Eaarth Backing Off

        Backing off means to decentralize, to take into account that we have made vast nations and they no longer work. This chapter talks about how the system is no longer effective and that we need to build a new one, or rather, go back to one we used to harness. The one that carried us through most of our existence before the invasive revolutions we thought seeded so much growth in the right direction.
        McKibben talks about going back to communities where we actually talk with our neighbors and find use in them. This reminded me of a documentary that I watched called Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things which talked about only possessing what was absolutely necessary.
         Here is a good question, why do you need that jar that holds those colorful trinkets? What purpose do those trinkets serve other than please the eye or create ambiance? Do we need to indulge in that frivolous luxury? When everything goes to shit those trinkets will not do a thing to help your situation.
         McKibben also tells us about practicality, soon we will have to let go of childish things and understand that things such as fashion only do something for a world that is stable. He states, "As a culture and an economy, we've had the margin to afford a lot of abstractions." Now we must focus on what is actually needed, not what we think is adding to our value of life or somehow describing us with its special "thing" quality.
          My favorite part of this chapter was when McKibben mentioned that we will have to actually start working, not the 9-5, log everything into the inter-webs, but the work for the Eaarth. A lot of people expect this to be a lot but really "hunter-gatherers 'work' [was] about two hours a day" so we should really be excited. This obviously does not account for climate change but at least we have something to look forward to.