If you're anything like Jen and me, you love Netflix because of their documentary selection! We just recently subscribed and we have been working our way through. I've posted a few that we think are particularly relevent to our plans and our rationale for making the kinds of decisions we're making. Mostly, if you read alot of Harper's (especially Lewis Lapham) and the Utne Reader, you're already informed, but these documentaries are good for their entertainment value and work as a refresher!
The End of Suburbia
This gives a good history of our dependence on oil and what will happen to those who are still living high on the hog in a consumer lifestyle. It is a critique of consumerism and the suburbs.
Who Killed the Electric Car?
This doc examines the heterogenous forces which caused the electric car to go belly up in the seventies. Discusses how big oil manipulates the market to keep our dependence high.
A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash
Another good doc about peak oil theory: what this means and what are the consequences.
Maxed Out and In Debt We Trust
These two work well together as a critique of how companies encourage debt in the consumer and how they take advantage of those who need money. Maxed Out focuses on the debt collections business and In Debt We Trust is more historical.
The Corporation
This documentary discusses how the corporation begins as a chartered organization for the public good and tracks how it develops into a capitalist leviathan with rights and a personality all of its own.
The Big One
One of Michael Moore's docs which would be a good pairing with The Corporation. This one is funnier as you watch Moore torment PR staff in the lobbies of their companies.
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
Corruption 101. Shows how big business affects how and why we make war.
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
Shows how Fox News is a puppet station with a specific political agenda. A good doc which shows how big business affects journalism.
The Persuaders: Frontline
This is a great documentary about the business of advertising and how big business convinces us to buy the things we don't need.
6/30/2007
6/27/2007
The Urge to Homestead
I can't remember what page or the exact wording, but G.K. Chesterton writes about the importance of owning a home in his book What's Wrong With the World. His sensibility is more Catholic: our urge to protect, and nurture, and build comes from a divine urge and mandate to be stewards. I felt something like this when we bought our house. It's only 1400 square feet with a small backyard, but I felt fulfilled knowing that we owned this fenced in plot and that it was ours.
Or if you're more into cultural constructivism, you might say that the older versions of masculinity always relied on ownership of some sort whether it be an aristocratic, genteel, patriarchal ownership or an artisnal one where a shop was owned and the craftsperson could build something from start to finish without being alienated and fragmented during the process.
I'm not sure when it was that I started to kid my wife about becoming Mars colonists! I think it started when I began to feel controlled by the market and forced to be apart from my nuclear family (not my wife and kids, but my parents and brothers). Oddly, it made me think that if I couldn't be close to my family, I might as well own a homestead far away somewhere where Jen and I could build and nurture and grow. Jen is exactly the kind of woman you'd want out there on Mars! She is resourceful, beautiful, and tough!
But the homesteading impulse must be a national solution as well. It seems natural that a country whose citizens are colonists and explorers might have it in the blood. I've wondered if homesteading as a social solution is something which is mostly American. Perhaps because we have room enough to run off to?
Mostly I want to divorce myself from the corporate forces which surround me like a matrix. I know it's impossible to do this completely--unless you block yourself completely off from the market, but I think there are degrees of dependency and I'd like to decrease my dependency immensely!
But there's also something to owning a plot of land, building a house to your family's specifications, having a garden, being responsible for goats, chickens, dogs, and cats. I think stewardship as a concept describes this feeling for me well. It fits. In some ways I think owning a house and a plot I can call my own has made me feel more masculine, or at least more responsible, more myself, more in control. Perhaps decreasing one's dependency increases the others?
Or if you're more into cultural constructivism, you might say that the older versions of masculinity always relied on ownership of some sort whether it be an aristocratic, genteel, patriarchal ownership or an artisnal one where a shop was owned and the craftsperson could build something from start to finish without being alienated and fragmented during the process.
I'm not sure when it was that I started to kid my wife about becoming Mars colonists! I think it started when I began to feel controlled by the market and forced to be apart from my nuclear family (not my wife and kids, but my parents and brothers). Oddly, it made me think that if I couldn't be close to my family, I might as well own a homestead far away somewhere where Jen and I could build and nurture and grow. Jen is exactly the kind of woman you'd want out there on Mars! She is resourceful, beautiful, and tough!
But the homesteading impulse must be a national solution as well. It seems natural that a country whose citizens are colonists and explorers might have it in the blood. I've wondered if homesteading as a social solution is something which is mostly American. Perhaps because we have room enough to run off to?
