The Transitions Movement [Essays of the Heart]

7/28/2019 The Transitions Movement [Essays of the Heart].

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THE TRANSITIONS MOVEMENT.

Chris James.

The Transitions Movement [also referred to as Transition Towns] is said to

build resilience amongst small communities by returning them to a localized

land economy.1 In this essay I argue that the most devastating impacts on life

and land are caused by the desire for territory, raw resources and ongoing wars.

I contend that localization will not create appropriate change it will merely

allow for the re-territorialization of existing power relations. Further, in the

context of escalating regional violence I argue that stand alone localization will

enforce feelings of patriotism, nationalism and xenophobia.

Localization puts a strong focus on resilience and protection for local

communities by way of limiting consumption and growing local food. There is

always justification for reducing consumption and improving domestic food

productivity, but its necessity pales against the desperation felt by the worlds

impoverished millions who must rely on the international community for

support. Many of these people are the victims of government mismanagement,

secret dealings, corporate greed and renewed colonization; added to this are the

growing impacts of global warming. Most of these problems are caused by

capitalism. The Transitions movement is not against capitalism it merely colors

it green and calls it sustainable. Living with sustainable capitalism does not

equate with a sustainable world. Undoubtedly, local communities need

resilience and self-help is generally a good means of positive reinforcement and

psychological uplifting when times are hard, but the local and the global are

both important. The history of western development is one of exploiting the pre-

modern world and global warming is not sufficient reason to abandon these now

developing populations or for suggesting they fend for themselves. The world

1Rob Hopkins [2004] Transitions Handbook, Totness, Green Press, p8.


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needs a strong global social movement to combat poverty, aggression and

climate change. Environment issues are global and the well being of the planet

is contingent on the well being of all its global inhabitants.

Globalization and corporatization run alongside in the growing condemnation

of fast capitalism, but globalization need not be predicated on corporate greed

and damage to people or the environment. The corporation is a feature of civil

society and the western middle class. Corporatism grew out of the Capitalist

Revolution, the new mercantile class and the nation state, which stands in

opposition to any kind of benevolent internationalism.

It was inevitable that national capitalism would become global and this has

produced damaging results for the western middle class and small business, yet

the desire to make lifesmallandsimple is a return to nationalism and misplaced

because it leads to the negation of bigger problems at hand.

The Transitions Movement represents the reification of a declining middle

class and the reinvention of capitalism via the green dollar; this is not the end of

corporate greed and worker exploitation. Indeed, some of the worlds poorest

people are being exploited to fuel the western green revolution. Green

capitalism means more competitiveness not less and this brings additional

hardships for the poor and disadvantaged. The new transitions discourses also

include sophisticated forms of indoctrination used to bring about false

consciousness; for example the idea that the impoverished can be lifted out of

their misery via a western type civil society based on localization. Civil society

is a meretricious system; it does not empower people to seek equality.

Anti-Enlightenment and the De-Centering.

The Transitions Movement shares with the eighteenth century anti-

Enlightenment Movement the trend of de-centering the subject in favor of a


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world viewed through a transcendent nature; this is the world imagined, not the

world as it is. At the same time it allows for business as usual elsewhere.

Odd though it may seem, some of the worlds biggest polluters are also the

greatest advocates for the environment, but the aim is to make money and

protect the elite not to improve the worlds ecosystems. As such, I contend that

the proposed transition is also promulgating the existence of a green rich and a

green poor, the same formula inherent in capitalism. To this end, I contend the

Transitions Movement works to prop-up an old established and conservative

orderusing feel good philosophies and commodity fetishes. This, in my view,

puts the Transitions Movement amidst the New Age Green Deal discourses and

quasi-religious cults. Further, I contend this turns direct political action and

resistance into passive and subordinate resilience, which can only benefit a

ruling class.

Importantly, most people joining the Transitions Movement are well

motivated and have genuine concerns for the future of the planet; but like every

group and movement, the intentions of the masses might be well founded, but

when power becomes concentrated amongst the few then it those in the higher

echelons who will stand to benefit. History has shown that grass roots

movements all too often become top down, institutionalized frameworks co-

opted by governments and corporate interests. This leads to a discourse of

doublespeak that leaves many people confused.

The idea of a transition has an appealing ring to it and there have been

many forms of transition and community renewal mostly focused on skills

development and education for example, the Australian Federal Governments

Learning Towns initiatives.

The term transition is used quite frequently in relation to health issues and

it holds particular interest for psychotherapists who use the notion of atransition for the treatment of abnormal anxieties. One can for instance,


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transition the internal narratives for more mindful, and sometimes more

subordinate outcomes. Transition is a double edged sword, it can empower

people or it can be disempowering.

The Role of Groups in Development.

The Transitions Movement has developed into a popular brand and it has

raised a number of questions about how we should develop Australian

communities. Should there be class issues, hierarchy and attempts to further

overlay European models of conservation onto a vast and very different

landscape? How might a transition impact on Aboriginal peoples? For First

Nation populations the word conservation has a very different meaning.

Indeed, the entire notion of conservation was formulated around colonization

whereby museums were created to hold the trophies of colonial conquest

including the shrunken testicles, heads and scalps of the tribal warriors. In

many parts of the world conservation equates with invasion and genocide.

Should we be desensitized to these terms or should we amend our language?

The Transitions Movement with its British origins has resonated verystrongly with previous colonization[s] especially in the selling of its brand

overseas. Further, the Movement seems destined to target particular groups

while excluding others. Importantly, transitions need resources and the poor

lack the appropriate resources to take part in the high tech energy revolution so

they get forced into subsistence living.

