Transition Culture

You deserve a great and relaxing vacation…..thanks for all your hard work….and totally ENJOY your break……..hear from you again soon……..

I am always impressed that you read books that I have in my library. I recently bought THE END OF GROWTH which was autographed by Richard Heinberg. It os a wonderful book like his other books.

I listened to Matt Ridley’s TED talk a while back and was reasonably impressed – and I felt quite righteous in opening my mind to an other perspective.

Then I heard him interviewed on NZ National radio and he failed miserably to stand up to the questioning of his logic, and was quite annoyed at the line of challenge. A bit sad really.

Have a great break!

As for the lovely poster – we’ve just had 3 weeks sunshine on the Isle of Eigg (but tell not a soul, we want everyone to carry on thinking that it’s sunnier on the South coast!)

I sometimes wonder whether “signing off” is a good idea at all – given what August’s first week has brought in terms of news. Are there no others who can continue to blog at this URL?? It all sounds so bloody middle-class and “nice” to me!! The Transition Movement requires a permanent online presence IMO.

Rant over

Cheers – John

Not the time for a blog holiday, I agree.

Breakdown: London looters and the death of community
August 8, 2011 · Filed under Politics, Economics · Tagged United Kingdom government, Democracy, Inequality, Riots, London, Looting

Unequal societies are either violently repressed or violently anarchic, before they descend into factional wars. It is nowhere near enough for the ‘authorities’ to claim that the arson and looting breaking out across London this week are merely criminality. Of course it’s criminal, but why is it so widespread? I can scarcely believe the TV pictures of burning buildings, today from Hackney in the north to Croydon in the south. The arsonists seem mainly teenagers, children even. They are breaking up society, reflecting a real breakdown that has been papered over with welfare and consumer goods. Cut the welfare, as the government is doing in its quest to reduce our national indebtedness (bankruptcy), and the paper tears.

Who buys property in London? The foreign super-rich. Well they did: the sight of flames replicating bomb attacks may make London less desirable as a ‘safe haven’ from the world’s many, many danger zones. Dangerous societies are unjust, ungovernable, ruled by the power of arms. Have we realised just how unjust and undemocratic we are becoming in our safe haven UK? The extent to which the illusion of democracy has replaced real democracy? People have a vote, but that vote means scarcely anything, and political parties make promises that they break so easily if they attain power. Look at the Liberal Democrats and their abandonment of their promise to oppose higher tuition fees for students. Once they were in government with the Conservatives, they accepted a three-fold increase as ‘necessary’. Who would trust a politician now? It’s all been about expediency. Is it any wonder, then, that children’s concepts of right and wrong are blurred when the whole ethos of our economic life – which has come to mean life, full stop — is to make as much money as possible? Company chiefs award themselves vast salaries, vast pensions, extravagant lifestyles, as rewards for ‘efficiency’ which usually means cutting other people’s jobs. When their global enterprises become insolvent, they call on governments to aid them, and governments raise the cash from you and me, the ordinary taxpayers. International capitalists like Rupert Murdoch have prime ministers virtually performing circus tricks to gain their approval,and Murdoch’s media appear to have important police officers in their cash-stuffed pockets. This is not the example to set our children, who have been landed with the repayments for our casually accrued mega-debts.

It is time to reduce the extremes of wealth and poverty. If chancellor George Osborne goes ahead and removes the top rate of income tax, as is rumoured, it will reinforce my perception that this is becoming an obscenely unequal state, without a strong sense of community and without values other than grab-what-you-can.

The anarchy in London is a warning. We are all going to become poorer, as the resources on our scarred Earth become scarce. At present we do not have the shared sense of purpose that we will need if we are to make the transition without terrible violence.

Sadly, the events in London are the antithesis of the Transition Movement and this is evidence how things could go one of two ways. We need to start putting Community before Consumerism – and fast – and in a fully inclusive manner. When our young no longer think they have anything to lose, things can end up like this.

Cheers – John

That’s my concern, John. ‘Transition’ really means ‘Reduction’ and it will be incredibly hard to achieve that without alarming levels of social unrest.

This mashup infogram is circulating on twitter – maps #London incidents against Indices of Multiple Deprivation bit.ly/oUyDbb
Kind of no surprises….

