It’s About Making Babies!

Theotherryan at Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest wrote about “For the spouses, another perspective.”

When the summary showed up on my BlogLines.com page, there was an ad. A greenwash-type ad. The kind that has a product, and calls it green because it might be – and might generate income, if the market thinks it actually is green. You know, like “saving oil” by mining the metals and producing exotic compounds, and shipping/trucking materials and parts all around the world and the nation, to build a “green” electric car that you plug in – to electricity generated from a coal or oil fired plant (still the majority of electricity in America).

Any, this picture of some young man in a white t-shirt, looks a bit like his parent’s back yard in the background. The tag line on the picture reads “Go green. Date a neighbor.” www.MeetLocals.com. How quaint.

One of the greenest people I read is Sharon Astyk, who writes about the depth of her pantry (Chatelaine’s Keys, and Casaubon’s Book), about saving seed to preserve genetic viability of beans and beets and tomatoes into the future, of preserving peppers and corn and potatoes for her daily life. She writes about scrounging, when need be, for what might be available, growing more vegetables and herbs in window boxes and planters and small gardens. About victory gardens and social issues and reducing her carbon footprint. So I sent her a note about this greenwash ad, and about the TSLR post, which I think touches on a very important aspect of life. Of living long and prospering, as Mr. Spock (Science officer on the USS Enterprise, a starship on Star Trek, a 40-year-old TV show) borrowed from a cherished blessing.

Sharon,

I just got a glimpse at a “personal” greenwash.

… One of the occasionally interesting blogs I read is a gun nut – Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest. Today the rotating ad on BlogLines on his article was – MeetLocals.com

The tag line on the picture (smiling average guy in suburban background and unlabeled plain white t-shirt) was “Go green. Date a neighbor.”

Which I think misses the point.

Thursday theotherryan posted about “For the spouses, another perspective.”

http://tslrf.blogspot.com/2010/02/for-spouses-another-perspective.html

Basically, the point was to be sympathetic, when getting “the paranoia” and wanting to start spending only for lots of guns and preserved-forever food, and a rustic bunker in the boonies. I paraphrase.

Lately, the old children’s song (that I really did learn in school), about “can she bake a cherry pie, Billy boy, Billy boy?” has been running through my mind. (A National Institutes of Health site lists two children’s song lyrics – I don’t recall either version – and annoyingly plays an instrumental version of the song – NSFW, for the noise factor when the page loads up.) That is, rather than date a neighbor because you spend less gas money – date someone with the skills and aptitude to enhance your ability to survive what you see coming in the future.

If that is the guy/girl next door – great. The better you know his/her family, and they know you and your family, the better. There is still room for surprises and serious disconnects in values and goals, and if you are dating someone you already know then little issues – like serious skirt chasing as a lifestyle, drug and alcohol abuse, or terror of intimacy – shouldn’t be a surprise.

At least today, mating with a neighbor won’t be a problem. In the next generation, if neighbors aren’t still finding themselves brought together randomly, then finding a mate a ways from home may again become more important, as a means to strengthen the gene pool and to keep ties to neighboring communities fresh and strong.

Just a thought. As I commented (lengthily) at TSLR, I think we face a time where picking a suitable mate may well become (as it has been historically), one of the most important choices we make for surviving and thriving.

I think a part of my comment to theotherryan bears repeating.

Often times, in selecting a partner, we invest a large portion of our self identity into an image of us with them. When change hits, it isn’t just a matter of changing our mind about an everyday thing – rice or potatoes? – but about letting go of our identity and building a new sense of who we are. Any survivalist that chooses, after selecting a partner, to seek a different community for any reason, even for better chances of survival, chooses to abandon the old community. To the spouse this is an isolation; if it isn’t voluntary, this is a significant means of spousal abuse, to deny your partner access to friends, family, and familiar surroundings.

Change is measured in pain. Always. The least pain is for changes that are insignificant to the person involved. It might be contemplated and eagerly sought, but change is always a loss, a spiritual death or clearing away of the old life to make way for the new (quoted from the Tarot, explaining one of the major arcana cards). When making your own choices, you weigh options, you choose the lesser of evils. When you impose that on someone, or try to, then you end their previous life, all to often suddenly or unexpectedly.

Realistically the first thing a survivalist – or anyone – should consider is the stability, trust, and integrity of the things they depend on most – their sense of self and selection of suitable partners and companions. You don’t buy a gun that you know breaks, or that reliable ammunition cannot be found. Why would you want a partner near you that isn’t as invested in surviving whatever may come, at whatever effort, as you are? That should be a primary consideration about choosing a companion.

Sharon preps for an economic decline, a gradual loss of support for today’s consumer-driven economy and society (Sharon, I hope I got that part right!). Theotherryan is part of a community that believes the coming end-of-civilization will be as violent and that communities will devour themselves as so often happened in the past, when things collapse. Sharon works to motivate, demonstrate – and begin living at a level that she believes is achievable today, and likely to reflect the realities of what will come – by gardening, buying clothes at yard sales instead of stores, re-using, and doing differently rather than finding different ways to do the same old, same old. Theotherryan envisions survival as an armed and prepared, remote bunker as a means of surviving the transition.

Neither vision has room for a partner invested in expensive displays of wealth or social status. Both examine their tools and surroundings for ruggedness and usefulness – like Sharon’s broadfork for the garden, or theotherryan’s selection of weapons.

