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March 6, 2008 at 11:54:02

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A GUIDE TO PERSONAL SURVIVAL IN A WORLD GONE MAD, A Book Review of The Path Through Infinity's Rainbow, By Mike Byron

by Carolyn Baker     Page 1 of 3 page(s)

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We must leave the old left/right, liberal/conservative paradigm behind us. Smaller government under local control-as will be the case in the Renewal communities-could actually be considered a "conservative" idea....We are creating a new tomorrow from what will soon become antiquity; we are not rehashing petty divisions or reaffirming old prejudices.

~Mike Byron~

I can't remember exactly how I met Mike Byron, but we encountered each other online a few years ago and immediately sensed that we were intellectual and political allies. Mike generously wrote an endorsement for the back of my book U.S. History Uncensored: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You, and shortly thereafter, he sent me a copy of his first book, Infinity's Rainbow. After finishing it, as I recommended it and attempted to describe it, I found that I could best do so by calling it a catalog of the planetary emergency in which the earth community finds itself. Then Mike requested an endorsement from me for his next book, The Path Through Infinity's Rainbow which I was delighted to provide because it takes Infinity's Rainbow many steps further and offers options for individuals and communities in the wake of civilization's collapse.

Lest the reader erroneously infer from the words "infinity's rainbow" that either of these books are pieces of abstract, airy-fairy fluff, I hasten to assure you that they are not. Mike Byron is a professor of political science and history and in my opinion, has critically analyzed the complex relationships between the monumental issues of our time: Peak Oil, climate chaos, and the economic sea changes that "a world gone mad" is forcing us to address. In his words, The Path Through Infinity's Rainbow offers a guide to: "Navigating the coming years of crisis; surviving and transforming our world; and participating in the creation of a new, sustainable economy."

In this review, I'd like to share how the book skillfully does this along with my experience of immersing myself in the pages of its sobering information and compassionate wisdom. Dedicated to his wife and partner, Ramona, her presence enhances the book with several stories which provide a delightful right-brain complement to Mike's analytical research and commentary.

The Path Through Infinity's Rainbow is a blending of reality and vision. While it's true that the first page of the introduction states that "...the patient effort of five hundred human generations and the struggles of ten momentous millennia are in the process of being obliterated forever, as though they never occurred," it is also true that the very first paragraph states:

This book is intended to empower you to navigate through the coming years of crisis, to survive and transform, and to participate in the creation of a new and sustainable political economy. It is a guide for thoughtful, knowledge-based action. (xiii)

Fortunately, Mike doesn't convey any feel-good "hopeful, happy endings" but rather encourages the reader to seize her own opportunities for empowerment in the face of what some like Bill McKibben have called "the end of nature".

In Chapter 2, Byron states that "While learning is always continuing on an incremental basis, it is existential crisis alone that actually compels fundamental change if collapse is to be avoided." (20) I would argue, as does Byron in a later chapter, that collapse cannot be avoided because it is well underway, and I would also argue that collapse itself will produce monumental existential crises that will manifest the "memes" or "fundamental units of information that are linked schematically in an associative manner." (21) The example the author gives of a meme is the sight or thought of a rose leading to recalling by association "the scent of the flower, romantic occasions, walking hand-in-hand on a beach".

Memes lead to a common view of reality that results in a common culture. Thus, it seems to me that one of the basic causes of the collapse of Western civilization lies in the commonly accepted memes which have engendered stories that have brought us to where we are: that humans are superior to the other-than human world; that our survival depends on unrestricted, indiscriminate growth; that profit is more important than people and the earth community; that nature's abundance-which we have come to call "resources" are infinite and that humans have a fundamental right to privatize, use, control, and squander them. Collapse will unequivocally alter these assumptions and cause humans to create very different stories from the ones that have formed the underpinnings of empire.

But not only must the stories be changed, according to Byron, so must how we do things, and most importantly, "we must also fundamentally change ourselves." (23) Out of the ashes, he believes, could rise a sustainable civilization. While I agree, I also cannot imagine this happening in the short span of a few decades but rather requiring at least centuries. Humans are now visiting ecological trauma on planet earth that will take millennia, if not millions of years to eradicate.

Those who appreciate systems theory may revel in Chapter 2, "Concepts." As one whose eyes begin to glaze when delving too deeply into these principles, the most meaty portion of the chapter was the last page in which Byron combines both harsh reality with the promise of transformation.

"It is now far too late," he says, "to prevent our looming petro-collapse and all of its environmental consequences. Like the Titanic approaching the iceberg, collision with our attractor is now both inevitable and imminent. The difference is that, unlike the Titanic, we are actually speeding up as we approach our ‘iceberg'." (34)

This paragraph is so momentous, so poignant that the reader must ponder it carefully. Please let it sink in: We cannot prevent catastrophe, and the pace with which we are plummeting toward it is accelerating. When the impact of these two statements sinks in, how can anyone reading these words assume that his/her own or the planet's "business as usual" can continue?

