We need to become innovative in every possible, imaginative way

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I know this isn't a subject that's on a lot of minds, but we really need to beat the pukes at their own game, and find ways to turn things around.

Necessity is the mother of invention, right? So since we're 3/4 into irrevocable debt and depression, we need to make things easier in ways that have nothing to do with our current reality.

Coal mines? True death. We know already that coal mining is one of the most dangerous fields of employment--ever. So let's find ways we can change coal towns into something else. My thought: turn the coal mines into bat caves, and reap the blessings of the world's greatest pest killers, as well as find ways to use bat guano. I know it can be used as fertilizer, for one thing, so how far away would it be to use it as an energy source? Research can certainly find new ways to use it, and it would certainly help the bats, who despite all the negative publicity are really quite good little guys.

Drilling for oil within the ANWR or other protected lands? I know that people in the areas where big oil is attempting to ruins millions of square miles of natural resources aren't as concerned as the rest of us, but let's face it: they could become very concerned if the rest of us in the world suddenly took a deeper interest in the beauty of ANWR and other locations and came to visit. Tourism in Alaska in the winter might not be ideal for some of us, but the rest of the year more than compensates for the winter months, and would certainly expose more people to the greater threats of global warming, the devastation of the polar bears, and what we need to do to stop big oil from defiling these places. And next to this, simply having non-profit organizations come up with ways to involve the larger population (adopt a polar bear!, live-cam of the aurora borealis, documentaries produced, a flower business of unique flora from the higher latitudes, etc.), and many more that I can't possibly think of myself.

Plight of poor in foreign countries--if we can show, with even a little effort, that the poor in other nations are so poor that one of the poorer people in the US looks rich in comparison, we can try to involve more of our own people in their plight. However, as most of us are already well aware, there are commercials daily to show the kids in foreign countries in stark poverty, and are only making many of us feel guilty when we can't donate to those groups (which are often done by religious groups). We could certainly do better if we can make it in different terms--perhaps a clothing drive, perhaps a "send a plumbing engineer" to the country to dig wells, or a mechanical engineer to build bridges, etc. The Peace Corps might still be around, but it certainly isn't being advertised, so an effort to rebuild it as a secular group might be a noble cause. It certainly can't hurt.

Barter. Even in large cities, this tried and true way of compensation is still used, but only to a very minor degree presently. We need to expand it! We need to keep it from dying out! And we need to do the initiating if we can. Advertise on grocery store bulletin boards, online at Craigslist and other such boards, here at DU if we already have (I haven't checked) a bulletin board forum, etc. Any way that we can market ourselves and be willing to accept marketable skills in return, will help us find ways around the need for money as much as possible. If we don't have skills that could be used to barter, there is always the good old standby of time--babysit, help out someone with the preparations for a party, cook, etc. There is always an unlimited need for a wide variety of services that we can surely give to someone in exchange.


Come on, people, let's find ways to defeat the authoritarian juggernaut if we can. Anything we do now will still be welcomed when we take back the government, and will actually help us in our image to the rest of the world. It will show that many of us are not impressed with the shit perpetrated on the world and on ourselves during these past 7+ years of torture and oppression.

Anyone with me?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Here's some more ideas

Create your communities, if you haven't done so already. We have a good extended network of folks in NW Arkansas for trades, actions, and generally helping each other out.

Look to alternative energy sources coming up on the horizon. My husband is looking into using compressed air not only to run engines but to use for cooling/heating, for example. The more people that can be independent in many ways, the better.

Grow your own food. You can do this even if you live in Manhattan NY instead of Manhattan KS. Get a mayo jar and a piece of thin cloth, and start growing sprouts. Use another jar to make yogurt and yogurt cheese (I make mine from powdered non-fat dry milk, which makes it really inexpensive). Grow a potted plant like tomato or pepper-they can live on your windowsill if you don't have a garden. Go online for directions for how to do these things.

Be thrifty. Mend clothes, re-style old clothes, or sew your own. Not hard to do, and again there are plenty of on-line places that will give you instruction for free. Repair shoes, appliances, and furniture. Recycle stuff to make new stuff--we have a neighbor who is a carpenter and who has built his entire house using only recycled materials that he's scrounged. One place had a pile of blackened lumber. He recognized it as cedar, and they gave it all to him for towing it away. A quick pass through the planer, and now he has a bathroom paneled entirely in cedar. When the house was livable, he literally took apart the old trailer he had been living in, and reused practically everything--only thing he didn't use was the siding, and he gave that to us to use on our shop building.

Anyway, those are some of my ideas, off the top of my head.

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2. A kick for positivity!

:kick: