I’ve stood on the edge, more than once, since climate chaos roared into my world and destroyed everything. Believe me, you don’t want this trauma. I am saying this out loud, not for pity, but to demand your attention.
My suggestion to those who intend to go down the road of organizing community is to look into anarchist philosophy, both the modern movement as well as egalitarian indigenous practices that are effectively anarchist in all but name. In small bands, leaders can be useful but rulers are entirely unnecessary, and it's important to understand the difference. Anarchist thinkers and writers have been developing ideas on how this sort of organizing is done for decades now.
TLDR - if you think anarchism is "bombs and Mad Max," then stop thinking that and look into it. You're far more anarchist than you realize, and it's the best way to organize a small band.
So true, Patrick. Small is best. Shared, natural leadership. Shared, deep responsibility. No rulers.
I say 30, or 300, or 3000 ... but in truth more than 300 is unworkable without 'rulers'.
Along the way let's reclaim some important language that has been corrupted by the other side. I am, proudly, both anarchist and radical. Mainstream media and the far right be damned. Those words have deep, proud, and important meaning that we should embrace.
I'm not really sure that humanity really needs groups (tribes?) larger than a hundred or so. Dunbar number and all that, sure, but also it's just the way we evolved. We still have a paleolithic brain. We didn't evolve for empires. We evolved for villages and nomadic bands.
I am pretty sure Dunbar was wrong. The reason we need that number is to maintain healthy genetic diversity.
Dunbar's perspective is from living in a 2D society which dumbs us down.
I have integrated Intelligence and can go way beyond that number of relationshipd and know others deeply.
When you move to understanding your holistic intelligence you move into pattern recogntion. Which makes our current standards for intelligence the difference between gods and men.
Dunbar was limited to the cognitive only. We have way more to ability when we operate in our full sensing knowledge.
Thanks so much for sharing this Margi! What you have written hits home even more dramatically to me than the chaotic images we are becoming so used to seeing on our news bulletins. You have certainly provided exceptional insights, as an example, compared to what you get when asking an AI-engine questions like, ‘What advice do you have for those that lived and lost in the 2020 Black Summer climate-driven wildfires?’. It’s interesting to see their/its responses…as if they (AI) are really listening…?
Excellent, powerful visceral. This is exactly what people need to hear from those that have managed to survive these disasters. Thank you for this great essay, Margi. Let me just add since Margi didn't put it in numbers, in the devastating wildfires of Australia in 2021, three billion animals died, including 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs. Property damage and economic losses exceeded $1.3 billion. Fight or die whimpering people. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/convergence
Thank you for such honest, clear-eyed sharing. I was horrified by the Black Summer, and not long after that, the heat dome where I lived killed over a billion sea animals. But the pandemic proved to be more than a distraction - it drove those least equipped to deal with trauma to madness. And now we have King Trump. I suppose the sliver lining to this dark cloud is that he is so good at bankrupting ventures that he will hasten the collapse of the global heat engine. The question is will we be ready at that time to regenerate sensibly? And, as you make abundantly clear, that depends on the solidarity that we build b/t now and then. A new kind of solidarity is needed, and in order to build it, we must first marshal our resources.
I was nearly burned down in 2003, in Canberra's mega firestorm, where the first-ever true EF3 Fire Tornado was recorded coming from a bushfire. My house was missed just barely, but many on my street were not. The entire suburb next to ours went from being lush green tree-filled suburban streets and many houses, where many friends of mine lived, to being indistinguishable from the moon. The tornado picked up one-ton trucks and threw them tens of kilometers.
It happened all in an afternoon.
The forest I used to ride my bike in, Stromlo Forest, was all pine trees, most of them must have been there for a hundred years. They were simply enormous. Came right up to the houses. That forest went on for tens of kilometers in every direction.
Turns out, as we discovered, pine trees explode when on fire. Not burn: explode. When we saw how fast that fire came in, we knew there was simply no "saving the house". If the fire was going to take it, there was absolutely nothing human beings could have done to save it. Nothing. Staying with the house meant surrendering your life to chance. It's like playing russian roulette, where only one chamber is empty, and not because of anything you might have done.
That was the beginning of the age of firestorms. It really began in earnest in my home town. I watched in awe as the consequences of centuries worth of human greed made themselves felt upon my little inland home. Those consequences vapourised hundreds of homes in city suburbs. Not rural farmsteads or outback shacks, but the compact blocks and leafy streets and urban sprawl.
You never forget the sight of the aftermath. We are burning our world down, and it might even be too late to do anything meaningful to save what we can, but we must try; in 2003, I was able to evacuate to safety. There won't be anywhere to evacuate to if the whole earth is ablaze.
I remember that firestorm. I had a friend on the edges. I also remember how quick the world moved on and forgot it. Once you've seen the might of a wildfire in intense heat, you are forever changed. But, I can't even imagine witnessing that fire tornado. Respect.