There are many anomalies. As much as one might dislike the exploitation ofglobal capital to suddenly remove jobs from the worlds poorest people would

cause yet another humanitarian crisis. Any transition has to include workers

rights and this means a commitment to radical politics.

Neo-Colonization.

After reading Michael Perelmans book, The Confiscation of American

Prosperity I began to take a deeper interest in the more obscure forms of


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colonization. In particular, the way the right-wing revolution had occurred in

America over the past thirty years and how it had divided society by deepening

inequality. This has led to conspiracy theories claiming the existence of a secret

plot to bring about a one world government whereby the response has been a

return to localization and smaller governments. Many of these groups claim to

be non-political, many are religious and/or Evangelical. I see no problem with a

one world government in principle. It depends who runs it and whether it is a

fair and just government. I envisage a lot of problems arising from government

policies influenced by the church and/or the New Age quasi-religious groups.

This could never happen, I hear people saying. It is happening.

Undoubtedly, there is little justice in the world today. Over the past three

decades the rich have confiscated the resources and income from the poor and

middle classes creating an underclass of unemployed and/or cheap labor.

Perelman maintains this situation leads to an eventual crisis.2

Others have

called it a total collapse.3

Desperate people take desperate measures and often

look outside the norm for solutions. Religions and myths have strong appeal atthese times of difficulty. It begs the question, how might the Transitions

Movement address the global issues from a local perspective without playing

into the hands of the ruling elite?

Transitions are not a new idea. Quasi-religious groups and cults have

been trying to transition their societies for centuries, a few have succeeded;

most have failed. In 2008 Richard Sen ORourke prepared a Masters Thesis atthe London School of Economics & Political Science titled Transition Towns:

Ecotopia Emerging? The role of Civil Society in escaping Carbon Lock-In.

ORourke asked what is it about the Transition Town movement that seems to

2 Michael Perelman [2012] The Confiscation of American Propserity:From Right-Wing

Extremism and Economic Ideology to the Next Great Depression. Palgrave Macmillan.

3 Jarod Diamond. [2004] Collapse: How Societies decide to Fail or Succeed. London.

N.Y. Viking.


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have caught the publics imagination? Particularly in light of the current UK

Governments beleaguered Eco-Towns initiative which seems plagued with

difficulties.4 ORourke took as his lead from two important publications

dealing with environmental failure on climate change. The World Wild Life

Fund [WWF] report entitled Weathercocks and Signposts: The environment

movement at a crossroads [WWF UK, 2008] and Death of Environmentalism,

[Shellenberger & Nordhaus, 2004] and the subsequent book, Breakthrough:

From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility [Nordhaus &

Shellenberger, 2007]. Using these two critiques of environmentalism as lenses

through which to investigate the emerging Transition Initiatives, ORourke

interviewed various well known ecologists and then compared their views to

those of the Transitions Movement. ORourkes thesis drew specifically on

how the movement articulates its vision of the future and the values of the

people drawn to its vision. He suggested there was nothing new about the

Transitions Movement. The people who joined it had roughly the same values

and middle class status as those who joined other environment movements.Many were attracted to the new focus of peak oil as a vehicle for change, but

whether the argument could be sustained into the future was uncertain as oil

production was escalating with new technologies. ORourke also noted the

strong ecological and permaculture links, but he stopped short of calling the

Transitions Movement a popular cult. Nor did he link the Transitions Movement

with the previous Anthroposophy Movement. This is not surprising theconnection is not well publicized. ORourke noted the isolationist tendencies

of the Transitions Movement, but not the political consequences.

The major appeal of the Transitions Movement has been its depoliticized

stance, which leads people to assume there are no politics involved in the

Movement. Unquestionably, people have felt sick of mainstream politics that go

4 Richard Sen ORourke London School of Economics& Political Science Geography

& Environment Department Environmental Policy & Regulation Program 2008


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nowhere. Rob Hopkins, the Transition Towns founder made it clear that his

movement is not political because he was fearful of being associated with the

political Left,5

but this claim does not necessarily make the movement non-

political. In fact the Transitions Movement is deeply inscribed with a discursive

conservation temper that is highly political.

To think about depoliticized as being non-political is misleading. It is, I

would argue, a means of avoiding political scrutiny. As methodology expert

Michael Crotty has stated there is always the towering figure of Karl Marx

casting his shadow over all inquiry that describes itself as critical.6

The Mood of New Millennium Politics.

It was the 2004 collapse of mainstream environmentalism that gave rise to

the new depoliticized Transitions Movement with a focus on localization and

green market perspectives. Against this dramatic change there has been little, if

any action by governments to halt the destruction of the environment by the

worlds dirtiest industries. There has been a new emphasis put on border

protection which finds strong correlations with the localization ideals.

Patriotism has increased as has the shift back to nationalism and corporate

imperialism. In effect the fears of being associated with the Marxist left have

given rise to an emerging new right extremism, whereby staunch conservative

and openly neo-Nazi groups appear to be enjoying a resurgence in Europe. It

comes at a time when the capitalist markets are plagued by increasing financial

chaos and ongoing social disquiet. Why should this concern us?

5 ABC Bush Telegraph. 13th June 2011. Interview: Chris James and Rob Hopkins.

Founder of Transitions Towns Answers Criticism. Director B.Tromp.

http:/www.abc.net.au/rural/telegraph/content/2011s3242428.htm Retrieved 20th May

2012.

6 Michael Crotty [1998] The Foundations of Social Research, Sydney, Allen and Unwin,

p114.


