It was twenty years ago today...
A quick glance at the calendar confirms it. Twenty years ago, on May 18, 1986, I left one phase of my life behind to start another; namely, I graduated from high school.
It is weird to think of all of the friendships and connections that were left behind at that point, and all those that have come about since. High school graduation truly is a turning point in people's lives, although you don't realize its magnitude at the time. Folks go their separate ways, and the contacts become weaker or even non-existent, whereas a year before, you saw these people on a daily basis. Of all my classmates, I keep in touch with only one. The rest have vanished from the radar, so to speak, which seems to be a sad but inevitable part of growing up.
The town where I grew up, Exira, Iowa, was then in the early stages of decline, caused by what was then known as the "Farm Crisis" of the 1980's. What was really happening was the consolidation of agriculture and the destruction of the family farm by the usual culprits of government and big business. Rural areas are often seen as dispensable by the powers-that-be, who always don't live in the communities that suffer under their resource-plundering. Instead of developing local economies which create interdependencies among the people who live there and keep monetary and other resources within the community, external forces come in and abuse the land and the labor of the people to extract whatever dollar value they can. They care not if the communities are destroyed in the process. It can be seen in service jobs hovering above minimum wage and in the factory farms which pollute the air and water and give the living creatures (human and animal alike) within them not one iota of respect.
One of the biggest lies propagated by the establishment, and one that I fell prey to, was that, in order to succeed, you had to leave behind the small town. How many others are victim to this lie as well? Imagine what could happen to small towns if opportunities for young people were available. Before the advent of large-scale logistics systems, of which I know quite a bit, the local communities had opportunities for young people, as the economies there were relatively self-supporting. There were clothiers, grocery stores, hardware stores, bakeries, theaters, doctors, lawyers, etc...in a sense, everything you needed was close to home. I remember as a kid going to town on Saturday night to pick up what necessities were needed for the coming week. Now, in Exira, many people drive 16 miles to Atlantic to get necessities, and clothing and other sundries are often purchased in a mall in Des Moines or Omaha.
What will happen to the future of these small towns? In my opinion, they may be the key to the future in a post-oil economy. What will happen to large-scale logistics systems utilized by the big box retailers when the oil runs out, or merely becomes cost-prohibitive? Experts say that we may have already reached "peak-oil", or the point when half of all the world's oil resources have been used up. The second half is harder to get and much more expensive. I doubt that, in the coming decades, folks in Exira will be purchasing many apples from Washington state and knick-knacks from China. The fact is, the local economies will have to become much more self-sustaining and produce things for themselves. The current "global" economy will not survive the oil collapse, and to think that all things will be solved by ethanol, hydrogen, or some other "wonder" solution is likely a pipe dream. The current suburban culture, which is totally dependent upon the car, will also likely be destroyed by a lack of oil. In 30 years, instead of seeing choice farmland being eaten up by the latest McMansion development, you may see folks tearing down these suburban developments to make way for more farmland to produce the food closer to home which can no longer be shipped in from California or South America. The alternative scenario may be starvation, if food cannot be produced locally.
So, here's to the future of small towns and rural areas throughout the world. They may be our only refuge in a world without cheap oil.
It is weird to think of all of the friendships and connections that were left behind at that point, and all those that have come about since. High school graduation truly is a turning point in people's lives, although you don't realize its magnitude at the time. Folks go their separate ways, and the contacts become weaker or even non-existent, whereas a year before, you saw these people on a daily basis. Of all my classmates, I keep in touch with only one. The rest have vanished from the radar, so to speak, which seems to be a sad but inevitable part of growing up.
The town where I grew up, Exira, Iowa, was then in the early stages of decline, caused by what was then known as the "Farm Crisis" of the 1980's. What was really happening was the consolidation of agriculture and the destruction of the family farm by the usual culprits of government and big business. Rural areas are often seen as dispensable by the powers-that-be, who always don't live in the communities that suffer under their resource-plundering. Instead of developing local economies which create interdependencies among the people who live there and keep monetary and other resources within the community, external forces come in and abuse the land and the labor of the people to extract whatever dollar value they can. They care not if the communities are destroyed in the process. It can be seen in service jobs hovering above minimum wage and in the factory farms which pollute the air and water and give the living creatures (human and animal alike) within them not one iota of respect.
One of the biggest lies propagated by the establishment, and one that I fell prey to, was that, in order to succeed, you had to leave behind the small town. How many others are victim to this lie as well? Imagine what could happen to small towns if opportunities for young people were available. Before the advent of large-scale logistics systems, of which I know quite a bit, the local communities had opportunities for young people, as the economies there were relatively self-supporting. There were clothiers, grocery stores, hardware stores, bakeries, theaters, doctors, lawyers, etc...in a sense, everything you needed was close to home. I remember as a kid going to town on Saturday night to pick up what necessities were needed for the coming week. Now, in Exira, many people drive 16 miles to Atlantic to get necessities, and clothing and other sundries are often purchased in a mall in Des Moines or Omaha.
What will happen to the future of these small towns? In my opinion, they may be the key to the future in a post-oil economy. What will happen to large-scale logistics systems utilized by the big box retailers when the oil runs out, or merely becomes cost-prohibitive? Experts say that we may have already reached "peak-oil", or the point when half of all the world's oil resources have been used up. The second half is harder to get and much more expensive. I doubt that, in the coming decades, folks in Exira will be purchasing many apples from Washington state and knick-knacks from China. The fact is, the local economies will have to become much more self-sustaining and produce things for themselves. The current "global" economy will not survive the oil collapse, and to think that all things will be solved by ethanol, hydrogen, or some other "wonder" solution is likely a pipe dream. The current suburban culture, which is totally dependent upon the car, will also likely be destroyed by a lack of oil. In 30 years, instead of seeing choice farmland being eaten up by the latest McMansion development, you may see folks tearing down these suburban developments to make way for more farmland to produce the food closer to home which can no longer be shipped in from California or South America. The alternative scenario may be starvation, if food cannot be produced locally.
So, here's to the future of small towns and rural areas throughout the world. They may be our only refuge in a world without cheap oil.
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