The sun is changing, we are emerging out of a time when humanity was caught in an embodiment of an imbalance between being's and nature. We are experiencing Psycho-psi events brought on by the human mind. Global warming is only going one way and there is a tremendous amount of liquid gas that froze Antarctica and a tremendous amount of gas caught in the melting permafrost in the arctic. I have some posts on my thoughts on global warming if you care to read.
I have been aware that all the recent wildfires in NJ.........the death of wildlife is never mentioned.......and there have been more wildfires that are reported. It is truly frightening that so few are paying attention and that as a society, we keep ignoring what is happening..........
Thanks Margi, that's a beaut article. I'm in the suburbs on the Central Coast and subject to fire and flood. We have a chance to set up community awareness but complexity is increased as governments lie and create divisions. That said, learning about neighbourhood skills and knowledge is a start. Also, starting to learn about growing food will be useful. I'm over 70 and gobsmacked at the greed and spinelessness of our civilisation. Thanks again.
Thank you, Keith. Central Coast is a hot zone. You are right in the centre of the storm. Respect.
Growing food is where it is at for me ... which is no small thing after a lifetime of white collar work. But, feeding a community is perhaps the most radical and empowering thing I've ever done.
This is so agonizing. We have to become a caring world and not an antagonistic one so that it’s all hands on deck for everyone’s survival. That’s job #1. Please please subscribe to my Substack for getting us organized.
Suzanne, getting organised, online, is the antithesis of my message. If you look through my posts, and at my profile, I am urging people to get out into the real world and organise there, at the radically local level. I am not writing here to build yet more online platforms.
This piece really got to me—it’s raw, urgent, and heartbreakingly true. Reading it feels like standing in the middle of a forest fire, hearing the trees scream while everyone else just walks by with their headphones on.
It makes me think about how often the voices that matter—scientists, indigenous communities, even the Earth itself—are drowned out by the noise of profit and convenience.
My suggestion to those who intend to go down the road of organizing community is to look into anarchist philosophy, both the modern movement as well as egalitarian indigenous practices that are effectively anarchist in all but name. In small bands, leaders can be useful but rulers are entirely unnecessary, and it's important to understand the difference. Anarchist thinkers and writers have been developing ideas on how this sort of organizing is done for decades now.
TLDR - if you think anarchism is "bombs and Mad Max," then stop thinking that and look into it. You're far more anarchist than you realize, and it's the best way to organize a small band.
So true, Patrick. Small is best. Shared, natural leadership. Shared, deep responsibility. No rulers.
I say 30, or 300, or 3000 ... but in truth more than 300 is unworkable without 'rulers'.
Along the way let's reclaim some important language that has been corrupted by the other side. I am, proudly, both anarchist and radical. Mainstream media and the far right be damned. Those words have deep, proud, and important meaning that we should embrace.
Solidarity.
I'm not really sure that humanity really needs groups (tribes?) larger than a hundred or so. Dunbar number and all that, sure, but also it's just the way we evolved. We still have a paleolithic brain. We didn't evolve for empires. We evolved for villages and nomadic bands.
Agreed. 🧡
I am pretty sure Dunbar was wrong. The reason we need that number is to maintain healthy genetic diversity.
Dunbar's perspective is from living in a 2D society which dumbs us down.
I have integrated Intelligence and can go way beyond that number of relationshipd and know others deeply.
When you move to understanding your holistic intelligence you move into pattern recogntion. Which makes our current standards for intelligence the difference between gods and men.
Dunbar was limited to the cognitive only. We have way more to ability when we operate in our full sensing knowledge.
Help us organize, as I am trying to do.
Thanks so much for sharing this Margi! What you have written hits home even more dramatically to me than the chaotic images we are becoming so used to seeing on our news bulletins. You have certainly provided exceptional insights, as an example, compared to what you get when asking an AI-engine questions like, ‘What advice do you have for those that lived and lost in the 2020 Black Summer climate-driven wildfires?’. It’s interesting to see their/its responses…as if they (AI) are really listening…?
Thank you, Jeff. I struggle a bit to pin down how much people really want to hear. I am grateful for the feedback.
Excellent, powerful visceral. This is exactly what people need to hear from those that have managed to survive these disasters. Thank you for this great essay, Margi. Let me just add since Margi didn't put it in numbers, in the devastating wildfires of Australia in 2021, three billion animals died, including 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs. Property damage and economic losses exceeded $1.3 billion. Fight or die whimpering people. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/convergence
It was a nice planet.