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The 2012 Greek electorate gave 7% of their votes to the neo-Nazi Golden

Dawn party and the group subsequently opened an office in Melbourne. There

is a large Greek population in Melbourne and the group argues that they are

targeting this immigrant population, not Australian politics in general. Time

will tell! In the meantime, the neo-Nazis are uniting the marginalized groups

across Europe, Russia, Scandinavia and the United States with a promise to

return to a perceived nationalist socialist idyllic world.

Clearly, when the system is visibly breaking down, people break down too.

While the rich scramble for every last ounce of gold, oil, gas or precious

minerals they can find, the poor go hungry. As previously stated desperate

people seek out desperate measures, which can often be presented as innocuous

and compelling.

Transition Towns.

The Transition Towns Movement originated in the United Kingdom as a

response to peak oil and climate change and emerged from the ideas of an

environment student named Louise Rooney. These ideas were later made

popular by the environment studies teacher Rob Hopkins. Transition Towns

was founded in Kinsale, Ireland and later spread to Totnes when Hopkins

moved there in 2005 and 2006. Hopkins had worked on an Energy Descent

Action Plan with the students of Kinsale College of Further Education. A

student, Louise Rooney developed the Transition Towns concept, which was

then presented to Kinsale Town Council. This resulted in the historic decision

by the Council to adopt the plan and work towards creating an energy descent.

Hopkins pushed the idea to international fame. The main aim of Transition

Towns was to raise awareness of sustainable living and to build local resilience

against peak oil and climate change. Communities were encouraged to follow

the 12 steps plan set out in the Transition Handbookfor reducing energy usage,


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and creating resilience. One of the major initiatives has been the creation of

community gardens to grow food. The gardens follow the models of deep

ecology and permaculture which in turn has links with the bio-organic advocate

and mystic Rudolf Steiner whose teachings are called Anthroposophy. Totnes

also devised its own local currency, the Totnes pound, redeemable in local

shops and businesses.7

Geographer Nicholas Crane made a documentary film called Totnes and he

calls the Transition Towns project an ambitious social experiment.8

Unlike

Australia, Britain is a distinctly urban nation with an expected rise in urban

dwellings by 2030 housing approximately 92 percent of the population.

However, the town of Totnes stands in stark contrast to the new and often sterile

cities of England by offering a deep sense of history and nostalgia, but it does

not come cheap and it is not for everyone. Totnes is a Saxon town in South

Devon and one of the oldest towns in Great Britain. By the 12th century Totnes

was already an important market town due to its river access. By 1523,

according to a tax assessment, Totnes was the second richest town in Devon,

and the sixteenth richest town in England.9

According to the Historia Regum

Britanniae written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in around 1136, the coast of

Totnes was where Brutus of Troy, the mythical founder of Britain, first came

ashore on the island.Set into the pavement of Fore Street is the Brutus Stone,

a small granite boulder onto which, according to local legend, Brutus first

7 Wikipedia.Org/Transition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition Retrieved 9th

October, 2009.8 Nicholas Crane, [2011] Towns BBS 2 Episode 4 shown on Australian SBS Friday 3rd

December, 7.30 pm.

http://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5gl Retrieved8th December, 2011.

9 Don Stansbury, [1998] 9071523: The kings town. In Bridge, The Heart of Totnes.

Tavistock: AQ & DJ Publications. pp. 123131. And

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes Retrieved7th December, 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitionhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition


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stepped from his ship and named the town Totnes [totnis or totnes].10 Totnes

is not a mainstream town, it is said to have more heritage listed buildings per

head than any other town in Britain. 11

This makes Totnes with its population of roughly 7,444, a thriving centre for

music, art, theatre and natural health. It has a sizeable New Age community and

is known as a place where one can live a bohemian lifestyle;12 a privilege of the

affluent middle class. The New Age town of Totnes is embedded into the old

highly conservative society. This conservative temper is evidenced not just in

the historical records and architecture, but also in the re-enactment of a Tudor

market, where people dress up in medieval costumes to celebrate the past.13

This is a past viewed through idealism because in Tudor England about a third

of the population lived in desperate poverty.14

Unemployed people were often

forced to leave their villages to look for work, but this was illegal and people

who moved were classified as vagabonds. A law passed in 1536 stated that

people caught outside their parish without work should be punished by public

whipping. For a second offence the vagabond was to lose part of an ear. If a

vagabond was caught a third time s/he was executed.15

The poor still live on the

periphery of the old Totnes and there is little evidence of any long term

10 Wikipedia. Org/Totnesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes Retrieved7th December,

2011.

11 D. Else [2003]Britain.Lonely Planet, 2003p. 381.

12 Adam Edwards [2007].Property in Totnes: Wizards of the wacky West. The Daily

Telegraph. 10th Nov. 2007.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-

wacky-West.html.Retrieved2009-08-15.13 Nicholas Crane [2011] Towns BBS 2 Episode 4 shown on Australian SBS Friday 3rd

December, 7.30 pm andhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5gl Retrieved8th

December, 2011.

14 Sparticus.Org/Poverty [2012]http://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htm

Retrieved9th December, 2011.

