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A Summary
Many people have asked us, "Where are the large-scale solutions to all these problems you have described?" and "What should we do as a nation to avoid the seemingly inevitable consequences of this fiat money system?"
The lack of promotion of a large-scale solution set reflects a deliberate act of strategy rather than negligence. We believe we must reach a critical mass of individuals who have an understanding of the ideas presented in the Crash Course, before any national or global solutions will even be possible.
Because we are still quite far from this tipping point of understanding, this website continues to focus primarily on educating people and helping them move from denial, to awareness, to understanding, and then towards actions rooted in a sense of personal responsibility.
Once we have achieved a critical mass of people who understand the issues and have taken responsible actions as a result, solutions will find more fertile ground in which to take root. Many people have already reached this place of understanding and assumed personal responsibility for their futures, but this site is organized around the principle that most have not.
The Theory of Action
My position on actions is that solutions should come from a position of understanding. I believe it is premature to discuss specific solutions until and unless true understanding has been achieved. Preceding understanding is awareness, and the prerequisite of awareness is a lack of denial.
Said in reverse, the stages are: denial >> awareness >> understanding >> solutions
Let me create an example around a medical condition. Imagine a patient finally passes out of the denial stage, decides that their chest pains might not be heartburn after all, and goes to the ER. Prior to coming out of denial and showing up at the ER, no solutions could be entertained, because the patient was not yet even willing to admit they were a patient.
Now that they are at the ER, imagine that there is a choice between two attending physicians.
One is young, bright, right out of school, and has studied the condition and treatment of heart attacks but has never actually treated one before. We could say that this doctor is aware of the condition of heart failure and how to treat it.
The other physician has extensive experience treating such victims and is so familiar with the condition and all the possible variables that they understand, in a deep way, the nuances of choreographing the actions that will be taken over the next few hours.
I hope we can agree that we’d prefer, given the choice, to have this patient treated by the second physician, whose deep familiarity with heart attacks has led to an understanding of the condition that goes well beyond simple awareness.
Similarly, it is not enough for people to be aware that inflation exists, or that our monetary system has flaws, or that resources are depleting. That is insufficient. If they are to take effective actions and formulate solutions, then they need to understand what these terms and conditions really mean.
At this stage, I am not convinced that I even know what the right solutions are, and I’ve been studying this for a long time.
Solutions should come from a position of understanding.
That’s Part One of the theory of action.
Little steps before big steps
Part Two of the theory of action is even simpler, and it goes like this: There’s not much point in having people talk about big solutions if they haven’t taken any small steps. Large solutions require large commitments. Is it realistic to expect success at something large if even small commitments are lacking?
This is why I focus on personal actions, such as not taking on consumptive debt and maybe putting a little food aside, perhaps taking some cash out of the bank, or any number of other easy actions. I know these seem to be wholly insufficient actions, even if defensively prudent, but they are actually a critically important psychological step towards aligning our internal beliefs with our actions. Taking any actions on one’s own behalf implies taking responsibility for one’s future.
I don’t know about you, but when I read a brilliant article outlining all the grand steps that could and should be taken, I feel disconnected from the responsibility for making it happen. Call it the bystander’s syndrome – in the back of my mind I suppose that plenty of others much be reading and acting on this excellent call to action and so I’m off the hook. Or something like that.
True commitment and personal responsibility are measured by the actions people take.
The Plan
Build understanding, encourage small actions, then align with solutions.
The goal of this site is to help build awareness and understanding until the right 8% - 10% of the population is on board. It is only then that a realistic solution set will find fertile ground in which to take root.
The first stage of the plan is to get as many people as possible to watch the Crash Course in 2009. Our target is 5 million.
The Crash Course is going out to more and more people every day. The Brigade is spreading the word. 17,500 DVDs are out there, hopefully being viewed. Even more copies have been downloaded and burned. People are holding house parties and viewings all across the globe.
We are using your donations and subscriptions to operate and maintain the site, develop new Crash Course materials such as study guides and presenter packs, and produce the next version of the DVD. We are giving interviews, working on getting a book out, doing a PBS special, developing podcasts, and writing material for the site every day.
We have lots of strategies and tactics for how we are going to spread the word, but we are counting, in large measure, on your help in spreading the word.
