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Hi, welcome to World in Transition. Now you may be wondering what this is about and so I'm gonna do my best to tell you what the site and this video are about. So most of us at some time or other or even more than once many times have looked at the state of the world around us and felt like there's something fundamentally wrong here and not wrong in a way that a different president or new laws or new policies are really going to fix. Something a lot deeper than that. Something structural.

And then most of us most of the time get back to doing what we were taught to do. Working on surviving in the system that we're in and pushing those thoughts out of our mind. But if you're like me those thoughts won't stay out of your mind for long they'll keep coming back they'll bother you and you'll want answers. And so this site and this video are really for everyone but if you're like me in that way and those thoughts won't stay away this is especially for you. So we have been taught all of our lives that the system that we live under, capitalism, is the best available option.

That yes it's imperfect but that it's the most compatible with human nature and that the problems we see, the inequality, the exploitation, the concentration of wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands, is a result of bad actors. You know greedy CEOs, corrupt politicians, the usual suspects and then if we could just get better people in charge that things would work. But as logical as that sounds that diagnosis is wrong and if we keep accepting it we're going to keep trying to fix a system which is functioning exactly as built. The real problem it isn't bad actors. You see the system by its very nature is a pyramidal structure.

If you have a factory with a thousand workers on the assembly line, cafeteria, cleaning, whatever, and there's an opportunity for advancement to say shift manager or plant manager, there's one opportunity. One person out of those thousand may or may not get that promotion but if everybody became billionaires, capitalism would collapse. It couldn't function. That's a structural feature of it. So capitalism by its very structure inevitably concentrates resources and decision-making and power and wealth at the top while the rest of us work harder and harder for less and less.

This isn't a bug. This isn't a malfunction. This is the system functioning as built. So think of it like this. If there were a game that when played by its rules and played well, played excellently, resulted in half or more of the players injured or dead.

Would we try to solve that problem by getting better referees? No, we wouldn't. Nor would we prosecute the players and blame them for playing the game well. Of course not because the problem would not be it's not the players. It's the game itself.

So we would either redesign the game, change the rules from the ground up or we would just shut that game down and come up with a different game and that is what Transition is about. It's not about putting different people in charge of a broken system. It's about coming up with a new system, a better system, to replace it. Here's something that you probably don't know and it changes everything when you do. You see, research into psychology and neurology has reproducibly demonstrated that when human beings are placed in positions of power over other human beings, the brain systems and structures responsible for empathy and compassion measurably attenuate.

They're inhibited. So it's not about evil people because good people, compassionate people, people who are in positions of influence precisely because they care about others are affected. The hierarchy itself changes who they become. Countless revolutions replaced one set of rulers with another inevitably reproducing the same abuses. It's not because the revolutionaries are secretly greedy or power-hungry or corrupt.

It's because without them even realizing it, they step into a hierarchical structure that changes the people in it. So the problem itself is the structure, is the hierarchical structure itself. And this is where the Transition parts company with every revolution you've ever heard of because Transition is not a revolution. A revolution fights to seize control of the existing power structure but the Transition does not want to seize control of that power structure. It wants to make it irrelevant.

The Transition is nonviolent. Not as a tactic but as a one of its core principles because the minute that we would use violence and coercion and brutality to try to bring about a more compassionate society, we've just undermined everything that we're trying to build. And this is because the emotions of rage and thirst for retribution are so much easier to sustain than the calm and difficult sometimes discipline of compassion. That is why Transition needs to show the world not just a whole new paradigm but a whole new approach to the art of changing a paradigm. So what does this look like?

What does Transition look like? It looks like people, ordinary working people like you and me, taking matters into our own hands. Not by confronting government or corporations but by doing what governments and the private sector cannot and will not do on their own. Which is to create alternative systems from the ground up that empower and benefit us. Real practical alternatives.

It means communities organizing ourselves with our own alternative systems for distribution of goods and services. It means removing and eliminating the barriers to access that money currency causes. Not just in theory but in practice starting locally. It means workers running our own workplaces as peers. It means building systems designed to empower and benefit everyone in them rather than extracting profit from them.

Our governments, and I'm not talking about any one country, I'm talking in general, are captured. Their institutions have become absorbed by the very economic forces that they were supposed to regulate. And the private sector operates on an internal logic that demands constant growth, maximum profit, and minimum cost. And in human terms that means squeezing as much as possible out of people and out of the planet. So the private sector will never voluntarily create or support systems that empower you and me and the people in general at the expense of their own power, at the expense of their own privilege.

