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Continuity of family for sustainable culture
by Jan Lundberg
04 March 2006
Culture Change Letter #123 - March 4, 2006
The growing interest in sustainable living is partly attributable to
preparing for petrocollapse and a subsequent lower-energy society.
Even without the certainty of global oil extraction peaking now (or
very soon), quite a few back-to-the-land hippies have for decades
emphasized "Earth skills," communal living, and other forms of living
lightly on our ecologically stressed planet.
More than ever, thanks to the "peak oil craze," all sorts of people who
are concerned about resource depletion and climate change are
establishing or strengthening networks and developing useful skills.
The most oft-discussed topic may be the design of food-gardens and
farms that use a minimum of outside inputs.
In Eugene, Oregon last month, I attended a Permaculture slide-show of a
depaved, sun-optimized garden home I visited. The property owner
Jan
Spencer speaks and writes about his workshops under the title
"Culture Change Series." Getting new adherents for such activities has always been
the challenge. But Spencer has noticed that the peace &
justice movement is getting more interested in life-style change, the
longer war-over-oil drags on and Peak Oil becomes common
parlance.
Criticism of the government mounts, and the focus is
not limited to policies. The entire system, including corporate
economics, is increasingly questioned as folks acknowledge alarming
climate change and never-ending militarism. Yet, activists still
should
court the conscious public servant and politician – especially the
local ones – just in case an awakening or small victory is
possible. Meanwhile, attaining food security and a reliable
community beyond the nuclear family are surging, whether as goals or worries.
In the short term, we find it hard as ever to "live the change we want
to
see," as paying our bills and debts takes up most of our days. So
it remains a tiny but growing segment of the U.S. population that
thinks and acts toward long-term survival and a better life. In
the back of many peoples' minds, they think a massive crisis like a
"national New Orleans" won't
happen in their lifetime, so it doesn't have an in-your-face
priority. Or maybe the wealthier folk have "too much to
lose" to start living less wastefully. Getting to a sustainable
culture – safely, if possible –
may be costly, but is priceless. But are we really doing all we can to
get there? How healthy are our family-relations and our minds,
when it comes to assuring continuity of house-holding and bridging
generations?
Where's Grandma?
One little-discussed topic for the sustainability movement is the
continuity of families. Protecting generations and family lines
comes down to security of one's family home. If family members
lose contact either by distance, enmity or death, it is like one's leg
being cut off. When people lose their home, especially if they
have depended on the surrounding land, this "collateral damage" or
economic oppression (or other form of theft) can guarantee the
breakdown or dissolution of family simply due to members being no
longer able to stay together.
One of the main characteristics of advanced Western Civilization is the
loss of homeland, the jump in individual homelessness, and much moving
away from the family home, for those of us who had one to begin
with. (See Culture Change magazine Issue 19, "Family
Cohesion Challenged by Sprawl and Greed") One factor is population growth and the loss of
common land and open space. But materialism, greed,
individualism, and violence may have done the most to uproot
people. The Enclosure in the late Middle Ages in Britain comes to
mind.
Sustainable living as discussed today often mentions a "sense of
place." There have been books, often spiritual and
nature-oriented, on sense of place and the importance of one's
home. It is often taken for granted that families will be staying
together in eco-villages, for example. But just as often these
intentional communities are full of individual joiners and people
without much family cohesion. How many times have extended
families moved into communes or into other collectives? They
didn't need to, because they already had community.
Yet, as large cities become increasingly vulnerable to petrocollapse or
even turn into giant concentration camps, large, close families are
also seeing the need to probably relocate to rural areas or to
emigrate. Access to land isn't thought of by many of today's
consumers who bleat for their next dose of fast-food.
Whether we are ensconced in a low-populated place that naturally
supplies its own food or are urban dwellers, rich or poor but still
over-dependent on petroleum, an essential element of survival is having
one's blood relations at hand. Perhaps the only country in the
world that would question this is the U.S., where people farm out the
youngest and oldest members of their families to be cared for by
strangers. Additionally, the U.S. also has much domestic abuse, so people are
glad to stay away from one's relatives. Substitute-families are
formed, as friends nurture each other and can share values not shared back home. A fine example of
city-living solidarity among random friends is the story in the musical Rent , although it was typical that the
characters had no consciousness on the unsustainability of consuming.
However, if Grandma, for example, isn't there with her children and
grandchildren, this equates to a makeshift home at best. It is
true that a new home may be established, with hope, competence, love,
and a semblance of security. But why is Grandma gone, assuming
she is alive?
It is Grandma's and Grandpa's stories, not their possessions, which
need to be valued most. This is the way we evolved and learned so
as to survive and develop. For those who don't feel a love
bond between family generations, one can at least admit that elders
often possess vital information for sustainability – even if traditions
are scoffed at by the most modern among us. Few U.S.
mainstreamers are taking the time to learn from elders, but respect and
warmth for the old ones may return – mostly because, unfortunately,
necessity will require it.
