Kunstler's 'World Made By Hand' Book Review

March 4, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Two authors recently offered me their books for review. Mr. James Kunstler lives fairly near to my mountainside and we talk online sporadically, he being a tremendously busy man. And Mr. Murphy a lot further away but he knows what our winters are like. Both men are very interested in the fate of humanity and the future struggles we may face. Both are concerned about human populations, the Hubbert Oil Peak and other obvious limitations on growth and the health of the planet. Both books bring up things we must think about and I have a lot to say about all this. For I have lived the future and know it very intimately. That is, if the future is like the distant past. For I lived without electricity or most modern conveniences for many years.

World Made by Hand: A Novel (Hardcover)

by James Howard Kunstler Click on his name to order this book.

This is a book about post-WWIII Albany-area New York, out in the rural counties surrounding the state capital of this state. Which happens to be about where I live today, incidentally.

Jim has been banging on the drums for many years. He, like myself, is basically a 'real conservative.' Namely, he likes good, solid houses that are well-crafted. He likes well behaved children and a respect for elders. He likes wholesome foods and running around all over the place, creating havoc. Wait. That doesn't fit! Oh well. He, like myself, thinks about World War III a great deal and like myself, openly discusses it. This is the realist in ourselves. We know that empires, when on the ropes, can and often do, pull out all the artillery and begins to blast away. And no nation on earth has more artillery than the US.

First off, I must say that Jim is a marvelous author. Very talented. When I read his books, they just fly by, the cadence of the sentences and the weaving of spells is quite superior. He can get us right into the grip of his main characters and he can build really marvelous male characters. The insight he has for certain people is reflected in his dialogue and descriptions of what goes on in someone's mind. I was quite fascinated, as I suspect he was, with his character, the religious leader, Reverend Jobe.

Just as we are the most drawn towards that which we fear the most, so I suspect Jim was with Jobe. Jim lectures to mass audiences frequently and he knows the allure of the leader who inspires belief and devotion. He knows the hazards, too. Many Americans are frightened of religious leaders. Yet the truth be told, when there is a devolution of society, when things fall apart due to the Four Horsemen riding roughshod over us all, the desire to cling to stronger personalities who are firm in their own convictions and strict in their ways is very strong.

The novel, 'World Made By Hand' does reflect this honestly. I do recommend reading this book..if you are a male or if you are a hard-hearted woman like myself. For it has one very tragic weakness: it cannot penetrate into the reality and minds of women. And it grossly underestimates the true power of the feminine. As someone who has lived the life he writes about, I know exactly what happens and who gets to do what.

Namely, women can be the strong, not weak, links. My ancestresses strode across America, they sailed across the wild oceans in small ships. And they battled the wilderness and won. By never giving up, never looking away and never losing focus on the most important of people: the children. The person who rises before the sun to take care of the dawn chores usually is a woman. The one who stays up all night with a sick child is usually a woman. And the one who delivers babies and cleans up ugly messes is very often...a woman.

Most writers about the End of Civilization jump to the idea that the man will rule again and the woman will retreat. I suppose this is much less prone in minority communities where often the matriarch is the dominate force. But in European-based cultures, there is this strong belief that women will retreat to the house. But this is a false idea. For in Medieval Europe, the women worked in the fields just like the men. And herded animals or chopped firewood. They did all sorts of things. The one difference was, they did two major, extra chores: birthing of children and all things to do with weaving. Spinning wool was something even the queen did as she sat upon her throne up until 1200 AD.

I want to share a very old story here: a city was besieged by the English king. The French said they would surrender but asked if their wives could carry out of the siege something they wanted to keep safe. The king said, 'They may carry on their backs one thing only.'

Expecting them to carry precious dishes and candlesticks in a sack, instead, they came out carrying their husbands on their backs. The king allowed this for he said, 'They know well what the true prize is.' And I keep telling everyone here that the great prize is our loves, our families. Jim, in his book, does cover that quite admirably. But he still misses many details about how a retro-society will work.

I lived this way for years. For example, he claims dogs will be eaten or mostly vanish. Yet he has cattle, sheep and other livestock in his story. So, I thought, who guards these animals? Who is the alert creature who can run around a herd and move it? Chase off the slinking wolves, foxes and bears during birthing season in early spring when the predators are the hungriest?

