Fascinating and disturbing. It makes me wonder how, if at all, one can prepare. In your last piece you wondered how we might “outflank, outwit or oppose Leviathan, and begin to sow the seeds of some kind of human-scale world again.” This piece makes the issue more urgent.
I feel torn between an “adapt-by-the moment” approach, in which I…
Fascinating and disturbing. It makes me wonder how, if at all, one can prepare. In your last piece you wondered how we might “outflank, outwit or oppose Leviathan, and begin to sow the seeds of some kind of human-scale world again.” This piece makes the issue more urgent.
I feel torn between an “adapt-by-the moment” approach, in which I wait and see what the Machine does, and then try a minor outflanking maneuver, hoping I won’t be noticed, versus a “let’s get a bunch of people to create a parallel society” approach…which strikes me as stronger but perhaps too complicated, and likely to be crushed if it threatens the Machine in any serious way.
I often think about the Amish and Mennonites, who are already embedded in the parallel-society approach, and for the moment are doing fine. Here is an uplifting story, for instance, about how the Pennsylvania Amish managed the pandemic and the pressure of the Machine:
I’m not sure we can easily replicate anything like this, for many reasons. Still, there seems to be hope in simplicity, in nature, in ordinary relationships, in the work of our hands, without necessarily all of us becoming farmers. There is also, for some, a central role for faith. You have talked about all this in various ways, and I’m intrigued to hear your suggestions in the weeks and months to come.
I kind of think the Amish have been grandfathered in and are largely untouchable. The general consensus is that, if nothing else, they are harmless. It would likely be a PR nightmare if any government/corporation went after them. I fear any new group seeking to replicate it will be demonized as "extremist" or worse.
The question I have is whether there actually is anywhere left to go outside of the glare of Sauron? Unlike Dreher's defense of his version of the Benedict Option, I say flee for the hills if you can. This dark age is going to be darker than we want to believe.
If I had to guess, I think the solutions that work will arise organically and (dare I say) prayerfully through response to events in real time. I don’t mean some forethought won’t happen, or that a sober understanding of the situation isn’t important. But the whole thing is just too vastly complex to make very specific plans ahead of time.
I do know people in my region who have bought land “up north” (as we say here), many hours drive from core population centres; and I know people who either already have farms or are trying to buy them. We’re talking anything from a couple of acres to a hundred acres with woods, lake front, cleared land, etc. I suppose this is a pre-emptive “head for the hills approach”. The problem is, if there is any great collapse, those people won’t be safe in their little house in the middle of nowhere. Indeed, they might even be safer staying, for instance, right in their own suburban neighbourhoods, and allying themselves with other neighbours who see the writing on the wall, and who can provide skills and services in a time of crisis (nursing, vehicle repair…even defense). It all sounds crazy, and one must be diligent not to get caught up in a paranoid mind set—or, on the other extreme, gullibility and complacency.
This seems right to me. A fine balance between survivalist paranoia and willful blindness/false optimism. There is no way to tell exactly how this will all this will go. It is far too complex to come up with some definitive plan to ensure making it "through"--whatever that turns out to mean. Though reasonable precautions can be made.
One of which is to deepen one's connections and relationships to those seeking purity of heart. A good thing to do regardless. Something I need to work on, to say the least.
I know little about the Amish, but my impression is that they have gone under the radar because [a] they look werid and eccentric, [b] they are clearly very serious about their faith, and that unnerves people, and [c] they are unthreatening. Maybe the last is most important. The Branch Davidians were equally strange and outsidery, but they stocked up with guns and started talking about taking on the state. The Amish seem entirely unthreatening to power, it seems to me. In reality, they may be most threatening of all, if only because they may still be around to pick up the pieces after the fall.
On our little farm we follow many Amish principles of agriculture and animal husbandry and general life view. We cook on an Amish cookstove, raise our own vegetables, , meat, milk, eggs butter etc. Our well has hand pump backup. I subscribe to an Amish farming magazine and we like they resist vaccine mandates and the discordant noise of television and cell phones. But unlike them I still have a tractor and a truck and electricity mostly from the grid. I'm typing on a laptop for gosh sakes but we are actively preparing for the day in the not too distant future when the benefits of the industrial machine start to wither away. We expect to be able to live without such benefits but it may be a bit hard . We hope to partner with friends and neighbors of like mind to ease the transition. I hope we can reach Dunbar's number of friends.... Was it Cicero who said that the only thing a man needs is a library and a garden? I don't plan on giving up on writers like Paul just because the internet grows dark.
