Category: low-footprint living

Comment in response to someone (comfortably-off liberal Boomer demographic) on my personal FB circle who posted that the boycott was a wasted effort. And said that it “didn’t work.” And encouraged people to go travel and spend money in Canada (No offense Canada):

Failed? Who says? It never was about a quick result anyway.

And no, I’m not going to vastly increase my consumption, or ecological footprint, by visiting Canada or any other faraway place, just to go there. Leisure tourism is problematic consumption as well. Feeding the oligarchs and distracting us from weaving connections in our own home communities.

By the way there are many many more long-term boycotts planned. This is only a warm-up. Sort of an initial thing to get people started.

Personally, it’s not a wasted effort because I don’t buy from any of those companies that we are supposed to boycott anyway. I basically only buy from local people, and mainly essentials.

And it’s not wasted because I personally see the benefit of not having all these big holes in my wallet from unnecessary consumerism and supporting distant entities who have no stake in my community.

The way we deploy our money matters. Period.

That said, please don’t assume that we are not doing ALSO all of the other actions including what you mentioned. It’s not an either-or, it’s a both-and. Most everyone in my activist circles is doing ALL of the things to the best of their ability.

But unnecessary consumption (which we have been led to believe is necessary) sucks up our time and brain space, so yes it will always continue to matter what we do with our money.

The real priceless commodity is our attention. By taking back our attention, we take back our agency. And our wallets are absolutely one aspect of our attention.

PS. There’s a reason why fuel was rationed during World War II. Burning fuel unnecessarily is like opening a vein for fascist regimes.

In permaculture class, we learned that out of every dollar spent on gasoline, something like 80 or 90 cents of that dollar goes right out of our communities.

Further exploration:

• “Behind the boycott: Integrity matters (or, don’t get played in the name of resistance)”; https://blackgirlinmaine.com/current-events/behind-the-boycott-integrity-matters-or-dont-get-played-in-the-name-of-resistance/blackgirlinmaine.com “Let today’s boycott be the start of reducing your consumption and let’s plan to do more –because our futures depend on it — but understand that the integrity of anyone leading also matters. Otherwise, you’re just getting played.”

The following is a comment I wrote in response to some friends who commented on a post I shared. The friends were expressing concerns about crime and illegal immigration. (The OP I shared was by a youth shelter manager standing up to ICE.)

We are living in times where we everyday people are encountering huge amounts of information and opinion from diverse sources, and we are tasked with assessing what the worst threats are. It’s not an easy task. And there are many real threats out there.

No one would argue that human trafficking is a good thing.

No one wants more crime.

And people will differ in their assessments of the relative severity of various threats.

As just one example. I’ve heard people at neighborhood meetings go on about apartment complexes being taken over by immigrant gangs.

I’m not saying this doesn’t exist, I really don’t know; just because I’ve never seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

But from where I sit, the bigger and more imminent threat is the housing crisis. The difficulty that people are having with finding a place to live and keeping a roof over their heads. So I am involved in various efforts to increase the supply of accessible housing, and fight vacancy blight, in my neighborhood and community.

But my feeling for a long time has been that the human trafficking and other crime stuff has been emphasized in order to whip up xenophobic / anti-immigrant sentiment. It started after 911 but in recent years has picked up speed in a big way.

I think our own xenophobia, which is getting whipped up by politicians and the media, is a far greater threat to us than whatever crimes are being committed by immigrants. It does something to one’s brain, one’s critical thinking. Everyone who looks different starts to get labeled a potential terrorist. It’s no way to live.

We’ve gotten really classist as well. Our society has always had classism under the surface but now it’s becoming a lot more out in the open. So every poor person starts to get labeled undesirable etc.

Letting our minds get hijacked by fear is never a good recipe for creating the world we want to see.

Human trafficking is a serious problem worldwide. This particular issue isn’t one that I feel called to work on (Not that I don’t care, but we each only have so much time and energy for what we are called to work on). But if I did, I’d be looking to get involved with organizations that are helping people get out of those situations, and shutting down the traffickers.