Thank you for such honest, clear-eyed sharing. I was horrified by the Black Summer, and not long after that, the heat dome where I lived killed over a billion sea animals. But the pandemic proved to be more than a distraction - it drove those least equipped to deal with trauma to madness. And now we have King Trump. I suppose the sliver lining to this dark cloud is that he is so good at bankrupting ventures that he will hasten the collapse of the global heat engine. The question is will we be ready at that time to regenerate sensibly? And, as you make abundantly clear, that depends on the solidarity that we build b/t now and then. A new kind of solidarity is needed, and in order to build it, we must first marshal our resources.
I was nearly burned down in 2003, in Canberra's mega firestorm, where the first-ever true EF3 Fire Tornado was recorded coming from a bushfire. My house was missed just barely, but many on my street were not. The entire suburb next to ours went from being lush green tree-filled suburban streets and many houses, where many friends of mine lived, to being indistinguishable from the moon. The tornado picked up one-ton trucks and threw them tens of kilometers.
It happened all in an afternoon.
The forest I used to ride my bike in, Stromlo Forest, was all pine trees, most of them must have been there for a hundred years. They were simply enormous. Came right up to the houses. That forest went on for tens of kilometers in every direction.
Turns out, as we discovered, pine trees explode when on fire. Not burn: explode. When we saw how fast that fire came in, we knew there was simply no "saving the house". If the fire was going to take it, there was absolutely nothing human beings could have done to save it. Nothing. Staying with the house meant surrendering your life to chance. It's like playing russian roulette, where only one chamber is empty, and not because of anything you might have done.
That was the beginning of the age of firestorms. It really began in earnest in my home town. I watched in awe as the consequences of centuries worth of human greed made themselves felt upon my little inland home. Those consequences vapourised hundreds of homes in city suburbs. Not rural farmsteads or outback shacks, but the compact blocks and leafy streets and urban sprawl.
You never forget the sight of the aftermath. We are burning our world down, and it might even be too late to do anything meaningful to save what we can, but we must try; in 2003, I was able to evacuate to safety. There won't be anywhere to evacuate to if the whole earth is ablaze.
I remember that firestorm. I had a friend on the edges. I also remember how quick the world moved on and forgot it. Once you've seen the might of a wildfire in intense heat, you are forever changed. But, I can't even imagine witnessing that fire tornado. Respect.
What's even more incredible is that someone over in Kambah managed to get a video of it scouring Mt Arawang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H1eVy6O3Fo
First saw this just a few days ago, didn't realise anyone had actually managed to capture the real thing on film!
Thank you for sharing your story, Nicholas. I felt every word.
Cheers :) I'm writing up a more complete version to publish at some point. It's interesting looking back at that memory.
Wow, thank you for your words and the shaking!
I am listening. I hear its cries and i vow to end this injustice.
The sun is changing, we are emerging out of a time when humanity was caught in an embodiment of an imbalance between being's and nature. We are experiencing Psycho-psi events brought on by the human mind. Global warming is only going one way and there is a tremendous amount of liquid gas that froze Antarctica and a tremendous amount of gas caught in the melting permafrost in the arctic. I have some posts on my thoughts on global warming if you care to read.
I have been aware that all the recent wildfires in NJ.........the death of wildlife is never mentioned.......and there have been more wildfires that are reported. It is truly frightening that so few are paying attention and that as a society, we keep ignoring what is happening..........
You are right, Suzanne. So much is left out of the reporting ... and so people are blissfully unaware how serious this all is.
Thanks Margi, that's a beaut article. I'm in the suburbs on the Central Coast and subject to fire and flood. We have a chance to set up community awareness but complexity is increased as governments lie and create divisions. That said, learning about neighbourhood skills and knowledge is a start. Also, starting to learn about growing food will be useful. I'm over 70 and gobsmacked at the greed and spinelessness of our civilisation. Thanks again.
Thank you, Keith. Central Coast is a hot zone. You are right in the centre of the storm. Respect.
Growing food is where it is at for me ... which is no small thing after a lifetime of white collar work. But, feeding a community is perhaps the most radical and empowering thing I've ever done.
Agreed. The hard part for me is the part about there being so few people thinking this way, making it hard to actually organize and have community.
I thought that too, David. I was surprised when I started talking to people how many were there.
This is so agonizing. We have to become a caring world and not an antagonistic one so that it’s all hands on deck for everyone’s survival. That’s job #1. Please please subscribe to my Substack for getting us organized.
Suzanne, getting organised, online, is the antithesis of my message. If you look through my posts, and at my profile, I am urging people to get out into the real world and organise there, at the radically local level. I am not writing here to build yet more online platforms.
This piece really got to me—it’s raw, urgent, and heartbreakingly true. Reading it feels like standing in the middle of a forest fire, hearing the trees scream while everyone else just walks by with their headphones on.
It makes me think about how often the voices that matter—scientists, indigenous communities, even the Earth itself—are drowned out by the noise of profit and convenience.
I glad it connected with you, Maja. The image you conjure is chilling ... and sadly true.