Dogs eat nearly anything and even in the poorest, starving communities I have seen in my childhood in third world nations, there were dogs. If you approach a village, you are greeted by dogs that come out barking. They are the ultimate guards. They are able to understand many words and do many jobs.

The very first animal on my farm was Duke, the sled dog. He pulled the sled for us when we went logging in winter. He carried up the food in winter. He guarded the place and if anyone wanted to do mischief and we had these, Duke and I easily dealt with them, my gun and his lunging with teeth bared doing the trick.

In Jim's story, people are menaced periodically and one of the few dogs in the story is shot and killed. The owner of this dog did not go to the killer and stick his other dogs on him or shoot him. But I know from living on a ranch as a child and living on my nearby farm which is only a few miles from where this story takes place, if anyone were to shoot MY dogs they better run really fast and hope I can't track them down! Not to mention, shooting ANY of my animals. Any at all.

The fury of the farmer, the rage of the shepherd is legendary. It is more than that, when chaos spreads and most people are helpless, the ones who take over are not ones with normal skills. I once dated a man who grew up on a pine turpentine plantation in Georgia. He could snap off a shot at a squirrel skittering up a tree without blinking. He was not very suited for urban life yet he went into downtown Newark, being black, and worked there to organize a street patrol and hammer out a community in the middle of urban devastation just a few years after the worst of the riots destroyed nearly everything. Rebuilding in chaos is hard work and he worked very hard. The main thing was, no one obviously wanted to push him to anger and he was a very patient man.

He would have fit fine in Kunstler's book, by the way.

Kunstler's bio:

James Howard Kunstler says he wrote The Geography of Nowhere, "Because I believe a lot of people share my feelings about the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work."

Home From Nowhere was a continuation of that discussion with an emphasis on the remedies. A portion of it appeared as the cover story in the September 1996 Atlantic Monthly.

His next book in the series, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, published by Simon & Schuster / Free Press, is a look a wide-ranging look at cities here and abroad, an inquiry into what makes them great (or miserable), and in particular what America is going to do with it's mutilated cities.

His latest book, The Long Emergency, published by the Atlantic Monthly Press in 2005, is about the challenges posed by the coming permanent global oil crisis, climate change, and other "converging catastrophes of the 21st Century."

Back to dogs, etc. We got a dog and a good thing, too. He was our protector and trust me, living in a tent, you need protection. In Kunstler's book, a bunch of 'trailer trash' assault a young lady left alone at night. She had no dogs, either. I know that Duke would have had some sport if anyone thought of doing this to us. Then we got Cleo, the English Mastiff, a 250 lb dog. Now, the we didn't have to worry about bears, either. But before her, we got the kittens. We had too many mice and Duke couldn't catch them. Within three months of the kittens moving in, no more mice. Cats and dogs were some of the first animals to be domesticated and I know why. My life would have been a misery without them. They earned their keep. When we slaughtered animals, they feasted. But in between, they hunted for themselves or for us. Or both.

Collean was our third dog. After three years in the tent complex, we had a fairly large flock of sheep. The picture below is Stella and a pair of twins she birthed. We had to learn to deliver babies and nurse orphans or save them in blizzards. It seemed that most of the mothers gave birth in very foul weather. I suspect this is nature at work. Predators don't bother hunting in blizzards or ice storms. It seemed to me that the characters in the book Jim wrote spent way too much time messing around. Who was watching the sheep? Sheering the sheep? Fighting off coyotes and wolves?

We got a bee hive from an old man. Then some wild bees moved in. More things to worry about. Bears. Cleo was the most use here. She would actually go out and assault bears. We also got Sparky, our wonder horse and an ox team, Chip and Dale.

They had their pastures but lived in the tent complex with us. We had to go out in violent storms to find them sometimes and bring them in. Once, a lightning bolt hit me and scared the oxen so much, they left deep dents in the ground when they jumped. Cleaning ox and horse stalls is hard work but that goes into the gardens. Again, endless work, summer and winter except when everything froze to the ground and couldn't be pried off even with dynamite.