15 Ibid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://books.google.com/books?id=zhJGpvZwhSIC&pg=PA381&lpg=PA381&dq=totnes+listed+buildings+per+head&source=bl&ots=CBs92mN16p&sig=MwIHjsvtsQrmgLIdA8efR0FlQXg&hl=en&ei=QtVOTZLaAsaWhQey0_C1Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CG0Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=zhJGpvZwhSIC&pg=PA381&lpg=PA381&dq=totnes+listed+buildings+per+head&source=bl&ots=CBs92mN16p&sig=MwIHjsvtsQrmgLIdA8efR0FlQXg&hl=en&ei=QtVOTZLaAsaWhQey0_C1Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CG0Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planethttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-wacky-West.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-wacky-West.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-wacky-West.htmlhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htmhttp://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htmhttp://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htmhttp://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htmhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-wacky-West.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-wacky-West.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planethttp://books.google.com/books?id=zhJGpvZwhSIC&pg=PA381&lpg=PA381&dq=totnes+listed+buildings+per+head&source=bl&ots=CBs92mN16p&sig=MwIHjsvtsQrmgLIdA8efR0FlQXg&hl=en&ei=QtVOTZLaAsaWhQey0_C1Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CG0Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes


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migration from the council owned housing estates to the ancient and affluent

centers.

The Transition Movement maintains that to save the planet we must re-introduce the old skills such as harvesting fruit by hand and cutting crops with a

scythe, building simply and converting fuels are all encouraged, but this

creates a community engaged in intensive labor; not everyone can participate,

not everyone would want to. The idea of living simply stems from the 1960s

social experiment in commune living, sometimes called intentional

communities.

Intentional Communities.

The 1960s communes were mostly made up of middle class and moderately

educated dissidents who altered the grammar of a mundane capitalist existence

and rewrote the semantics for a radical intervention aimed at dismantling the

status-quo. It was called middle class activism. These activists were mostly

bored, recalcitrant individuals who pretended to live simple, and I some cases

feral, lifestyles. Rather, than actively changing the world the Cultural

Revolution created a new romantic mood linked to the eastern philosophies and

religious rituals. As it happened, the status-quo rejected the new romantic

paradigm and embarked upon an unimaginable conservative backlash, but the

intentional community has remained to become largely conservative and elitist;

so too have the esoteric trends remained.

There has been no clear definition of an intentional community or what

constitutes a realsocial transitioning, ideas are many and varied. Today, in the

west, the social movements have eclipsed the old mode of middle class

separatism and single issue protests to become encapsulated in a struggle to

save the planet from the impacts of industrialization, but the movement is

fraught with material and moral contradictions. Participants have vacated the

symmetrical domes, tents and forest humpies for the more comfortable green


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consumer lifestyle made up of dwellings made of seemingly eco-friendly and

sustainable fabrics. The eco-townships are renowned for their environment

features, solar panels, wind farms and waste recycling, but they are lacking the

promised 1960s social equality. In addition, many attempts to impose ethical

standards on manufacturing and services had to be abandoned in favor of

material desires. Also, the love of exotic foods increased the loss of species like

the shark, whose fin is made into a soup delicacy. By 2000 Animal Liberation

changed this a little, but not enough to make a real difference.

In reality, most people exploring the western housing market could not

afford to live in a green house or an intentional community; the green

technologies and unique modulations do not come cheap. In fact, in the west,

the intentional community today is often a gated community built with the

intent of protecting the rich from the increasing angst of the poor and under-

privileged. As journalist Chris Hedges notes, The quest by a bankrupt elite in

the final days of empire is to accumulate greater and greater wealth Karl

Marx observed this is modern societys version of primitive fetishism.16

Over the decades the intentional communities have gathered interest from a

number of regional, urban and community development theorists and they have

been included in the wider areas of study in the humanities mainly with the

view of introducing bioregionalism. Sociology for instance, which has a long

history in dissident social movement theory, has given particular focus to the

intentional lifestyle and its impact on the larger more established communities.The intentional communities studies have provided a significant overlay

between the sociological genres and cultural studies.

In 1983 Gilbert Zicklin noted that the political ideology that drove the 1960s

and early 1970s communes in the west was largely the functional outgrowth of

the formation of youth ghettos both in urban Bohemia[s] and on college

campuses. The post-War drop-out ration was high because there was a contest

16 Ibid.


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in values between a new generation and an old authority. Many impressionable

young people were also sympathetic to communism. Zicklin maintained the

movement of 1960s-1970s was not intentional; rather it was disorganized,

anarchic and engendered by a counterculture that was largely hostile17

This view was reinforced by social theorists Benjamin Zablocki and Angela

Aidala who believed the American communes were generally middle class, they

described them this way

Classless, white, urban, liberally but not professionally educated, they are

insulated both from any real danger of slipping into poverty, and from anyreal opportunity of becoming absorbed in demanding worthwhile careers.18

Intentional communities in Australia have followed a similar format to

Europe and America. Monro Clark [1986] found that 32 per cent of commune

members had university degrees as compared with 4 per cent of the general

population [figures came from the 1981 Census]. Monro-Clark suggested that

commune members in Australia came mostly from comfortable well established

families.19

This was in stark contrast to working class dissidents who generally

found their avenue of protest through a socialist/neo-Nazi politics and the

dissident unions.

17

G. Zicklin [1983] in Countercultural communes: A SociologicalPerspective [1983]Greenwood Press Westport Connecticut 1983 p1.

18 B. Zablocki [1980] in Munro-ClarkCommunes in Rural Australia:The Movement

Since 1970 and 1986 Sydney, Hale and Ironmonger p50.

19 Monro Clark Margaret [1986/2009] Intentional CommunitiesManual, 1st Edition

Intentional Communities: Communes in RuralAustralia, The Movement Since 1970.