So we build it ourselves from the bottom up without waiting for permission and without asking those at the top to build it for us or challenging their advantage even. But Transition is not utopian. It's not about some imagined perfect society, if you could even define such a thing. And you can bet, you can be certain there are going to be challenges, there are going to be setbacks, there's going to be a whole lot hard work. What the Transition offers is not perfection.

It offers a society that reinforces and strengthens the best of us instead of the worst. It offers a society that examines itself constantly and learns from both its successes and its failures and mistakes and adapts and improves and constantly gets better. That itself would be an innovation far greater than anything that we've ever seen. Many people, when they hear about this at first, they say, you know what, this could never work. It's pie in the sky.

But the reaction of most people after they encounter the material and digest it is why aren't we doing this already? Well, here's the thing, we have more power than we've been told we do. We all do, individually and together. The question is, what are we going to do with it?

Hi and welcome back to World in Transition. This short video is going to address the question of why changing leaders just doesn’t seem to be enough. Because you know how it is. Every election cycle, and right now as I make this there are quite a few of them going on around the world, we’re told that this is the one that matters. The right candidate is going to fix housing, fix health care, fix the economy, and sometimes they even try.

But let’s zoom out for a moment. Because since 1980 or so, in most wealthy nations, wealth has concentrated, housing costs have outpaced wages, public institutions have weakened and environmental damage has accelerated, and this has happened under both left-wing governments and right-wing governments. So why? Well, leaders operate inside structures. So for example, when wealth grows faster than the economy as a whole, it concentrates without anyone having to plan it, without any conspiracies.

When political campaigns require massive funding, then donors gain disproportionate influence. When life’s necessities are organized as profit-maximizing markets, then prices are set by what people will pay and not by what it costs to provide. Now don’t get me wrong, good leadership matters, it really does, but if the machinery produces largely the same outcomes regardless of who operates it, then the problem is the machinery itself. Transition asks, what if we examine the structures themselves, not to vilify anybody, but to ask ourselves why recurring outcomes recur regardless of who’s in charge, and whether perhaps different structures might produce different results, different outcomes. And that examination begins at worldintransition.

net.

Hi, and welcome once again to World in Transition. This short video will deal with the question of coordination of production and need. And as you may or may not know yet, Transition is advocating and working towards societies without the need for money. But most people, when they hear about a system without money, they think of chaos. They think of no way to know what anyone needs, no way to coordinate supply, shelves empty or piled high with things nobody wants.

But think about one of several things that money does. It provides a signal that says this person wants this thing and has something they can exchange for it. And that is genuinely useful information. But that’s not the only way to transmit this information. Because you see, right now inventory and logistics systems already track what is being used, where shortages are developing, what needs replenishing.

And they do it in real time at enormous scale. Retail chains, hospital supply networks, global shipping, all rely on these systems. Now currency is layered on top as an extra layer of complexity, I guess. But the coordination itself is happening through data. But make no mistake about it, removing currency does not mean removing coordination.

It merely means shifting from relying on price signals to direct measurement of need and capacity. And it doesn’t completely eliminate all scarcity because some things are genuinely limited. It doesn’t eliminate the need for allocation decisions because somebody will still have to decide how to distribute scarce resources in the fairest way possible. And it doesn’t remove ecological constraints because physics is physics. There are planetary limits that exist regardless of our accounting method.

But what it does remove is artificially created scarcity. The ability to accumulate unlimited claims on other people’s energy and work and resources. And that is something worth examining. More at worldintransition.net.

Hello again, and welcome back to World in Transition. This short video deals with questions of ownership because one of the first fears that people sometimes have when they hear about changing ownership structures is like, hey, you gonna take my stuff? You’ll be relieved to know that the short answer to that is no, because Transition draws a clear line between personal possession and absentee control. So your home, the one you live in, is yours, it’ll always be yours, likewise your car, your tools, all of your personal possessions, your workspace, yours, all yours. And Transition actually strengthens your security over these things because when housing is organized as community infrastructure rather than a speculative market, then nobody can price you out of the place where you live or hold it for ransom in the form of rent or mortgage or foreclose or evict you.

So what changes? Something different: The ability to own something that other people need and extract payment for access. Corporations owning thousands of apartments and raising the rent to maximize shareholder returns. A patent holder blocking access or restricting access to a life-saving medication. A landlord collecting income from properties that they’ve never even visited.

