In many circumstances, the most valuable resource is knowledge, and that is something that can be shared without depletion.

Make estimates about outcomes based on Star Trek episodes is a little sketchy, don’t you think?

So, nothing will change then.

Very good story.

Cory, all you’re doing here is advocating another conventional “international development” or “sustainable development” movement–movements that have been deemed incredibly controversial since they started being implemented some 20+ years ago (or earlier?).

History has been full of well-intentioned do-gooders who aim to bring the “tools” of well-being to folks who they deem are in need of them. Sometimes these “tools” are Religion, sometimes these tools are Capitalism, sometimes these tools are fancy new technologies (computers, genetically modified seeds, etc.), sometimes these “tools” are systems of governance (like Democracy…hello, Iraq??) The list of “tools” that have been promoted by (well-meaning, but rather arrogant) people who parachute into someone else’s community and aim to “show them the way” is sadly, incredibly long.

One problem with this idea (there are MANY) is that it IS knowledge destroying, as what you’re advocating is people adopting the new tools and new ways of doing things that these “well-intentioned foreigners” are promoting, while casting their own tools and ways of doing things aside.

Anyway, THIS REALLY NEEDS TO BE RETHOUGHT.

I would suggest familiarizing yourself with the International Development literature tout suite before history repeats itself–or at least before helping it along the same, problematic path.

Start with the International Development entry in Wikipedia. And then, this might be a good guy to read: http://www.unc.edu/~aescobar/

Things To Come

You’re not catching Raymond Massey with his lamé skirt down. Wings over the World, to rescue! Who knew it would come in the form of begoggled balloonists?

It also remindes me of my friend who says that when the crap hits the fan the first thing he’d do would be go and comandeer the local Canadian Tire. Everything you need to fight the apocalypse (how do you do that again?), including guns and deck chairs. Well, bb guns at least.

Do-gooders are either scorned or run out of town.

For those of you with automotive (or marine) vehicles, installing a scanner radio in the dashboard such as a Uniden BCD996T or BCT-15 (using a combiner not a “coupler” with your existing car antenna) can be invaluable for monitoring “troop movements” (friend or foe) in a destabilized region.

(Although I cannot legally recommend unlocking your USA scanner to receive the antiquated 900MHz analog phone bands, the way Canadian and Chinese models can, even though it’s almost always just a matter of desoldering a particular resistor. This basic hack should be familiar to anyone who’s had to overclock their graphing calculator.)

And of course for international news, everyone owns a portable shortwave radio, right?

For more information, the Radio Reference wiki is most excellent.
(I just wish it used the GFDL as Wikipedia does so content could be shared between them.)

He’s simply smashing in sash and shoulder pads.

http://www.library.yale.edu/humanities/film/wrld2com.jpg

I think someone missed the point.

“all be it in a unnecessarily snotty way.”

As opposed to your counterpoint which comes in the most erudite and gracious of deliveries?

But thanks for proving my point, as you go on to list all of the commonly known issues present within big AG, which no rural farmer has ever come across during either AG school, or experience first hand in the field. (you use em big fancy words mister) Yes, your gifts of wisdom so valuable to those who tend the land.

So, your academic inference that big farming practice leads to lack of long term sustainability is correct. & the answer to this problem is returning to a sustainable model that has been practiced in all rural communities until the 50s, and still exists today.

Which is my very point to begin with, it is these individuals with generations of knowledge who are the assets not those who vicariously follow from academia.

Finally, in this scenario being “tech savvy” is perhaps the least useful skill as org culture, policy analysis, data constructs, mean shit compared to existing social capital of a small community and the ability to fashion logs to build, dig wells to drink, and use traditional farming equipment.

Would you like low fat free trade cinnamon flakes
to go with that? ; )

So, a bunch of independent-minded individualists have gotten their noses tweaked at the mere thought that sometime in the future someone might come out to their farm and, god forbid, offer them suggestions for improving the way they’re doing things.

And of course, the way they spin it, it’s a bunch of latte sippin’ linux heads who grew up in a city who come out to teach your grandmother how to suck eggs (in case anyone is unclear about that idiom, it means it’s something so simple that no one needs to be taught it) or tell Independent Farmer John something that Independent Farmer John would already know by virtue of being a farmer. Leave the logging to us, they say. It smacks of arrogance, they say.

So, I made three (count them, 3) mouse-clicks and found an about page about Alex Steffen, the heir apparent to latte sippin linux heads who will tell your grandmother how to suck eggs once the apocalypse comes:

http://www.worldchanging.com/bios/alex.html

Worldchanging has become the most widely-read sustainability-related publication on the Internet, with an archive of over 7,000 articles by leading thinkers around the world. It’s played an important role in revealing formerly obscure innovations and groundbreaking ideas, thereby pushing forward the sustainability movement and assisting in the growth of its network.

Steffen was also the editor of Worldchanging’s wildly successful first book, Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century (Abrams, 2006), a 600-page compendium of writings from over sixty noted leaders around the world, with a foreword by Al Gore, an introduction by Bruce Sterling, and design by Stefan Sagmeister (winner of the 2005 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award).

And so what Independent Farmer John is saying is that there’s nothing Al Gore, Bruce Sterling, or 7,000 other leading thinkers around the world could possibly say that Independent Farmer John wouldn’t already know. And Independent Farmer John would like to point out just how arrogant these other people are for even thinking such a thing.

Now, I don’t know if this Alex Steffen guy ever pulled teets on a cow. I don’t care. Because I’m pretty sure they’re not talking about a repository on various ways in which to suck eggs.

Likewise, I don’t know if Alex Steffen has anything that he himself built or designed that Independent Farmer John might find useful. But it appears that Alex Steffen has a few thousand friends, and one of them just might.

But by all means, stamp yur feet and pound yur chests about how no high falutin city slicker could ever tell you something you didn’t know. Tell us how arrogant they would have to be to even think such a thing.

This really has to be about the most narrow-minded and condescending thing I’ve read here.
What? Big cities are inherently immune to the ravages of an apocalyptic event, thanks to high-density geekage? In the case of an apocalyptic collapse of society, I’ll put my (now worthless) money on the abilities of the “climate-smacked farm communities” to pull through far better than urban hipsters armed with Make back issues.

How The Irish Saved Civilization