"GRADUATING" FROM GRADUATING FROM COLLEGE: THE IVORY TOWER CRUMBLES (h/t to EB)
As industrial civilization continues its descent; as unemployment expands over the next decade, perhaps to the point where jobs as we have known them no longer exist; as Peak Oil dictates dramatic constrictions in local and long-distance travel; as larger systems crumble and communities are forced to come together to save their local places or face extinction; as food production becomes intensely local, and as everyone is forced to downsize every aspect of life, we need to stop preparing youth for a world that no longer exists and start preparing them for a new economy and a new culture built around local cooperation and earth stewardship as opposed to global competition and endless growth.
Young people, and in fact all who are able, need to learn practical, tangible skills for navigating a post-petroleum, post industrial world. While many college-age people are opting to learn farming and food production skills, those represent only a handful of skills that will be needed in the Long Emergency. Training in natural healing, emergency response and first aid, permaculture principles of design, teaching basic education in home school or ad hoc settings, operating small businesses that serve and are supported by the local economy, metal and woodworking, electrical wiring and repair, bee keeping, ham radio operating, manufacture of clothing and shoes, water purification and storage, fuel storage, firearms and self-defense skills-all of these skills will be desperately needed in the future.
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