Solutions And Positive Assessments

I was asked to review "Escape from Suburbia", the latest effort by the director of "The End of Suburbia". Now, I could have offered up a bit of saccharine dripping prose and let it go at that. It would have pleased everyone connected with the film without making waves. But it would not be honest. It is too late in the game to simply go on pleasing people. It is time to be honest, even if it hurts.

Escape from Suburbia was supposed to show how people who are aware of energy depletion and the other problems that threaten to destroy our civilization are dealing with it. The film follows the efforts of three groups of people, a gay couple from New York, a single mother from Toronto, and a couple of well-educated hippies from Oregon. It also looks at the fate of a community garden in LA and the efforts of a small town in California. Along the way there are lots of blurbs by the talking heads of peak oil.

The most honest and informative segments of the documentary are the portions following the couple from New York and the scenes about the South Central Community Farm in LA. The couple in New York came across as very concerned, both for themselves and for others. They could find no easy answers, and their efforts at community organizing and learning essential skills only served to make them aware of how truly desperate the situation is. They do not want to be trapped in New York when things start breaking down, yet they do not know where to go or how to provide for themselves once they get there. In the end, their situation remains unresolved. They continue to take what steps they can, learning survival skills while looking for a way out of New York.

The portion of the film dealing with South Central Community Farm illustrates both the vulnerability of community gardens within our socioeconomic system and the plight of poorer people in dealing with what is to come. The story of the SCC Farm should stand as a warning beacon to all community farms. They only exist by the grace of corporations and government. Until community gardens are recognized as vital to community health and are protected by law, they will remain vulnerable whenever the government or some powerful investor wishes to appropriate the land. As long as we continue to live under the current socioeconomic system, then community gardens will require strong legal protections to keep them safe.

The fate of SCC Farm, taken in conjunction with the fate of New Orleans' poorer residents, demonstrates that the poor will not be cared for. Instead they will be preyed upon and will suffer the brunt of the coming collapse. In truth, the working class, and in particular the lower working class, is the alternative energy source the elite intend to use to replace their consumption of fossil fuels. And this is the system they are quietly working to set in place.

I have said elsewhere (Mountain Sentinel Vol. 1, No. 4) that we must recognize that relocalization is a radical idea. It is radical because it seeks to replace the dominant system with one that is more healthy and equitable for all. And whenever a radical movement rises to threaten the dominant system, it must fight for its survival or be crushed ruthlessly.

So far, relocalization has posed no threat to the dominant system. Where it is happening at all, it is marginalized. Most people are not even aware of it, and it holds little appeal to them. They prefer to shop at Walmart, drive their SUVs and yak on their cell phones. But when relocalization efforts do become visible, and when society has collapsed to the point that relocalization begins to appeal to the masses, then you can be certain that government and corporations will do their best to stamp it out. Either that or subvert it so that it is made profitable to them.

The other two case studies in the documentary are less realistic. The single mother in Toronto is a successful ad exec, who is turning her attention to preparing the city and its suburbs for the transition. She seems to believe that the best solution can only come from within the dominant system. Her efforts are to enhance the greening of energy depletion preparedness. We see her chumming up with optimistic local politicians. In one scene, she drives through a suburb while talking about how the people there will be fortunate that they can grow food on their yards.

Such might be the case if technological collapse were as simple as turning off a light switch and waking up one morning aware of what needs to be done and possessing all the skills and experience necessary to do so. On the contrary, the collapse of complex systems is a very messy thing where each little failure has unforeseen consequences, until many such failures manage to bring the whole system crashing down.

Maybe people in the suburbs will be able grow food on their yards, if they can keep their houses. The problem is that most of them will lose their houses in the economic crash which will probably be the first major effect of energy depletion. This is already happening. Once gasoline prices rise to the point that they can no longer afford to drive to work (if they have a job left), then they will not be able to make their house payments. Nor will they have the money to invest in turning their yard into a garden, or to pay their water bills so they can irrigate that garden.

Even if they do manage to hang on to their homes and grow food in their yard, how will they heat that house in the winter and cool it in the summer. All houses built in the last 60 years are designed for artificial heating and cooling. Without that furnace or central air, they will be very uncomfortable places at best. Sure, a wood stove can be added to help heat the place in the winter. But if everyone living in a suburb turns to wood stoves, where will they get the wood?

And what do you do when the water and sewer system fail? Dig a community latrine. What about water for bathing and washing clothes? Never mind the water to irrigate those gardens. And don't forget that where many people dwell close together without adequate sanitation, disease and plague will rear their ugly heads.

These are only two examples of problems that communities will probably face. In the collapse of a complex technological society, there will be many such problems, some of which are simply unforeseeable. And many of these problems will reinforce each other, making the situation even worse.

Finally we have the couple moving from Oregon to an ecovillage in Canada. This story is very appealing, and it is my hope that they succeed. Those of us who are aware of what is to come would all like to join such an ecovillage. Unfortunately, most of us cannot due to various circumstances. To be honest, if all of us were able to do so, all of the existing or possible ecovillages would quickly be overpopulated. And if this inundation did not lead to their collapse, then the movement would quickly grow big enough to present that threat to the dominant society that I mentioned earlier.

Ecovillages and retreats into the wilderness will face a number of problems in the coming years. If they are not successful in making themselves self-contained, then their economic connections to the outside world will be susceptible. If they manage to succeed they will attract attention as the surrounding society decays. It is possible that they might be viewed as a threat by the elite, in which case they will have to fight for survival or risk being subverted. They may have to defend themselves from brigands and starving, homeless masses. Or they may find that their land is appropriated for its resources. They had best be prepared to defend their ecovillage with whatever it takes.

Among these various case studies there was ample commentary by the talking heads of peak oil. Much of this commentary could have been chopped from the film with little loss. None of the talking heads of peak oil featured in the film are truly experts on the subject. None of them are even scientists. Their greatest talent seems to be self-promotion.

I would like to have seen the documentary follow some case studies of people who do not have multiple degrees, lucrative jobs, or the necessary skill sets to make an easy transition. This would have made the film more honest in its portrayal. The closest thing the film offers to this substrata of society is the couple from New York and the SCC Farm.

Perhaps the poor remain unaware of the approaching crisis, or perhaps they simply do not want to know about it. It could be that they have their hands full trying to survive from day to day, much less worrying about the future. It could be that they are well indoctrinated to the dominant system and believe that our "leaders" will save us. They might think that these problems are moot because the ascension and the apocalypse will take place before resource depletion and environmental destruction ever take their toll. Or it could be that they see there is very little they can do to prepare and are so frightened of what lies ahead that they simply cannot allow themselves to think about it.

This documentary would have been much more helpful if it had looked at the majority of the public that remains unaware of the problem. It could have focused on efforts to wake people up, and explored the reasons why people try to keep their eyes closed to the approaching crisis. That would have been very informative and most helpful. Show people working through all the stages of grief, and how best to deal with them.

To be fair, that may have been beyond the mandate of this film. While I can't say for certain, I suspect that the financers of this documentary were looking for a positive message about how people are preparing for energy depletion and the environmental crisis. I know that in my own experience, the publishing industry is not interested in the story unless positive solutions can be offered. For their part, they say that the public does not want to hear about a problem without a solution. I have had to bow to this in my own writings.

What is really needed is a documentary or a book on how to wake people up, with real case studies. If the general population does not wake up to the full scope of the problem then there is no solution. Or rather, the solution which will be put into place will entail the exploitation of everyone and everything for the continued benefit and domination of the elite.

If you want an honest note of salvation then this is all that I can offer you. Everyone needs to wake up damn soon. The population needs to wake up and understand that they cannot trust the solution of this problem to anyone but themselves. And then they must act. And if this does not happen in short order, then we are all fucked.

.