"I prefer the term contraction, because a.) that is what is really going on, and b.) the economists haven't got their mendacious mitts around it yet. Contraction means there is not going to be more, only less, and it implies that a reality-based society would make some attempt to acknowledge and manage having less - possibly by doing more."James Howard Kunstler
Mr Kunstler pretty much sums up our future and his chosen term "contraction" makes all kinds of sense. If any one group of folks in the world should "get it" it should be folks on boats who are cruising or intend to cruise because for most of us choosing to live on a boat and go cruising is by its very nature an act of contraction.
When you think of it in this light, contraction is a positive act on so many levels it is a wonder that the idea of contraction has a bad rap at all. What could be more positive than living in a sustainable manner?
Then again, in what passes for the real world, a whole lot of things are not fueled on common sense or logic...
Crossing an ocean in a small boat you have to live in a sustainable manner because what you can carry is what there is...Water, food, and fuel are finite till you reach your destination so living beyond your means simply does not work and for those who think otherwise are soon taught the error of their ways... There really is such a thing as nearly instant karma.
The world being a bigger place, it is often easy to forget or delude ourselves that it is just as finite an ecosystem as a small boat in the middle of the Atlantic (if not more so). The earth only has so much water, fuel, food, and other raw materials and when they are gone, well they are well and truly gone...
... And so will an economy based on unsustainable practices. Folks who tell you otherwise are just stupid or scamming you.
Pretty soon we are all going to get up close and personal with the whole contraction gig and it is up to each of us to decide just how we are going to interface with that new reality... Me? I'm all for embracing it and going with the flow, but then I don't see contraction as a negative or something to be afraid of...
Just saying.
Listening to David Bowie
So it goes...
