Yes, given the history of attempting to grow a community of full-time people living in a Pure Salvage Living Ethos is not going to come about on the level I had hoped once upon a naive night. If you build “IT” they will come! What is “IT”? Then “Who” will come? Remember the movie? Great line but no more than that for the most part if one were to use the plans for Salvage, Texas as an example. I did not understand many things about the phrase, people, and the possibility of completing it before people would even begin to see the potential of such a model for others to come to learn from… but that is the dream, not reality.
Instead, though thousands say and support the concept of downsizing in a responsible sustainable building format that will not simply create more toxic boxes, but smaller so that the populace can be put into large apartments, condos, and other toxic boxes that will provide them with basics, but no style or flavor, like living in a factory so you can be close to work and putting all the things you want in a mall next door so you don’t have to use a car. Of course there will be a great deal of restrictions on the colors, noise levels, and all other things creative that you will not be able to apply to your home as it would offend others if you picked hot pink for your door or other such violations to the community standards rules which seem to be needed for such habitats.
I prefer the simple life of having a tiny master suite and sharing the shower, kitchen, and most other parts of the home village that I might need from time to time but not want to own or maintain on an individual basis. In theory, many people tilling the gardens allows for many to flourish and be fed, perhaps by just a couple who love to cook while another takes care of the cars, tool, and other maintenance. It is possible as we age to grow kinder, friendlier, and smarter as well as have more fun if we take care of our bodies while we are younger. If we do, and can flourish after 60, why not create environs where we can share our talents, wisdom, and perhaps if some kids under 50 want to learn, we could share the valuable life skills and knowledge with some of the coming generations who sincerely wish to break away from the societal and social decay that appears to be crippling the minds and future of our children as the experiment with digital mindset shows its toxic effects on our children of the present generations.
We can alter the course of things that are becoming apparent consequences that have been said to be 1,000 times worse than asbestos or tobacco to the health of humans, bees, and many other things affected by high frequency. From the brain tumours, inflammation of the brains of kids under 7, the loss of short term memory showing up in kids who depend on computers and smartphones for their database of facts, calculating, and spellchecking all words. Thus the brain without exercise is becoming weak when it should be getting trained for a life of abstract thinking, visualization, calculations, and manifesting thus with a well-tooled imagination that can use ingenuity to figure things out instead of the phone. How do we transform this poorly planned transition into the high tech age if we dumb down the populace in the process while the AI computing is growing in capacity and ability? Soon it will not be as hard for a computer to “Outthink and out-create the human being if they continue down the hill of intellectual decline.
I believe that much of this loss of brainpower is due to the addiction to cloud storage off-human in a computer hard drive, smartphone, or other devices instead of doing the work inside their heads to store and retrieve, calculate and formulate conclusions based on deduction, induction, or simply the synthesis of solutions with the variety of options available but not sequenced or assembled so that the public can understand what their potential is, let alone figure out how to tap into that, maximize the impact in a positive way on our world, and thus move humanity toward cooperation and peaceful solutions to upcoming issues that normally foretell of world war.
The keys to our success are the children we teach today, give the keys to, and open the doors to what is possible instead of convincing the kids there is no hope for success as defined in a way that benefits consumerism, division in society, poverty/riches chasms that bring about violent rebellions and wars over the basic necessities when hoarded by the rich instead of used to better life for all species.
I pray as we look for solutions that our country remembers how it takes the freedom to create, to solve the local problems with locals and not think the global governments or corporations are going to be looking out for the best interests of the masses, given the profit motive for stockholders is written into law, protecting them from the masses rather than uniting them with the people as if they are one, not opposed instead due to the rich running the corps and government and the poor being the ones to pay for and suffer bad administration of the assets of the people, the decisions to go to war, and the continuation of the Federal Reserve which is able to move the economy up or down with a single meeting and decisions made by the banks, the rich, and the masses be damned.
If we take the treasured materials used by our ancestors and use it to build a nation of downsized organic hOMes that people could move into as the economy faces the food shortages on the horizon even if we do not go to war as the leaders of so many countries seem to be threatening. The weather will determine if the farmers get to produce food and the flooding has stopped that for millions upon millions of acres, not even over for the season as we enter the hurricane season now. Where is the preparation and warning, the measures being taken to get the kids ready to thrive, survive, or at least help the elders stay alive so as to capture the wisdom, knowledge, and life skills that will slip away as the elders pass. We can do better.
