CONNECTION

Modern man talks of a battle with Nature, forgetting that, if we won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side".

                                                           E. F. SCHUMACHER


Can we distill our present global predicament into a contest between the "connected" and the "unconnected"?
What made me ponder on this was watching the excellent documentary film on Rosia Montana http://www.rosiamontana-thefilm.com/ which highlights the contrasting values on one side, of the locals who don't want to move away from their homes and on the other side, of the "investors" who see no problem with making money from mining the earth of its riches. This village in Romania is being torn apart by the conflict between those living a very modest life in harmony with their natural environment, and those wanting to extract the buried gold using a process invoving opencast mining and cyanide extraction.
To my mind, this scenario represents, on a small scale what is being played out across the planet, with globalisation and the McDonaldisation of cultures and societies. Often, the conflicting parties are defined as  the clever, progressives versus the uneducated, unsophisticated traditionalists. And, in this film, the contrast is   stark- the peasants with a few sheep and cows, living a subsistence life with few luxuries are up against the rich and powerful Canadian-funded corporation.
But there is a common thread to be detected here- people who have found connection with their environment cannot contemplate damaging their beloved earth any more than they could hurt their own children. The disconnected, having lost that earth-ing have no such qualms and any rape, mutilation or other destrcution of the planet can be justified in the name of profit or perhaps what they perceive as "progress". If we extend this idea to its logical conclusion of course, we shouldn't be mining coal or other precious materials which have delivered us a wealth of material benefits, albeit at a cost.
However, in this film, Rosia Montana, one resident of the village tells us that their forebears believed that the earth had spirits who could guide them to its riches under the surface but that misfortune would befall them if they were greedy or otherwise exceeded their needs. And in this village, gold mining had a history going back 2000 years to pre-Roman times. One might conclude therefore that minerals such as gold have a legitimate purpose for humans, but certain guidelines should limit our use of them or the price we will pay for our greed will ultimately exceed any benefit we derived from it.
Such a principle would seem to have guided many "primitive" cultures in the past, whether it refered to the mining of gold or the killing of animals for food, and as long as we are "connected" , those groundrules will provide us with the boundaries beyond which we should not venture.

Mutual independence

Self-sufficiency is a noble aim but in itself it will not build community. It is an obvious reaction to the threat of Climate Change, loss of food security, dis-empowerment etc and many of us are looking to become more self-sufficient. But, globally we are facing a process of making people, communities and whole nations, dependent on outside forces. This process is called globalisation. Its about destroying self-sufficiency and independence. Globalisation is about bringing everyone within the ambit of the multinational corporation. Organisations such as Monsanto illustrate very clearly the type of methods employed. Sell people a lie, with promises of greater yields and financial security. Sell them seeds which produce crops requiring costly pesticides and fertilisers and prevent the grower from saving their own seeds. Threaten them with legal action if they attempt to break their contract- just the threat is enough, as many even in America have learnt to their cost- because Monsanto has such huge financial assets that their legal teams of solicitors will wear you down until all your money is gone. But Monsanto is just the tip of the iceberg- with the help of the World Bank, WTO, IMF and arrangements such as GATT , NAFTA etc are forcing people our of self-sufficiency and self-reliance and into a dependence on foreign imports or just a dependence on a cash economy. Throughout the world, the same pattern is repeated- where people previously were able to grow their own food, make their own clothes, build their own homes, they first are made dependent on cash which then forces them to work within the clutches of the global economy. Once in the global economy, transnational corporations, usually based in the West, although increasingly, now in China, can sell them inferior versions of what they previously created, grew or made for themselves. What is happening in Greece is but a western version of the same story, with an economically weaker nation being subjected to the stronger forces of richer nations mediated by the link to the Euro.
There is a common pattern in modern capitalism with imperialism and colonialism. First undermine or destroy the country's culture, then make the people dependent on trade. This latter stage will always ensure that the richer state will grow at the expense of the poorer one. Modern capitalism, far from resulting in a trickle-down of wealth, allows wealth to seep inextricably  upwards, with wealth concentrating ever more in the hands of the super- and hyper-rich.
In the face of these forces, which we are all subjected to, even us in the "developed" North, we need to develop an independence, breaking these ties of dependencies.This may involve generating our own local energy, growing our own food, making our own clothes- in fact anything that makes us less "connected" to the money economy. The rise of schemes such as LETS, credit unions and the idea of a gift economy all work to the same end-  building our independence and self-sufficiency. But, to describe this,  I prefer the term "mutual independence" as it reflects the need for each of us to become mature, independent individuals which is a prerequisite to building a stable and self-sufficient community.

Further reading:  The Case Against the Global Economy- Edited by Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith