Get Free. Get Rugged, Get Together, Get Going
I was reading some articles from Alex Steffen, who I’ve followed for over a decade now, and it triggered an idea for an organizational schema for what it is I’m trying to do and what I, very broadly speaking, endorse:
Get free
Get rugged
Get together
Get going
I think 1-3 can be done in whatever order suits the individual (including in parallel). Step 4 should be done after some critical threshold of maturity is reached with steps 1-3.
I think this moment in history is too important to be faffing around with bullshit like a fulltime job you have to attend to, whether you want to or not. So attaining a high level of autonomy from basic economic treadmilling in order to free your mind and energy is a no-brainer.
We’ve been poking the world system (I mean the biosphere, climate, resources, as well as global socio-political systems) with a stick for long enough and it’s starting to show signs of increasing instability across multiple domains, with likely but unknown-magnitude tipping points lurking in there somewhere. Betting on a world as biophysically stable as the 20th is a dumb idea, and betting on a world as socio-politically stable as, say, the 90’s, also seems daft.
If the pandemic was really hard for you, I have bad news. If you have no idea what you’d do if a fire, hurricane, cold snap, riots, or heat event hit your local area, you’re outsourcing your security to a system that a) doesn’t care about you as an individual and b) is going to be increasingly overextended. In order to continue to autonomously apply our attention and energy to the world, we can’t spend all our time running from, dealing with, or recovering with what are going to become mundane disasters - small-medium-large bifurcations in the stability of our local infrastructure. We’ve got to get rugged.
And we’ve got to learn some new math: 1=1. 1+1=3. 2+3=7, or maybe 13. Etc. Often we can go further, have better insights, avoid more negative consequences, when we get together and form interdependent networks and bonds.
Once we’re free, rugged, and together, it’s time to get going. Where? That’s for you to answer. I’m not talking about moving North to try to run from climate catastrophe, I’m talking about getting going with the work of either harm mitigation or cultivating the successor cultures that will rise out of the disruptions of this and the next centuries. Well, that’s what I’m interested in. You get going doing whatever your gifts urge you to do.
I intend to flesh this framework out more soon.
Reading
Sloww. Great resource on all things simple living. I’m surprised this is the first I’ve heard of Kyle’s work. His articles and story is great, and he also has tons of reviews and links to a huge swathe of simple living literature.
Alex Steffen. Take Steffen in small doses. His style is to foment an urgency bordering on panic. If you’re already topped off on that, skip.
Update
I rode 4,000 miles back home to Quail Haven from California in ten days, seeing friends and family on the way back. I’m really glad I did that, but I don’t think I’ll be doing any 10+ day moto trips for a while. My butt still hurts, and the whole endeavor totally borked Project TTM5k. ;)
The ferry between Vancouver and Powell River