Yes, that was the Tent Complex. We lived there for 10 years. In winter, my son and I would bury the tent with snow except the top of the roofs. This insulated us. The doors and windows and other things there were all scavenged. Jim, in his book, was right about scavengers. But one thing amused me: his characters were consumed with trying to keep themselves comfortable. In big houses. This is nearly impossible up here in winter. I used to prepare for winter in a very efficient but brutal way: I would deliberately wear as little as possible in the Fall. This way, my body would become acclimated to the weather and I could run around the pasture in my bathrobe when it was below zero and not be bothered much by this. Jim was correct in his book that characters would long for the insulated, cushioned life style of yore. But after WWIII, the true winners in the battle for rebuilding the world would be those who can endure great discomfort and not even notice it.

Here we are, inside the tent in winter, sitting near the wood stove, reading.

One thing about survivalism: it isn't pretty but it can be fun if approached in the right frame of mind. Many people fear the possibility of survival in difficulties like we had. Yet they were not all that great a challenge if one felt strong of mind and body. I got up at 5 am to start the fires, bake the bread and feed the livestock before sending the boy and the husband out the door. I then worked on cleaning the lamps, a daily chore, hauling or making water from snow, dealing with making dinner depending on what had to be prepared from scratch, etc. I would go off in the woods for kindling or wood for the cook stove which was 150 years old.

My son would come home and stack or unstack firewood. He would hike up the mountain to the artesian well and pump water for two hours. He collected firewood. He would herd the sheep and feed them their evening grain. He cleaned stalls. Moved or harvested hay. Children with many idle hours don't live like us. Many books written about post-Apocalyptic America dwell a great deal on the need to discipline children and putting women in their place. This bothers me a bit. Children usually, when it comes to survival, work well if the adults are not childish.

This yoke shows how big our ox team was. Both boys have died of old age since then, alas. They were very loving, loyal beasts. They followed talk and we would say, 'Gee' or 'Haw' to make them turn right or left, for example. It was that simple. They could haul huge trees. Sparky hauled the smaller trees.

This was our party place. We had many visitors for this. Our hot tub. I moved it indoors in winter and would melt snow in it and this is how we washed everything and everyone. In summer, Mr. Toad lived under it. In winter, it kept the tent warmer at night. Instead of 20 degrees at night, it would be 38 degrees. We slept under very warm wool and down blankets. We had this joke. The 'scream factor.' The first one in bed had to scream to let us all know how cold it was. After about half an hour, the bed warms up.

Actually, I remember those days fondly. I do appreciate modern life. Living without much of anything is interesting, to say the least. But the main thing I want to emphasize is the need for animals of many sorts. The bees, cats, dogs, sheep, horses, oxen, chickens, turkeys, ducks, the wild animals, all were part of the circle we had going and all were needed. I am rather sad about how things are going out here today. Farms are disappearing even as jobs in industry have left. The man who taught us how to train and use oxen died, he was over 100 years old. The last few old farmers here who taught me how to farm here are all dead now. And there is virtually no one replacing them.

We have a weaver next door but the other shepherds are all gone. Including my sheep. Global trade killed that. And all the ancient skills are slipping away. I know how to use many Victorian tools for woodworking as well as farming including the old plows, augers, etc. But I won't be here forever, either. Will anyone listen to me if these skills were needed? It amused me to read in the book how people had to bargain for matches.

One can make fire without matches, of course. But that is yet another skill that is not being passed on. And here it is: the art of living is a huge variety of skills. Machines and civilization has ended the need for 99% of these skills but they are still important. And only a small handful of people are keeping these going.

Then there are really ancient skills. Here are some troops in Europe I trained in Medieval warfare techniques:

Here, I am putting on my steel armor. Fighting with swords, using spears, shooting the long bow, knife throwing. These are all very old skills that might prove useful some day. In Jim Kunstler's dystopia, the people capable of doing all this would rule the roost. And they would be the ones with lots of dogs, some cats and some very brazen draft animals. My horse, Sparky, for example, is very aggressive. He likes to pick fights.

I love dystopian books because I have lived in the universe these writers try to imagine. The fear of our neighbors is quite real. We really don't trust them, I fear. Yet the only people to survive in the future if we have this sort of world will be people who can bring order to disorder, who can control their property and protect it. I hope Jim can get to know real dogs who work, not think of them as 'pets.' They are not at all, if raised right. Like children.

