A New Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose…”—Me and Bobby Magee

Patchwork Adaptation and the Paradigm Shift

The republican or representative form of American democracy has been thoroughly corporatized at the national level. The U.S. Supreme Court is a puppet for wealthy corporate interests and the U.S. Congress bends over backwards to pass laws in favor of the plutocrats in this, the age of “the jobless recovery.” Just as our forefathers found themselves in thrall to King George’s tax-happy Brits, so we are held in thrall by our own government today, which has basically been privatized to benefit the contractors, bankers, and corporate interests.

Taking their cue from the governing class in Washington D.C. local officials in Taos, members of the Taos Municipal Schools board or the trustees at the Kit Carson Electric Coop, say, spend millions of dollars belonging to either the coop members or tax payers to benefit ultimately themselves or their supporters while ignoring their primary mission: stable electrical rates and education for the students. They refuse to make their profit and loss statements or budgets and balance sheets public.

So, we citizens are left, not out in the cold but with the example of young Arabs in Syria, who have figured out how to use social networking in a decentralized way to disrupt “business as usual.” Similarly, in Taos, activist members of KCEC protest at the PRC, due to KCEC excesses, or parents take their kids out of the public schools. Both groups actively express their dissatisfaction with a failing system.

The further you can distance yourself from public systems, the more independence you will have and the better you will adapt to a new paradigm shift. On the one hand you have the self-sufficient example of the earthships; on the other you have the home-school movement. Most of us live in between, trying to come to terms with a form of “patchwork adaptation” to the capitalist culture.

Patchwork adaptation means using the system, partially or in whole, but only if it works for you. For instance, we may need some electricity but we can gradually reduce our dependence on the grid. Some of your kids may be socially gifted and can succeed—despite the odds– at TMS. Others may take advantage of the GED, charter schools, or private schools.

As resistance fractures the system, it weakens the power of corrupt trustees or administrators to affect consumers or students. Similarly, the more vegetables you grow at home, the better your chances of avoiding poisonous pesticides and high cost supermarket food. Efficient appliances and alternative energy resources reduce KCEC charges and will ultimately undermine trustee travel budgets. Volunteer tutors at home and the Internet, for that matter, can help students gain an education, thereby avoiding the hostility of school administrators or systemic corruption at the Coop.

In Taos particularly, it is obvious that most elected officials affect the public marginally. On the other hand, the public employees have a great deal of practical effect on the day-to-day business at hand. Just as in the private sector, some folks are friendly, like the customers, some are unfriendly, like the customers. If you look at the budgets, structures, and effectiveness of elected officials at KCEC, TMS, the town or the county, you might wonder whether a few volunteers meeting occasionally might not do a better job than so-called elected officials, who are well-compensated in terms of pay, travel or medical benefits—not to mention the pleasures associated with the aphrodisiac of power. It is the rare elected official who believes in doing the job for the sake of the public good and sound accomplishment. Meanwhile, the employees frequently have their hands tied by the higher-ups.

For the last ten years, I have made a study of comparative public and private entities in the greater community of Taos and found little in the way of progress or increased awareness of public responsibility by politicians. There seems to be even less concern today for the citizens. Few elected officials warrant public support.

Rather, I think that the current practice, call it “patchwork adaptation,” defines an accelerating paradigm shift away from dependence on centralized systems. Of course the shift moves by degrees. Basically, the public currently boycotts the KCEC and TMS meetings. Regardless, the elected officials consider public representatives to be unwelcome intruders. Hence they do their business behind closed doors.

Activists and established politicos, on the one hand, need each other. The one legitimizes the other; it’s like having a worthy opponent in sport—Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. But the average citizen, on the other hand, intent on survival, economic or spiritual, doesn’t have the time or interest for banging his or her head on the wall. Mr. or Ms. average will increasingly gain a more effective role in the future by imitating the exemplary model of the “passive-aggressive” Taoseno: apathetic response, boycott the big boys, and ignore the regulations.

Our most successful citizens, in terms of having time for idle speculation or who have the lowest impact on the environment in terms of the “carbon footprint,” are the marginally employed. They exhibit an anti-materialist bias: no car, no house, no visible means of support. We Americans tend to look up when we should be looking down or side ways at real-life examples–not the loud mouths. We can’t all live like our betters at the bottom of the economic ladder but trends always begin from the bottom up.