 
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 16:58 EST
From: BLUECANARYINNAOUTLET 
Subject: dream boogie
To: +dist+/afs/andrew/usr/js9b/Public/camc.dl@andrew.cmu.edu
Message-Id: <01GWYXBBVB0W0019J2@YANG.EARLHAM.EDU>

>Date: Wed, 31 Mar 93 22:32:43 GMT
>Subject: Has the Cat gone the way of the Dodo?
>
>Jesse, In your message you write:
>
>> what do I find? The Corporation-Ate-My-Cat seems to have fulfilled its
>> name!!  O tell me it's not true!  Anyone still participating in this list,
>> or what? Wake up, repost, or at least "ping" if you can hear me, eh?

   (Thank you, folks who have "pinged" or otherwise expressed their
continued existence...)

>I'm here; still doing my thing. Things are going fine, but there's a
>certain boring quality to talking about the day-to-day business of
>saving money and building an organized effort.

   Mmm.  It must be like answering the question "how was school today?"
when you were a kid.  My dad used to ask me that on weekends to see if I
was awake or not.  "It was okay." :-)

>>    Know what? I may be slightly more cynical than Bill in this regard--
>> seems to me like no one actually *gives* enough of a shit to silence us
>> doomsayers in such fashion.  People are so future-shocked, so overwhelmed
>> with info-anxiety, that they cannot be stirred from their torpor... Aside
>> from those criticizing government policy in very public ways, such as the
>> scientist who got censored by his department at the EPA, people who forsee
>> disaster are generally received with... boredom.
>
>I predict that as you get older, and climb in the heirarchies of
>university, corporation, or business, the reaction will change from
>boredom and dismissal to passive reprisal and eventually active
>reprisal. I used the expression "kill", which I meant metaphorically,
>refering to the way baboons and chimps and humans will harass and
>eventually kill 'alien' or 'outcast' members of their own species.

   I suppose.  In any of those positions of authority (like the EPA guy),
one's insistent doomsaying would be more of a threat, because it would be
a call for actual *action*... Yeah, I could imagine that generating anger.
At present, I am (as you say) "dismissable".

>The future can only be predicted as probabilities; I'd say the scenario
>you paint has a very high probability, at least as far as the next
>century is concerned. It's hard to imagine that we humans would be so
>stupid as to accept such an existence century after century-- then
>again, no-one ever went broke overestimating the stupidity of humans.

   Except in episodes of Star Trek. :-) Thanks... I guess.

>I don't believe that anything can be done about the future; we are
>involved in a planetary process that overwhelms individual concerns and
>efforts.
>
>The best we can do is educate and prepare ourselves for as many
>eventualities as possible.

   With perhaps a slightly more optimistic twist, I would agree.  Ah, but
this we've hashed out before.

>> Nevertheless, to my disappointment, they remain stuck in the rut of being
>> a "demonstration" community, rather than a genuinely self-sustaining
>> village unit-- they are mostly self-sufficient for power, but still must
>> occasionally draw from the local grids, and only produce (if I remember
>> the figure correctly) about 10% of their own food; plus, most of the CAT
>> people live in the town, not on the site, and some of them are even
>> depending on the dole!  Moreover, the original idealism of the group has
>
>This is quite typical.
>
>I've already made my arguments that self-sufficiency is not possible.
>Self-reliance is a more realistic goal.

   I don't really accept your arguments yet.  I had to delete the letter,
since my quota overflowed, but I remember you talked about "stepping off
the wheel of life"; such is not my intention at all.  Rather, I'd like to
return responsibility for one's existence (like mine!) to one's own
locality-- to make the individual unbeholden to distant, faceless others
for his/her survival.  In a society where food, energy, and shelter are
tokens in a global economy, this is not the case.
   I don't propose isolationism.  Far from it, I'd love to *export*
self-sufficiency to as many people as possible, until it becomes obvious
that it is ridiculous and inhumane to live otherwise.
   One of the difficulties with my scheme is that it involves phasing out
dependence on artifacts produced by the global economy I wish to escape;
at present, this includes many kinds of "alternative technologies", such
as solar cells, computers, etc.  This is not a necessary condition,
however.  We can imagine, and have already begun to create, technologies
which render Second Wave-style centralized mass manufacture obsolete.  The
ultimate extension of this, a full-blown Drexlerian nanotechnology
(miniaturized, self-replicating factories), can eventually make all such
issues obsolete.
   In the meantime, we can try several strategies to avoid dependence on
the rest of the world for products and production.  First, and most
obviously, we can utilize all kinds of perfectly viable "low tech"
methods and materials.  Second, we can scavenge from the incredible
surplus of waste materials emitted by the global economy and take
advantage of certain "free" goods and services.  Third, we can engage in
some forms of limited trade with the "outside", subject to ethical and
pragmatic restrictions-- which it seems is what you're proposing.  I have
no problem with this last course of action, as long as it is done with the
eventual goal of maximum self-sufficiency in mind.

>> tapered off somewhat, as people grew older and reconceptualized their
>> mission (several of the engineers formed corporations to market solar and
>> wind-power technology commercially, for one).  Still, there are folks
>> there like Roger MacLennan, who has been there for 14 years, living and
>> working on-site with his family, patiently pushing for his dream.
>> Amazing.  I heavily recommend you look them up. :-)
>
>Did you take any photos? Did this scottish CAT have any books or reports
>for sale? How did they obtain their land?

   Welsh.  I took a couple photos, but I'm not sure if they came out.  You
can write to them for a guidebook-- I have the address somewhere, and if
you like, I'll find it for you.  I'm not sure how they obtained their
land.  One of their members has a connection to the Internet, but I have
yet to get in touch with him.

>One of the benefits of having a DTP business as part of the community
>economic structure is that the "Demonstration" can be transmitted to a
>much larger number of people.

   Certainly, it is a merit.  As long as the question of whether or not
the community members will eat and be warm and have a place to sleep is
not contingent on business activity, it's perfectly acceptable.  But the
only way to *ensure* such (insofar as it's assurable) is to achieve
maximum self-sufficiency within the community!  (Pardon me if I seem
strident! :-)

>"As people grew older"-- such a universe contained in that phrase!
>
>One of the people in my local network here in State College just came
>into a fairly hefty bundle of money which she has been advised to spend
>on land. Because of her circumstances, I'm recommending she try to buy a
>house in town. Things are moving, sometimes excruciatingly slowly, but
>moving.

   Terrific.  Keep going, man.  :-)


    --Jesse.

(More later.)


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