As I mentioned on Bill Sharon's podcast, all significant social movements representing real change began as grassroots campaigns before moving inward to Washington DC. The movement towards living within our natural and economic budgets will find itself up against the status quo, which never gives in willingly, only grudgingly (if we’re lucky).
Along the way, we will encourage people, in ways both large and small, to take meaningful actions within their own lives, both as a means of mitigating risks and for encouraging a greater sense of commitment and personal responsibility.
Aligning with solutions
The time will come to actively promote large solutions, and we are already scanning the landscape for appropriate solutions and organizations with which to align in the not-too-distant future. We read everything you post and are sifting through all the excellent ideas and organizations that are already out there. Later in 2009, it is entirely probable that this site will be promoting solutions and aligned with existing, solutions-based organizations.
But for now? Right now it makes more sense to direct all of our collective energies towards spreading awareness and building understanding.
That alone is a worthy and challenging task.
- cmartenson's blog
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The big fix is dead. Long live the little fix. The little fix will not lead to the big fix. The little fix is the only fix left. A lot of time and effort can be wasted on the big fix. Little fixes will see a resumption of tribal living without authorative leaders. Our future is our neighbours. Whales live in pods, monkeys in troups, bees in hives and humans in tribes. It doesn't have to mean a caveman lifestyle (mean, nasty and short) but the longer we take to return to consentual tribal living the more likely that is. Our group size is too large; we are simply governed and governable. Groups of around a hundred or so with our neighbours offer us the only workable solution. We need to stop transporting food while we still can so we can prepare for our future when we are forced to. We must return to our local resource bases and live within them.That is the only way to reduce our population and what we must do to achieve a habitable planet where we can drink the water, breathe the air and know each other again.
Don
(some ideas from Daniel Quinn, particually his book Beyond Civilization http://www.ishmael.com )
And a happy new year to everyone. Thanks for your ideas and this site. Lets hope we can commune again for all this year.
Chris,
I'd like to say that one of the things that I most appreciate about this site is i's relative lack of bias - at least on the part of the site organizers. I think this lack of bias makes it more appealing to a wider array of people and helps prevent a "bubble" of ideas to form in which masses of people blindly align behind a single idea because it sounds good and is popular.
I think the understanding and intellectual aspects of the site are its greatest strengths, and I couldn't agree with you more that more widespread understanding is required for the transitions we face.
As you hint at, the majority of people understand inflation as "rising prices" or "bad." But most people don't seem to understand causation or potential unintended consequences of actions. I am reminded of the primary rule of "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt, an Austrian economist: "The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."
When people have the intellectual curiosity and capacity to dissect potential policies in the way suggested by Hazlitt, then I think our future will be much brighter. At this stage though, we are still in a world where most people seem to say "I hope Obama can fix this crazy economy." Until people shoulder personal responsibility for at least understanding the facts at hand, there is no way that they will take personal responsibility for actions required. In my search on the web, this site seems to offer the greatest sense of hope of creating understanding where the mass media creates consuptive entertainment.
Thank you, Chris, and I wish you and your family a happy and healthy New Year.
Mike
-formerly StudentOfJefferson, reporting live from the Washington D.C. Metro Area
One of the problems with moving toward financial or economic solutions is that so many of us believe that our economy is independent from larger social and environmental constraints. In other words, we see the economy as the big picture, rather than as a small yet integral part of the big picture. I suspect that we'll have a very difficult time setting things right until we decide on a shared and common purpose, or vision, for the future.
It's easy to imagine a hundred people working together to accomplish a specific goal. It's even easy to picture a hundred people coming together to create a shared purpose or vision. But when you have a hundred people working side by side who haven't taken the time to decide whether their activities are complimentary or productive, and who haven't focused on cooperation or coordination, it's hard to imagine a positive outcome down the road.
We need to decide what we, collectively, want for the future. And we have to create this over-riding vision before we're going to have any realistic chance of achieving it. Which means we're faced with any number of hard questions and hard choices.
It's becoming more and more obvious that our current way of doing business is morally bereft and intellectually bankrupt. But until we develop some sort of larger vision for the world we live in, it's as likely as not that our "solutions" will end up working at cross-purposes. And I'm afraid we aren't going to be given an unlimited number of chances to get things right.