Five Short Blasts

Why are Americans' incomes and net worths mired in a three-decades-long decline? Why are jobs with decent pay and benefits becoming so scarce? Why are affordable health insurance and a financially-secure retirement fading from the American Dream? Why, in spite of thousands of economists guiding our nation's economic policies, is our national debt skyrocketing? Is it possible that the economists are missing something? Indeed they are - something extremely subtle but very powerful. You won't find another tired rehash of the usual suspects here. Here is a new economic theory that nails the root cause of our economic malaise and identifies policies that offer real hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Five Short Blasts is the book that lays bare the underlying forces making the United States' approach to globalization a sure-fire loser, one that has been eroding the finances of American households for the last three decades. Want to learn more before buying? Check out the links on this page for crystal clear images of the covers, the table of contents and the Preface.

If you go to the link above, you can order this book, too.

This book is not a novel. It is a meditation on population density, population trends and other things that are very important to our survival. It is full of charts and graphs which I really like. The writer is very articulate and clear. He gets to the point quickly and goes methodically through all the information he has assembled.

This is a good reference book. The typeface is easy to read, too, which I appreciate a lot. And being an engineer, he is fond of logic. Another good thing, I would suggest. He worries that people might judge him harshly for his conclusions but they are not his fault: reality can be very harsh and hard to accept.

Here is his bio:

Pete Murphy retired in 2004 after working for thirty years in manufacturing and engineering for a major chemical company. Duing those thirty years, he witnessed first hand the devastating impact that globalization has had on U.S. manufacturing. In 1993 he began formulating his theory of population density-induced decline in per capita consumption and has, since then, written and re-written this book and tested the theory against national and global events as they have unfolded.

He holds a BS degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and began his career following three years of service as an officer in the U.S. Navy. Though not formally trained as an economist, he "earned his stripes" as an economist in the tradition of the classical economists - through observation of the economy and the application of logic. He currently resides with his wife in southeast Michigan - "ground zero" of the devastation inflicted by blind trade on U.S. manufacturing.

Like Kunstler and myself, he is worried about us paving over Paradise. Paving over good farmlands. The impact on nature, on the countryside as the US spreads out extravagantly, worries him. I can't complain too much, my mountain was virgin when I built here. At no time has any house stood anywhere near where mine is today. We all use earth's resources. And there are more and more humans every day. And eventually we will reach a limit, this is inevitable. Sooner than later, I might add.

If one wants to debate this topic, this book is a good source for information. Read it and weep, I guess. But read it.

And Kunstler's book is a good read, too. I just wish he had some good, brave dogs in it. Like my dear Cleo who departed this earth 6 years ago. Or the noble Chip and Dale with their wide horns. But I quibble here. These are worthy books. We have much to brood about. But then, it is thawing outside today and is about time to clean out Sparky's stall. And fix the wall he broke during the blizzard, trying to turn around without going outside. Silly horse.

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[Danny Bloom]

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
March 4, 2008

Green blogger uses "polar cities" as educational tool
to raise public awareness about global warming issues

NEW YORK -- A lone blogger in Taiwan is using the Internet in a novel way to help raise awareness about global warming.

Green media activist Danny Bloom doesn't believe humans will ever have to live in so-called "polar cities" (a term he coined in 2006), but he is using a series of computer-generated blueprints of a polar city as an educational tool to help raise help public awareness about the climate crisis.

Created by Taiwanese artist Cheng-hong Deng, the polar city images have appeared on hundreds of websites and blogs around the world -- in English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French and Chinese, Bloom, a 1971 gradute of Tufts University in Boston, says.

The 58-year-old green activist says he is using the Internet in a novel way to get his message across.

The message? "If we don't actively tackle the very serious problems that confront the world now, in terms of global warming, then there is a possibility that future generations might have to take refuge in such polar cities. I never want to see these polar cities become reality. So the images Deng has created for my project are meant to be a warning about global warming."

Bloom says he has shown the images to internationally-acclaimed climate scientist James Lovelock in Britain, who is known for his pessimism and doomsaying about global warming. Lovelock told Bloom by email: "It may very well happen and soon."

