Posts Tagged ‘Middle East’

About Autarky

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

The amount of local cooperative energy-companies in the Netherlands (in 2012) is increasing. It all has to do with the decrease of the price of solar-sells but there is more at stake.

Local energy-companies are part of a movement aimed at Autarky. Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient.

The word Autarky comes from Greek αὐτάρκεια (autárkeia), itself from αὐτός (autós) = self and ἀρκέω (arkéo) which in its passive form means be satisfied, content or “Out of my own Power“.

Fractal Human Distribution Network

Fractal Human Energy Distribution Network

The need to become self-sufficient has certainly to do with the current economic-, ecological- and energy crisis. People are afraid that the supply of vital energy and food will suddenly stop or become priceless. This is not the only reason.

Some people think we are wasting our money, food and energy by producing nondurable throw-away goods in which the packaging is sometimes more important than the content. They want to create durable products and services. This is not the only reason.

Some people don’t trust the suppliers of their food and energy, their politicians and/or the caretakers of their savings, the banks, anymore. They believe that their food is intentionally manipulated, their savings are wasted, their country is sold out to the rich and their environment is polluted for just one simple reason, Greed, the opposite of “Being Satisfied”.

The people of the autarkic movement want to recreate the necessary functions (bank, energy, food, work, healthcare, government) themselves in a cooperative way in their own living context.

Atmospheric Energy Diagram

Atmospheric Energy Diagram

The local cooperatives  are now joining on a higher (mostly country) level and are  in need of a shared (real-time)infrastructure. The current infrastructure does not support flows that move between many participants (so called peer-to-peer-networks).

The current system is a Hierarchic Top Down System containing Huge Highways that are connected to Big Production-facilities. This makes it impossible to consolidate, share and distribute resources peer-to-peer on a local level.

The Electric Highway

The Top Down System has created Global Markets where the local production is sold  to the highest bidder.

The Global Markets are the playing field for advanced speculators that make a lot of money. After the deal is made the local production is transported to a far away destination. That is the reason why the Top Down Systems are integrated in world-wide Logistic Systems.

If we want to coordinate all the local initiatives we need advanced systems that Up- and download, control, predict, connect, share, balance and distribute vital local resources on the short and long term.

The Panarchy Cycle of an Ecology

The Panarchy Cycle of an Ecology

Examples of these systems can be found in “crowd funding“, “virtual power plants”  and “treasury management” (balancing many small amounts of Money at the short and long term).

In Nature we find comparable (Fractal) Distribution-Systems in the Lungs, the Arteries, Riverdelta, the Weather Cycle and Ecologies.

All of these fysical Flow Systems, that map 1 Resource-> on Many Resources or Many Resources->on 1 Resource,  are based on the third Law of Thermodynamics called Constructal Law.

Virtual Power Plant

Virtual Power Plant

In the philosophy of the Stoics and Cynics of Ancient Greece the perfect human was not only arete (“all-around excellent”) but also independent of every need. Arete was associated with a full life as a citizen of a city.

Later Spinoza (“On Human Freedom“), Rousseau and David Thoureau (Walden) have developed their own autarkic philosophy.

Autarky was the ideal of a complete man who needed no one and no organization. This ideal can also be found in Zen Buddhism, Taoist practise, Early Christians (Nazarites), the Catholic Order of the Franciscans and the Protestant Quakers.

In reality it is almost impossible to be completely self-sufficient as a lonely human being. We need others when we are young, sick and old and we need others because we are specialized (“Talented”). Autarky is a possible aim for a small community.

Resource Balancing in Nature (Lungs, RiverDelta)

Resource Balancing in Nature (Lungs, RiverDelta)

The religious, cultural and political movements at the left and the right aimed at living the “good life” (“Living Slow“) are converging in  the movement of the Cultural Creatives. The Cultural Creatives are the new Elite that is moving to the AND-state (Left AND Right).

They don’t believe in the old Competitive Ideologies (Socialist, Capitalist, Religious, Liberal, Nationalist, Conservative, Globalist, etc..) but want  to focus on the Shared Collaborative Values between all Humans. We all need Love, Food and Shelter.

The Stoic Zeno shows the Doors to Truth and False

The Stoic Zeno shows the Doors to Truth and False

Autarky has always been a major political aim of countries. Autarky is about the possibility to control your own future and to become independent of other powers that could use your dependency to tell you what to do to get what you desperately want.