[PDF] ABeginners Guide to IntentionalCommunity at

www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdf Retrieved 20th

May 2012.
http://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdf


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In 2003 ABC Radio National ran a series of programs on communes that

discussed why people joined them and whether this was a viable way of

building a better world. The programs profiled a number of young people who

had grown up in communes and it showed many of the problems that existed in

collectives were merely a microcosm of those within the general society. For

example, work, money and relationships tended to dominate commune life.20

Social theorist Rosabeth Moss Kanter discussed the way communes are forced

to consciously develop integrated social systems that occur organically through

evolution and environmental stimulus in every society. She describes how

motivation wanes in communes and how many groups cannot move beyond the

subsistence level.21

Moss Kanter writes:

Under these conditions, communities simply cannot afford to distribute

scarce resources without assurance that the recipients will devote effective

effort to the collective ends. Thus the humanistic principle cannot be

followed since it requires, in effect that the community have available

resources which it can invest in people for a later return. The only principle

consistent with communal ideology under those circumstances is

socialistic.22

Socialism has historically maintained its position through authoritarianism.

Moss Kanter argues that with poverty comes the pressure to apply capitalist

principles. If the commune prospers this situation can be even more damaging:

It becomes increasingly possible for differences of opinion to arise as to the

relative distribution of resources toward the collective against the individual

20 ABC Radio NationalRe-imagining Utopia. Radio National, May 5th-June 9th 2009

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/utopias/programs/default.htm Retrieved 2nd February, 2010.

21 Moss Kanter R [1973] Communes, Creating and Managing the Collective Life New

York, Harper and Row, pp 197-273.

22 Ibid.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/utopias/programs/default.htmhttp://www.abc.net.au/rn/utopias/programs/default.htmhttp://www.abc.net.au/rn/utopias/programs/default.htm


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ends. As people begin to perceive that the hard work and deferred

gratification consistent with the establishment of the community is no longer

so obviously necessary, there is the temptation to seek the personal reward

as consistent with that early effort.23

In other words a return to a system of poverty and oppression is likely to

create the very same circumstances that gave rise to the Capitalism Revolution

in the first place.

Separatism.

The Transitions Movement is a politically a liberalist separatist movement;

an odd mix and full of contradictions. Transitions members boycott politics as a

perceived means of changing them. This is not to say individual members are

not politically active outside the movement. However, an implicit separatism

coupled with a universal discourse creates an obvious tension that demands

closer critical examination.

The Transition Movement presents as a grass roots organization, but it is

also highly skilled in the arts of social marketing. The aim of social marketing

is to produce a series of philosophical perspectives clearly marked by design,

implementation, and control of programs, which increase the acceptability of

their existence within a target group.24

Importantly, while these methods of

social marketing proliferate there are few people who actually understand how

they work. Social marketing assumes that people will adopt new behaviors or

ideas if they feel that something of value is exchanged between the individual

and the social marketer, but the value is frequently constructed by

23 Ibid.

24 P. Kotler [1975].Marketing for nonprofit organizations. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

Prentice Hall.


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manipulating the market. 25 There is no clear picture of what is actually

exchanged. Outcomes are achieved by using communication and social-

psychological marketing techniques to develop and deliver a particular message

or program. Hence, the good marketer frequently sells concepts and practices

that are unrealistic and/or more or less utopian. 26 They sell potential not real

products. These potentials are sometimes called boundary objects. This means

the object may not exist, but it sits at the boundary of possibility. The French

philosopher Jacques Derrida provided a framework for this idea and called it a

simultaneous presence and absence. It works something like a myth and is

based on belief.

Marketing experts profile consumers according to their thoughts, attitudes ,

beliefs and fears and they create products and markets that serve the needs of

these human conditions, but what is created is not always real. For example,

two decades on from the inception of green capitalism, the idea can now be seen

as false because capitalist profits and environmental responsibility are

inherently at odds with each other. Further, the idea is not new. The market

solution to environment problems stemmed from the eighteenth century Liberal

Utilitarian discourse, but limits to growth did not mean curtailing production

or capitalism, it was merely a ploy for keeping the sordid impacts of industry

away from the pristine estates of the rich.

Seemingly, the Transition Movement has relied heavily on the western mediafor its popularity and growth. Without the global media the Transition

25 D.S. Solomon [1989] A Social Marketing Perspective on Communication Campaigns.

In R.Rice and C. Atkin [eds]. Public Communication Campaigns. 2nd edition. Sage,

Newbury Park.

26 L. Wallack [1990]Improving Health Promotion: media advocacy and social

marketing approaches. In C. Atkin & L. Wallack [eds]. Mass Communication and

Public Health. Complexities and Conflicts. Sage, Newbury Park. .


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Movement would probably not exist. Indeed, the Transition Movement

received good publicity in Britain when particular transitioning towns were

featured in the storyline of the BBC Radio 4 series The Archers. The Archers

is an iconic British soap opera. In Britain The Archers program is probably the

equivalent of what The Sullivanswas to Australians, or what Dynasty was to

the Americans. The Archers portrays the fictional and utopian agrarian lifestyle

and it had audiences mesmerized and comparing their own lives to the series

characters. Indeed, The Archers amassed a far greater audience over a longer

period of time than any other media series. In recent episodes ofThe Archers

many very famous people have been featured including politicians and royalty.

The Transition Handbookalso uses people with celebrity status. For example on

page 117 of the Handbookthere is an article on David and Victoria Beckhams

new eco-friendly cottage.

Creating the Ideal Type.

The Archers is a fairytale series designed to create the ideal type. That is

something all lower and middle class Britains should aspire to through hard

work and nationalist loyalties. The program is set in the fictional village of

Ambridge. The real location is thought to be somewhere in the Midlands area of

England. The English Midlands represents two sides of the British class

system; it has a vast industrial sector as well as a very wealthy landowning elite;

sometimes referred to as the gentry. The laboring working classes live in pokeytwo story terraced houses that run like a concrete maze along symmetrical

streets, while the middle class and gentry live in unattached homes and/or

palatial manors; depending on how high up the social scale they are. The

Archers deals with popular topics, but it does so by enforcing the need for

stability perceived as attainable only through the forces of British conservatism.

