who/what/where is the tribe?
April 8, 2008
i’ve been thinking a lot about “the tribe” lately. some would say that i’m being too apocalyptic but looking around, i don’t see how our current societal model in the technologically developed world can sustain itself for much longer.
on a purely economic level, we have a skyrocketing oil price coupled with massively increasing demand from China & India, extreme levels of personal debt and a cabal of leaders who believe in perpetual & pre-emtive war, which some economists have estimated has already cost around $1 trillion.
this brings me back to the question of the tribe & how i feel we need to begin to restructure our lives at a practical & grassroots level, to become much less dependent on the status quo system for our survival.
at the moment we’re considering buying a piece of land in France. our thinking is that if things start to unravel fast, we would at least have somewhere to go that we owned outright, with no debt. we’d have enough left over to build a simple dwelling, which would still be more comfortable & secure than what the majority of people on this planet live in.
however i wonder where this leaves the “tribe”.
a key question is: do we believe that our current trajectory is sustainable and if not, what are we doing to bring our lifestyles more in line with that belief? too often as humans, we expect the worst but prepare for the best.
as an example, a few months back i was talking to a family member about the stock market & challenging them to consider selling their holdings. at the time, the UK FTSE index was sitting at 6700 and my point was, what good reason do you have in the current climate to believe that they will continue to climb? i couldn’t see any. three months later the index was at just above 5400 - a drop of 20%.
i’m no investment guru but for me, it highlighted our human tendency to see the signs and then seek - unconsciously or otherwise - to avoid making the necessary changes in order to adapt to the direction the signs seem to be pointing in.
i don’t see buying a piece of land in a rural area as the grand solution but it makes at least as much sense of continuing to live in suburbia, 100% dependent on an unsustainable system. so i ask myself and i ask you:
who/what/where is the tribe? and how should we then live?
April 8, 2008 at 10:31 am
I see a part of the answer in premodernity, that is in a simpler, less abstracted culture which lives closer to the earth. Apparently you do too, if you are embracing metaphors of yore - Tribe - that have been superceded by the urban dream-nightmare.
“Who” is the main question. How can we find a group of people that we can invest in? But it’s a mystery, and bound to be fragmenatry and provisional.
“Where” - well, locally I guess.
April 8, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Here in the USA, I have heard this discussion carried on more than once. Talking to folks around my age, it seems that most of us seek a return to the simple life in spite of the seemingly “good life” created by modern technology. I have discussed with my wife selling all the trappings of life in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and moving Montana, Idaho or some such remote area. Understand that I live “in the country” at present (appox. 20 miles from Fort Worth, 40 from Dallas).I don’t know if we will ever make the move, but the discussion continues. Now, what does that mean for “our” tribe? When I think about it, it almost sounds like I’m seeking to “bail out” of a kind of life and a kind of system that has for me become almost untenable. The sound of that statement really frightens me. I have always considered myself a “proud” American. My journey of the last three years have changed the way I think about so many things. I don’t feel that I have become “Unamerican”, just more aware of that there are more of us out there. The study of unity, oneness has really resonated with me. This is a direction I feel I can and should pursue for the rest of my life. I honestly feel that we are one big family.
April 8, 2008 at 8:19 pm
There is no doubt that we are in for a rough ride on the economical front for the next year or two. A wonderful case of “what goes up must come down”.
Maybe we will be reduced to queueing for food, power-outages, having to tow the SUV to the dump as we can’t afford to buy the fuel and giving the house back to the bank as mortgage rates increase.
I, in some ways, look forward to this. I will be part of the tribe of survivors the big 2008/9 depression. One day I will tell my grand-children that we had food stamps and walked 5 miles to work 12 hours at mill. The same way my grandpa used to tell me.
So much for Utopia.
Russ, what does it mean “to not be of this world” anyway?
April 9, 2008 at 4:55 pm
great comments Nic, Don & Andy. Kell and i are exploring the issues you all raised at the moment, partly due to where the world seems to be heading and partly as a function of feeling far away from my tribe.
Don, i feel a real connection to you, even though we may never meet in the flesh this incarnation. the connection is the thing. Andy & Nic, well we go back a long way and have deep roots entwined.
whatever happens, it’s an exciting time to be alive. i’m fascinated by the mayan prophecies that focus on 2012 & want to wake up!
love to all.
ruzl…