Let us unite behind the idea of empowering the masses to take the treasure and convert it to houses as we salvage the flooded homes, businesses, barns, and use it to build with rather than toss it away as if there is an unlimited supply of new materials to build with and the bigger is better policy of homebuilding in America must be put to death. Please start considering the cost of a new house of massive square footage to be a sore on the Earth rather than a toxic Dream House that will be worth your debt enslavement for 30 years of your life… or more. Now that the real estate bubble is bursting and the elders can not liquidate their prized savings account, their house, due to the issues or the damage from the weather.
The bell tolls for thee… sooner or later we all have to face the loss of income to savings from inflation, the taking by the banks, or simply the many scams and theft now possible in the cyber world where your identity can be stolen and your credit lost, your life ruined by an anonymous person on the far side of the world. How do you protect yourself and are you constantly afraid of losing all things tangible and digital, like your phone, bank accounts, credit cards, home, car, and other financed luxuries you are enjoying without concern for now?
Imagine that EMP the government warns of or the internet going down for a month. Could you survive emotionally and for some, physically due to prescription needs thus unfilled, and the social platform shock of loss when millions lose their friends, lovers, and family who were only linked by a phone with all the contact information stored digitally, thus no way to retrieve it unless there is a hard copy. I remember when there was no digital and all hard copies for all things, some I still have in boxes from 4 decades back unlike the many crashed hard drives, virus infected or simply age, once gone, all the pictures, data, and thus life stored on a disk is gone too. Ouch.
So the theme of this essay is simply one of waking up to the need to downsize before the rest of the Baby Boomers jump off the Dream Home Boat too. With the average person at 55 years old only having $25,000 of savings in the bank, needing Social Security for any hope of surviving at today’s food and energy costs, the future for the Baby Boomers who lived high on the luxury and debt train for this generation, the future looks bleak. If they do not own a house, rents keep going up. If they do not have a garden, food costs are skyrocketing. If they are sickly and do not have insurance or a doctor in the family, they are in trouble for care after 60 unless the public coffers are opened to take care of the many who are out of shape and in need of constant care, drugs, or other addictive measures just to stay alive, not depressed, or out of pain. Sad times for the populace that is supposed to be the leading society in the world, in their own minds at least. Why are 50% of the people on anti-depressants, alcoholic thriving, drug addiction unhampered in its growth as new forms of chemicals that destroy the human minds are handed out as if to tempt them to destroy their own bodies, lives, and perhaps even souls during this lifetime.
We can give kids the gifts of a great mind, body, and perspectives that they are able to do so much, fix what is broken in our society, and perhaps create a new millennium of peace and prosperity if we can get the greedy leaders out of the way and find some that will focus on the preservation of the world, quality of life for the masses as opposed to opulence for few who seem to deem themselves equal to kings and gods without regard for the suffering of the animals, people, or planet.
Indeed the imbalance will inevitably be altered but not necessarily balanced as the two sides come to clash when the resources decline, people starve, get desperate, and drop all formalities of morals, respect, truth, or honor to survive, feed their children, family, and take from any who have what they need to make that possible. If it were not a repeated cycle in history as such weather changes happen and droughts, suffering, and migrations of people fleeing chaos alter the societies in all countries… for none are spared in such global events. Please consider downsizing and altering our course by changing how you live now, preparing for a time when abundance is not the norm, thus you will thrive when others do not want to be alive.
Salvage your life, your house, your town, your world instead of destroying what is left of the planet to repeat by committing the same mistakes we just spent a century learning the consequences of, and unable to fix most of the problems we as humans have caused that all living being suffer from, pollution, poisons, and people included. I hope you will join me in sharing the Pure Salvage Living Renaissance with others who want to abandon our modern consumerism society and return to a more life-skilled organic and simpler life that is free from the high-frequency chaos from too much electromagnetic stimulation. If people learn that the alternative is possible, how well we can thrive by taking this path, then change will happen naturally as more humans choose a path that will help salvage our world and create a paradise for the kids who will steward our planet next.
Savor your day, your treasures, and your knowledge so that you may be the gift we need to make the planet a better place to live.
Darby Lettick