With all that in mind, it might not be a bad idea to think about where we're trying to go before we spend a lot of time worrying about how to get there. We need a destination, and I don't think we'll find the path to continual growth and the path to sustainability intersecting any time soon.
ttanner said: " it might not be a bad idea to think about where we're trying to go before we spend a lot of time worrying about how to get there. We need a destination, and I don't think we'll find the path to continual growth and the path to sustainability intersecting any time soon."
While I certainly agree with you that we need to "know where we're wanting to go" I think there is also a risk in putting that goal out too loudly, simply because doing so often tends to call forth all those who disagree with it, either because they don't understand, or because they have a reason to want it to stay the same. So, while it might be great for those of us who are associated with Chris to have some clear goals, I think it should be taken in steps, i.e. work "behind the scenes" so to speak, by getting the CC out, and changing consciousness, before we "announce" any grand plan that might just draw opposition that we do not need at this stage in the game.
For example, if we said we have one goal of ridding our nation of the Fed Res, etc. how much opposition do you suppose we'd get almost immediately?
But thanks for your astute contribution, and for allowing me to share my thoughts with you too.
I believe that creating widespread understanding is the best hope for the future. That said, I'm not sure it will get widespread enough before things start getting ugly. It's relatively easy to change the mindset of a town or community, but changing the mindset of a nation as diverse as the United States is very difficult. It's been a long time since America has been as political divided as it is now and those sorts of division tend to create their own intellectual vacuum, as masses of people can align behind popular slogans, sound bytes, and opinions.
As Chris pointed out, without individual responsibility and local changes, national changes will be impossible. Perhaps counterintuitive is the fact that if we don't start taking care of ourselves and instead turn to the state to take care of us, we will become disillusioned and angry when we realize that Ben Bernanke, Barack Obama, and Nacy Pelosi are not capable of meeting our daily needs. Thus, the more we take care of ourselves, the more we'll be able to take care and assist others. But the more we look to huge government solutions, the more we will lose all of our personal "surplus capacity" and be forced to subsistence.
Formerly known as "Student of Jefferson" I again make the case for limited government. I believe that the government needs to step aside and mainly just instill a mindset of responsibility in America. At the same time, it needs to free people so that they are better able to take care of themselves, each other, and their communities. This can take the form of lower taxes and reduced regulations and a massive downsizing of government itself. Of course, this task is monumental, if not improbable and that is exactly what we are all up against.
It seems we have reached a point where Big Government and individual liberty and prosperity can no longer even feign a commensalistic relationship.
I'll also make another shameless plug in saying that forced collectivism is potentially the worst thing that we could do. The more regulations, rules, and taxes that Washington attempts to uniformly enforce across such a diverse nation, the more everyone will be harmed while Washington just increases its power. Freedom and liberty are the answers so that local communities can determine what works best for them.
-formerly StudentOfJefferson, reporting live from the Washington D.C. Metro Area
Hi t.tanner. Yes we do need vision but not just one or even one agreed by a hundred people. Many of my neighbours are growing food already. As things get more difficult I expect that the rest will be more willing to co-operate in communal growing. I have identified boundaries and talked to neighbours. Some are in denial but still growing food, a few are in denial and not growing food. If we can eat we can discuss our options forever but if some of us can't eat I don't expect we can do much talking until they are no longer hungry. As at least one person in Zimbabwe said "a hungry man is an angry man". Vision can come anytime. The only vision needed first is of sufficient food.
Don
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If the only fix is a big fix then there is no fix
At the risk of perhaps seeming contrarian I think it is important to understand that economics and finance is but one slice of the multitude of ways that humans relate to each other. The awareness and understanding of the advances of medicine outside of pharmacology, physics beyond Newton and energy from free sources is compounding at a rate analogous to the money supply. These and other forms of awareness will contribute to solutions, big or small, that are rapidly evolving. The trick to the next year is to be open to those things larger than our current perceptions.
I would also caution against an overly linear sense of process. Awareness and understanding have a tendency to accelerate with individuals putting together information and making leaps that, while creating some consternation in those who have been toiling in the trenches, may prove to be more elegant than what we know in the moment. Peter Russell once observed when he was surprised that people much younger than he was grasped complicated concepts that it had taken him years to understand. He felt it was a demonstration that the idea of interconnectivity is very real – if he had been studying for 30 years, so had everyone else.