Fascinating and disturbing. It makes me wonder how, if at all, one can prepare. In your last piece you wondered how we might “outflank, outwit or oppose Leviathan, and begin to sow the seeds of some kind of human-scale world again.” This piece makes the issue more urgent.
I feel torn between an “adapt-by-the moment” approach, in which I wait and see what the Machine does, and then try a minor outflanking maneuver, hoping I won’t be noticed, versus a “let’s get a bunch of people to create a parallel society” approach…which strikes me as stronger but perhaps too complicated, and likely to be crushed if it threatens the Machine in any serious way.
I often think about the Amish and Mennonites, who are already embedded in the parallel-society approach, and for the moment are doing fine. Here is an uplifting story, for instance, about how the Pennsylvania Amish managed the pandemic and the pressure of the Machine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1DgWYdukZU
I’m not sure we can easily replicate anything like this, for many reasons. Still, there seems to be hope in simplicity, in nature, in ordinary relationships, in the work of our hands, without necessarily all of us becoming farmers. There is also, for some, a central role for faith. You have talked about all this in various ways, and I’m intrigued to hear your suggestions in the weeks and months to come.
I kind of think the Amish have been grandfathered in and are largely untouchable. The general consensus is that, if nothing else, they are harmless. It would likely be a PR nightmare if any government/corporation went after them. I fear any new group seeking to replicate it will be demonized as "extremist" or worse.
The question I have is whether there actually is anywhere left to go outside of the glare of Sauron? Unlike Dreher's defense of his version of the Benedict Option, I say flee for the hills if you can. This dark age is going to be darker than we want to believe.
St. Anthony of the Desert, Pray for us.
If I had to guess, I think the solutions that work will arise organically and (dare I say) prayerfully through response to events in real time. I don’t mean some forethought won’t happen, or that a sober understanding of the situation isn’t important. But the whole thing is just too vastly complex to make very specific plans ahead of time.
I do know people in my region who have bought land “up north” (as we say here), many hours drive from core population centres; and I know people who either already have farms or are trying to buy them. We’re talking anything from a couple of acres to a hundred acres with woods, lake front, cleared land, etc. I suppose this is a pre-emptive “head for the hills approach”. The problem is, if there is any great collapse, those people won’t be safe in their little house in the middle of nowhere. Indeed, they might even be safer staying, for instance, right in their own suburban neighbourhoods, and allying themselves with other neighbours who see the writing on the wall, and who can provide skills and services in a time of crisis (nursing, vehicle repair…even defense). It all sounds crazy, and one must be diligent not to get caught up in a paranoid mind set—or, on the other extreme, gullibility and complacency.
This seems right to me. A fine balance between survivalist paranoia and willful blindness/false optimism. There is no way to tell exactly how this will all this will go. It is far too complex to come up with some definitive plan to ensure making it "through"--whatever that turns out to mean. Though reasonable precautions can be made.
One of which is to deepen one's connections and relationships to those seeking purity of heart. A good thing to do regardless. Something I need to work on, to say the least.
Also: Watch and pray.
I know little about the Amish, but my impression is that they have gone under the radar because [a] they look werid and eccentric, [b] they are clearly very serious about their faith, and that unnerves people, and [c] they are unthreatening. Maybe the last is most important. The Branch Davidians were equally strange and outsidery, but they stocked up with guns and started talking about taking on the state. The Amish seem entirely unthreatening to power, it seems to me. In reality, they may be most threatening of all, if only because they may still be around to pick up the pieces after the fall.
On our little farm we follow many Amish principles of agriculture and animal husbandry and general life view. We cook on an Amish cookstove, raise our own vegetables, , meat, milk, eggs butter etc. Our well has hand pump backup. I subscribe to an Amish farming magazine and we like they resist vaccine mandates and the discordant noise of television and cell phones. But unlike them I still have a tractor and a truck and electricity mostly from the grid. I'm typing on a laptop for gosh sakes but we are actively preparing for the day in the not too distant future when the benefits of the industrial machine start to wither away. We expect to be able to live without such benefits but it may be a bit hard . We hope to partner with friends and neighbors of like mind to ease the transition. I hope we can reach Dunbar's number of friends.... Was it Cicero who said that the only thing a man needs is a library and a garden? I don't plan on giving up on writers like Paul just because the internet grows dark.