Wednesday, April 22, 2009

What to do


I added a new links section the sidebar, called What to do. I was originally going to call it Solutions, but honestly, I'm not sure there are actual solutions to the problems we face. Just things we can do mitigate the hardship for our ourselves and ours.

The first link I added was John Michael Greer's unfortunately named Advice from German Poets. I say unfortunately named because the title doesn't really grab the reader. Nor does it really give you an idea of what's inside. I suspect a lot of people who would be very interested in what it says will not bother to read it.

Greer, who believes there will be a collapse, but that it will be slower than most "doomers" anticipate, suggests three things to do to prepare: give up something, learn something, and save something. Give up something that ties you to the current system, learn something that will be useful in the world to come, and save something from our current culture that you want to see continue in the future.

If the future unfolds as he expects, these would be useful steps to take. However, they could be useful even if he's wrong, at least if you keep that possibility in mind. For example, you could give up smoking or junk food, which would save you money and improve your health even if cigarettes and Twinkies remain plentiful the rest of your life. You could learn something that would be fun or useful even if the happy motoring lifestyle continues. And if you love something enough to try and save it, you will probably enjoy the time spent with it, even if it turns out there was no danger of it going extinct.

What am I going to do? Um, well, I'm still thinking about it. I've always been something of a jack of all trades, master of none. We INTPs have a hard time choosing.