[pf] 'our brothers keepers' taken too far

>At 13:31 21/01/00 +1300, David MacClement wrote (in Re: Care for 
>dependents):
>     We, to some degree, are our brothers' keepers, but IMO that idea is
>often taken too far.
>
At 09:14 21/01/00 -0500, Maynard S. Clark wrote, [in Re: Care (parental
love or care: Sorge)]:
> ... gets in the way of actually accomplishing something for others.
>
>msc
>

**  This (below) is about a proper balance between being (2) 'our brothers
keepers' (including community-supply of goods and services) and (1) being
sufficiently self-reliant that you only use what you really need; /you/ do
the work and it costs you (in effort and planning ahead), so you don't
over-use.

**  (1) A community supply should decrease its impact on the earth if you
don't draw-from or use it. So if most people in a town opt for a simple
life, the overall cost of that town's existence should decrease accordingly.

**  (2) A rich country like New Zealand or the US _should_ be ashamed of
itself if _any_ of its citizens: often-go-hungry / might-die-in-winter /
are-frequently-ill / can't-get-all-the-education-they-can-use. Paul the
Apostle was proud to be a Roman citizen, though that was somewhat
different; most city people were slaves (or nearly), then.
    One should interpret that first statement in light of the fact that the
USA (this also applies to the Roman Empire) is a figment of the
imagination, a convenient convention. Communities require some sort of
contact to have any degree of reality, so telephone, mail, and Net contacts
are long strands added to one's real community: the people one meets often
enough to know they're there. With this view, you can and should feel some
(shared) responsibility for the people (_all_of_them_) in one's own
community, to the extent of letting the local wino live in your (heated)
garage through the winter, etc. Nan may have better examples. And if you
have craft or trade expertise/ experience, you could select from the local
gang, one to four members who show promise and are willing to be apprentice
electricians (or whatever); a multi-year commitment. And in my case
(together with others on this list), at least becoming known as
available-to-tutor those who want to find-out/ understand, but are getting
bored by their normal weekly activities (school, boring job, etc.). 
    I've just noticed that, at 06:44 2/01/00 -0800, Jill wrote (in: Re:
[pf] Third Party Opportunity):
>.  Encouragement for other types of education, such as homeschooling,
>apprenticeships, interest group study.   Encouragement to build local, 
>small neighborhood learning centers, where citizens could have access 
>to room to meet, discuss and learn together, have access to computers, 
>and plan community activities.  Perhaps using the consolidated buildings 
>for regional meeting places and learning centers.

**  This isn't to denigrate one's fellow-feeling for: people you don't
know; other mammals (e.g. a dog, an orangutan, a whale); other animals like
the ants and spiders in our house and the birds and lizards outside; an
impressive tree, and other individuals in the plant kingdom. 
    This letter is about minimising our costs to the earth.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

**  As you know, I lean towards independence, being an a-social person. So
to minimise public-sector costs-to-the-earth, this is what I'd recommend:-

(1) In most towns and suburbs, when living in single-family dwellings,
water should be collected off the roof, and stored in 4000 or 7000 gallon
tanks. This would lead to valuing one's water, in contrast to some
Aucklanders who've recently been saying: 'you shouldn't have to pay for
water; since it's a life requirement it should be free'. They forget that
they're getting reticulated water, and the cost of installing and
maintaining the pipes has to come from somewhere; it should be from the 
users.
    With tanked rainwater there should be a (costly) back-up; in Greenhithe
we have several water-tanker companies who'll re-fill your tank within a
day of your order. They get it from the municipal supply: currently from a
metered fire-hose outlet attached to the mains pipe under the main roads,
in the future probably from one of the town's huge reservoirs (we have them
on the top of many of the hills, here in Auckland).

(2) In the same areas (towns and suburbs of single-family dwellings) there
should be no sewerage system; composting toilets would allow safe recycling
of the nutrients that have been extracted from the land, back to the land.
Another big advantage is that the chemicals that pollute the sewage in
almost all cities would be kept out, and these heavy metals, pesticides,
and other toxics that industry disposes free currently (into the municipal
sewer) would have to be disposed of at a cost to the polluter.
    The shovelling-out of the compost every few months (4-6) would be done
by contractors, who would ensure that the ex-sewage compost is matured
enough to be safe, then distributed to farmers and horticulturists for use
on the land.

(3) Getting one's food from within 20-200 miles would mean that you're not
dependent on fossil-fuelled trucks bringing the produce long distances.
Some or most food would come from own garden and you _could_ get what you
need beyond that by riding a bicycle or horse, if gasoline and diesel are
scarce (the goal of big business - to have control of the supply of a
scarce good or service). 
    See the Pos Fut "200 miles" discussion at:
http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/lrg/200_miles_food.html (83kB long)

(4) There's little need for very straight, smooth roads. The current fetish
for "rush, rush" and luxury is unaffordable when you take into account all
the negative impacts. Cars, buses and light-weight trucks would use the
simple (not highly-maintained) roads, and trains would carry the heavy
stuff. I go to an extreme, and need only all-weather tracks to walk or
mountain-bike on; my wife this last weekend travelled by bus for a day to a
meeting near our capital (Wellington), which lasted Saturday and Sunday,
then she took yesterday (Monday 31 Jan) to bus back again - so there is a
need for moderate-speed highways similar to the best of what there was
before the Interstate System. (She usually travels that distance by train,
but that's currently nearly the same cost as air travel.)

(5) Now, about soaring 'health-care' costs. Public-funded hospitals and
clinics /are/ needed, but they should only be for accident & emergency
(e.g. major surgery); otherwise one should keep healthy, for example by
keeping stress to a minimum. Extra services like plastic surgery should
only be used by burn and other accident victims. Yes, there will be a grey
area, like hip replacement and some other elective surgery; this needs long
debate, and re-examination about every ten years.
     I don't believe one should consider illness and disability (and even
death) as abnormal - something that has to be 'fixed' with the minimum
interference with one's "life"; as if you were in control of your life! The
belief in magic, as dispensed by doctors and pharmacists, is as strong now
as it was in the Middle Ages.

David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3142/Pg1-AD11.html
 or better: http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/
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