You love the Grid. The Man says so.

The Man’s fighting, but he may be losing.

More people are moving to sustainable, or at least less-wasteful, lifestyles. It makes environmental sense to reduce waste, but it makes economic sense as well. Why should cities fill landfills with materials that can be sold and recycled? Why buy Frankenfoods or tasteless goo shipped around the world when we could eat healthy from our own gardens? Why pay for electricity from dirty coal plants when we could get it free and clean from the sun? But more people unplugging from the Grid means fewer dollars flowing into the pockets of The Man. At first He thought it was just cute, but now it’s beginning to get noticeable. And The Man doesn’t like it, so now He’s starting to fight back…

Our web of energy, food, and waste systems are built on fundamental assumptions about the way we live. When the energy grid was built there was no option for on-site power, so it relies on people staying plugged in to cover costs. People used to produce their own food, but migration to cities and improved transportation efficiency meant an increasing dependence on a food grid. The waste disposal grid assumed that it was cheaper and easier to throw things away than reuse them, but that assumption ignores economic externalities that can no longer be denied. There are thousands of these “grids”, large in small, and all their assumptions are being questioned as changes in our society multiply and accelerate. The question is how these grids will (or can) accommodate the changing reality, how they will be funded going forward, or what will replace them.

These are fundamental problems, and there could be a variety of valid approaches to solve them. Open, reasoned debate among competing interests might lead to solutions in the interest of people as well as industries. But The Man isn’t interested in debate. He represents entrenched interests and the status quo and He’s not interested in change; the way things work now are the way things work for Him. If He can’t stop change completely he still has the money and power to make it extremely difficult for everyone else.

Here are several stories about how The Man is fighting back against people building sustainable lifestyles. These are just the tip of the iceberg of similar stories we’ll see as society goes through painful and needed changes, but there is hope. The Man may be strong but he gets his strength from money, and when Money talks even The Man listens. The last story tells us that Money is beginning to talk, and it’s saying that The Man’s time may be limited.