Presto's Ramblings

An administrative note

2012-01-03T07:45:00.001-08:00

When I decided to resurrect this blog, I was planning to write about the twin challenges of resource depletion (Peak OIl) and climate change, but there are people who do that far better than I and I don't want to duplicate their efforts. For the moment, I will be concentrating on posting about my efforts to write a novel set in a post-peak world. If news and analysis about resource depletion are your thing, I recommend the following websites:

If you don't have any clue what all this is about, I highly recommend the book The Post Carbon Reader. Most of the chapters in the book are available for download online.

Searching for a New Strategy

2011-11-22T13:57:00.000-08:00

Over the course of my life, I have come to see that we, meaning this country and this world, have deep, systemic problems. These problems are leading us down the path to environmental, financial, and perhaps even political disaster. I have tried various methods to address these problems hovever I can, but they haven’t had much impact until now. This blog is going to become my chronicle of my efforts to try a new way.

I think a great deal about our future. Not only for myself, but for generations to come. I am not a parent, but my brother has adopted a child from a troubled part of the world and I don’t want similar troubles to follow her here. I think a lot about her future, and when I think about giving up, my mind returns to her and I am newly motivated to keep going.

Most conventional efforts at change, my own included, fail for several reasons. First, we tend to “preach to the choir” with no regard for how the unconverted percieve our efforts. Second, we have a tendency to fall into tribalism, and see those who disagree with us as our enemies, especially when they act hateful to us first. Third, most of us don’t make serious study of how the minds work of those we want to convince and better methods for raising awareness and changing minds.

My new focus is in finding those better methods. I have several ideas, but they are guesses at this point. I believe that we need to tell better stories. Stories that do not shy away from the real troubles we face, but have real hope for the future.

I am just beginning to explore and idea I call “Subversive Storytelling,” which is the use of fiction to begin to get through to people. To that end, I am resurrecting a long-dormant novel project and adapting it to tell the story of the descent from the peak of resource consumption, and where our dysfunction is leading us. Most of all I want to bring hope, not doomerism. If we are simply doomed to destruction, there is no point to continuing on, and I don’t believe that.

In parallel to that project, I am re-starting another book, a non fiction book that explores the systemic causes of the problems that we face, and how all the issues are interrelated. Those problems go far beyond peak oil, climite change, and fiscal chaos. I believe that the true roots of out crisis are far deeper.

Third, I am going to work on my speaking technique. As soon as I can, I will join Toastmasters or something similar to learn how to make better presentations. I will also be doing research on the psychology of communication and unconventional communications strategies. What we have been doing until now hasn’t been working, certainly not enough to create the change that we need.

I will continue to work with local environmental groups, but that will not be the main thrust of my efforts. Weed Warriors doesn’t take that much of my time, and SB is currently in neutral, so I don’t have to worry about them for now. I will also go to other events as time permits, but I don’t expect to get deeply involved in another group until I have a better handle on my future strategy.

My motivation

When I look at this picture of my niece, I am highly motivated to leave this world a better place for kids like her. Just “going with the flow” and merely existing is not enough for me, and what I have been doing up until now hasn’t been sufficient. It’s far past time to try some new things.

I am going to chronicle this journey here in the hope that some of you will join me. I hope that you will provide feedback to my Ramblings and help keep me from steering a wrong course. Some will undoubtedly term this a quixotic quest to change the world, but my “peak everything” aware friends know that business as usual cannot continue much longer so time is short.

Our children need a better future. I am going to do everything I can to help bring that future about. It’s time to get back to work!

Out of Mothballs, Again!

2011-08-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome, old friends and new to my Ramblings! This will be a place where I try to set down my thoughts on what's happening in the world, and my journey through these crazy times. Expect this blog to be wide-ranging, but mostly centered on environmental and resource issues.

Most people don't seem to know it yet, but we are beginning a time of profound change. As a result of an number of converging factors, our world will remake itself at every scale in front of our eyes over the course of the next few decades. Peak oil, climate change, and financial crises are just a few of the things that will dramatically change the world that our children will inherit from us.

The thing is, we can't wait for these converging crises to become so profound that we can no longer ignore it. The time to deal with them is now, while we have the resources to smooth the transition. If we wait, things will be much harder for us.

We face a lot of challenges, but I'm not a "doomer," expecting complete calamity. I think that things can be better in the future than they are now, but if we ignore the challenges to come we will not like the process of getting there.

I have always believed in making sure that the world we leave to those who follow us is a better one than the one we inherited. I think that these crises present an opportunity to do just that, so the majority of posts on this blog will be focused on the solutions rather than the problems. There are a great many places to go for detailed updates on the problems we face, and I'll provide links to them when I think that they will be of interest to my readers.

I am going through a time of profound personal change as well. A recent health crisis has made me acutely aware of changes I need to make in my own life, and I will talk about some of that here. Expect to see posts on physical, mental, and spiritual wellness as part of that journey. I will get personal sometimes, but I will try not to bore you with all the trivial details of my life.

I will wrap up with some administrative notes: First, those of you who were regulars on the blog that I used to write here will find that I will not be talking about conventional politics much anymore, and I will outline why in a post in the near future. Second, while I have done a lot of work on updating the look of this blog, I still need to edit the link lists on the right of this page, and a few of them may be dead. That's a project I will work on over the next few weeks.

I don't promise to post every day, but I will try to post often. Sometimes the posts will be just lists of links. Sometimes they will be long, involved discussions, and sometimes just short notes. I hope that you enjoy the discussions, and that they provide you with some food for thought. I look forward to the conversations with you in the comments.