Mostly I want to divorce myself from the corporate forces which surround me like a matrix. I know it's impossible to do this completely--unless you block yourself completely off from the market, but I think there are degrees of dependency and I'd like to decrease my dependency immensely!
But there's also something to owning a plot of land, building a house to your family's specifications, having a garden, being responsible for goats, chickens, dogs, and cats. I think stewardship as a concept describes this feeling for me well. It fits. In some ways I think owning a house and a plot I can call my own has made me feel more masculine, or at least more responsible, more myself, more in control. Perhaps decreasing one's dependency increases the others?
6/26/2007
Kill Debt
That seems to be one of the biggest problems. The best way to get yourself off the grid is to actually decrease your dependency on all of those things that we are expected to buy which includes the bigger house, the bigger car, the better electronics, etc., etc. Don't ask me why, but for the longest time I just assumed that I would go from my Camry, to the Avalon, to the Lexus! And am I really getting more performance out of the car? A better engine? Better gas mileage? Or just better branding and fancier leather seats?
So Jen and I have been blessed with an increasing income the past few years. Instead of immediately filling that vacuum with more desire, we are trying to stay at the same standard of living, paying off the heavy credit card debt, and then saving the rest for higher up-front costs which we will have to incur for the land, the house, and all of the rest (solar panels, energy efficient appliances, etc).
I think it was Thomas Veblen who coined the term "conspicuous consumption." It seeks to describe that kind of consumption which doesn't arise from utility. It is wanting a Lexus not because you need it, but because it holds a certain amount of status. I suppose getting out of debt has alot to do with decreasing one's conspciuous consumption.
John
So Jen and I have been blessed with an increasing income the past few years. Instead of immediately filling that vacuum with more desire, we are trying to stay at the same standard of living, paying off the heavy credit card debt, and then saving the rest for higher up-front costs which we will have to incur for the land, the house, and all of the rest (solar panels, energy efficient appliances, etc).
I think it was Thomas Veblen who coined the term "conspicuous consumption." It seeks to describe that kind of consumption which doesn't arise from utility. It is wanting a Lexus not because you need it, but because it holds a certain amount of status. I suppose getting out of debt has alot to do with decreasing one's conspciuous consumption.
John
6/25/2007
Homesteading Today
The first link to our Resources and Links list is already one of my favorites: this forum discusses everything from alternative energy, to goat cheese recipes, to how to prevent varmints from devouring your garden. A great source with some knowledgeable folks.
John
John
John's Introduction
Hello cyberworld!
Just a quick rationale for the blog: Jen and I after some years of discussion have decided to pursue a dream of getting "off the grid." As this is quite a process which requires tons of research, discussion, and thought, we thought this blog might be a good place to work through the material that we are collecting as well as make posts which theorize about the reasons and rationale for making our decision.
For me, I've gone from wanting to own a 3,000 square foot house and a Lexus to wanting to be self-sufficient by living a homesteading lifestyle. My antipathy toward my dependence on oil and my growing distaste for corporations, suburbia, and consumerism has led me to believe that going off the grid is the best option for me and my family. To be honest, it'd be nice to get the whole family involved and Jen and I have talked to my brother, Neil, who also shares the same sentiments regarding excessive living. So who knows, it might be a compound!
So where is this blog going? I don't know. Jen and I will both post as we make discoveries and find information. We'll also make posts when major life decisions are made that bring us closer to "degriding"!
John
Just a quick rationale for the blog: Jen and I after some years of discussion have decided to pursue a dream of getting "off the grid." As this is quite a process which requires tons of research, discussion, and thought, we thought this blog might be a good place to work through the material that we are collecting as well as make posts which theorize about the reasons and rationale for making our decision.
For me, I've gone from wanting to own a 3,000 square foot house and a Lexus to wanting to be self-sufficient by living a homesteading lifestyle. My antipathy toward my dependence on oil and my growing distaste for corporations, suburbia, and consumerism has led me to believe that going off the grid is the best option for me and my family. To be honest, it'd be nice to get the whole family involved and Jen and I have talked to my brother, Neil, who also shares the same sentiments regarding excessive living. So who knows, it might be a compound!
So where is this blog going? I don't know. Jen and I will both post as we make discoveries and find information. We'll also make posts when major life decisions are made that bring us closer to "degriding"!
John
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