At this moment the shortage of fossil fuels, especially oil and gaz, is used to influence the policy of other countries and is the cause of local conflicts in the Middle East.

China is buying all kinds of vital materials to make sure their economy will not become dependent on others. If they will succeed and nobody doubts about that, they will become the economic controlling power of the world.

Reaching a state of local autarky, being satisfied with what your environment provides you, has become the aim of the wordwide sustainability movement.

Total autarky is possible when you want to live as a stoic or a survivalist. Most people accept a more simple living, move off-the-grid and build autonomous buildings that make use of  renewable energy.

Allotment Garden

Allotment Garden

Others start to farm in their own backyard, join an allotment garden or move back-to-the-land and practice sustainable agriculture.  To handle their surpluses and shortages independent  local markets are created that make use of  alternative currencies.

A strive for (regional) Autarky pushes the need to innovate to a higher level because not all regions contain the right materials, knowledge or experience to realize everything everybody needs. To become fully Autarkic the Production and Consumption Systems in the Region have to be based on simple concepts and parts that are available everywhere. Simple concepts are concepts that are easely copied.

The only way to combine Simple and Complex concepts is to use the Concept of Self-Reference (Fractals). The only way to make use of parts that are available everywhere is to make use of the Simple Building Blocks of Nature. A good example is the use of algea in food processing.

The concept of Autonomy not only plays an important role on the many levels of human (personal, organization, country) and animal society (Competitive vs Collaborative (Ants)). It is also a major subject in the research of (Second-OrderCybernetics (Control Theory).

Self Reproducing Systems

Self Reproducing Fractal Systems

Second Order Cybernetics is concerned with the Control of the System of Systems (the Meta-System). Hierarchy is not the solution to this problem because it leads to the logical problem of Infinite Regress (“Turtles on turtles on … all the way down”).

The Meta-System is controlling, reproducing and balancing itself by a Fractal Feedback-Cycle that moves Backwards (Consumption) and Forwards (Production).

The concept of Self-Reproduction is called Autopoiesis or Autocatalysis. The Design Philosophy of Cradle to Cradle is a good example of Autopoiesis.

A System is an Autarky if all its Levels are capable of Self-Reproduction.

If a human wants to become self-sufficient he has to accept and develop his own talent and find complementary people so he is able to create a Self-Reproducing Unit.

The smallest Self-Reproducing Unit in Human Society is the Family living in one House. This House has to produce more than enough Energy and the Garden has to produce more than enough food to support the Family.

Garden City (Culemborg, the Netherlands)

Garden City (Culemborg, the Netherlands)

If we cluster all these Self-Reproducing Families/Houses & Gardens in a small City the chances are high that the combined talents of the families will be able to supply every profession needed if the people of the city want to Live a Simple Life.

It is also possible that the surplusses and shortages of the families can be compensated by creating a Market on the level of the small City or one level higher, the Region.

An Autarkic Movement becomes an Aggressive Competitive Nationalistic Movement when the Citizens of the Country feel that their Country is plundered by outsiders and their Leaders promise to get it all back by expanding the Space to Live (“Lebensraum“) to facilitate everything that is needed.

This happened when Germany was preparing for War after the enormous reparation payments of 132 billion gold marks to the Winners of World War I.

The Autarkic Movement could also become a Peaceful Cooperative Social Movement like the Movement of Gandhi in India when the people accept the Good Life they already live and want to share the surpluses with others who are in a worse state.

LINKS

Dutch Report about Local Energy Companies (in Dutch)

About the house that produces his own energy (Passive House)

The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency

About Close-Loops Systems

About Smart Grids

About Anti-Fragility

About Fractal Distribution Systems

Jerry Rifkin: About the Distributed Economy

The John Seymour School for Self Sufficiency

About Entrainment

About the EU Policy of Smart Specialization of Regions

About Darwin and Collaboration 

About Artificial Life

About Smart Technology

About the Thermodynamics of Living Systems

About Worldviews (How to find Complementary People)

A City is an Organism

About the Viable Systems Model of Stafford Beer

About Garden City

Gandhi’s view on Capitalism

The Autarkic Dreams of Germany

 

About the Grand Chessboard of Zbigniew Machiavelli

Monday, November 24th, 2008

I am afraid the big change of Obama will not change anything at all. It looks like the financial elite has placed a new pawn on the chessboard but the game and the players stay the same. The Geopolitical Players are defining a strategy to beat Russia and China.