Selection of companions and partners should pass the same test for soundness and appropriate values. People are wired to respond sexually in intimate circumstances. Finding someone you respect and honor, trust and depend upon will seriously narrow the field of candidates. Finding a good person that you will also enjoy holding and getting skin to skin with will be the tiniest bit more difficult.

Good of the community

One of the recent topics I noticed on Transition/Peak Oil, is about organizing communities and building and strengthening communities. Picking a life partner has to be part of that discussion.

Communities grow, or maintain themselves, by the growth of families – partnerings and children – and by adoption, that is, assimilating newcomers. Every formation of family, every bringing together of adults to make a home and raise children, is a vital and integral part of the core of the community. Any time a community member attempts to make a home with a partner unsuitable to the community, or that would make a home that was unsuitable in the community, the community is weakened.

Even today, marriages routinely require the presence and implied consent of the community – witnesses, at least. When times get hard and affluence not as wide-spread as today, the community interest in who forms a family gets much more direct and important to the survival of all.

Sharon Astyk at Causabon’s Book (“Sabbaths: Public and Personal“) admires the article that Aaron on The Oil Drum wrote, “The Four Day Work Week: Sixteen Reasons Why This Might Be an Idea Whose Time Has Come“.

10 years ago I worked at a Lockheed Martin R&D plant in Goodyear, AZ. They worked a 9 day/two weeks schedule. The work week began at noon on Friday. Monday through Thursday were nine (9) hour days. On Friday, we alternated. One Friday everyone worked Friday morning to finish the week’s 40 hours, and that Friday afternoon worked the first 4 hours of the following week. The next Friday no one worked – the 40 hours were completed on the previous day. Setting the beginning of the work week at noon Friday made the calculations and mechanics of working two weeks with one day less to commute work easily.

Sharon and Aaron enthuse about saving fuel, about saving the energy needed to run the plant, and about extra family time.

Sharon, for her part, wants to make not just one less commute day, but a legally mandated ‘no commerce day’, a day of freedom from supervision, work – a sabbath.

My first inclination, when I started reading Sharon’s post (good reading, very thoughtful, as always), was that she overstated the resistance and inability of industry to adapt to a four day work week, short of a law imposing the issue. My observation is that the resistance is in labor unions, labor union contracts, and labor union leaders. Labor unions are perhaps the epitome of conservative social agendas, dragging industries into bankruptcy to protect their status quo and their positions of power. And yet labor unions, by and large, support Democratic candidates and campaigns (maybe easier to influence, more naive? Hello! President Jimmy Carter – does that ring a bell?!)

No, corporations can choose to manage their affairs quite easily – many companies find Friday a weak day for productivity anyway. Whether the pre-weekend slacking would just drift to erode Thursday, assuming a Monday-Thursday work week, will be interesting to watch. Working out what a ten (10) hour day means for start times vs. other familiy commitments such as school times, day care, doctor appointments, etc. will be interesting, but doable. Breaks, meal times, etc. will work themselves out.

But Sharon seems enamored of the idea that the commuteless day means more family time. Ha! Unless schools go to 4 day weeks, that won’t happen. What families need is not ‘quality’ time as portrayed on TV – they need more time of kids working, parents working and all working together. It is in sharing work that kids learn values, learn discipline, and learn about society, culture, and beliefs in the family. And most families don’t / won’t share work with kids. They don’t have any work to share.

Sure, that extra home-day could be put to use doing major garden work, but various seasons in the garden need daily attention to prosper. Once-a-week, even a three-day span, will have to be awfully well planned and fit weather and garden growth status.

The results I saw of the extra weekend day every other week? More shopping, more time in the car than the usual commute. Yes, the plant did operate 10% fewer days. Except for those people that worked overtime for late projects, or critical projects, or because they needed the extra hours for utility bills.

Most companies use a number of computers. Most business computers assume that humidity and temperature will remain reasonably constant. Most businesses leave the A/C running when the plant is ‘shut down’. Major industry will probably show a major change as heavy machinery is idled and powered down, but office type enterprises will show surprisingly little change in energy usage.

Sharon raised the issue of service industries, such as hospitals that are expected to operate 24/7. What about Telephone worker’s unions that hold out for contracts with mandatory overtime for employees – that the company cannot reduce?

What to do?

The cable company here in North Central Oklahoma has cables strung from utility poles. On any given day, I have no problem finding a service truck changing a customer’s services, or making repairs. This is a massive, ongoing operation – with a sizable utility truck. Recently the city installed satellite monitors on all water meters, so water meter trucks don’t have to check each meter each month for accurate billing – that saves fuel and resources. Ohio has been testing broadband over power lines for a couple of years. If that technology comes online, power companies can do many things – charge day rates and night rates, save the cost of human meter readings each month, remotely monitor for unexpected outages or voltage problems.

And I expect the cable truck will still be mending lines, tracking leaks and shorts, and looking for thieves that tap into the line illegally.

Does Wal-Mart have a setup for me to fill out a shopping list, that I can have a neighbor or a delivery service pick up? Not yet. I still have to make my own way to the store to get what is on my list. Does my community have a general delivery service, similar to UPS but serving local merchants and their customers? Not yet.

Does the IRS still limit moving costs, to be closer to work, to moving 35 miles closer, at least? As far as I know. I am also unaware if they mandate that that ‘closer to work’ be within 4 miles, or 10 miles. And moving closer to work has to be the single most effective way to reduce highway congestion for rush hour, reduce fuel usage for commutes, and increase time available for home.

Or time for the three-day-a-week second career that Sharon and Aaron’s four day week will create. Hide and watch.