The journey continues…

Starting in a few days, I will be leaving from here.

Going to a land untouched by the perils of hectic inner turmoil. From the land of privilege to the land of not enough but somehow, amazingly, contentedness. What could be a better way to spend this year? One’s life? Than to know that you are well on the path to work that will be a large part of the world. This semester puts me on par to become a master, entrepreneur, and farmer. Maybe I’ll arrive back and have funding money waiting for me. Maybe another calmer and happier year at BU before leaving. Grad school; or just assemble a team and go:: just following a path at this point, and not looking back. No matter what happens, I’m already well endowed with the resources for success.

I will be gone in total for 8 months– from February 2nd to August 31st– in Costa Rica, Central America and traveling the Andes mountains. My main method of transportation will be the motorcycle, and my main communications the internet. This is the combination of school program and farm internship through which I hope to find myself. Look for my return, I want to experience all your stories.

If you want to contact me, you can email at ::
eddiemill@gmail.com

I will also check facebook and this blog regularly, so a comment would really be a great help for me.
<http://eddiemill.wordpress.com/>
Thank you for your support that makes this possible. As I embark this week, you’ll be on my mind.

-Eddie Miller
Boston University
440.935.5434

Change to the masses

Social systems are very interesting to me.

When we look at society, ecosystems, or our planet on a systems scale, it appears to be resilient, stable. In general, large systems are averse to change, and we’re happy to assume things to be constant. But every so often, catastrophic transformations take place in a very quick time period. Ecosystem collapse builds on itself, and suddenly total species live in a world completely foreign to them. Coral reefs may be going through a mass extinction from climate change within the next few months, as algae are suddenly multiplying thousandfold in the warmer water. If these “rainforests of the ocean” are coming to terms with large tipping points in their lives, what does that mean for the human environment 4 degrees warmer?

I believe that social systems are the same way. If you consider it, the bloom of algae happens once conditions exist for them to prosper. It’s not complex, it’s really simple. The old status quo (old-world economic systems) rely on the same nutrients (resource surplus) being there, and cannot backtrack nor adjust to new realities. The discipline now faces hard issues like backwards-incorporating ecological realities, social equality, or generational risk. While the bottom-liners turn a blind eye, these are the issues we must deal with! And that means the rules of the game have to change. Cultures don’t cut back on their own: As in the barrier reef, new conditions bring organisms to either adapt to the new conditions and multiply, or die with this global crisis, and good riddance. *Obama’s election means that overall this evolution will be positive.*

Socio-economic change: each person [and company] responding to new opportunities in a predictable way brings about systemic, evolutionary-level change.

Now I’m not saying that losing a reef is a good thing, it’s actually quite terrible to see things go and hurts a lot of people. But the example can be a good model for the one thing that can spread like bacteria: human word-of-mouth. Once a new reality emerges, there’s surprisingly little holding the former winners in place. What does this mean? Now will be the time when people question the validity of long-standing military-industrial-government rule, and now we finally have choice in what lives and dies. Even a small preference, shared over dinner/conversation/the web can become a huge impact. During a recession, climate meltdown, internet revolution and world political change following Obama’s inauguration, my bet is on the peasants to make out alive. The silent masses will have a say in the new world order.

For small farmers, why submit to the hierarchy traditionally imposed on you if you can become a natural farmer and change your family, your country and homeland? The answer is often that they haven’t had the choice. If a few leading industries can now make it possible for everyone to be a part of a new worldview, the system will follow. Enough people on the supply and demand side can create a new equilibrium that is more peaceful, sustainable and just.

Change to the masses: it’s coming in more ways than you think.

-Eddie Miller
http://eddiemill.wordpress.com/

10 Reasons any Driver can Understand WHY BIKE

10. Left turn on red
9. Mobility on and off road
8. Bikes can be used to generate electricity
7. The wind in your hair
6. $60-$80 a year to maintain
5. It’s sustainable aka doesn’t use gasoline
4. Don’t have to give anyone else rides
3. Messenger bags
2. Always free parking, always at location
1. I get to class faster.

Boston makes it easy to bike… why bike: http://bubikes.org

-Eddie Miller
http://eddiemill.wordpress.com/