Obama is surrounding himself with old fashioned politicians who are part of the old fashioned networks of the financial Elite. They are part of the famous World Conspiracy Groups like the Bilderberg Group, the Council of Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.

Obama is announcing the old-fashioned New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt to save the US and will use the same money printing machine of the FED to finance his plan.

The big difference with the time of Roosevelt is that the US is completely broke and has to start to pay his debts. Obama is postponing this moment because he knows (and the Elite knows) that the US Citizens are not prepared to move back to a state of poverty.

To save and to create jobs Obama has to Protect the US Economy againts the outflow of jobs to the New Economies, China and India. The emerging state of economic protection will generate huge effects in the World. When the US starts to protect its market others will follow soon.

The big question is if every country in the world will support the new policy of the US. The United States is still befriended with the four oil-rich Gulf States.

The US has already asked them 300 billion dollars to prevent its financial meltdown. The US is still by far wasting the biggest amount biggest of energy in the world and the Arabs need the US to sell their oil.

The biggest adversaries of the US, China and Russia are united in what is called the Shanghai Cooperation. The cooperation is connected to India and Pakistan but also to countries like South Africa and Brazil (BRIC).

One of the important geo-political strategists of the US is Zbigniew Brzezinski. He was one of the advisors of Obama on foreign policy. Brzezinski was also National Security Adviser of President Carter, the creator of the Trilateral Commission and an Associate of Henry Kissinger.

A few citations: “…The last decade of the twentieth century has witnessed a tectonic shift in world affairs. For the first time ever, a non-Eurasian power has emerged not only as a key arbiter of Eurasian power relations but also as the world’s paramount power. The defeat and collapse of the Soviet Union was the final step in the rapid ascendance of a Western Hemisphere power, the United States, as the sole and, indeed, the first truly global power…”

About 75 per cent of the world’s people live in Eurasia, and most of the world’s physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s GNP and about three-fourths of the world’s known energy resources.”"The most immediate task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia.”

The strategy and tactics of Brzezinski and his colleagues (Kissinger) have inspired every government of the US until now. It becomes very clear why there is a war in Afghanistan and why Irak had to be destroyed. The aim is to create one dominant power that is controlling the World called the United States.

The power of the Sovjet Union was destroyed by Financial Warfare and Political Instability (Kosovo) generated by the US and its allies (including the Netherlands!).

The Sovjet Union has recovered and has restored its old fashioned control structure. It is has started a new expansion strategy and slowly moving to the West. Putin knows that NATO is unable to resist his policy because the focus of NATO is in the East.

Putin also knows that the West (especiallyGermany) needs his huge resouces of oil and gaz. He knows that the Pipelines are the most strategic tools to manipulate the EG.

He also knows that Germany is deep within not an Adversary but a Companion. The only thing he has to do is break the EG. This will happen soon because of the big internal differences between the Rich and the Poor Countries.

China has become one of the most powerful nations in the World. An alliance between the two (and with Germany the tree) old fashioned adversaries of the US is a super treat for the dominance of the West.

It is very clear that the US is losing its strategic positions in every part of the world except the Middle East. In this area Iran is the most important adversary and it is very clear why the US together with its ally Israel is trying to play the same trick it used with Irak to start a new war.

What will happen?

The CIA will go on with its destabilization programs. They will create new enemys of the West to justify military activity (Afghanistan). Military activity always helps to stimulate the economy and keeps the focus of the citizens away from the real game.

Financial Warfare has proven to be a very effective tactic. The activities of the FED will be aimed at destabilizing China. Russia is already in trouble. The closure of the US Economy will stop the economic explosion of China. The only thing that is left for the BRIC-countries is to create an internal market and a common currency. Other countries in the world have to make a choice. Will they follow the leadership of the US or join the still growing economies of BRIC. In the End the Old fashioned Cold War between the US and the Communists (Russia/China/India,…) will start again.

The last and the most helpful activity to destroy the enemies and to speed up the economy will be an old fashioned (Third) World War. The battlefield of this war has to be far away from the US to avoid “nasty” consequences. Eastern Europe (Germany, Poland, …) is by far the best place to act. You have to do this without disturbing the relationship with EU. This is simple.

