Authors: Micahel Powers
Twelve by Twelve (34 page)
FURTHER READING AND (NON)DOING
- A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm
by Stan Crawford: Stan’s masterpiece, as discussed in chapter 8. - Your Money or Your Life
by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez: This book provided many of the ideas for chapter I9; it helps to reshape household economy as rebellion. - How to Be Idle
by Tom Hodgkinson: This is a witty manifesto on working less. - Anam Cara
by John O’Donohue: This exquisite book contributed to the ideas in chapter 23. - The End of Nature
by Bill McKibben: McKibben continues to be an intelligent voice for sustainability in American culture. Other recommended books include
Enough
;
Hope, Human and Wild
; and
Deep Economy
. - Yes!
(
www.yesmagazine.org
):
Yes!
is a positive, nonprofit news magazine with up-to-date happenings on the creative edge.
I AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL
to the many people who have helped with the creation of this book over the past three years.
Thank you to the friends who have read and given feedback on earlier drafts of
Twelve by Twelve
: Carolyn Burns Bass, Juliette Beck, Nick Buxton, Laurel Corona, Stan Crawford, Melissa Draper, Bethany Hensel, Dan Keane, Jessica Keener, Faith Krinsky, Karen Powers Liebhaber, Peter Manseau, Drew McMorrow, Evan Meyer, and Pamela Russ. Your ideas flow through these pages.
I am grateful to the World Policy Institute for its generous support for the book. WPI’s executive director, Michele Wucker, and director of development, Kate Maloff, have assisted the book and its ideas in innumerable ways.
New World Library’s extraordinary team has been wonderful to work with. A special thank you to Jason Gardner, my skilled and compassionate editor, as well as my dynamo publicist, Monique Muhlenkamp, and the imaginative, supportive Munro Magruder.
Copy editor Jeff Campbell went beyond the call of duty, providing
Twelve by Twelve
with deft line and structural editing.
I am very thankful to my agent, Michael Bourret, whose friendliness and professionalism make him a pleasure to work with.
Three interns, Tanushree Isaacman, Jonathan Kime, and Morgan Lehman, provided outstanding research assistance, editing, and outreach around the book.
For writing retreats, thanks to Jacques Schillings (Amsterdam), Sat Gurprasad Kaur (Espanola, NM), Walter of the Circle A Ranch (Cuba, NM), and also to Amy and Andrew Powers for inspiration at the Vermont dome.
And thank you to my mother and father, as always, for your love and encouragement.
Finally, a resounding, embracing thank you to everyone who appears in the book. I am incredibly grateful that you are part of my life and of this story.
A
abalone shells,
73–74
Abbey, Edward,
85
acequias
(irrigation canals),
88
acid rain,
169
action
self-worth equated with,
145
Adams, Leonard,
219
Adams, Mark,
219
addiction,
152
Africa
author’s humanitarian work in,
143
,
220
corporate pillaging of,
70
leisure ethic in,
150–51
wars in,
220
See also
Liberia
;
Sierra Leone
;
specific country
African Americans, racism against,
100–101
,
106
agnosticism,
234–35
agriculture.
