DEVELOPING STRONG LOCAL LEADERSHIP TO GUIDE THE RELOCALIZATION MOVEMENT IS VITAL IF WE ARE TO SUCCEED.
Local Leadership
In order to create an effective relocalization movement within our communities we must find ways to build local leaders who are respectable and responsive to the community. In our day and age, we have given up on the notion that governments should be run by and for the people. Local leadership has all but disappeared from communities, and instead we have taken to looking up to celebrity politicians to solve all of our problems for us. We must turn around this worship of authority figures, whether it be politicians or anybody else, and place the fate of lives and the responsibility for our actions in the rightful hands—our own.
We must build determined, compassionate, and creative leaders if we hope to build a powerful relocalization movement. We need a new generation of leaders who are committed to the principles of defending the Earth and Humanity, who are willing to commit their lives to doing what they know is right and good, and who are dedicated and disciplined to undoing the destruction that has been done to the Earth and Humanity. The problems and challenges lying before us are so great and so grave—if we hope to preserve the dignity of Humanity and to restore the damage we have done to the Earth, we must work to build powerful leadership within our communities as soon as possible and without delay. I expect and hope that my generation—the twenty and thirty year olds—will begin to rise up to the challenges before us. We must believe in the power of the individual to bring about significant change.
Unlike the current ideologues and politicians who we inappropriately call ‘leaders’, leaders within the relocalization movement would be a part of the community. They would work and live and play within the community. They would be leaders only to the extent that they work with and for the community.
Bioregional Colleges would be an integral part of creating this generation of leaders by serving as a campus and meeting ground for people to hone their skills and become disciplined, ethical, and compassionate leaders.
Community Solutions, a pro-community relocalization group out of Yellow Springs, Ohio, has conducted several workshops to date that focus of building community leaders within the movement.
GAINING RESPECTABILITY AND BEING OF SERVICE
In order to gain trust, respect and support from one’s community, we should explore ways of serving our community while filling important and highly regarded positions within it beyond. Such positions would include EMTs and paramedics, teachers and professors, nurses and doctors, farmers, public speakers, community leaders, firemen and women, local politicians, ministers, priests and rabbis, volunteers, and social workers.
These positions, of course, take time and commitment. Commitment should be no problem for leaders who are dedicated and determined to serve their communities; whether we will have the time to train ourselves in these position is less certain. We should begin to train ourselves in such areas of understanding, regardless of when we think the crises will hit. We may have only a year or two before serious economic collapse and social disorder will ensue, which would make getting one’s paramedic certificate or going through medical school impossible, but it is equally possible that we may still have a good 10 years before such crises take place and it would be unwise not to begin to train ourselves in these community leadership positions.
SELF IMPROVEMENT
Relocalization leaders need to always work on improving themselves. A definitive program of self-improvement should be established and practiced regularly. Each person, according to their needs, goals, and beliefs, should determine the form and the emphasis of the program. A few recommendations for the program might be helpful.
1) Write down both your short- and long-term goals and review them often, perhaps once a week, to determine if you are on the path toward realizing your goals.
2) Write down your ethical and spiritual views. Examine and evaluate yourself everyday on how and whether you acted in accordance with your ethical and spiritual principles.
3) Be open and public about your goals and principles; this will increase the chances of them being realized.
Benjamin Franklin, for instance, developed such a personal self-improvement plan. At the age of 20 he resolved to start for himself a methodical program of self-improvement. He measured himself according to thirteen “moral virtues” that he established for himself:
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e. waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary acts…
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak according…
8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation: Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the ….peace or reputation.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Franklin would practice each virtue for a week, recording his observations in his book. After he finished the thirteenth week, he would start on the first virtue again. Though we might choose different “virtues” or devise an entirely new system for self-improvement, I think it is quite clear how such a practice could strengthen our ethical commitments and build stronger leadership.