As far as people being here illegally, I just haven’t seen them as being more likely to commit crimes than people who are here legally and / or those of us who are born here. Not saying it’s not a problem, but I think we are being encouraged to think of it as a bigger problem than it is.

Who benefits from xenophobia? (And who benefits from classism?) That’s a question we should ask. Generally the list seems to include, for example: sensationalist media, advertisers, manufacturers of home security systems and porch cameras (unbelievable how we everyday people have been so easily persuaded to spy on each other), law enforcement / big government institutions with big guns.

We have devolved to a low-trust society, and there is big bucks in that for certain people and companies and institutions.

In my lifetime, we have come to a place where the norm is you don’t answer your door to any stranger. Period. A default that we don’t answer our doors. If I hadn’t been born in this country, and have family here, and feel responsibility for helping to make things better and help redeem the bad things we’ve done in the world, I would not be living here. It’s just too harsh a place. (Our brutal landscaping and urban-planning defaults just add to the environment of harshness.)

After 9/11, we really started down a road of trading liberty for what we perceived as security. I don’t think the results have been good. We have more surveillance and more big guys in the government running around with big guns. I don’t particularly feel safer.

Regarding ICE and the OP that started this thread: what business does ICE have walking into a children’s shelter (and schools etc) and engaging directly with children. I would say none but that’s just my opinion.

I’m really sad to have to miss the 14th annual FRESH Book Festival this weekend, because of a respiratory flu. But my symptoms are not that terrible, and I’m taking the opportunity to enjoy my garage studio she-shed, psychedelic-60s-inspired GlampPartment space. (See pix here.)

It’s a sensory paradise. Outside are lots of homemade wind chimes made out of old junk. It’s a breezy day today so I’m getting quite the concert. And the “shadow art” on the floor and walls never fails to disappoint.

My landscaping business vehicle, Ms. Carty Cartwell, doubles as a vehicle for carrying my stuff to the book fair, Earth Day, or other events. So usually I would be getting her all decorated with her little green-flowered ruffle valance and loading her up with books and tablecloth and stuff and heading on over to the festival.

But instead, I am doing some little cosmetic touches to my studio backdrop and other things around here. Which is enjoyable as well!

BTW although I’m not physically at the festival, I am offering a Festival special on the 12 remaining print copies of my book DEEP GREEN.

Not only is my book a practical, concise manual for radically reducing one’s eco-footprint while still living richly; it’s also a guide to slashing household expenses so we can take back our time & energy, and become more physically and emotionally resilient, less vulnerable to whatever life throws at us.

The usual price of the book is $15 plus tax. This weekend the last remaining copies are $10, sales tax included. Locals you can pick up your copy at my house; non-locals I will mail it to you, postage and handling is $5.

For various reasons, including cost and eco-footprint, I am transitioning to exclusively e-books, so this really is a limited offer!

CashApp $jennynazak to claim your signed copy with individually hand-colored lettering on the cover!

The announcement of a buy nothing day on February 28 has been very widely distributed, is appearing in various places.

(A lot of people are very very much on board, but some of us make an exception for buying essentials from local businesses.)

Most of us in these circles are already taking this approach to our spending, 365-24-7 (with only very occasional exceptions*), and have been for years, whether out of necessity or because we love the lifestyle or both. But for what it’s worth! #Solidarity

•  One of my rare exceptions used to be going to McDonald’s. Once a month or every two months. I would get two filet o fish, my favorite sandwich since childhood. And an m&m flurry. But something a little while back, I don’t remember what it was, made me decide that I could do without going there again and not feel too deprived.

I’m really glad to not have a car and not need to buy gas, although, if I ride the bus (which I do on occasion instead of walking or cycling to my destinations), that will count as gas so I can refrain from riding the bus on the 28th.

And, with regard to my landscaping work, I’m glad to have chosen an area of landscaping that is conducive to only using handtools.

BTW regarding gasoline in particular — we learned in one of my Permaculture classes that when we buy gasoline, almost immediately 85 or $.90 of our dollar goes right out of the community.