See
industrial agriculture
;
permaculture
AgroMart,
230
allowing,
231–35
Amazon rainforest,
11
Amboro National Park (Bolivia),
175
American Dream,
83
American Nazi Party,
118
anam cara
(soul friendship),
110
Anderson, Brian,
219
antibiotics,
43
antiglobalization movement,
93
anti-immigration protests,
230
apartheid,
122–23
Araona people,
176
Aristotle,
57
atheism,
234–35
Audubon, John James,
85
Auschwitz concentration camp,
233
B
Barolow, Patrick,
219
barter systems,
88
bees,
14–15
being, doing vs.,
29–30
,
48–49
,
157
See also
idleness
Bella Vista (Bolivia),
176
,
177–80
Ben and Jerry’s,
12
Bend in the River, A
(Naipaul),
84
Berghahn, Volker,
169
bewilderment, knowledge traded for,
30–31
Biswas-Diener survey,
151–52
blames, driven into one,
124
Blowback
(Johnson),
222
Blue Clay People
(Powers),
216
,
247
,
249–50
Blue Heron Farm (intentional community),
21
Boatman, Darrel,
219
Bobby Lu’s Diner,
100
Bolivia
author’s ecotourism project in,
10
,
70
,
226
car ownership in,
62
cultural extinctions in,
175–80
idleness threatened in,
153–54
national parks in,
174–75
rainforest in,
11
size/population of,
174
urban slums in,
108
Bryant, Gyude,
248
Buchenwald concentration camp,
169–70
,
196
,
233
Buehring, Charles,
219
Buffet, Warren,
249
Burkina Faso,
150
C
caffeine,
163
Calhoun, Lee,
15
California,
96
Camp Lejeune (NC),
219
carbon-neutral communities,
95–96
Carrboro (NC),
70
Castaneda, Carlos,
155–56
caterpillars,
96–97
Chiapas (Mexico),
192–95
chickens
abuse of, at processing plants,
42–43
See also
Gold Kist Poultry Center
child abuse,
152
children
deciding to have,
171–72
emotionally disturbed,
170
child soldiers,
248
China,
250
China-Liberia Holding,
250
Chiquitano people,
62
Christian Science Monitor
,
70
Christmas, no-buy,
207–8
cities, rural movement to,
153–54
Civil Rights Act (1964),
105
clay, and spirit,
237–41
climate change,
84–85
Cold Mountain
(Frazier),
13
Colombia,
151–52
colonialism
internal,
145
resistance to,
94
community gardens,
257
Compact (buy-nothing agreement),
205
competition,
216–17
Complex 2030 (US nuclear capability plan),
222–23
compost,
27–28
Congo River Basin Rainforest,
11
consciousness,
256
consumerism,
245
colonization through,
76–77
decision to have children and,
171–72
decolonization and,
205–6
emotions and,
206
environmental/psychological effects of,
152
,
170
in Global South,
153–54
inner flatness and,
196
media literacy programs and rejection of,
90–91
reducing,
209–10
country steak,
98–99
coyotes,
35
Crawford, Katya,
88
Crawford, Stan
appearance of,
86
as author’s earth mentor,
85–90
,
91–92
noncooperation of,
89
as wildcrafter,
93–94
creative edge, the,
95–96
,
139–40
,
205
creativity,
157
credit cards,
209–10
cultural diversity, loss of,
175–80
,
181
Cytowic, Richard,
139
D
Da Cheng Ltd.,
250
Dare Not Walk Alone
(documentary; 2006),
105
debt, personal,
209–10
Deinos (Greek deity),
144
Denver (CO) airport,
81–82
depression,
152
development
inequality and,
152–53
living well and,
150–52
as rich nations’ mission,
149–50
Dominguez, Joe,
209
dragonflies,
197
drugs,
161–63
ducks,
244
Duke, David,
117
Durham (NC),
110–12
,
183
,
201–4
,
213–14
,
243–44
E
earth-centered cultures,
142–43
,
145
earth mentors,
85–86
ecocide
collaboration in,
169–70
,
198
,
233
defined,
83
denial in dealing with,
106
effects of,
83
mind control and,
196–97
wildcrafting as resistance to,
93–97
eco-communities,
77
,
78
,
95
,
228
,
259
ecological diversity, loss of,
84–85
,
181
ecotourism,
10
education
ecocide perpetuated through,
95
European models of,
160–61
traditional village concept of,
160
in US public schools,
161
Ehrlich, Gretl,
213
Eiseley, Loren,
85
El Alto slums (Bolivia),
154
El Bosque Small Farm (Dixon, NM),
86
,
88–89
,
91
electricity, living without,
28–29
,
55
,
131
Emory University,
152
emotion, positive,
60–61
empire, maladjustment to,
89–92
enough, strenuous contours of,
57–63
,
88
environmental era, honorable life in,
131–32
environmental refugees,
198
Enxet people,
176
Erasmus University (Netherlands),
151
ethnocentricity,
56
Europe
car demand in,
179
eight-hour workday in,
150–51
Everything Is Illuminated
(Foer),
185
expenses, tracking,
209–10
F
“facilitation” education model,
160–61
Fallen Dragons
(Z. Thompson),
163–64