Feeling chipper today? On top of he world? Do you have a spring in your step and a song in your heart?
Well, I’ve discovered the cure for that. It’s called The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler. Warning: Do not drink alcohol while reading this book.
Also on my reading list this summer was Richard Florida’s The Great Reset. The differences between these two books are much like the differences between problems and opportunities or between the glass being half full or broken on the floor — the liquid rapidly spreading in a sticky mess that fouls the kitchen, invites pests, and ruins your morning.
The Great Reset is about periods of upheaval “when new technologies and technological systems arise, when the economy is recast and society remade, and when the places where we live and work change to suit new needs.” It is essentially an optimistic book meant as something of a practical guide for understanding our epoch and how to thrive as things change.
The Long Emergency is about the same things only the upheaval is a downward spiral into civilization destroying deprivation caused by the end of cheap energy, i.e. oil.
Hmmmmmm…
One thing seems clear to me: We’re all going to be leading more local lives in the near future. Whether this is good or bad depends, in the short term, entirely upon our individual perceptions of what it means to downsize. For example, I am completely jazzed about my family’s active program of downsizing that will lead in the near future to a smaller home (perhaps in a multi-family building) in a denser urban environment. I know a lot of people for whom that sounds like Hell.
And the price of gas? I have no idea what it is right now.
Comments 6
Thanks for yet another book recommendation! I’m going to get The Great Reset audiobook for my road trip to North Carolina.
Downsizing gave my life more energy and meaning than it ever had. I work less, I spend more time doing things that are rewarding. I think most Americans don’t realize they are prisoners of their wants and acquisitions and that what most regard as a high standard of living is, at best, illusory.
Posted 01 Aug 2010 at 6:03 pm ¶My wife and I just purchased a 900 square foot loft. Fortunately it’s more than enough space for us as. Unfortunately it cost as much as a 2500 square foot Columbia Missouri home. : )
We live comfortably without an automobiles and in a dense housing area. I am about a mile away from the train station, grocery store and within 1.5 miles from the fitness center. I honestly have no wants or desire to travel further than that on a regular basis.
The environmental aspects of dense housing was one of the plusses of buying this 40 year old loft. I do not see any point in having another 1000 square feet of living space and/or a yard. I’d rather just have less debt and more cash than a lawn that needs watered or more rooms to fill with crap I never needed in the first place.
People have their own wants or desires but I know that this works really well for us.
Posted 01 Aug 2010 at 6:27 pm ¶Keri and Robert… Yep. One can redefine the American Dream and discover something better.
Posted 02 Aug 2010 at 6:29 am ¶Following is a link to some articles written by Mr. Kunstler. Your warning to not drink and read holds true for these too.
http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/?s=kunstler
Thanks for all of your efforts, both with your Carbon Trace site, and here in our community.
Posted 02 Aug 2010 at 8:44 am ¶Phillip… Thanks! I’m sort of a Kunstler fan following my reading of The Geography of Nowhere. I suppose I agree with the general criticism that me can be a little “overwrought.” But, even so, I think he may be very use in lighting fires under backsides
Posted 02 Aug 2010 at 9:35 am ¶“The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler. Warning: Do not drink alcohol while reading this book.”
Depending on your outlook you either need to stay sober or get really, stinkin’, drunk. Kunstler is a little over the top at times, but I’m a big fan. I haven’t checked out The Great Reset yet, but I like Florida’s other books.
Posted 02 Aug 2010 at 4:23 pm ¶