That kind of ownership where your control over an essential resource gives you power over other people’s lives is what Transition does restructure. Not because owning or ownership or owning something is wrong because it isn’t, but because that kind of organization of necessities into extraction opportunities is what creates and produces the insecurity and inequality that we see all around us. So your home is yours and it will always remain yours. And what changes, what goes away is the ability of someone else to make your home unaffordable. More on worldintransition.

net.

Hi, and welcome back to World in Transition. This short video will briefly address the question of, what can I do? How can I begin? This is a big thing you’re talking about. Well, you don’t need to wait for a revolution.

You don’t need to wait for the right government. You don’t need to wait for millions of people to agree with you before you begin. This one starts with the question, what does my community need that it’s not getting? And it may be affordable, fresh food. It may be childcare that doesn’t eat up an entire income.

It may be a space where people can come together and share tools and repair things instead of replacing them. It may be a place where neighbors know each other and help each other in general. So start with one need and not necessarily the biggest, most systemic one. Better to start with something small and specific and local and find a small group of people, maybe even just three or four people who share that need or want to address it. Not necessarily people who agree with you politically, but people who share the belief and agree with you that this need is worth solving.

This problem is worth solving. And then create one response, one solution. Do it transparently so that anyone can see how decisions are made and resources are used. Make it non-hierarchical so no one person can control it and make it replicable and document it so that others can learn it and adapt it and use it and pass it on. That’s it.

One need, one small group, one solution. It’s not dramatic. It’s not revolutionary, but it’s how most cooperatives begin. Because enough seeds can change a landscape. And a great cathedral starts with laying the first stone.

So start now at worldintransition.net.

Here — if we dam this narrow passage, we can hold all the water, store it, divert it to the sea where no one lives. Then the valley below will have nothing, and they will have to come to us. The river is gone. The bed is dry. Our crops are dying.

No water — how will we survive? We are in danger of dying. You want water? Then you must give me gold every month, and you must do work that I want you to do. Work that does not benefit you.

This is outrageous. How are we supposed to do work for you, and farm our own farms and fish for our survival? We cannot do both. We will starve if we labor for you and ourselves. There are many more of us than there are of you.

Yes, but we have the ability to wipe you out, and we will not hesitate to. Then we will not do as you ask. You cannot make us do as you ask. Then you will starve. We now work for them, building their houses, giving them our gold, and we can barely survive.

The river is now just a trickle, barely enough for us. You create no value. You only restrict the water that would otherwise flow freely. We provide you with employment, without which you could not purchase your needs. We keep the economy running.

The changing faces, places and eras are deliberate. This story has repeated across cultures and civilizations throughout history — and it is still happening today.

In the 500 years since the Birth of a Dynasty, the modern era arrived and the kingdom became a constitutional monarchy, but the same basic power structures remained. The price went up again. It always does. As long as they control the water, they control everything. If we each catch what falls on our roofs and share it, no one goes dry.

By order of the Water Authority, the collection of rainwater is prohibited. All rain belongs to the river. This isn’t fair. We’ve used that barrel for years. Count us.

There are thousands of us now. You cannot destroy them all. Meanwhile, creative citizens devised a machine that could pull water straight out of the air, a machine anyone could build. Machines like this already exist and they work. One machine can provide enough water for a family.

If we build enough of them, we could provide water for everyone. Ever since the founding of our dynasty, control of the river has been the basis of our power and social order, but now nobody is paying for water because they’re not using the river anymore, they’re making their own water. There are too many and we can’t stop them, so what am I to do? There’s nothing we can do. It’s time to step down.

It’s time to accept the change. And you seem thirsty too, aren’t you? In breaking news, the last heir to the throne has dissolved the monarchy and his last act as king was to reopen the dam and allow the water to flow freely in the river. What could your community build together?

Stuckton was once a town of small farmers and craftspeople who lived in dynamic balance. Enough for everyone and enough to trade. Then one year the Thompson family farm had a calamity. Half the family fell sick, the harvest failed. We won't survive the winter without help.

The Jensons offered to buy the Thompsons' farm so the Thompsons could buy supplies to survive the winter. The Thompsons saw no choice but to accept. Mr. Jenson, we can't afford to pay rent this month, the crop was small. You signed the agreement, you'll have to work extra hours to cover it.

The pattern degraded from help to holding them in thrall. What started as assistance became control. We work the land but keep nothing. We are in hock, in thrall to them. The same thing began to happen among residents.

The blacksmith Evans was injured, Rogin offered to buy her business. Bellows sneaked to the dock and sabotaged the other boats. I was kicked, I can't work the forge for months. Let me buy your business, I'll take care of it. Evans was injured and couldn't work.

