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Hauling garden amendments via electric bicycle trailer

Resilience is a worthwhile pursuit.

In the age of Peak Oil, in the decline of the American Empire, in the urgent face of climate change, in the rise of the Green + Go Local movements, this is one North American family’s journey (awkward, groping, often mis-stepped) towards resilience.

To re-purpose grass farmer Joel Salatin’s words:

“We ask for too much salvation by legislation. All we need to do is empower individuals with the right philosophy and the right information to opt out en masse.”

This blog details these “opt out” experiments so others can opt out en masse without suffering our same learning curve. We invest our time, talent, and treasure with these experiments – both personally and professionally – to bring positive change to our world. It’s much better than the alternatives (complaining, worrying, giving up).

Personally, we are learning practical skills (e.g. farming) by ourselves and in conjunction with our neighbors. Individual self-reliance is not the goal. Community-based self reliance is much more attractive.

Professionally, my wife focuses on direct help to people through social work and Health & Wellness coaching. For my part, I focus on building for-benefit organizations, both for-profit and non-profit. Thus far I’ve done that via eco and fair trade products, the abolitionist movement, teaching sustainability and advising MBA schools, building resilience into local communities, and – most recently – via film.

Feel free to dive deep via the chapters at right, do a quick search for your favorite topic, or start at the beginning.

Your thoughts and comments* are always welcome at optoutenmasse at gmail dot com.

* For the many who’ve asked why comments are now turned off on this site, I am no longer prioritizing the time required to moderate active comments so I can focus on building my local community. To encourage others to opt out en masse, if you are local, come on over to my place to discuss any of these projects in person. If you already know me (and thus my cell number), call me and I’ll talk to you about your resilience project while I weed. If you don’t fall into either of those categories, keep searching the web for someone local to you or head to your local library to find a treasure trove of how-to books specific to your micro-climate.