"I hope polar cities are never needed for survivors of global warming in the far distant future," Bloom says. "These images are meant to be a wake-up call for those who are still sleepwalking through the climate crisis."

Bloom emphasizes that he has no agenda, political or scientific, in terms of solutions to global warming, and says that he just wants to participate in the global discussion about climate change in his own personal way. "I am just using Deng's images to sound the alarm, a visual alarm."

He says that his Internet campaign, which began a year ago with a letter to the editor of several newspapers in North America and Europe, has had the result he is looking for.

A young blogger in Tahiti saw the images, blogged about them in French, and said that while he found the polar city blueprints to be fascinating, they made him just want to work harder in his daily life "to help fight the climate crisis so that the worst case scenarios never happen."

POLAR CITIES BLUEPRINT:
http://pcillu101.blogspot.com

[CK]

One of the few television shows I have watched with any amount of regularity is Survivor. I have no first hand knowledge of the show or how it is produced. Always, in the first few weeks of the show, the survivors have huge difficulty making fire.
Many of the survivor candidates wear/wore glasses, but only once in the ( I think ) 9 seasons of the show has a survivor used his glasses to start a fire. They try rubbing sticks, twirling sticks, making a bow stick, smacking flint with a machete ( if they win the flint in some sort of contest ) but just once did a survivor take off his glasses and focus the sun's rays on kindling.
Most dystopian novels are written by white males with northern european backgrounds. Except for The Handmaid's Tale.
For a different take on dystopia, ( not at all PC ), find a copy of The Camp of The Saints by Jean Pierre Raspail.
It will be an uncomfortable future. Several months ago you published a graph on energy sourcing. It used a long base line, but what was striking was the 130 year bulge in the use of oil. The numbers I have seen, and again I cannot guarantee either their honesty or their truth but they do possess some "truthiness" suggest that Mexican and Saudi production has already passed peak. The fields are still producing but the total each year is dropping. Other experts suggest that the tar sands and oil shales will supply centuries worth of oil, but at much higher prices.
I see that one wing of the national bird of pray is going to nominate a man who knows no economics, has never added any value to society, and believes that hundreds or thousands of years of war for theft is a good idea. The other wing is so enamoured of its ability to put either the first female or the first half black half white on the top of the ticket, that it cannot see that neither has a clue about the economy.
I am getting old, my run is about over. Two days ago, we paid off the last of our revolving debt. I will be roasting a duck this weekend for a debt free party. Might even spring for a couple of bottles of Retsina. Bought my first pressure cooker the other day, getting a pressure canner soon. Not a pessimist by nature but a cynic and skeptic, the last 16 years have almost moved me into the pessimist column.

[Gary W]

The past is the guide to the future. Love your animals; a dog is far more useful (and scary) than a gun. I hope we won't need that armour.

[JSmith]

The post-apocalypse has been done. And done. (David Brin, "The Postman", Cormac McCarthy, "The Road", etc.) You make interesting comments about the post-apocalyptic role of women, which is something male authors always miss. Why don't you write one yourself?

Going by the photo of the ox yoke, your bare-bones lifestyle certainly kept you in good shape. I bet you didn't even have to run!

"This book is not a novel. It is a meditation on population density..."

There is absolutely no problem we face, from resource consumption to pollution, that cannot be directly traced to the fact that six billion humans is too damn many humans. Too many people competing for too few resources and too little space will result in "issues".

"The fury of the farmer, the rage of the shepherd is legendary."

Not to mention, the agriculturalists and the shepherds have always been at one another's throats.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

I lived in 'frontiers' several times. In NYC, it was the Wild Wild West for a while in the 70's. No police, water, electricity, etc all fell apart. I had to go into Prospect Park with a saw and ax to collect downed branches to turn into firewood, I organized a street patrol so we would have some security. We fought GANGS! Literally. With clubs and even had some guns! We literally barricaded our street at one point and Mayor Koch had to come to us and promise us street patrols!

Living on the edge is actually quite a bit of fun, I think. I had a blast doing all that.

About shepherds and farmers: oh yes, total warfare indeed. The sheep and cattle love to get into the corn.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

CK: Congratulations!!!!

You are now a FREE MAN. Except you are married, heh. But then I am shackled, too. My kids don't mind this. They are getting married, one by one, too.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Gary, yes, especially if the dog is an English mastiff. When Cleo opened her jaws, she could literally open them wider than a human head! People took one look at her, they took off. We had a sign below on the road saying, 'Danger: English Mastiff. 6 feet tall when standing on hind legs.'

Yes, she was a great protectress. And I hope to buy another one next year or so. I love the breed. She was gentle as a kitten with my children when they were growing up, children can literally ride a Mastiff on its back and it will be very gentle with them. They never, ever attack small children if raised properly. They were bred to protect princess and princesses from attackers in the Middle Ages.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Hello, Danny Bloom!

Thanks for the link. I am glad you are visiting here. All over the web, there are fabulous stories being posted and this is such a huge break-through for all of us, the ability to publish with no barriers.

Global warming: EVERYTHING hinges on what the sun does. The sun is a VARIABLE STAR. It no longer is stead in its output. Indeed, there have been long periods millions and millions of years ago when it changed its output significantly.

[CK]

Married has its good points.
There is always a warm butt to place my cold feet against, at least one other person fakes believing my puns are funny.
Cooking for one is wasteful, for two is not so wasteful. She knows how to handle a chain saw ( this might not be a long term good point but for now it is ), can change the oil in her own car if she has to, only ever made one mistake in her whole life, and I refuse to give her a divorce to make up for it. And now that she has to wear glasses she too can start a fire without matches or a butane lighter.
Speaking of dog breeds, given where I live, a Mastiff is not on, but two black labs provided a great deal of fun and some useful retrieving work. Saw a beautiful dog the other day and upon inquiry learned that it is a Cane Corso ( sort of an italian mastiff with a nastier personality ), always admired the Tibetan Mastiff. Feeding a 300 pound dog can put a dent in the budget. Letting a 300 pound dog fend for itself is a good way to really perturb the neighbours and the State Game Wardens.
It does feel good to know that there will be no more credit card bills coming in, it will feel even better at the end of each month. A superb untaxed pay increase.
Today's vocabulary lesson:
If the plural of mouse is mice
and the plural of spouse is spice
why is the plural of house
bankruptcy?

[Katherine]

"The novel, 'World Made By Hand' does reflect this honestly. I do recommend reading this book..if you are a male or if you are a hard-hearted woman like myself. For it has one very tragic weakness: it cannot penetrate into the reality and minds of women. And it grossly underestimates the true power of the feminine. As someone who has lived the life he writes about, I know exactly what happens and who gets to do what."

THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU!!!! I have read much of Kunstler's work (except this novel), never miss his Monday column, and have heard him speak many times in different states. I respect his insights and analysis in many regards - but have always felt that he just does not get it about women (or minorities, either, for that matter - I'm part Latina.)

Thanks for a helpful, insightful, and beautifully written review. (I always appreciate and respect your insights, but you have a tendency to ramble a bit! :) Sometimes makes it hard on the reader.)

Interesting about the animals... I have never had a pet or work animal - something I need to learn, I guess. Though I worry about the future, I have confidence in skills that women have practiced for centuries - growing and preserving food, tending the sick with herbs and other home treatments, making clothes, knitting, etc, etc, etc...

Let us hope that the worst (in my mind, that would be war - powering down would ultimately be good for us) does not happen.

Peace,
LibraLady

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Cleaning up poop. This is a strictly female enterprise.

I admit to rambling a lot. But my ideas come from these rambles. Especially when I ramble on about history. These are the guidelines we need to see the present.

And yes, a big blind spot with Kunstler. Maybe we can help him in this matter.

CK: your wife uses chainsaws? HAHAHA. Note that she would be picked up in an instant if you had an...accident.

