Forgot something

Note: I was over at Claire's today, I wrote this as a comment to her post found here.

I would agree for the most part. There are some vagaries around the edges that I might, if I were a little drunk and feeling obnoxious, would raise a little stink about, but I can't really find the energy for nit-picking.

I started down this particular path mapped by Claire a long time ago, I honestly feel that I have succeeded quite nicely. No car to require gas, busses and trains get me where I need to go. Apartment uses around 310 kWh a month.

At the end of the day, I live a just fine life.

But all of this started long ago with two books in the 80's that everyone thought I was crazy/stupid to pay attention to: Jeremy Rifkin's "Entropy" and Duane Elgin's "Voluntary Simplicity". I remember JMG dissing Elgin's book because he didn't go far enough, but I have to congratulate him for moving the needle away from the teachings of Gordon Gecko, the current popular prophet (profit).

The point I suppose that I am trying to make is that it took me nearly fifty years to get to the comfortable Vanaprasta that I reside in. I think that this project of yours is quite worthy, but to tell you honestly, I think that it will take another couple of generations for this kind of attitude to start getting traction. I know that it took me that long.

You and I grew up in a time of energy abundance. I very much enjoyed it, but those times are coming to an end. The energy streams that we will need to become used to are diffuse and intermittent. That is going to make people adapt to the new reality more than anything. I think that it is doable, but I think that there is going to be quite a period of people longing for the good old days that won't be coming back.