As part of my on-going series of how to not just survive but thrive during the New Depression, I wanted to talk a little bit about trade-zones. I recently came across a use of the word “citistate” in a magazine called “Dwell”, where they were describing it as:
A region consisting of one or more historic central cities surrounded by cities and towns which have a shared identification, function as a single zone for trade, commerce and communication, and are characterized by social, economic and environmental interdependence
This idea could be fruitfully connected to bionomics or living systems theory:
Living systems are open self-organizing systems that have the special characteristics of life and interact with their environment. This takes place by means of information and material-energy exchanges. Living systems can be as simple as a single cell or as complex as a supranational organization such as the European Economic Community.
The point I want to make with all of this is that you, your community and immediate environment form a series of transactions: inputs and outputs, trades, exchanges and feedbacks. Most people don’t pay these interactions and relationships any attention until they are forced to change them through external factors. In this case, the world economy obliterating might turn out to be just such a factor. In order to maintain your way of life or at least some sense of stability, you may want to begin really taking a hard look at the daily, weekly, monthly and hourly trade zones in which you operate. I’m not just talking about formal bills and expenses either: I’m talking about who do you hang out with, who do you see, what do you talk about, what do you give each other? Now, before things get too overtly bad, is an excellent time to really sit down and figure out how you can strengthen your connections to the people around you who enrich your experience of life. How can you become better friends? How can you help one another out now and in the future? Do you have any skills you could teach one another? Can you help each other out with things like yardwork, or with moving to a new apartment? On a more opportunistic level: can you make friends with local bartenders, shopkeepers and significant figures in your local community? You can always offer your time and a sympathetic ear if you have nothing else.
Also check out my six stratagems, a series of simple steps to reconfigure your approach to reality and to your community which will hopefully help you improve your experience of life, by improving the experience of those around you.
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[...] Tagged bionomics, citistate, community, feedback loop, living systems, networking, resilient community, trade zone The point I want to make with all of this is that you, your community and immediate environment form a series of transactions: inputs and outputs, trades, exchanges and feedbacks. Most people don’t pay these interactions and relationships any attention until they are forced to change them through external factors. In this case, the world economy obliterating might turn out to be just such a factor. In order to maintain your way of life or at least some sense of stability, you may want to begin really taking a hard look at the daily, weekly, monthly and hourly trade zones in which you operate. I’m not just talking about formal bills and expenses either: I’m talking about who do you hang out with, who do you see, what do you talk about, what do you give each other? Now, before things get too overtly bad, is an excellent time to really sit down and figure out how you can strengthen your connections to the people around you who enrich your experience of life. How can you become better friends? How can you help one another out now and in the future? Do you have any skills you could teach one another? Can you help each other out with things like yardwork, or with moving to a new apartment? On a more opportunistic level: can you make friends with local bartenders, shopkeepers and significant figures in your local community? You can always offer your time and a sympathetic ear if you have nothing else. - Tim Boucher [...]