[CK]

Indeed

[larry, dfh]

Who is that holding the ox yoke? Those are some hard-working hands and shoulders! The Amish have been very successful at this for a few hundred years. They don't stress the need to defend themselves from other humans, nor are they taught under what circumstances it is correct to take up violence (which, in the case of organized conflict is usually at the behest of others). I truly admire your and their animal husbandry skills.
China used to be self-sufficient in food. In 1985 I took a 44 hour train ride in China, and NEVER stopped seeing cultivated/terraced fields. Now the Chinese have traded farmland for industrial land, and they are no longer self sufficient in food. The industry has followed the Western model: just dump the shit in the river, consequently they are in competition with agricultural uses of the same land.
These folks rent some land to a woman who farms with two draught horses. New York state it seems has a strong sustainable agricultural community.

[larry, dfh]

Who is that holding the ox yoke? Those are some hard-working hands and shoulders! The Amish have been very successful at this for a few hundred years. They don't stress the need to defend themselves from other humans, nor are they taught under what circumstances it is correct to take up violence (which, in the case of organized conflict is usually at the behest of others). I truly admire your and their animal husbandry skills.
China used to be self-sufficient in food. In 1985 I took a 44 hour train ride in China, and NEVER stopped seeing cultivated/terraced fields. Now the Chinese have traded farmland for industrial land, and they are no longer self sufficient in food. The industry has followed the Western model: just dump the shit in the river, consequently they are in competition with agricultural uses of the same land.
These folks rent some land to a woman who farms with two draught horses. New York state it seems has a strong sustainable agricultural community.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Larry, that is me. I used to heave that huge thing onto their shoulders. I had to stand between them on a platform to do it. They towered over me.

[Hemlock]

Elaine,

I've recently discovered your website and have enjoyed reading your insightful articles on the world economy.

Thank you for the interesting book reviews. I'm now inclined not to read Kunstlers latest effort simply because I feel a strong need to get beyond dystopian fantasies and spend my time doing something practical to improve my, and my wifes, prospects for surviving the economic and social dislocations that are to come. There are so many skills to be learned.

Have you considered sharing the useful knowledge that you have gained over the years regarding homesteading, and caring for animals and people?

-Hemlock

[norcalkid]

Kunstler is good, but you are right; he forgets about the contributions of women.

I never got into the armor-wearing aspect of the SCA (musicians' hands are too valuable to get mashed) but Hubby did. Alas, his heart is failing, and I will need to get along on my own soon. His armor and swords will get new homes, but I am keeping the 15th c. flanged mace he gave me (precious, mine, all mine!), and his horseman's hammer (oooh, spikey bits!)

I think I have learned a few survival skills along the way between the SCA and researching the Elizabethan era to play my RenFaire character. Also, my Depression-era grandparents taught me a lot about getting along with less and fixing things, rather than replacing them. When the manure hits the ventilator, I think those who have spent their lives living near the poverty level or in the lower middle class will probably do better than many others.

When we sold the house in the SF Bay Area, we could see where things were headed, and chose our new location with "modest" survival in mind. The area we inhabit is relatively rural, agricultural, and has lots of "handy-people" because so many are low-income and need to make extra money.

Our property has a well, which needs clearing out, and the water table is only 25' down. Wildlife is plentiful, and I suppose I could get used to acorn flour. Heating the (mfg.)house could be a problem, but if no one enforces building codes, a wood stove could be installed. (There are certainly plenty of trees around here for fuel.) Our advantage is a relatively temperate climate, so heating is not such a great problem.

As long as there is electricity, my woodshop will keep going, and when/if there is none, I may get creative. Woodworking, wool carding, spinning, knitting, hand sewing, gardening, etc. are all skills I have. The old 1948 electric Singer sewing machine I was given could even be reverse-engineered to use a treadle.

As for information, I suggest everyone do some web searches and find (free, .pdf) reprints of books from around 1900 or before. They have lots of info on how things were done "BCE" (before cheap energy). Look on the web site for Journey to Forever, it has several reprinted books on old-style farming tips, as well as other good info.
http://journeytoforever.org/

[CK]

One of the more useful bits of ephemera one can still acquire are the Popular Mechanics Shop Notes series. This was an annual compilation of all the useful tidbits that PM published in their monthly mags. First issue was in 1904/05 and was printed annually until the mid 70's. Contents are several hundred pages of tightly printed tips for building things, repairing things, making things. Not just wood or metal shop stuff ( but there is a lot of that ) but farm stuff, machinery stuff. They can be found on eBay of course, but also in most local flea markets or antique markets there will be someone selling old paper goods and old magazines. I have an almost complete series. The issues from the 60's and 70's have been hard to find because the press runs were decreasing during those years.
Worth the investment. Condition on these mags is usually not the highest, they were used often back when folks were handy.

