John Robb is a strategist and theorist of modern warfare. His book, Brave New War, is the best introduction I know of to small group warfare, the way technology has enabled ad hoc groups like Al Quaeda and others to wage war against superpowers like the USA.
In the last few years, Robb has changed his focus to the concept of resilience. Looking at the failure of international, national, and regional governmental, economic, and social systems to confront the challenges of climate change and institutionalized as well as ad hoc criminality, he has started an initiative to relocalize our basic systems of survival as we watch the slow decline and collapse of the overarching social machinery that currently exists.
The solution is to build resilience, is to build resilience at the local level… You take control of the things you can have influence over, the things in front of you, the things that are human scale…. and strangely, when you start looking at building resilience, building local viable communities, it solves all the problems at the global level, economically, environmentally, and in terms of quality of life…
Here is his lecture at the recent NYC Maker Faire. The video starts about 8 minutes in and his description of a resilient community ends around 15:40 when he begins to take questions. These seven or eight minutes are a useful introduction to a reasonable way forward.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/g…
Robb writes more at http://www.resilientcommunitie…
There is also a http://www.resilientcommunitie… which is not associated with him but tills some of the same ground.
Other groups working on building local resilience are
http://localcircles.org
http://www.transitionnetwork.org
http://www.transitionus.org
An upcoming webinar may be a good introduction to building a local resilience circle:
How to Start a Resilience Circle, including How to Have a One-to-One.
Tuesday, October 23
3pm ET (12pm PT)
Webinar registration at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/r…As you know, small groups are a great way to enhance community resilience in tough times, build a strong social movement to create change, and have fun. As Thomas Atwood put it recently, “Small consciousness-raising groups were the lynchpins of the labor movement, the civil rights movement, and the women’s movement.”
Join a discussion about how to organize a group, including:
how to communicate about Resilience Circles and small groups with others
using “One-to-One” conversations to invite participants to your group (read more here)
finding participants through base communities and the “linking method”
different kinds of small groups that might work in your community, such as Resilience Circles or affinity groups.
Robb’s earlier work on small group warfare is available at
http://globalguerrillas.typepa…
Previously:
Eating the City and Town: Todmorden and Beyond
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
My Solutions to Climate Change
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
Brave New War I
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
Brave New War II
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
Brave New War III
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
Brave New War IV
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
previously published at http://www.dailykos.com/story/…
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