It's three years since I decided that the end of this civilization was upon us and I started to write Christmas roundrobins warning about global financial meltdown and urging my friends to build lifeboats. For three years I've been working (almost) every hour to develop open source community accounting software and grow a community of users, and inform the public. I put my cash into metals, and invested all my energy to build social capital, which some people think will be more useful than money in the future.
So now I'm a total expert in Drupal module development, and very proficient in the subject of money. Not finance, not economics, but I understand what money is, how it works, what's going on, and what money should be. I can also implement small scale community/money systems.
My choices have led to a nomadic lifestyle, building relationships with other hopelessly unreaslistic monetary afficionados around the world, living on sofas and spare beds, carrying only my laptop a change of clothes, accumulating nothing, earning and spending almost nothing, seeking out the greatest need and the greatest potential impact.
My software is in use by TimeBanks USA and many many LETS groups in the French Speaking world. I have to thank Tim, my partner in Community Forge, and Art Brock for bringing Drupal solutions to these groups. Many worthwhile projects fail to flourish not because they lack merit, but because they can't find allies.
If I had gone to the right university or leveraged the right relationship I may have been able to tap into large sources of money. Or if I had gone off on some unfeasible tangent, I might be running a social enterprise right now and granting myself a day a week for the real work. If I had a different kind of charisma, the thousands of geeks that flocked to bitcoin might even now be growing a thriving mutual credit ecosystem. But these are alternative universes. As it is, I've done more than enough to demonstrate the viability and the usefulness if not the obviousness of Drupal + mutual credit but they didn't build the gravy train yet for publically owned and managed money systems. The donations of more than 40 LETS groups will not afford even one living wage. I'm now doing more maintenance than construction, and I feel this project could use another three software engineers and a PR team. Oops - wrong universe.
Free falling
This picture is Warsaw after WWII. They said 'never again', but they were just lying to coax us into European integration. Nothing boosts GDP like a war. In the last 2 weeks momentous upheaval is again hitting the global (mainly the Western) economy. Collapse is upon us and accelerating. The debt ceiling, rioting pandemic, Euro chenanigans, banking fraud, Chavez recalling gold etc etc. I'm at Tim's flat in Geneva, a city where I have 2 oft-absent friends, consuming, it has to be said, vast amounts of ... free information (alternative media). My friends, I can tell you with some confidence that THE SHIT IS HITTING THE FAN. RIGHT NOW. And nobody seems to be noticing. I go outside and instead of flight to the hills, bank withdrawals, and barricades at the supermarkets, I see the day to day opulence of the Geneva summer, the complacency of the women who walk dogs, and the parading of 'les beux riches', and the mutual obsession of lovers in the heat. Oh and the currency's too strong; the exporters at least are up in arms.
Perhaps I over dramatise. My giddiness may be a peculiar ear disorder and the economy, having driven off a cliff in 2008 may in fact not be freefalling. But it cannot be. Since I switched on this three years ago. even the International Energy agency admits that oil has peaked. The party. is. over. These present woes were absolutely the result of economic and monetary policy and therefore we should assume this it was deliberately instigated. No mitigating measures were taken since 2008. Our democratic systems of governance have absolutely failed us. The ruling elite is pushing us into wars which send some of us back to the stone age. That's their solution to peak oil. They will stand back until it's all destroyed and then step in with a piece of paper like Bretton Woods which will say we are all one country now, ruled by the MONEY POWERS, who we happen to be rather indebted to. Their new world order will be impossible to resist.
We don't see much blood, especially in a currency war, but the threat to our families, freedoms and livelihoods is similar. It's time to stop pretending everything will get back to normal, or even that government somehow represents the will of the people. Forget climate change, its too late and your carbon emission reductions make zero difference when the demand for oil is greater than the supply. Don't waste your time protesting to the government. If you can, go to a nice quiet country with food and a functioning legal system and preferably one which isn't kamikazi-bombing the dollar by demanding delivery of its gold. Failing that...
PANIC
You can't save yourself alone. If you panic you might help wake people up around you. However many of these steps are not panic activities. We should have been pursuing them since Mrs Thatcher usshered in the era of small government with "There's no such thing as society". Crazy.
- If we have deflation, you will wish you paid off your debts
- Buy and hold gold and silver, (note to Chavez) don't bring too much attention to it.
- Build trust in your community with productive projects. Grow food. Make soap, learn to repair stuff, hack stuff
- Some are saying to buy guns. In any case learn first aid.
- Sort yourselves some solar or wind energy.
- Include minorities and other potential enemies.
- Destroy your television. Preferably by fire, in public!
- Quit your job. Quit university. Quit the Army, and make plans to quit the city. Then find something useful to do.
As for me, the social capital I have allegedly accrued is not currently making me happier, richer, safer, or more productive. I wish to be a saint, but not a martyr. I am now open to a formal, remunerated role in a serious currency project. Hopefully one that will enable me to continue working at the global level, where the impact is greatest. I wish to have my own nest after the crash - a chance to repay all the hospitality I've enjoyed.
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Small governments, more a
Small governments, more a matter of controlling governments that instead of giving the individual the resources they require to survive, undermine them by shifting welfare upwards. Banks get massive amounts of welfare and those that actually need it get taken to court because they claimed for an extra week or didn't realise that all aspects of the carer allowance are means tested for petty amounts (not petty to the recipients of course).
Facebook- digg - amazon - ebay et al scare me not in and of themselves but because 'trade unionists' 'greens' 'hippies' use them and don't see the contradiction.
Stop and search, so many personal freedoms already gone, shit would've been massive riots 30 years ago today people really seem to believe it makes them safer?? Gated communities - cameras - biometrics will be common as mud soon *sigh*
I think the thing that saddens me most is poor design and the likes of apple seen as Gods in the design arena, sure might look pretty and have nice UI's but obsolescence is the fundemental core design. All packaging truly poor design it really really wouldn't be hard to make it re-usable and at end of life useful in the garden anyway I could rant for hours and I haven't even touched on arable to desert, copyleft v copyright open v closed and the medias ability in keeping information closed source :) Democracy yep..