This is a system largely based on hereditary powers. The Archers are a familywho own a property called Brookfield Farm. It is a property that would be out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambridge_(The_Archers)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midlandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midlandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambridge_(The_Archers)


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of reach for most ordinary English people, but this farm has been passed down

through generations according to British tradition. The original owner Dan

[now deceased] left it to his son Phil, the oldest surviving Archer, and the farm

is now co-owned by three of Phils four offspring: David [who manages it with

his wife Ruth], Elizabeth and Kenton. In addition to the Archers and their

families there are other characters, these include:

the prosperous Aldridges, portrayed as money-driven practitioners ofagribusiness. Brian, the head of the family, is a serial adulterer,

the rich and elderly Woolleys, with Jack now badly affected byAlzheimer's disease,

the Grundys, formerly struggling tenant farmers who were previouslyportrayed comically and disapprovingly, but are now seen as doggedly

battling adversity,

the urban, nouveau riche incomers: pretentious and domineering,Lynda Snell is the butt of many jokes, although her sheer energy makes

her a stalwart of village life. She is partnered by the long-suffering

Robert,

the perpetually struggling [and complaining] Carters, the widower milkman and casual farm laborerMike Tuckerwho battles,

sometimes successfully, depression.27

These characterizations are extremely important because they act as rolemodels and signifiers for real life situations. This in turns serves to deepen the

hierarchical beliefs and social order. Clearly, the Transition Movementhas been

cunning in the way it has publicized its organization. The Archersprogram

stands out as the model of an ideal community. Or what the sociologist Max

27 Wikipedidia.Org/Archers [2009]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_ArchersRetrieved

2nd Jan. 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Aldridge_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agribusinesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Woolley_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_diseasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Grundy_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenant_farmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_richehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Carter_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Tucker_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Tucker_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Carter_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_richehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenant_farmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Grundy_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_diseasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Woolley_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agribusinesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Aldridge_family


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Weber [1946] referred to as the ideal type. 28 The Transitions Movements

participation in The Archers program raised some criticisms amidst the British

followers, but this has been largely undermined. The Report on theTransition

Towns Research Workshop conducted at Englands Bristol University on the

22nd May 2008 concluded no one watches The Archers. 29 The audience

figures suggested otherwise. The Archers has been prime-time entertainment.

Since Easter Sunday 1998 there have been six episodes a week from Sunday

to Friday, at around 19:02 [preceded by a news bulletin]. All except the

Friday evening episode are repeated the following day at 14:02, and all of

the weeks episodes are re-run as a Sunday morning omnibus at 10:00.

Since 1 January 1951, five 15-minute episodes were running and since

1998, six 12-minute episodes have been transmitted across the UK each

week, at first on the BBC Light Program and subsequently on the BBC

Home Service [now Radio 4].30

The Archers has kept its popularity because it merges ideology and identitywith common topics such as class, employment, housing, drugs, youth, sex and

gay marriage. The plots are woven into the lives of ordinary people to depict

British society. What is revealed in The Archers is a society consistently

struggling with issues of class conflict. A recurring theme on The Archers has

been typically the conflict between the affluent landowners and the laboring

class. In the program this is played out between the working class Grundyfamily and the upper, middle classArchers. With this in mind, in the 1980s the

28 Max Weber [1946] The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

New York Scribners Sons.

29 Transition Towns Totnes [2009] http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/node/930Retrieved 22nd April 2009.

30 Ibid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Sundayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_(broadcast)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Light_Programmehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Home_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Home_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working-classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working-classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-classhttp://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/node/930http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/node/930http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/node/930http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working-classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working-classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Home_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Home_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Light_Programmehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_(broadcast)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Sunday


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BritishLabourpolitician Neil Kinnockjokingly called forThe Archers to be re-

titled The Grundys and their Oppressors.

TheArchers has remained popular with audiences because British peopleidentify with it. The Archers maintains many topical subjects that people can

relate to. These include the annualOxford Farming Conferenceand the FIFA

World Cup the death ofPrincess Margaret, the World Trade Centre attacks,

and the 2005 London bombings as well as the events and implications of the

2001 foot-and-mouth crisis.31

TheArchers is just one aspect of how the media manipulates and re-creates

history. The great epics are now highly accessible in the television series or on

the cinema screen than they were in books, but they are also a contrived view

that serves vested interests. This according to the philosopher and social

theorist Fredric Jameson causes a loss of primary knowledge. Jameson offers

the example of E.L. Doctorows novel The Book of Daniel[1971].

The Book of Daniel holds up before us, in painful juxtaposition, the two great

moments of the Old Left and the New Left, of Thirties and Forties Communism

and the radicalism of the 1960s.32

The Book of Daniel is a tale designed to loosely replicate the United States

trial and execution of alleged Soviet spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. There

are many similar examples of political/historical novels shaping ideas and

31 Wikipedia.Org/Archers [2009].http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archers Retrieved

2nd Jan. 2009.

