Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Marie Wilson Nelson on February 21, 2011 at 10:13am

Stacey thanks for starting this discussion. I've been thinking a lot about how to proceed, and time is of the essence. Personally I'm still stewing (for myself) about how to do this. he way we've developed is so different from how transition has happened in small towns and cities given that we are not a single community but a large bio-regional area with many separate legal jurisdictions.

I will support whatever the group decides. Do others have ideas about this? Or is there something written about how best to proceed under these conditions?

Marie

 

Permalink Reply by Stacey S. on February 22, 2011 at 8:39am

Here's a video that an English Transition town made for their Great Unleashing. It's in line with Eric's idea to create a video of Tampa Bay, highlighting our accomplishments. This particular video seems longer than 20 minutes but I do like the fact that they paid particular interest in involving children.

 



Permalink Reply by Cory Brennan on March 4, 2011 at 12:39pm

I haven't personally found it necessary to educate people on peak oil and climate change to get them galvanized to transition. Everybody has their personal motivation for doing it, and I personally do not want to narrow it down and try to force everybody into the square peg of these two subjects. For those that these things motivate, great!!  That is phenomenal and they are confronting the situation and coming up with appropriate responses.  Some people get motivated by other problems, such as the economy, social injustices, toxic food supply, or whatever it is!  So I tend to use broader strokes when briefing people and getting them to really look at whatever is bothering them most about the way things are now. Nobody is happy with this system, if they really look at it and think about it.  Usually, just describing a more ideal way of life is enough to make them want to change over.  It is just so much nicer than what we have now, there is no comparison. 

 

I just watched the new film The Economics of Happiness - fabulous!  I really want to do a film showing of this one. Very hard hitting and she does address climate change but it's really about how Western style development steals the soul of communities, and it really impinges.  

 

I think we need to keep doing those monthly film showings - so important for raising consciousness and it will greatly speed our progress towards transition.  

 

Best, Cory

 

 

Permalink Reply by Cory Brennan on March 4, 2011 at 12:40pm

It's a great idea to do a film showing our accomplishments. Yes!

 

C

Stacey S. said:

Here's a video that an English Transition town made for their Great Unleashing. It's in line with Eric's idea to create a video of Tampa Bay, highlighting our accomplishments. This particular video seems longer than 20 minutes but I do like the fact that they paid particular interest in involving children.

 



Permalink Reply by Eric Stewart on March 5, 2011 at 10:32am

I think its imperative that we talk about Climate change and peak oil. Americans live in delusion and illusion we need to wake them up to reality to show them that their actions DO have an impact on the world. By allowing them to acknowledge this they also can recognize that their POSITIVE actions can make just as much of a difference.

Company's/countries/organizations saying Peak Oil is upon us:

Raymond James investment firm

T. Rowe Price investment firm

German military

U.S. Military

Honda

International Energy Agency

Shell Oil.

 

The more we get people to understand Peak Oil, the more they will value the learning of growing food NOW when there are far cheaper/easier ways to obtain food.  Its imperative we wake up to our full potential and wake out of the illusion that is America's dream of suburban culture.

Permalink Reply by Walter Davin/ Mary Ann Holtz on March 20, 2011 at 12:39pm

Stacy, I appreciate your enthusiasm for and work on our bioregional Transition movement.  However, based on Training 4 Transition I participated in, we've got lots more work to do before a Great Unleashing, and that really needs to be on even more local community level.

Mary Ann Holtz

Permalink Reply by Marie Wilson Nelson on March 21, 2011 at 1:20pm

I agree with Cory that while we may want to keep showing films that demonstrate what's going on in the world, we  should be very careful about focusing too much on the negatives. Personally I would encourage our group to take the advice of Rob Hopkins and the transition leaders who say that we need to build the community  strongly before doing an unleashing, partpicularly as we are widely dispersed across jurisdictions. They say it doesn't work well to get ahead of ourselves.

 

The other thing I notice is that the evidence (large numbers of people not being involved) suggests that negative news has been overwhelming and that people have shut down, gone into denial (with the help of naysayers who stand to profit from that) and are increasingly numb to more bad news, or if not numb, are in too much pain not to resist it.

 

I suggest we discipline ourselves to focus on what we are doing that is hopeful to resolve some of the issues and not worry too much about those who aren't interested. I know it's hard--I have trouble myself--but if we build up positive energy it will draw in more people. More and more people ARE interested in making changes, and more and more struggle to survive financially. Even if they don't know much about peak oil, it is affecting all aspects of life and we can reach them by offering solutions to the needs they are experiencing.

 

I am so looking forward to summer when I will have more free time.  I want to help organize workshops--about financial permaculture in particular, as that affects everyone--and start offering them around the area.  That will attract some people. We could also do some leadership trainings which Eris so wisely asked for at one of our large group meetings.

I think our St. Pete Gaia's Garden group has been very successful at drawing people in and I"m sure the group up north is doing the same, as are the many workshops on gardening and fermenting foods, etc.  But what I have found about peak oil and doomsday, fear-based approaches is that they don't draw people in. They scare so many people. I hope we can frame our movement in more positive ways.

 

Keep up the good work, everyone. I look forward to being free to spend more time supporting all the good work I keep reading about online.

Marie

P. S. At the transition training, there was a huge amount of focus (the whole first 12 hours) on the negatives, and the group rebelled! most of the people there wanted to do something active to start making a difference. I suspect that most people will prefer that. Given the choice, most people don't want to be in school. They will almost always choose having fun accomplishing something meaningful with people they like.  Perhaps we should take a look at some of the organizational development research. There's really good stuff coming out, and the transition movement is using it--to see what kinds of leadership draws people in instead of frustrating them or pushing them away.