Evans became an employee in her own shop, Rogin kept the profits. I used to own this. You work for me now. The Thompsons worked for the Jensons, were paid by them and in turn paid rent. The Jensons kept the rest.

We control the farmland, we control the shops. In Brightville there were depots where people took what they needed and gave what they could. The farmers knew how much wheat was needed, the carpenters knew who needed houses, doctors knew who was ill. They gathered each morning, discussed what needed doing and did it. No one told anyone what to do.

We decide together. No hierarchy. We can make some of you very rich. Open Brightville as a market for us — a labor and consumer market. This is good metal.

Why waste it on useless trinkets? These coins have value, they replicate if piled huge, you can buy anything. We don't buy, we share. Why would we want trinkets that make more trinkets? They refuse to understand currency and hierarchy.

We will civilize them, we will force Brightville to become our market. We thought it was a comedy. When Stuckton's soldiers came to Brightville, the town defended itself. You are safe. You will be cared for and sent home when well.

A seed was planted. They had expected brutality but found humanity. They had been terrified they would be beaten and tortured. That is what they would have done. But instead they were treated with dignity and respect.

We were told you were savages, but you aren't. By the time they were ready to go home, some asked if they could stay in Brightville and were happily accepted. Those who went back were quite impressed. Goods freely flowing. When the five families and the bank learned of this, they went to the media to spread propaganda about a nefarious dictatorial evil communist conspiracy in Brightville, with plans to corrupt the youth and make everybody poor.

Everybody showed up for work and performed their jobs but stopped asking payment. The bank was barricaded and peacefully shut down. The somnambulum, which had replicated itself when piled huge and controlled the town, was taken and placed in the depot as curiosities. Children played with them as toys. The five families and the bankers tried to send in the military to force townspeople to return to currency.

They discovered many soldiers were committed to support the strikers. You have no business here. You have a home. Go there. Within a generation, Stuckton shared the vibrant well-being of Brightville, but with their own culture.

The two communities enjoyed a long era of friendship and cultural exchange. We tell this story to our children and grandchildren, so we remember and it never happens again.

Once upon a time, there was a human being named Sam. Inside him, trillions of cells coexisted as vibrant, diverse communities. Each cell and organ performing its function in the dance of life. By doing what it was born to do, what it was its nature to do. One day, a brilliant idea spread among the lung cells.

They decided to charge a price for their work, two atoms of gold per oxygen exchange. If they did not get gold, they would stop breathing. For 90 seconds, Sam got no air, until his brain agreed to pay the price to breathe. No way! That doesn't make sense!

We're not paying that! If you don't give us the gold, we won't offload. We won't breathe. Fine. Soon, every organ charged gold for its work.

Two atoms became ten. The dance of life became a market of transactions. Lungs raised their price to 70 atoms of gold for every oxygen molecule delivered. What was once a graceful dance with a high five, now took nearly two seconds of fees and transaction confirmations. Sam developed an insatiable craving for gold.

He glowed with a golden complexion that looked healthy at first, but he was growing thinner and sicker. Centers formed whose only purpose was to process gold transactions and shut off services for delinquent accounts. Others took gold to cover payments, charging high interest. Sam grew sicker and sicker. His golden glow faded into exhaustion.

What's wrong? I don't know. I just know I have to have gold to drink. Just leave me alone. Sam visited many doctors.

They were stumped. Their diagnosis? Idiopathic metastatic atypical autoimmune-mediated solid malignancies of varying etiology. Then heart and brain and endocrine cells discovered the truth. A few king cells had hoarded 99% of all the gold.

A few hundred thousand cells now controlled all but a few hundredths of a percent of the gold. They recast themselves as corporations with rights of communities. The cells that discovered the king cells decided to form a resistance movement, a movement called the symbiotic cells of Sam. They determined to do something to change what was happening and return to health before Sam died and they all died. White blood cells, who once protected Sam, were made to see symbiotic cells as the enemy.

In a coordinated purge, Sam excreted the gold, golden tears, golden sweat, and through his filtering organs, the gold left his body. Symbiotic cells sent a message through the blood. Enough. The blood truckers opened the payment barriers and the organs remembered how to share. Sam became healthy, robust, and kind again.

And he shared water carrying the chemical message to cure other humans sick with gold. And that is how the gold sickness came and went. After that, Sam and Liberty lived a long, full life and told the story of his addiction.