My ideas around this subject have vacillated from one extreme to another, inhabiting many different realms of feasibility and sheer stupidity. From moving to Haines, Alaska (among other far-flung locales) in order to escape the perceived certainty of desperate hordes of idiots rampaging through civilization after the breakdown of organized society, to simply making a go of it where I am because it's all alarmist and things are going to be fine. The thing is, I really do think that anything is in play, from this being an overblown problem that we innovate our way out of, to something out of Mad Max.
But my ADD being what it is, I can't really obsess over any one thing for all that long. Now, with the COVIDs tearing through our society and economy, there are fresh reasons for extreme pessimism, which is right in my wheelhouse. Climate change hasn't disappeared, but it has become just another layer in the equation.
At any rate, the obsession that I am talking about basically boils down to creating an intentional community. Not a Facebook group or self-congratulatory Reddit sub-thread with a Discord channel, but a planned, physical community. I know that my fascination with this idea has numerous influences, from growing up in Northern California, and seeing the naive but beautiful idealism of hippie communes, to my love of fantasy novels and films (yes, I want to live at Bag End....GFY). I also think it's my very extroverted personality, and my innate desire to be a part of a broad, but tight-knit community.
The one thing I don't have is an illusion of utopia (I've probably said this before). We are all battling eons of genetic programming that make us basically insane, so the idea that it is possible to create a place where we leave the barbarian of human nature at the gates is pure fantasy. I completely accept this. I'm more interested in creating a space that is more efficient and resilient, able to face the reality of the future, whatever that looks like.
That isn't to say that the ideal community wouldn't be curated. It wouldn't do to just post it to Facebook and see who's game to move into the commune of the future™. I would prefer to leave the religious nutters, anarchists, Trump rally attendees, gingers, and those people for whom cilantro tastes like soap, off of the roster. None of those shifty-eyed fucks can be trusted.
I also wouldn't want everyone to be just like me (i.e. handsome, balding, middle aged, pudgy white men with huge penises). Imagine how tiring all of the high-fiving would get... But it would be important to narrow it down to people of have a similar approach. All of the people that I respect tend to have the same approach, or at least make the attempt. They don't take themselves too seriously, and they are willing to accept that they could be wrong, about anything, at any time, which usually results in a person bereft of rigid ideology. My peeps.
I think I have stated all of this before. I never re-read my old posts...more than every time I log in to Blogger. I'm a fucking narcissist, geez. The problem is that I can't seem to find a coherent way to state this as an overview. I keep wanting to write a detailed manifesto about the Commune of the Future©, but I am too scatterbrained to pull it off. Also, there is the problem of not really believing. Go on the internet and look at all the people prepping for the end of the world, and you really don't want to cast in with that fucking lot. This realization leads me to have a nagging sense, despite what I see as convincing evidence, that I'm a complete fucking kook, and just need to chill the heck out.
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