I’m asked: “What do you mean re: build the new society within the shell of the old?”

It’s encouraging that a whole segment of our movement has been arriving at a general consensus about what needs to be done. It ain’t ‘revolution.’ It’s more like: Ignoring capitalism to death.

Positive pathways toward transformation can be traced back to those green shoots that started to be planted fifty years ago during “the Sixties.” The movement has since thought things through, gained perspective, and agreed on the following points:

* The current social reality is fatally and deeply flawed . . . on the basis of a longstanding “progression” (headed in a misguided direction).

* No fundamental solutions can be expected from the currently predominant ideologies (liberalism, conservatism, socialism, nationalism, libertarianism).

* The “new paradigm” alternative (Green) does encourage all possible reforms (such as those advocated by Bernie Sanders, for instance), but warns against illusions about what can be accomplished via politics, protest, and advocacy.

* Capitalism is ruinous, but socialism is not the ultimate goal. Socialization of the extant economy might be more conducive for shifting toward the fully transformational re-direction that we advocate.

* The primary focus of our movement should be mostly on: “building the new society within the shell of the old.”

* * * *

OK, but how, specifically, do we go about it? . . . walk out the front door tomorrow and . . . do what?

Listed below are some “prefigurative” projects that can be initiated locally. The important thing is to engage in such projects and have in mind a social change orientation. Imbue all such projects with a spirit that “we’re part of a transformational movement to build the new society within the shell of the old.” Talk up the idea of networking with other like-minded people and projects:

. Transition Town initiatives
. housing cooperatives and ecovillages
. land trusts and community land cooperatives
. neighborhood councils and assemblies
. community gardens and CSA’s
. timebanks/alternative currencies
. transportation alternatives, car-sharing co-ops
. medical clinics, legal clinics, accounting/finance clinics, tech clinics
. childcare co-ops/democratic schools/community-based home-schooling
. locally-oriented coffeehouse-type cultural centers
. food co-ops/food banks
. psychotherapy co-ops and crisis centers
. independent media co-ops
. renewable energy co-ops
. production and service cooperatives of all kinds
. unions, labor rights, and workplace solidarity organizing
. progressive, social-change-oriented spiritual congregations
. alternative political parties