[Callahan]

Wonderful story, wonderful. Most completely accurate in all respects, especially as you describe the role of a woman in a healthy culture. As you describe Kunstler,

"He, like myself, is basically a 'real conservative.' Namely, he likes good, solid houses that are well-crafted. He likes well behaved children and a respect for elders."

A "real conservative". A proud and ancient and honorable calling. We shall prevail.

[Callahan]

And another thing. The people have been fed lies for so long now. They live in fear. The people live in a hopeless world of mass media phantoms. Your words are truly "encouraging words" at a time when we all need them.

Thanks again for sharing your life with us.

Lovely to see someone who refuses to lie to herself. As Solzhenitsyn put it, "Do not live lies." May we live and die as free men and free women.

I had to put down my dog, Jack, about five years ago. A truly noble creature. I miss him. He was a German Shepherd Dog with horrible inbreeding disabilities. He was not yet twelve years old. A crime to breed dogs so. Especially for my Johannes von Grall und Fetzer.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Mastiffs are the same: their lives seldom go past 14 years. Cancer of the spine often gets them. I lost dear Cleo to that disease.

When we put her down, my husband, the hunter, was so unnerved by this, he held her while a dear friend did the last services. She was a noble dog.

A true story: as Cleo was dying, she could no longer walk. She crawled to the door and looked at me with her lovely brown eyes and I opened it up. It was snowing outside.

My husband was very ill and couldn't get out of bed but I went with her as she crawled to the edge of the forest. She then sighed and laid down to die and I covered her with a blanket and began singing the Lotus Sutra.

Within minutes, the two horse, the two oxen, all four cats and Collean, our sheep dog, were in a circle around us. They sniffed her and licked her.

She sighed again and then dragged herself back to the house. This is where she finally died.

It is very hard for non-dog lovers or non-cat lovers to understand the depths of our feelings for these good companions. Very hard.

But I tell everyone this: someone who mourns the passing of their friend, the dog or the cat or any friend, will mourn family. Husbands, wives, children, everyone. And we learn about Death this way for most of our pets live shorter lives. Unless you have a giant tortoise or a parrot for a pet. They can outlive most anyone.

[Chris]

What a wonderful story, Elaine.

Historically in Scandinavia women and men have always shared the workload, without one the other would not survive. They were complementary. While the men were out in the woods/fields doing heavy work, or at sea fishing, the women have taken care of the household making, and preserving food, clothes etc, beside working very hard in the fields too when needed. And to have many children was essential for survival. All but the smallest children worked very hard with daily chores. And the older children had to look after the younger ones, because the women were so busy with their chores. Every hand was needed, there was no place or time for idle ones. You only need to look at history to see what a future without easy energy would be like.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

In the Dark Ages, the younger sons would go a-viking. This is how my more distant ancestors came to France and became Normans. Then spread out. Thus, how we came to England, hand on sword.

[Ceredwyn]

"In the Dark Ages, the younger sons would go a-viking. This is how my more distant ancestors came to France and became Normans. Then spread out. Thus, how we came to England, hand on sword."

And how my Celtic ancestors got the gene for red hair.

I wondered also about Kunstler's townsfolks' reliance on modern trained professionals for their health care. Sadly, without a modern pharmocopea and a hospital, a doctor's not much better than anyone else (after all, in the absence of chloroform, no surgeries gonna happen) and some might argue that a Wilderness Emergency Medical Techinician (unlike a normal EMT, they're trained to deal with problems where modern help may not be available for days or even weeks)would be better. Nobody except one of the religious cultists uses any herbal preparations other than poppy and marijuana. Where's the chamomile? The mint? The garlic? Let alone the really esoteric ones.

[danny]

Elaine
I did not get my copy of WORLD yet so I cannot see it, but one reviewer in Colorado today said there were too many question marks, real ? marks on each page, and the editors of the book, whoever they are or he or she is, did not do a good job of editing the book for copyediting reasons. Is that true?

Danny