It is almost a given that nursing homes are unfortunate and best
avoided, although many who agree with that statement still go that
route. But just as often the grandparents and great-grandparents
are alive, but are elsewhere and may or may not be institutionalized. And, of
course, some are lost – as soldiers, miners or victims of industrial
poisoning/disease.
Come together
A big family means more protection for the members, if many are
together making a household. This does not mean people need to
have more children, at least in this overpopulated age. What has
to happen is people coming together.
Coming together is culture change. John Lennon, an exponent of
culture change, had a hit song with the Beatles called Come
Together. Some listeners may have thought old John was just
referring to sex. Be that as it may, people have to get together
and support each other, the community, or the tribe. The family
has been the prerequisite for larger social "organization" (organism,
preferably). The nation-state is a relatively recent form of
organization, and it may not endure strongly after petrocollapse.
Coming together as a planet – i.e., virtually all people feeling more or
less the same – may yet happen, as may have happened in the not too
distant past. This will be possible again when greed is checked
by "new" culture. As long as someone can amass wealth, it is at
someone's expense. This is why certain practices and institutions
must go. In the Spanish Republic in Barcelona, landlords were
publicly educated in not being allowed to continue exacting any rents.
A beautiful story about both the family-factor in continuity, and about
the survival-ramifications of greed, is a 1963 book by Hal
Borland. In When the Legends Die , a Ute family in the Southwest
U.S. is forced through conflict to escape capitalistic enslavement by
returning to wild nature. The reader wants to see the triumph of
the heroes living in the wilderness because of the author's gift of
evoking the universal yearning for oneness with other creatures and the
seasons.
In Primal Tears , a new book by Kelpie Wilson, the story surrounds a
cross-species character who is half human and half bonobo. A
major theme of this lively tale is continuity of family through
closeness despite a species difference. The book cleverly advocates
environmental protection and animal rights, using as its main setting
the mountainous Siskiyou-Kalmiopsis wilderness region in Oregon and California. It is
clear from the first pages that the story's family needs healthy nature and a secure home
for continuity, although the absence of large, extended family is remedied by very close friendships.
A healthy mind is not a given
In these stories and in our hopes and efforts, it is assumed that
people are basically healthy and sane. Alas, a poisonous and
harsh culture has compromised or ruined millions of minds and souls,
including some of those who might like to form community. Many
folks are mentally ill, helping to separate themselves from family they
need. Petrochemical drugs, bad food, the sedentary lifestyle,
isolation, and alienation from nature all contribute to mental
instability.
There is lack of clarity in cause and effect: Are people ill due
to the culture? Will their health and social contribution improve
when they land in a more natural setting? Or is it more a matter
of these crazy people – many of whom function effectively by most
measures, including politically – being the big obstacle to a "new"
sustainable culture?
Some insane people are not diagnosed as such, but they are destructive
to themselves and others. In U.S. society, among friends there
may be much less emotional baggage compared to family situations.
But among friends especially in urban areas, there is plenty of
needless friction, perhaps stress, or superficiality due
to busyness. Uptight or disturbed people in the today's troubled
U.S. often bother, badger, criticize
and abuse their loved ones the most. This may result in absent
loved ones. How can there then be continuity or a sustainable
blood line? Although the accepted mainstream American story does
not feature tragic loss and dislocation, it happens often – especially
with poor minorities.
It happens for educated, wealthy whites too, when the stakes are
high. An example is my mother Mesa Lundberg’s loss of both home
and freedom, separating her from family and comforting surroundings in
her older age. Mesa is the
widow of “the Oil Guru” Dan Lundberg, who started Lundberg Survey
Incorporated, a firm I ran for a time that enriched her. The
overall reason for this great-grandma’s involuntary absence from her
family
today is the overarching culture of materialism. But illness of
various kinds, manifested as selfish actions by various people in and
out of the family, has struck this family hard. This has resulted
in
fragmentation of the family and doubt for its future.
Falsely labeled as incapacitated, Mesa has value as a wise elder
who retains knowledge regarding her connections to the soil, for
example.
Conclusion
Perhaps these dilemmas can be largely solved when people are forced toward
cooperation through the sudden, clear need to obtain sustenance from
subsistence farming, gathering and hunting. No doubt the mental
and "spiritual" health of a population finding its way in this historic transition
will be attended to as best we can. As to issues relating to justice, people must be treated well by respecting their self-determination as it relates to common interests. And, basic human rights must rest
on the continuity of family in a healthy and healthful environment.
* * * * *
Further reading:
Culture Change magazine article: "Family cohesion challenged by sprawl and greed"
http://www.culturechange.org/issue19/familycohesion.htm
Culture Change Letter: "Sustainability Starts With Family
Solidarity"
http://culturechange.org/e-letter-13cont.html
Jan Spencer's webpage
http://www.efn.org/~spencerj