Patricia,

I’m sure you are right there. It’s relatively easy for people like me to downscale – to put it bluntly I don’t live in a shithole, and many of my spiritual needs are provided by Nature, which nobody’s found a way to charge for thankfully.

Great piece in Live magazine from its political editor, Omar Shahid, today, quoted in the Guardian. The last sentence is a strong pointer:

“But we’re not trained to use our minds in this society, we’re trained to use our ego. And that is the root cause of all the problems.”

When you live in a place where people are judged by the material goods that they have accumulated, is it any wonder why that type of attitude develops?

Cheers – John

Have just read the piece in ‘Live’.
The school curriculum discourages thought. It’s all about knowing stuff that others have decided is important. ‘Thinking’ has become somewhat of a subversive activity.

i too signed off for the summer and was shocked to hear about all this stuff, days later. It’s hard to relax and take a break when i know that back home my neighbourhood in london could be being trashed and that people are being made homeless by it. I am really heartened by the riot clean up reports though. But everyone needs time out and my understanding is that this is a personal blog, one of the many voices of transition. Transition is still tweeting and posting on the network site. My feeling is that transition has the potential to offer a framework or model for a more participatory kind of local democracy. If we can do one useful thing for our communities it could be to expose people to the climate camp style discussions so that when there are internal shocks like this or just wide spread pissed-off-ness, people can react coherently and constructively, ideally involving the people who want to riot.

I feel you are right, Jo. We tried a participatory ‘people’s assembly’ to discuss the pros and cons of a planned superstore. Lots came, but some found it more than a challenge to really listen to other people’s views. A few would not accept views different from their own as having any validity. I think we need a lot more practice!

Some brilliant pieces in Live at the moment – written by the young of London:

http://beta.live-magazine.co.uk/

Cheers – John

Hi all… just a quickie… John wrote:

“I sometimes wonder whether “signing off” is a good idea at all – given what August’s first week has brought in terms of news. Are there no others who can continue to blog at this URL?? It all sounds so bloody middle-class and “nice” to me!! The Transition Movement requires a permanent online presence IMO”.

Just to reinforce Jo’s comments… there is a permanent online presence, it’s the Transition Network’s website. Transition Culture is my own personal “evolving exploration into the head, heart and hands of energy descent”, which I do in my own time alongside working full time (usually at about 7am), and which I usually manage to post something on every day. It’s not the official Transition Network site…

For me life is about finding a good balance where possible, and given that I don’t want to be the kind of father who is remembered for never really being around, during August I give the time I otherwise give to Transition stuff to my children, it is a key family survival strategy. If people want to follow Transition stuff during that time, there is the feed of other Transition blogs at http://transitionnetwork.org/blog, or there is always Twitter, where over 100 Transition groups tweet away come rain or shine.

Yes the riots have been an extraordinary and distressing stain on the summer, one which no doubt will be reflected on here soon, but I really don’t think I have anything especially earth-shattering to say that can’t wait until September, when normal service will be resumed!

Thanks all….
Rob

Hey Rob,

No offence intended! Indeed that comment of mine was posted before the trouble in England broke out – it was referring to other global events that became eclipsed for many of us by the goings-on on our doorstep.

The TN forum had a thread about any possible Transition responses to the riots, but it was unopenable when I spotted it in the latest listing a few days ago and now appears to have disappeared.

Not to worry.

Cheers – John

Hi John
No worries!
With very best wishes

I guess I could also mention my latest blog-post that weaves in and out from the Welsh land/seascape to Consumerland and back – exploring connections between the rioting, materialism and in-your-face marketing techniques. Two Parallel Worlds is at:

http://www.geologywales.co.uk/storms/summer11e.htm

Cheers – John

Just read the article, totally agree. Wonder if you have read David Marquand’s book ‘Decline of the Public’ (2004) about neoliberalism and the erosion of community values?
I’ve put a link to your site from mine (ecopoliticstoday.wordpress.com). I will of course remove the link if you prefer.

Hi Patricia,

That’s great, but if you change the link to: http://www.geologywales.co.uk/storms

then it will point straight to my musings. The existing link points at the main site where I attempt to flog the various services that I offer!

Cheers – John

I’ve just amended the link. Great photos.