Better than Survival
Sharon May 18th, 2009
I love Kathie Breault. You might or might not know her – for years she’s moderated Running On Empty 3, and been a fixture around parts of the Peak Oil Community. She was one of the first PO people I ever met in person – we rode together to ASPO Boston. She’s also one of the bravest people I know – she’s looked at the future, and remade her life for it. And unlike me, she’s willing to stick herself out there for the mainstream media – me, I’m not so into that 
.
Kathie did an interview with Nightline that aired the other day – you can read about it here. When she emailed me to tell me that she was doing it, she knew (from prior experience) that she’d probably be misrepresented in some way or other, but shrugged, and said that if her exposing herself helped someone, that was all that mattered. And lo, ABC got the whole thing just about as wrong as they possibly could have. The headline reads “Recession Apocalypse:Preparing for the End of the World.” A subheading reads “some survivalists are stockpiling food and guns” – even though Kathie was very explicit that she’s not stockpiling guns (and lo, none of these other survivalists is mentioned).
If Kathie’s a survivalist, at least as ABC means the term, I’m a nuclear submarine. She’s a lot of things - she’s a funny, smart, permaculturist. She’s a grandmother and a midwife. She’s a gardener and a woman of great self-discipline – she lost 100lbs for cripes sake, simply because it was a good idea.
I don’t mean to dis survivalists – I don’t think most survivalists are what ABC means by the term – there are some people who imagine themselves holing up in a bunker somewhere, but most survivalists are also community oriented and active – I don’t mean to demean them. But I think the term is particularly ill-chosen here because Kathie is setting herself at projects that are so much more than simple survival. Kathie is investing the in future – not the end of the world, but the start of a different life.
So she’s got herself ready for life with less energy. She’s growing her own food, and getting it from local sources, making choices that are good for her and good for her community. She’s working with other people to make her county and region more resilient and secure. She’s making herself visible so the people who can look at what she’s doing, not what Nightline said about it, will. She’s starting up her own practice as a home birth midwife, offering low energy, affordable care to the women in her community. She’s trying to help her grandkids into this new world. Every single things she’s doing is an investment in a better, cleaner, safer, more humane future.
Frankly, I think tough times are ahead, but I don’t know too many people who have set their sights simply on survival, or on bunkers. That’s a fixation of the mainstream media, which thrives not on knowledge, but on entertainment – wacky survivalists in their cabins are so much fun that even when that’s not what’s being described, why not call it that.
But more, the idea of people who have invested in a future that isn’t rich, and isn’t filled with energy, and is still worth living, is still a source of potential and hope and joy, is scary as hell to the mainstream media. For virtually all of the last 75 years, we’ve been told there are only two choices – “progress” towards techno-perfection, or apocalypse. And because we were told these were the only choices, everyone in their right mind picked what was behind door number one – more technology, more beaurocracy, more energy, more…
But if there’s another choice, if there’s a grey area, if there’s something between Klingons and Cylons, the Jetsons and the Road – if that’s a place that a nice grandmother, the kind woman who delivers your babies and does your yearly exam, the lovely permaculturist down the road might want to go, maybe even have a vision for, well, that’s kind of scary. Because someone else, maybe even a lot of someones, might start wondering if that’s not such a bad place after all. Their only hope lies in the fact that most people never be allowed to seriously consider a third way.
The commenters at the site seem to get it, though. Their reactions can mostly be summed up by “good for her.” And Kathie was right to do the interview – because despite all the attempts to turn her story into a cartoon, her investment in a future to a desperate clinging to the past, Kathie shines through – on her bicycle, in her words, in her actions. And the third way peeks through too – and today a few more people will begin to see it.
Sharon
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We had the same kind of hatchet job done in a Toronto newspaper in the winter.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/587952
While the article did not mention guns, (I was suprised but its just the Canadian thing to think about,) they did make the movement sound insane, paranoid and irrational. Prompting me to do a couple of doomer posts
http://greenassassinbrigade.blogspot.com/2009/02/doomers-amongst-us.html
http://greenassassinbrigade.blogspot.com/2009/02/embracing-doom-what-kind-of-doomer-am-i.html
and write the journalist who did not think my concerns with the story were worth answering.
I was however pleased the comments to the story online were far more understanding and balanced than the story itself. It also promted me to put up a “I’m a Doomer” button on my site because I want to claim the title, make it mine and not let others define it. Doomers, peak oilers or what every you wished to be called must define the labels rather than let others do it for us.
I agree with your comments, Sharon. I saw the segment and posted this to the RunningonEmpty3 list. To answer my own question, I believe that anyone in network media that tells the real story will be called into the principal’s office and would be lucky to keep their job. The truth is anti-growth and that puts it off limits.
David
There are two things that are inescapable. One is that everything we know runs on FF. The other is peak production, and the eventual depletion of these fuels. Even the producers of the oil say it is unsustainable. The range of opinion only runs to mid century, at the most optimistic, before serious shortages will occur, and change will come.
So, maybe it won’t happen in our lives (though I personally doubt it), but it will certainly in our kids. Isn’t this enough reason to be changing now? Why don’t they at least make this point??
I had two reactions to the article. The first was the classification of those wishing for self-sufficiency and a more simple life as “doomers” at all. While I probably am a “doomer”
, my husband and I have desired self-sufficiency and a more simple life for as long as we’ve been married (fourteen years), which is slightly longer than most “doomers” have been preparing. I don’t think fearing the end of the world and desiring to live life more closely intuned with nature go hand-in-hand.
