 The podcast conversations I want to host on this site are
with, and between, people who believe
we have a responsibility to begin acting now to cope with, and help our
children and grandchildren cope with, the impending crises that our
overpopulated society and overextended economy will inevitably produce.
I want to let these conversations go where they will, but to have
a common jumping-off point -- a 'leading question' if you will. In
typical left-brain, analytical style, I had originally thought of
asking people which crises they predicted we'd face when, and how they
thought they'd adapt to them. But then I thought: What if the
people who have some of the best ideas, those who will be best equipped
to cope with these crises, are uninterested in predicting how they will
unfold? I have argued for the importance of resilience and ability to
Let-Self-Change, so perhaps what we are doing to prepare for future
eventualities, to educate and enable those we love, or just to make the
world a little better right now, is more important than the predicted
context in which these abilities will be applied. Perhaps it might be
better to avoid the prognostications and lead off the
interview with questions like this:
- What do you think are the most important skills and
capabilities that we, and future generations in this century will need
in order to cope with whatever the future may hold?
- How do you see yourself acquiring these skills and
capabilities, imparting them to loved ones and being a role model
for our children and grandchildren? Do you envision needing to change
where you live, how you live, or how you make a living to do so? How
so?
- Given that our current political, economic and
educational systems seem to be part of the problem, do you envision
working to reform them, or rather disengaging from them to create a
society that is more community-based and self-sufficient? Or do we have
to do both? How do you think we should do either or both?
- What's the most important life lesson you've learned so far?
- What's the first, next step you think you need to take to
pave the way for this, to make the world a little better? What's
holding you back, if anything?
These are tough questions. I wouldn't want anyone to spring these questions on me
in an interview, without having the time to consider my answers. So
it's only fair that I 'interview myself' first. Here are my answers: 
- I
think the critical life skills people will need in the future will be
much the same as the ones they needed in the past. They'll need a broad
understanding of how the world works. They'll need self-reliance
skills: How to grow your own food, make your own clothes, look after
your own health, fix things when they break. They'll need good
imaginations and critical thinking skills. They'll need the capacity to
pay attention, to focus their senses and trust their instincts. They'll
need to learn to collaborate with others, and to form communities that
work. They'll need to learn how to make a living themselves, locally,
in community, since there will be no one to offer them a job. They'll
need to learn to be patient, to educate themselves, and to be adaptable
and resilient to rapid change. My generation, the boomers, were late in
acquiring many of these skills, and some we haven't picked up at all. I
sense the generations that have followed us are even worse at these
things. They're better than we are at self-directed learning,
fortunately, but some of these things can't be learned on-line; they
need hands-on practice. We'll have to learn these skills and capacities
ourselves, and then show them
to the generations that follow. We also need to study and learn from
the lessons of crises of the past: depressions, pandemics, natural
disasters, droughts, famines, political brinkmanship. We have a lot to learn.
- I've
been very fortunate all my life, so I'll soon have the time and savings
to learn these skills. It will be fun learning these things when I
don't have to, at my leisure, when the cost of failure is minimal. But
many of my generation and those that follow are living beyond their
means, and they won't have pensions to fall back on. We'll need to be
the role models and teachers for those who can't afford to be. The
intentional communities and natural enterprises we create in our later
years, starting very soon now, will be important laboratories, where
our failures will be important lessons for all and our successes will
be critical models for a future where failure won't be an option.
- I'm
now at the point where I think it's a waste of time trying to reform
our political, economic and educational systems. They're broken beyond
repair, and hopelessly unwieldy. We need to start again at the
community level, with the right, passionate people doing bold,
disciplined experiments and creating radically simple model intentional
communities, self-managed community 'unschools' and model natural
enterprises that work.
- My
most important lesson so far has been the importance of
Let-Self-Change, instead of trying to change the system. Second most
important: Reconnecting with my senses, my instincts, and
all-life-on-Earth.
- I have a bunch of self-sufficiency skills to
learn over the next couple of years to make me more well-rounded. And I
want to get the Natural Enterprise book published and the Centre that
will support that book and help people help each other to create
joyful, responsible, sustainable businesses up and running. Then I'll
be ready for my first big step, co-creating a model intentional
community. At that point my pension will kick in, which will give me
more time to volunteer on various projects.
If you have
experience as an interviewer, I'd welcome your thoughts on additional
(or different) questions to ask, how far off track to let the
conversation go, what types of answers and tangents to anticipate in
advance, or anything else you can counsel before I start this process. Another
thought: I've been intrigued by some recent interviews I've heard on
CBC where the interviewer's questions are edited out. I wonder how this
would work in blog-hosted conversations? Is it still a 'conversation'
if all you hear is one voice? Category: Other Blogging Articles
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MADE IN CANADA
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