trying to avoid catastrophe, though for all I know I may have. But I’m not surprised in the least at Lovelock’s thesis. I also don’t find it upsetting, because “civilisation as we know it” needs a good swift kick in the ass. Lovelock may not be right, but my own intentions are.
How do I know? Because they make me smile.
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I mean, think of it: what if we all just acted like we had already won and simply lived like we wanted, right now (duh)? Me, I want to live lightly on the earth and get off the grid. Let’s say “untied but floating nearby.” You’d think that would be a no-brainer, wouldn’t you?
Sure beats swimming against the current. And when you get tired of floating, build a board and surf the system…
John
Not directly related but reminds me all the same…..John did you, or any of your readers see the film “Off the Map” ?? It is about living off the grid, and was filmed in and around Taos within the last few years. I enjoyed the movie just for the beautiful scenery …. just fyi…….Steve
“Off the Map” is the best movie I’ve seen in decades. It’s an incredible film, and I recommend it whole-heartedly.