The big trouble is that Germany and Russia have already negociated a secret treaty. They have divided Europe into two territories that have a lot in common with the famous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Hilter and Stalin. The only thing Germany has to do is to break the EG into two parts.  This will generate a high tension between the old adversaries Germany and France.  

The EU will be in big trouble because of the economic crisis and every country will act on its own as soon as the weak countries (Spain, Greece, Portugal, Eastern Europe) really get into trouble. They will protect their economies and this will destabilize the European Union. The only thing you have to do to is to tease the Russians. They just want to be respected as a Super Power. Isolate them and show them that they are a powerless nation and they will become terribly angry.

The geopolitical players and followers of Machiavelli (Kissinger, Brzezinski, Poetin) don’t care about human lifes. They don’t care about democracy. Their only aim is to stay in power and to increase their power.

Machiavelli became famous by his book the Prince. It is a political cookbook for politicians to stay in power. The most important lesson is deceit. The politician has to show all the positive qualities needed to be loved by the people. He has to be merciful, faithful, humane, frank, and religious, but he should only seem to have these qualities.

A politician cannot truly have these qualities because at times it is necessary to act against them. The only ethic that matters is one that is beneficial to the politician in dealing with the concerns of his state. If his country wants a redeemer he has to look like a redeemer but behind the scene everything is allowed. You have to admit Obama is a great Actor and the Role of the Redeemer fits him well.

To defeat your opponents you have to commit them to your cause. If you are blamed. They are blamed also. The best way to beat the Clintons is to make them your partner. Hillary understands and practiced Machiavelli.

Introducing change is the most stupid thing you can do. You have to make everybody believe that the old is new. Everybody believes the New Deal was succesful and Roosevelt was a succesful president. So why not copy his scenario and (re)play his role.

`We must bear in mind, then, that there is nothing more difficult and dangerous, or more doubtful of success, than an attempt to introduce a new order of things in any state. For the innovator has for enemies all those who derived advantages from the old order of things, whilst those who expect to be benefited by the new institutions will be but lukewarm defenders. This indifference arises in part from fear of their adversaries who were favoured by the existing laws, and partly from the incredulity of men who have no faith in anything new that is not the result of well-established experience. Hence it is that, whenever the opponents of the new order of things have the opportunity to attack it, they will do it with the zeal of partisans, whilst the others defend it but feebly, so that it is dangerous to rely upon the latter.”

When his Power is at stake the Prince has to start a war.

A PRINCE ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank. And, on the contrary, it is seen that when princes have thought more of ease than of arms they have lost their states. And the first cause of your losing it is to neglect this art; and what enables you to acquire a state is to be master of the art“.

The big problem are mercenaries. To fight a war you need warriors who are dedicated to You and Nobody Else. Always please the Military Elite.

He who holds his State by means of mercenary troops can never be solidly or securely seated. For such troops are disunited, ambitious, insubordinate, treacherous, insolent among friends, cowardly before foes, and without fear of God or faith with man. Whenever they are attacked defeat follows; so that in peace you are plundered by them, in war by your enemies. And this because they have no tie or motive to keep them in the field beyond their paltry pay

When you want to fight a war fight a war with people who are not thinking in terms of strategy. The Chinese are highly stategic. They practise the Art of War of Sun Tzu. When you apply Sun Tzu you never fight a war. You exhaust your opponent. The best way to create a war is to tease your opponent to destroy himself.

My advice

If the current pattern is sustained my advice would be to find a hiding place. This hiding place has to be outside the area of the big earthquakes. It also has to be rather close to the equator because we will soon experience a new Ice Age. You have to be able to grow your own food so you need seeds and soil. Avoid the contaminated area’s in the world. The last thing is to avoid the battle ground of the last big war (Germany, Poland, Sweden).

How about Spain or Portugal?

Of course I could be wrong. Perhaps he is the real redeemer and I am deceiting myself because I don’t believe in honest politicians anymore. The best thing to do not to wait and see but to Act. The Citizens of the World don’t need big government to get into action. Creating networks is simple and everything you need is somewhere already available (even money). It is all about making the right connection!

LINKS

About Financial Warfare

About the FED Conspiracy

 The Grand Chessboard — American Primacy And It’s Geostrategic Imperatives,” Zbigniew Brzezinski, Basic Books, 1997

The text of the Prince of Machiavelli

Why the Russians always win a war

About the coming Ice Age