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Paul Cooley's avatar

As usual, I am reading the newsletter while standing at my computer in my very public office, so while I would like to write for several hours, all I can do is offer some very quick and scattered replies of my own. "I have been in despair," may be too strong of a beginning, but the state of the world and our apparent inability to deal with it has been gnawing away at me more than usual lately. On the one hand, I am happy the "inflation reduction act" passed. On the other hand, I am certain all the readers here also realize that it amounts to replacing everything with the same old shit, only powered differently, with the continued environmental problems of resource extraction and some extra ones thrown in to boot - the greater demand for the rarer components of batteries. Ivan Illich would point out that Biden is simply continue to foster reliance on more and different energy slaves. The question always arises - why isn't the government focusing on walking, bicycling, and greater reliance on alternative transportation? Why aren't we moving toward more local agriculture, etc. The "hopeful" future that I see, seems more and more like a Quixotic delusion by the day. (I wrote my senior essay here at St. John's College on Don Quixote, looking at the interplay between idealism - Quixote - and practicality mixed with compassion - Sancho.) The answer, of course, is embedded in the way our economy works, and in the sphere of jobs. We desperately need to move globally, into a more place-based, low energy economy, as envisioned, more or less, in Illich's "Energy and Equity." But is the genie really out of the bottle? In some ways, as a bicycle commuter, I have to accept that pursuing a low-energy lifestyle to the extent I do is a result of the privileged position in which I find myself. At any rate, there are now people in my office that I need to attend to - but I would say I'm re-reading Mark Boyle's "The Moneyless Man" and thinking about the economy. And I'm puzzled and delighted, as always, by Rob Greenfield's enormously positive activism. (I think he has a web page on robgreenfield.org, but I can't verify that now.) Can we all live, culturally, more positive, larger lives with radically fewer energy slaves?

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Amy Letter's avatar

A gift upon waking! What a joy to read your thoughts with morning coffee. And thank you for the link to Clare Coffey: that was an aggressively wise essay, one that helps me understand my discomfort with a lot of “cultural criticism” -- and how to make better sense of our agency and lot. 🙏🏼

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