IDEAS FOR A RELOCALIZATION LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM
At some point we must move from abstractions and generalization to being quite concrete and exacting. A wise teacher of mine always said “upwards toward a principle, downward toward a practice.” In order to build leaders for the coming movement, I propose the following “Relocalization Leadership Training Program,”
Relocalization Leadership Training Program
All potential leaders should consider doing the following...
1) Have completed a CPR and First Responder Course.
2) Have completed a Permaculture Design Course.
3) Have completed a CERT program.
4) Have read the following books:
The Party’s Over (Richard Heinberg)
When Technology Fails (Matthew Stein)
The Lives of Moral Leadership (Robert Coles)
The Long Emergency (James Kunstler)
Powerdown (Richard Heinberg)
Relocalize Now (Julian Darley et al)
How to Grow More Vegetables (John Jeavons)
Crisis Preparedness (Jack Spigarelli)
Blood and Oil (Michael Klare)
GRITS: Grassroots Ideas to Survive (Dale Allen Pfeiffer)
The Earth Care Manual (Patrick Whitefield)
Creating A Life Together (Diana Christian)
Plan B 2.0 (Lester Brown)
The Future of Money (Bernard Lietaer)
Gaviotas (Alan Weisman)
Permaculture: A Designer's Handbook (Bill Mollison)
Dwellers in the Land (Kirkpatrick Sale)
Encyclopedia of Country Living (Carla Emery)
Special Forces Manual (Scott Wimberley)
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (John Maxwell)
Promise Ahead (Duane Elgin)
Tompkins County Relocalization Plan
Kinsale Energy Descent Plan
Agraria
5) Be working on mastering a specific skill useful for a post-peak oil world such as…
Midwifery Horticulture Herbal Medicine
Machining Welding Aquaculture
Seed Saving Weatherization
Etc.
6) Work on Communication and Public Speaking Skills.
7) Volunteer for a community organization.
8) Donate 10% of their annual income to community organizations or relocalization efforts.
9) If applicable, own and know how to use the necessary equipment for participation in a local Community Defense Group.
10) Learn a non-electric instrument.
11) Work continually on developing primitive survival skills.
12) Build a self-reliant library.
13) Learn and be familiar with all wild edible plants in one’s bioregion.
14) Begin acquiring supplies and goods for post-peak survival.
15) Generally agree to the Earth Ethics
16) Recommended, have a disciplined regiment of physical conditioning (running, weight lifting, yoga, swimming, etc. are all examples of good exercises that can be performed on a daily basis to keep the body fit and in good condition.)
17) Recommended, practice fasting once a week for health, psychological, and spiritual reasons. (It could be practiced according to the lunar cycle, twice a month for two days each time on the new and full moon.)
18) Recommended, Whatever one’s spiritual beliefs or path, have a disciplined and committed mind that is at peace with itself. This is a prerequisite to becoming a leader.
19) Actively organize one’s community for the Long Emergency.
Currently OPOA is working to put on leadership training courses and other courses, workshops, and conferences geared toward the relocalization leader. If you have ideas or would like to help in this effort please contact Ryan at ry.hottle@gmail.com.
RESOURCES:
Community Solutions: A wonderful organization based in Yellow Springs, OH that holds an annual conference on peak oil and community and has also sponsored peak oil leadership training.
WE NEED YOU!
Here at OPOA we are trying to transform crisis into opportunity. If you think that the mission and material that OPOA provides is useful and much needed during this coming time of crisis, we ask that you give what you can to support a truly grassroots movement to protect and defend the Earth and humanity during the coming times. With two full-time staff members, practically all funds are used exclusively to further our mission to help prepare the Ohio area for the coming times and to distribute free information about how individuals and communities can prepare for the coming times. Without your kind donations we wouldn’t be able to survive! To donate or find out more about how you can get involved please follow this link. Voice your opinions, solutions, inventions, suggestions, insights, strategies, and analyses at www.RelocalizationWiki.org.