Monthly Archives: March 2010

The Stuff of Relationship

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Dave Pollard

In a recent tweet, Jerry Michalski asks: Is the www really connecting us? or just creating thin, artificial relationships? To which I replied: What is the ‘stuff’ of relationship anyway, and have we forgotten what it means, in the growing … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 11 Comments

The Value of Conversation

Posted on March 23, 2010 by Dave Pollard

photo by Maren Yumi A couple of years ago, riffing off Nancy White, I wrote that Life’s meaning, and an understanding of what needs to be done, emerges, most often, from conversation in community with people you love. It is … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 8 Comments

Manifesto

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Dave Pollard

I am not a consumer. I am not, as my friend Jerry Michalski acerbically puts it, “a gullet who lives only to gulp products and crap cash”. I am not here to use stuff up. I measure myself by my … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 17 Comments

Links and Tweets of the Week/Month: March 20, 2010

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Dave Pollard

PREPARING FOR CIVILIZATION’S END The Myth of Self-Reliance: On the pages of most of us Post-Civ bloggers you’ll find exhortations for a return to a community-based society and economy, one based on principles of self-reliance. But Toby Hemenway makes a … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapse Watch | 4 Comments

How Many Relationships Can We Manage?

Posted on March 10, 2010 by Dave Pollard

Just about a year ago, I posted an article on the work that Christopher Allen had done on: optimal size of groups for sustainability and collaborative effectiveness (short answer: around 5-7 for work groups and around 50 for networks/communities), and … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 15 Comments

Coping With Complexity

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Dave Pollard

saraswati, hindu goddess of knowledge, creativity and openness (image online, uncredited) Some recent comments from readers of my First Principles post led me to revisit one of the first posts I wrote on this blog, nearly seven years ago. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Working Smarter | 5 Comments

First Principles

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Dave Pollard

view from just above my new home; more of my recent photos here One of the discoveries I’ve made as a result of retiring from paid work, and living alone for the first time in decades, is that I now … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapse Watch | 7 Comments

Links and Tweets for the Week: March 3, 2010

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Dave Pollard

One of the delightful cartoons of Natalie Dee. See lots more here. PREPARING FOR CIVILIZATION’S END Trying to Cure Reality: A new book Manufacturing Depression, by Gary Greenberg (reviewed by Louis Menand in the New Yorker) debunks the industrial economy … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapse Watch | 7 Comments

Throwing Off the Shackles of Debt

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Dave Pollard

(A joint essay by Guy R. McPherson, Keith Farnish, Dave Pollard, and Sharon Astyk.) Indebtedness is a form of servitude, sometimes involuntary, and, in extreme cases, can become a form of endless and harrowing imprisonment. Consider, for example, the current … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapse Watch | 9 Comments