Sound advice from George Washingtons blog. Aimed at Americans, but relevant to people everywhere.
With recent breakthroughs, individuals can now generate enough energy to get off the grid and power their own homes. Indeed, some companies will even provide the equipment for you (and see this).
Moreover, if we get together with some of our neighbors and pool our energy, so we can distribute it where and when it is needed, we will save even more money. I’m not talking about hugging trees, holding hands and singing Kumbaya (although if you want to do that, that’s okay). I’m talking solely about economics. If you start talking to your neighbors about this now, you’ll be ready when the energy storage technology becomes cheap.
Obviously, conservation should be the first objectve. We dont need all this stuff, and we dont need 100 watt lighting for most purposes. A 12 volt low wattage lighting system will generally suffice, or even getting used to darkness is an option. Without all the unnecessary lights, perhaps we’ll be able to see the stars again sometime. It is perhaps naive to think that every household can, at this point, turn itself into an micro energy plant, its too late and if people do rush to do this we will generate even higher levels of carbon dioxide. So making do with less has to be where we start.
My wife says that the economic crash we’re experiencing will bring Americans closer together as neighbors, and will remind us of what’s really important. I hope she’s right . . . But this article is not about getting back to the land and singing Kumbaya. I’m simply focusing on how to stay afloat financially in a very unstable economy.
Moreover, wars are being fought in our name over oil. Tyranny is being implemented to stifle dissent to imperial wars. 9/11 was carried out, partially, as an excuse to launch the campaign to go steal other people’s oil.
Huge energy companies — some with earnings bigger than many countries — are calling the shots. As long as we rely on them to provide our power to us, we are buying into the imperial wars, injustice and destruction of our liberties.
If we install solar, wind, or whatever other micro equipment we can in our homes and offices, then we could decentralize power-generation — and thus — decentralize power away from the energy giants and their imperial political allies.
Indeed, it is arguably patriotic to participate in micro generation and micro farming. The Founding Fathers sung the virtues of “citizen farmers”. Don’t quit your day job . . . but if we become citizen energy-and-food farmers in our spare time, the self-sufficiency and sense of responsibility might help in some small way we to restore true American values.
Hm, american values – slavery, empire, exploitation and lies. Actually. We’d like to see the changes run deeper than this. There is nothing wrong with pride, of your accomplishments, your local area, your tribe/community, but patriotism is a con, encouraging us to perceive that bigger is better. Perhaps the best thing that could happen to the US would be if it broke up into smaller units. In fact pretty much all nation states are too big and too centralised.
But, the general gist of this article, great. Lets stop relying on big corporations for our needs.