Then again, our local taxi drivers perform an essential service, as do the neighborhood guys with the push-mower who makes their livelihood mowing yards. So it’s not like our gasoline boycotts are going to be perfect. Which is OK. Even just a sharp drop in consumption is a drop!

Electricity use is a great thing to minimize also, as part of a boycott. Energy goes into everything. As we learned in Permaculture class — we learned the phrase embodied energy. Everything we buy or do, energy goes into. It is possible to use very localized energy. Such as dried deadwood for cooking and lighting if one has access to an outdoor space for such.

**Disclaimer from Heather Cox Richardson, whose name has appeared on some of these posters.
https://www.facebook.com/share/19ap4hdX6K/?mibextid=WC7FNe
“Hi Folks: Just a reminder that I am not involved with the protests that are appearing with my name on them. I don’t know the people involved, and have not taken a position either for or against the protests. This is the only page that represents me. When I support events, you will hear it directly from me, and I will never ask for money or try to sell you anything.”

(Including the date in the title of this post to distinguish from other posts I suspect I may have made using this same title.)

A lot of us might want to kid ourselves into thinking we are on the “winning side” just because what we do is validated by social norms, and/or financial compensation.

A lot of us might get sucked into believing we have made bad life choices just because what we do is not validated by social norms and/or financial compensation.

Societal change is very much an inside job. And although it may be hard to shift deep-seated beliefs we have taken on, the alternative approaches are even harder.

Success and failure are in the eyes of the person characterizing them.

Success and failure always have collective benefits and implications.

Failure is just success waiting to happen. “Mistakes are just knowledge waiting to happen.” (The latter is a quote I heard on a home renovation show I saw a few times; the celebrity is a young woman who builds houses out of old scraps and discarded windows etc. If I can find her name I will add it here. She’s so bright and positive.)

Anything that fails can be tweaked. Keep your eye on the goal or intention, and do the next thing. In Japanese it’s referred to as kaizen. A process of continuous ongoing improvement. (This term has also been adopted by the English-language worlds in business and industry.)

Any success, no matter how small and specific, can be reverse-engineered for replication and wider application.

This post was prompted by a widespread limiting belief in the Permaculture and Collapse communities, that community is just too hard to do.

It’s not. And there are successes. As one example, a colleague of mine has lived in long-term collegial partnership in a home on a Permaculture education farm. Obviously their partnership is working and durable. The success could be reverse engineered. What is causing it to work? What makes things work in the long run.

I have the same example regarding my two long-term housemates. They have worked out really well and our assets not only to our shared home but also to our community. Now, in today’s world, these living arrangements often have a natural ending point, for example, if someone Hass to leave to go take care of a relative or for some other life change. But I can generalize some of the conditions that have led to the success, when it’s time to have to search for new housemates.

I don’t have any ironclad rules offhand, but one thing that seems to work is to be very clear upfront about what the intentions of this household are, and make sure that we have sufficient alignment even when not all fellow residents share the same goals.

For example, this house and I have a hardcore goal of extreme thriftiness, and aspiring to 100% landfill diversion. Not everybody who lives here feels as strongly as I do, but it’s possible for us to have sufficient alignment that it works.

Your successes are our successes. Your “failures” are an illusion. Failures are just something that didn’t get tweaked yet toward the optimum. Keep going! And share what works. Also share what doesn’t work. It’s an ongoing group task for all of us.

Not letting kids read books that capture their interest has huge consequences.

I grew up in a mostly very strict family but our parents somehow gave us this huge pocket of laissez-faire freedom when it came to checking out library books. It’s almost as if they thought it would benefit us to read any kind of ideas and we would develop critical thinking skills!!

There were important things that the adults in my life didn’t necessarily feel comfortable talking with me about. Or have the tools to do so. But since I could find out the information I needed from Books & Magazines, I ended up being able to navigate the world.

PS. You know what’s super enticing and makes people want to read? Especially teenagers I imagine. Declaring some book “forbidden”!