Fifty years ago Rev Martin Luther King, Jr, warned:

“We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. . . . We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

“If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”

Martin Luther King, Jr memorial

Fifty years later we have certainly been dragged down those long, dark, and shameful corridors.

Two things are clear.  We are facing rapidly accelerating deterioration of environmental conditions, and current approaches to making changes on the scale necessary to prevent these things from spiraling out of control are stunningly ineffective.

It is time for nothing short of a revolution of values such as Martin Luther King said above.  This is why I named my blog Quakers, social justice and revolution.

The capitalist system is killing Mother Earth and us.

Capitalism (and the resulting materialism) has evolved into a system that values profit over people and that has pursued extractive practices that consume resources far beyond the ability of Mother Earth to replenish them.  Capitalism is powered by fossil fuel energy and is overwhelming our environment with toxic methods of extracting these fuels, the consumption of vast amounts of water in the process, and production of greenhouse gases that result from burning them. And those countries with the greatest industrialization consume vastly disproportionate amounts of these fuels, thus producing the bulk of the resulting pollution.

Following are comments that were made recently after Quaker midweek meeting for worship in Indianola, Iowa.  These Quakers were describing the life they lived as children in the early 1900’s.  It is clear that people once lived and thrived in what seem to be primitive conditions compared to our lives today. We need to quickly return to a similar lifestyle.

• We didn’t have electricity or running water.  (I might add we had a party line telephone, no television, and an outhouse for the bathroom)
• We broke a lot of glasses that we had taken upstairs during the night (as the water turned to ice)
• There was no heat upstairs
• We wrapped the kids in a cocoon of multiple blankets with only their arms outside
• We heated stones on the stove, and put them in the beds before we got into them
• We used bottles of warm water for the same purpose
• The first thing we did in the morning was open, and sit on the door of the stove to warm up
• Sometimes we had to be picked up by someone in a horse and buggy when the school bus was stuck on the muddy roads
• (There was also mention of mud-ball fights)

One of the main reasons I am trying to learn more about Indigenous people is because they did not go down the path of materialism. They have tried to preserve a culture that values relationships among people, and respect for Mother Earth. They did not give up a “person-oriented” society for a “thing-oriented” society.

One of many lessons I learned during the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March was that we could travel many miles by foot (no fossil fuel transportation), carrying what little we needed with us–sleeping bag, tent, and clothes. Traveling with us was our portable toilet system and solar generated electricity. We were modeling what was close to a (mobile) self sufficient community such as described below.

It is morally wrong that non-native Americans consume many times more resources than other people of the world. And many times more than it is possible for the earth to replenish.

We have seen the continual search for more money and more things. Rather than cutting back on possessions, it seems the goal of most main stream Americans is to accumulate as much as they can, even though that results in millions of people going to bed hungry, many of whom don’t have a bed.

As we are seeing now there are severe consequences for the environmental damage that has been done, and continues to be done by this extractive based materialism.  The worsening environmental chaos is beginning to overwhelm the resources and infrastructure of this materialistic society.  The wealth that exists as paper money and stocks will disappear. There will be increasing water and food insecurity. We will all be forced to learn how to survive without the structures and services we are used to.

It would be wise to learn how to create basically self sufficient communities before utter chaos occurs. We will see dramatically increasing numbers (millions) of climate refugees as people’s homes and communities are devastated by flood, fire and stronger storms. Communities will no longer be habitable as clean water supplies disappear. Coastal cities will be flooded by rising waters. There will be an increasing number of communities that cannot be rebuilt after experiencing stronger storms.

It would be wise to learn how to create such communities right now to provide food and shelter for the millions living in poverty.

The reason I am trying to learn about Native Americans is because I believe their beliefs and practices are our only hope for the future. They can help us build communities similar to the following.

Building Communities-The Vision

We need to build model sustainable communities. There have been numerous such experiments in intentional community. But this model must be created with the intention of being replicated many times over with minimal complexity, using locally available materials—pre-fab communities.

Pre-fab components

• Community hub with housing and other structures
  • Simple housing
    • Straw bale houses
    • Passive solar and solar panels
    • No kitchens, bathrooms or showers (community ones instead)
  • Stores, school, meetinghouse
  • Central kitchen, bathrooms and showers
• Surrounding fields for food and straw
• Water supply
  • Wells, cisterns and/or rain barrels
• Power
  • Solar, wind, hydro, horse
• Manufacturing
  • 3 D printing
  • Pottery
  • Sawmill
• Communication
  • Radio, local networks
• Transportation
  • Bicycles
  • Horses
  • Pedal powered vehicles
• Medical
  • Stockpile common medications
  • Essential diagnostic and treatment equipment
  • Medical personnel adapt to work in community
• Spiritual

Gary Clague and Matt Lone Bear