August can be something of a sleepy month during which we regular folks are getting in another swim, putting summer's last ribs on the grill, and buying school clothes while those-in-the-know are selling off their stocks, buying precious metals, and putting in extra provisions for some sort of autumn meltdown. At least, it seems like that sometimes.
It used to be that we (as a family) spoke of leaving, of going off someplace else if whichever Presidential candidate we didn't want actually won. In fact, some of those candidates did win, though we stayed put. Later, alone, I thought again about living in another country. But either a place was too expensive, or it had creepy bugs or the flying sort that gave you dengue fever, or its attraction was simply a good beach and brew, or it didn't want oldies like me coming in and taking advantage of its healthcare system.
The nice thing about having a blog is that I can write about whatever I want. Though this blog's raison d'être is to reflect on what one of the older set thinks (namely, what I think), since we're all up to here with bad news of one sort or another, I tend to want to provide somewhat gentler topics. But I also follow three social activists.
One is Chris Hedges, a divinity student-turned-journalist who speaks of "human needs before corporate greed." He believes in peaceful demonstration, in getting out into the streets since, as he says, voting misses the mark. "To place faith in electoral politics is extremely naive," he said in a talk. And, in his 1/23/12 Truthdig column: "Voting will not alter the corporate systems of power. Voting is an act of political theater. Voting in the U.S. is as futile and sterile as in the elections I covered as a reporter in dictatorships like Syria, Iran, Iraq." It was in his column, too, ("Criminalizing Dissent" 8/13/12) that I learned more about the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act, which Obama recently signed into law (also called The Homeland Battlefield Bill) whereby we can be incarcerated with no legal charges filed and no trial. Those arrested are labeled terrorists or terrorist-friendly, but since no one is defining what that means, it could well include peaceful dissenters.
Another activist I follow is Stuart Bramhall, an American woman, a psychiatrist, who did, in fact, leave the country and move to New Zealand. She writes on a wide range of topics: the FDA's approval for putting micro-chip sensors in pills so that someone can monitor whether or not we take our meds ... banking executives resigning and buying what's known as "prepper properties" in the country where they can (they would hope) become self-sufficient.
The third is James Howard Kunstler who first attracted my attention when I read his book, The Long Emergency, about the perfect storm we face upon reaching peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation, and financial collapse. He began his career at Rolling Stone and now salts his blog with highly colorful, articulate prose about how The Powers That Be are trying to sustain the unsustainable with a large mix of magic and falsehood. His thesis is: "We're going to have to learn to live totally different lives. We have no idea what that will look like, but it's as necessary as rain and will take time." He also says that "none of [the Democrats or Republicans] has a clue that reality has other plans for the U.S. economy which is to contract, de-globalize, downscale, and go local. That so-called economy they're trying to bring back? It's gone, baby, gone."
Anyway, August or not, it might be time for a reality check. Here's mine. I live within walking distance to town though not as close as I would prefer ... so I'm not absolutely dependent upon the car. I have a lawn that can be turned into a veggie garden. I've put aside a fair amount of non-perishable food (though Chris Hedges says that the Patriot Act says that anyone who has more than seven days of food is suspect). We have a small town with a sense of community and a good batch of individualists who've already set up a preliminary barter system. We have water and wood. If totally dependent upon the grid (such as those with pellet stoves or oil furnaces), one needs a back-up source of heat. And we mustn't forget a good stash of cash tucked under that proverbial mattress.
So, yes, I'm staying put. As I see it, whatever lies ahead will be part of an on-going, creative process. Anyway, at this point in my life--and here's my real reality check--I want to be near the family and the grandkids. Make peanut butter cookies together. Lend a hand ... and have it lent to me. You know--all that good family stuff.
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