32 F. Jameson [1993]Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism in

Postmodernism: AReaderDocherty T [end] Harvester Weatsheaf, Hemel Hampstead

England p 77 and online

http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/jameson_text_complete.ht

m Retrieved 2nd Jan 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Kinnockhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Farming_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Farming_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Farming_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cuphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cuphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Margarethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attackshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_London_bombingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_London_bombingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_United_Kingdom_foot-and-mouth_crisishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_United_Kingdom_foot-and-mouth_crisishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/jameson_text_complete.htmhttp://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/jameson_text_complete.htmhttp://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/jameson_text_complete.htmhttp://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/jameson_text_complete.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_United_Kingdom_foot-and-mouth_crisishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_London_bombingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attackshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Margarethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cuphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cuphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Farming_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Farming_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Kinnockhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)


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perspectives; they include the [1990] novel Redemption by a former Trotskyite

Tariq Ali whose satire tells how the Trotskyites responded to the downfall of

communism;Dark Horse [2008] by Ralph Reed, which explores the behavior of

candidates in American Federal Elections. All the Kings Menby Robert Penn

Warren, published in 1947 - it was twice made into a film [1949] and [2006] - it

too tells of political power and intrigue. The British politician and peer of the

realm Jeffrey Archer is well known for his political novels like the Fourth

Estate [1996] which tells the story of media barons. We can also count amongst

others Aldous Huxleys Brave New World [1932]: George Orwells 1984

[1948/9] Joseph Hellers Catch 22 [1961] and more.

With this in mind the reader needs to ponder the historical threads and to

deliberate on exactly how they are passed on through the generations to create a

new reality. In this respect, one is drawn to consider the corollary between the

1960s communes [Cultural Revolution] and the Transitions Movements

[Energy Revolution]. Nostalgia for the old creates the desire for new, but it is

often a distorted perception of what is needed for social change.

The Dissenters.

As far back as the 1780s the liberals and conservatives had to deal with

religious and socialist dissidents, Chartism and Owenism were uniformly

hostile to the liberal educators, but they were not alone.33

There is a long list

of non-political dissenting groups. For example: Anabaptists, Barrowists,

Behmenists, Brownists, Diggers, Enthusiasts, Familists, Fifth Monarchists,

Grundletonians, Muggletonians, Puritans, Philadelphians, Ranters, Sabbatarians

33 Ibid p51.


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and Socinian.34 The ideological descendants of the Millerites are the Seventh-

day Adventists, who are distinguished among Christian denominations for their

emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ.35 The Seventh-Day

Adventists have much in common with the Transitions Movement in the desire

to regulate food and land use. They were also advanced in technologies.

Another group to resonate with the Transitions Movement is the Diggers. The

Diggers had their roots in Pentecostalism. They were an English group of

agrarian communists lead by Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard.

Originally known as the True Levellers, in 1649 they and about 20 poor men

assembled at Englands St. Georges Hill, Surrey, and began to cultivate the

common land for food. In the 1640s food prices in Britain had risen and many

ordinary people were going hungry. It happened because the nation was on the

brink of a Civil War. When Charles I came to the British throne in 1625 he

aimed to unite England and Scotland, thus fulfilling his fathers dream [James

VI of Scotland and I of England]. The British Civil War [1642-1651] was a

series of armed conflicts between the Parliamentarians [Roundheads] and theRoyalists [Cavaliers].

After the fighting the Diggersbelieved that since the English Civil Wars

had been fought against the king and landowners and since King Charles I had

been executed land should be made available to the very poor for growing food.

The Diggers seized common lands and began cultivating it. From 1640 to 1649

34 Wikipedia.Org /Dissenting Groups.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters#Present-Day_Disenting_groups

Retrieved 29th October, 2011.

35 Religioustolerance.orgRetrieved 29th October, 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters#Present-Day_Disenting_groupshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters#Present-Day_Disenting_groupshttp://www.religioustolerance.org/sda.htmhttp://www.religioustolerance.org/sda.htmhttp://www.religioustolerance.org/sda.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters#Present-Day_Disenting_groups


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the Diggersmembershipmore than doubled, but violence from land owners saw

them dispersed by mid 1650. 36

There were many factions at work in England. In addition to the Royalistswho supported King Charles I and the Parliamentary forces; called the

Roundheads led by Oliver Cromwell, there were the Fifth Monarchy Men who

believed in the establishment of a heavenly theocracy on earth to be led by Jesus

Christ on his return. The Fifth Monarchy envisioned the House of David as the

government of Great Britain37 Later the Fifth Monarchy found their expression

in a fundamentalist Evangelical movement, which began in the 1730s in Great

Britain38

and spread to the United State. It still exists today and is linked with a

far Right politics.

Depoliticized Communities.

The Transitions Movement declares itself depoliticized and marks a

distinct shift that accompanies a decline in genuine representative democracy

and welfare economies. Instead, it supports a full blown civil society predicated

on the reification of a middle class, localized businesses and small communities.

This form of community renewal is contained in a metaphysics that provides an

important tool for the politically conservative. Community is effective

propaganda, while in fact there is no definitive description of a community.

The word community is derived from the Old French communit, which has

its origins in the Latin communitas describing a fellowship or organized

36 J. D.Alsop [April 1989]Ethics in the Marketplace: Gerrard Winstanley's London

Bankruptcy, 1643 Journal of British Studies no.28 p.97-119.

37 Wikipedia.Org/ Winstanley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanley Retrieved

11th December, 2011.

38 D.W. Bebbington [2008]Evangelicals in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to

the 1980s, London: Unwin, 1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanleyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanleyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanley


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society.39 No truly homogenized community exists because there is no natural

human trait called like-mindedness; everyone is different and unique, albeit

sometimes in miniscule ways. Nonetheless, societies over the centuries have

attempted to create the ideal subject who might live in the fantasized ideal

community. Notably, this happens at specific times of dissent. In 1878

Ferdinand Tnnies formulated two distinct modes of social order, which have

since served to underline the meaning of community and society; Gemeinschaft

and Gesellschaftrespectively. The English version of this work was published

in 1957Gemeinschaftstands for the more traditional, localized, closed forms of

community that are oriented towards their own collective interests; a unity of

wills. For Tnnies it was the family and religious communities that best

expressed his ideals.40

Gesellschaftdepicts the wider relationships within the

society largely marking the distinction between the private and public spheres.

