Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing and The Economic Crisis

[Zev Paiss (zev]

The news these days is sometime hard to hear. The trend is ever  
downward for so many. The mantra seems to be "we have never seen this  
before," and it is true for anyone less than 80 years old. What I  
find so interesting is the continual expectation that these  
challenges will eventually smooth out and we will get back to some  
semblance of order.

My intuition tells me something much different.

A recent column by Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Thomas Friedman  
said the following.

    We have created a system for growth that depended on our  
building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in  
more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that  
would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more  
dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more  
and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more  
stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ...

    We can’t do this anymore.

    “We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t  
possibly pass on to our children,” said Joe Romm, a physicist and  
climate expert who writes the indispensable blog ClimateProgress.org.  
We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks —  
water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not  
by generating renewable flows.


What we are experience these days is nothing short of a re- 
structuring of what we have called normal for the past 60 to 80  
years. We are now faced with an unprecedented combination of  
challenges including climate change, the end of inexpensive energy,  
and the unraveling of the economic fabric is crating a global  
situation we had NEVER experienced in our lifetimes, a culture  
changing perfect storm so to speak.

I firmly believe we will not "get back to normal" but that instead,  
we are in the early stages of moving to a new normal. As a species,  
we have had to make significant changes before so I am confident we  
have the ability to transition our culture to the next stage.

Deep, deep in our social and possibly genetic coding we know what to  
do. And we also know it takes great focus and perseverance. I do not  
assume it will be a smooth ride for everyone, transitions never are.  
But we have the opportunity to come through this with an American  
culture that is far more sustainable, reliant on the use of more  
local sources and having a high or higher overall quality of life.

We may very well consume far less stuff, but by refocusing ourselves  
towards those things that make live deeply rich and satisfying, we  
can replace what some may feel as "lost." These include a significant  
increase of interaction with people and the advantages of resilient  
and more self-reliant communities.

Zev

Zev Paiss
Abraham Paiss & Associates
Building Sustainable Communities Since 1992
1460 Quince Ave. #102
Boulder, CO 80304
303-413-8066
Zev [at] AbrahamPaiss.com
www.AbrahamPaiss.com

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