The other was the focus on Kathy’s divorce in 2006 and the placing of blame for it on her lifestyle choices. My husband (sometimes fiercely) disagrees with the reality of peak oil. He recognizes that something is happening, but he doesn’t believe that we’re heading into a low energy future. He scoffs at my “preparations” and will often raise his eyebrow when I do somethinig a little wacky – like buying the galvanized wash tub last year. He even gets a little irritated with me about some of the stuff I do, but we’re not even close to divorcing, and my guess is that Kathy’s decision to simplify her life was just the icing on the cake layered with many other “issues” married people face.
I applaud Kathy for her willingness to stick her neck out there, and I think it’s a real shame that ABC, once again, took the media’s typical stance of twisting a perfectly normal life into something wacky.
Wendy, I think in terms of human perspectives, perhaps doom, in the Tarot sense, is nearly correct.
The Tarot Major Arcana card 13 symbolizes death. Not the end of this life, but a change, a clearing away of the life that went before, to make room for the life to come.
I find that in general, change is measured in pain. The transition from what we know today to a way of life where everything I know becomes uncertain – at the beginning of that transition, “doom” certainly seems to apply. Doom would must certainly apply if I were to find myself well started on the transition – and had no plans, no preparation, and more interest in setting the cart back on the wheels I figured couldn’t come off.
I don’t dispute what you say. I merely think that from an outside perspective, PO assumes an end-of-cheap-energy event or season, that feels pretty gloomy to those new to the concept, and not completely convinced yet.
There is a reason they call it the “mainstream media” – they are in business to sell soap to the mainstream, average citizen, or at least those spending money, whoever they figure that might be.
Thanks for writing this, Sharon. Kathie is a treasure and I can only hope that some people will look beyond the media sensationalism to appreciate her fully. She is one of the sweetest, most generous, most inspirational people I have ever met. It infuriates me to see her treated this way, but I guess that’s to be expected from the mainstream media. I was also infuriated by a comment on that news piece that said something like “I would rather have my husband than all that food and water storage.” Made me want to retort, “Well, I guess you could always eat your husband.”
Thanks for setting the record straight, Sharon. When I read the article, I had wondered what the real story was.
I actually don’t think the story was that bad. Despite the atrocious headline, anyone reading the story would start to think to herself, “Hey – this sounds pretty good – lost 100 pounds – boy, she looks great – maybe there’s something to this?”
It shouldn’t be surprising that the media distort new cultural trends. Look back at the early coverage of civil rights and the hippies, or the Suffragettes for that matter. It’s the price of being a pioneer.
Also, we should realize that the two reporters are not necessarily the ones to blame. The headline was almost certainly written by someone else (an editor), and the story itself may have been changed dramatically from what the reporters wrote.
Bart
Energy Bulletin
BTW, the video can be viewed at the ABC site.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=7579167&page=1
If you ignore the silly phrases about doom, it’s a good piece of reporting. Very positive really.
Bart / EB
Sharon, have you thought of setting something up on your site that allows discussion of your books. I just finished Nation of Farmers and enjoyed it. I don’t know why you and Aaron were worried about the Jefferson Hamilton history. I learned something I had never read in my history readings, and it added a lot to my understanding. Really, keep up the good work. I read your blog daily (when you update it ;->, and ook forward to your next book.
It seems to me as an atorney, who is not in treatment for paranoia, that the “mainstream media” has to be intentionally misunderstanding and misrepresenting what PO advocates are saying. Kathie Breault’s story seems a case in point. They must be especially threatened by those of us who are actually changing their lives away from the norm. You can almost hear the producers (no doubt with an eye to their advertisers) saying: “My God, if word of this gets out it’s over. What if everyone starts living this way?”
Since learning of PO several years ago my most drastic “turning away” from the norm has been to essentially elminate TV from my life. What used to provide some modicum of comfort, somewhat like the effects of a good scotch, has been revealed to me as a rather suble form of mind control (maybe propaganda is a softer word) to keep me a good and happy consuming citizen. As a result of walking away from TV, especially their atempts at “news”, I have greatly expanded my sources of information and find much more comfort in assembling what seems to be the real truth of our world. It has been a strong example of “the truth shall set you free” for me. And that has enabled me to start taking the necessary baby steps away from my life as usual.
I’m afraid those whose only contact with reality is screened through sources such as ABC News are not ready to make the break. Hopefully at least one person watching the interview with Kathie Breault will make the effort to Google her name and get on her website and some other PO sites (maybe even yours) and have a light switched on. In which case, ABC News will have failed in its mission, which is also a comforting thought.
Some insight into why the mainstream media is hostile to peak oil: the reason for the collapse of newspapers. The reason is not the internet, as we’ve been told many times. The reason is that they were financed by car manufacturer advertising, and car manufacturers are going bankrupt. Without the car industry, newspapers and many other media cannot support themselves. Several months ago, during the big 3 auto manufacturers’ congressional hearings, the CEO’s mentioned that collapse of newspapers was about to happen as a result of their own potential bankruptcy. It is in the mainstream media’s personal interest to keep cars running. It is their survival. It forms a solid brick wall to our efforts.
Heading to mr jenny mccall.. dinner and a movie tonight… case 39