Tnnies used his distinctions to describe a situation in which people were

expected to develop and mature by way of a universal evolutionary progress. To

put it differently, humans would use community to move from barbarism andaggression or non-rational action to civilization. In this way civilization was

made to appear distinct from the tribe, but as history shows communities remain

imbued with uncivilized tribal behavior.

The Myth of Like-Mindedness.

The idea of community is very pleasing, but the French philosopherMaurice Blanchot sees the community as a dangerous vehicle for cultural

39 Oxford English Dictionary, 2009.

40 F .Tnnies [1957] Community and Society Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

2001 p22. See also Adair-Toteff, C.,Ferdinand Tnnies: Utopian Visionar, in:

Sociological Theory, vol. 13, 1996, p. 58-65 and Wikipedia.Org.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tnnies Retrieved 14th May 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6nnieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6nnieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6nnies


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relativity. He engages with social homogeneity as a topic in the belief that

sameness finds it continuum in every community because there is an

overwhelming desire to identify with the group, a trait which comes from our

pre-historical past. However, Blanchot believes all notions of ethical conduct

are undermined by the desire for homogeneity, or the concomitant loss of self.41

The situation is even more problematic in small rural townships where

individuals live in constant fear of being punished for any differences. The

smaller the community the more likelihood there is of autarkic abuse.

Jean-Luc Nancy in The Inoperative Community claims the inherent politics

in the conservative community assertions of morals and ethics are essentially

white, patriarchal and middle class. Nancy is very aware of a new morality that

is being embedded into a Third Way depoliticized politics. Small communities,

he argues are constituted around various power relations, but their visibility is

being lost to more discursive forms of power, for example the depoliticized

affinity group. 42 This is particularly apparent in places like Canada and Great

Britain where there is a very active revival in one nation conservatism. In

Britain it was called High Toryism. The High Tory philosophy in the 1700s

promoted low taxation and argued against the Whig support for an expanding

Empire. This changed with the Reform Act of 1832. By the time Queen

Victoria took the throne High Tories supported the Empire and were

personified by the Prime Ministers Lord Derby and Lord Salisbury.43 The Tory

revival in Britain is called Red Toryism, which stems originally from Canada.

41 M. Blanchot [1993] The Infinite Conversation [Trans.] S Hanson Minneapolis,

University of Minnesota pxii. And in M. Strysick [1997] The End of Community and the

Politics of Grammar. Cultural Critique Issue, 36, p198.

42 J.L. Nancy [1991] The Inoperative Community, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota p:

xii.

43 Wikipedia.Orghttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_ToriesRetrieved 14th August,

2012.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Torieshttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Torieshttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Torieshttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Tories


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A Red Tory is an adherent of a political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in

Canada somewhat similar to the High Tory tradition in the United Kingdom, but

with an emphasis on communitarianism. In Canada, the phenomenon of Red

Toryism arrived out of the provincial and federal Conservative parties. Prior to

2003 the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a centre-right typical

Red Tory party, but it was virtually wiped out in the 1993 federal election.

Unable to make a meaningful comeback, in 2003, the party merged with the

much more right-wing Canadian Alliance Party to form the Conservative

Reform Alliance Party [CRAP], but due to the unfortunate acronym it changed

again to the Conservative Party.

Red Toryism has been adopted in Great Britain by individuals such as the

British philosopher Phillip Blond, Director of the ResPublica think tank. Blond

promotes a radical and traditional form of communitarian conservatism, which

opposes the welfare state and market monopolies. Instead, Blond advocates

localization and the devolution of centralized powers. Blond also advocates

volunteerism and a complete revival of civil society to support small business

and charities who would monitor poverty.44

This of course is the supremacists

ideal.

The Myth of Supremacy.

Today, the struggle for the ideal type has become encapsulated into the

domain of the multi-media and it is more likely to be consumer markets that

hold influence. These influences include discursive narratives running through

complex networks; such as institutions, state and community politics, groups,

entertainment and other entities. Today, we draw on systems theories for a

better understanding of these entities.

44 Phillip Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_BlondRetrieved 14th August, 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blond


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Since its origins systems theory has moved more directly in two directions.

It upholds the system of self-regulation [default] and it resonates with Darwins

evolutionary theory, which has contributed a lot of influence to the analysis of

the post-Enlightenment communities. Darwins ideas are based on the processes

of natural selection where heritable traits are believed to determine survival and

reproduction of an organism. This system is implicit in the internal logic of

market capitalism, albeitoften distorted.

Creating the ideal typeusing Darwins theorieswas the role of nineteenth

century scientific communitarianism. These grass roots community systems

were extended to the peasant class to create ideal workers. It was this same

system that drove colonization, economic speculation, a recession and two

World Wars. I also led to a 1980s economic crisis and another in 2008.

Is it time to change the system yes, but this is easier said than done.

Change happens very slowly. Many social theorists have attempted to change

the system. Historically, the desire to transition communities comes as a

response to various socio-political problems that communities encounter. This

has generally led to gatherings of people who attempt to rescue communities

from their perceived dilemmas. We have called these rescuing collectives

social movements and they are designed to create an ideal type in favour of

the Other. Implicit in these movements are the issues of power, politics, social

justice; law and humanism as well as the seeds of the next Revolution or thenext Transitions Movement. There must be a better way to global harmony.


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Documents

The Transitions Movement [Essays of the Heart]