But the author does not leave us there because he quickly adds:

However, it is possible for many of us to survive the catastrophe and to sow the seeds for civilization to be renewed with all of the learning of past ages relatively intact. This is because at the very center of it all are the ordered patterns of memes from which our minds emerge and interact with the minds of others. We can ensure that the lessons learned from this impending collapse are firmly incorporated into the minds and culture of our successor civilization's citizens and into their institutions and laws. (34)

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Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. is author of U.S. HISTORY UNCENSORED: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You. Her forthcoming book is SACRED DEMISE: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization's Collapse. She also (more...)
 

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"a vision that all living things can share"

Absolutely fascinating and a bit overwhelming. The scope of the topic is so vast it's hard to know exactly where to begin. I'm truly sorry your essay hasn't stimulated an active discussion on OEN.

Well, let me say at the outset that I'm in full agreement with the points raised about the inevitable collapse of global civilization. We have just expanded and expanded and expanded until we have finally encountered the realities of finite resources. I affectionately refer to our culture as "Westward Ho's." Well, now we're running out of "west." The UN has estimated that the current global population of humans, roughly 6 billion people, will expand to 9 billion by the year 2050. If you think it's crowded on the planet now, just wait a few years. There will be no food, no water and no "higher consciousness" to resolve any conflict.

What I don't really understand about your "local governance" and self-sustaining (i.e. not a "civilization") communities is why smaller is better. I put tremendous emphasis on this paragraph you quoted from Byron's book:

"I can't stress this point enough: the ultimate source of civilization's crises arises from our own deepest values. If these are not changed-if we do not change-then no technology can do any more than briefly delay civilizational Collapse-at the cost of making the Collapse of even greater magnitude than would otherwise have been the case."

The first question one must ask is whether it is our own "deepest values" that are causal or whether it is our own "deepest nature." Let's hope that humans can learn from their mistakes. It's not clear we can.

Further, and this is one of the primary problems I have with the "higher consciousness after the collapse" meme, it's not clear how those who "obtain enlightenment" ("suffering is the origin of all consciousness") will be able to seize power from the "greedy ones" and codify our new-found values into laws. When we look beyond "current stories" and we look beyond "political solutions" and we look beyond revolution, are we not somehow left with a somewhat unfounded hope in the evolution of human consciousness as a solution? What evidence is there, even after as yet unprecedented "teaching" events occur, events that can teach us a new way to interrelate, that the hunger for power and greed as human defects will be transcended? Further, absent that transcendence in all or at least most humans, how are smaller communities somehow immune to oppression from centralized, nationalized oppression? The "go local" meme sounds like something of a hybrid between the enlightened "back to nature" isolationist movements of the 70's and the insanity of the "git your guns and build your bomb shelters" anti-social survivalists.

This is not to say I disagree with the ideas of "getting small." In reality, we can even take the concept down to the individual transaction level. How will you and I relate to each other when there is conflict? If the values, i.e. the rules we impose on our own conduct, don't work at the transaction level, it's hard to envision how they can work at the local community level or at a national or international level. This goes back to the quoted paragraph above which argues that we have to change ourselves if we're looking to architect a better world to live in.

Still, the bottom line, the place that I "get stuck" with all the wise people around me who advocate for more representative, more empowering local governance, is that I cannot envision how smaller, local communities will not, once again, be swallowed whole by darker, larger, more centralized forces. The strong have always devoured the weak. Small enterprises find strength in growing larger. Nation states press their economic and military superiority to exploit weaker nations. Is the message of hope that somehow, with new stories and the lessons of a failed global civilization and a higher consciousness that understands that cooperation rather than competition is the only way to survive, those who violate the new order will be unable to impose their will? Is the message that, after humankind goes through the dark times, "nice guys" will no longer finish last? It's very hard for me to understand how you see that coming about. What is the future's dynamic that will build a world where the bad guys cannot gain the upper hand and exploit the masses?

The topics you raised and those you described from Byron's books are so important and yet they don't even appear on the national radar. I suppose it's human nature to hope we can avoid a global collapse even when there is no real justification for doing so. On one level, it's understandable that so many choose to avert their eyes. On another, perhaps this doesn't absolve them of their responsibilities as global citizens. I've always found the following song uplifting.

Lyrics to "Brother Warrior" by Kate Wolf

Gentle warrior, with your heart like gold and a rainbow in your eyes
Brave companion, do you see a world shining in the sky?
With your body dancing like an arrow, spreading joy beneath your feet,
And your hands that wave like tall grass in the wind as you speak.
With the shyness of a small child and the wisdom of a sage,
I tell you now, there is no reason to be afraid.

Brother warrior, there are none of us who walk this path alone.
Spirit healer, it's the only life that we have ever known.
I see your smile in the sunlight, I hear your song in the rain,
And I hold you here inside me, feel your love, know your pain.
At this time when the earth is waking to the dawn of another age
I tell you now, there is no reason to be afraid.

We are crying for a vision that all living things can share
And those who care are with us everywhere.

by welshTerrier2 (7 articles, 3 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 105 comments) on Friday, Mar 7, 2008 at 1:34:35 PM

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Reply: Thank You Welsh!

Thank you for your comments. Have you seen "What A Way To Go: Life At The End Of Empire"? If not, run don't walk, to buy it at www.whatawaytogomovie.com.

by Carolyn Baker (45 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 33 comments) on Friday, Mar 7, 2008 at 1:56:49 PM

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