Haven’t paid a cent for electricity in over a year. (We’re making money.) The energy part of the ‘cost of…
Haven’t paid a cent for electricity in over a year. (We’re making money.) The energy part of the ‘cost of living crisis’ doesn’t exist for us. We need to re-frame our social problems, to stop feeling like isolated individuals. It’s a con. /1 https://t.co/O3J4UsB7np
The idea that ‘democracy’ is millions of isolated individuals, who need to act together to create change, is a libertarian fantasy. But pretty much everybody believes it, and that’s why libertarians are winning. How powerless does it make you feel? Enormously. QED. /2
There’s no local, and no global. The ‘global’ problem of electricity costs was over for us in 2 days, by installing solar. We’re exporting more than half of it, powering 3-5 other homes, every day. Our ‘local’ action is having ‘global’ effects. The distinction is meaningless. /3
The same with Covid. The actions I take every day have global impact, in terms of whether I interrupt or assist transmission chains. Societies are NETWORKED. Not individuals. Actions ‘go viral’, all the time. Our problem is we harness that virality for the wrong things. /4
Far too obsessed with the team sports of what we call ‘politics’, thinking elected politicians are the obligatory passage points through which ‘global’ action has to go. They’re certainly key players, but thinking you’re local and they’re global is the con. /5
Underneath that tiniest thin veneer of hot air of their populist daily battles, reality is going on without them. The Australian community for example endured 10-20 years of anti-renewables hot air. What did it do? It built a new grid without them. It didn’t wait. /6 https://t.co/KsGoQlnSzN
That tsunami of action from everyday folk is about to collapse the entire grid, unless the political windbags start acting. Don’t hold your breath. Buy your own battery too. It’ll cost you money, but a lot less than a boat or jet ski, or OS trip. Not to be a survivalist. /7
You still want the grid, it’s fabulously useful. None of that individual vs collective stuff is even real. Act knowing that what you do is impacting many more people than just you. The more networked we are, the more magnified those actions are. /8
Act for Covid as if public health actions never ceased. You’ll struggle, in many situations. But you can do a lot, even without political windbags helping. Covid is the same, both local and global, at the same time. Most of its spread is specific locations and situations. /9
Places that are your local places, like schools and restaurants. Places you can act to shape, or even refuse to have anything to do with (also an action). I turned a pointless 3-day compulsory training Covid-fest into a Covid safe event, just by doing a few quiet things. /10
I chocked open doors and opened windows subtly, driving the fresh air numbers way up. There were no reported illnesses after the training. Who knows if it stopped multiple transmission chains, I hope so. I wasn’t waiting for politicians or employers to act. /11
Don’t see it as heroic individual action in the face of mass resistance. Humans act via imitation, conformity. The tiniest acts can ‘go viral’. It just takes creativity in becoming the thing that people want to imitate. Feeling like an isolated individual is how they win. /end