Creating Change: Climate Change

Infoshop has a dense article up on how decentralized energy production could become a method of creating radical change:

"Over the past fifteen years, radical communities have focused their energies on the development of a diverse set of social, political and cultural institutions including bookstores, infoshops, zines, bands, food distribution schemes, broadcasting stations, internet databases, libraries, cafes, squats, video networks, public kitchens, clubs, online message boards, record labels, bars, and more. While this may seem like nothing more than an inflated opinion of your local anarchist coffee-shop, these activities and practices have the potential to create entirely new social arrays, altering the expectations, values and belief systems of individuals by linking counter-hegemonic social conventions with foundational, everyday material practices. Gardens, childcare co-ops, bicycle lanes and farmers’ markets can combine theory with practice in ways that form strong social-material-psychological bonds, bonds that are the bedrock for developing alternative ways of living.

Thus, contemporary radical communities should strengthen what they've made and continue to do what they're good at: building with culture. Rather than developing broad plans and strategies, the best place for radicals to begin creating change is in their own lives and build from there, constantly expanding the scope of projects and educating with the power of material practices. As Feeny hinted at in Workers Solidarity, 'green' education has the potential to be either exclusionary and/or unproductive if it does not connect with the reality of individuals' daily lives. By creating the resources for environmentally sustainable ways of life, radical communities have something to offer. This approach allows for individuals to understand and tackle the large-scale social and economic aspects of environmental problems by framing these issues within the context of daily life." Source

Tying this into a previous article, I think there's a window for creating radical change that involves creative use of local resources, creative application of government resources and community-based values.

Also, a brief reply to Jeremy from the comments. I understand and appreciate your objections, but I have to say -- this isn't theoretical. We applied for and received government funding to create radical change in a public school. This radical change continues in the school, and the 'core group' involved has gone on to start at least two additional schools implementing a radically different education model.

I have a basic understanding of how 'shock and awe' and 'propaganda' can be used to blunt and prevent change, and that this sustaining change once Sauron's eye starts peering down on you is is incredibly difficult. However, the system is not all-powerful -- and as funding gets tighter, that creates a window for creating change in the right direction. Using crisis to create radical change is a tool that can also be used to create change that empowers the community.

I'll have more to say on this subject in a day or two, I'm still shaking out chemical cobwebs from my head. Chemical injury means that you never know what percentage of your brain is going to be working on any given day, and right now that percentage is pretty low :)