It has come to my attention, like 2 decades ago, that I may be a bit of a pessimist. Admittedly I tend to drift to the darker, more melancholy side of life. Yeah, I like my music in minor chords. Sue me. Well recently I’ve become utterly sick of my fault finding mind, a term borrowed from the Buddhists, and have been searching for a path forward.
So what to do? What to do?
There’s only one thing I can think of, and it starts with envisioning a future I’d like to help build. A possible future. One rooted in reality. Not some lovey-dovey utopian bullshit that ignores the systemic worldwide fuckery happening all over our beloved planet right now. Not only would it be an injustice, it would be yet another movement built upon fraud, doomed to fail from its onset.
I understand there is an inherent disgust in seeing how all sausage is made. And I don’t intend to dwell on the darkness for too long, but this society we’ve built for ourselves is fucking catastrophic. And I think I’m well within my rights to state that’s not hyperbole. Our relative luxuries have come at extreme costs. Costs that have been outsourced to the most vulnerable parts of the world. It has allowed them to remain hidden from the edge of an enraged populous. But all you really have to do is ask a few questions and quickly you descend into a world of cruelty so casual it comes with a $5,000 pair of ripped jeans made by child slave. But if you think that housing, healthcare and food aren’t a right, and shouldn’t be the primary aim for a society, then maybe you disagree.
Solarpunk AF
Annnnnnndddd… we are back from the dark shadows cast by our current corporate behemoths and talking about a future I want to see. A future that lives in harmony with the laws of nature and the universe at large. One that prioritizes health and happiness over hedge funds and homogeny. A future that doesn’t see an inherent friction between nature and technology. A future that acknowledges time’s circle and sees no line dividing the ancients and the contemporaries. A community built of beings doing it themselves, together. A future that is as beautiful as it is ethical.
Fuck, that’s some seriously flowery language. So what is solarpunk? Internet lore states that in AD 2008 the term was coined by an anonymous blog author, seriously. Many have said Solarpunk is the direct counter to the dystopian corporate future that is Cyberpunk. While there is no authority on solarpunk, as that would be antithetical to the entire movement, mind you I’m just some fascinated greenhorn gushing over a recent discovery, I’ve found a few core tenets of the movement and aesthetic. You’ll find them listed below, as well as some of my caveats and personal opinions, obviously.
Solarpunk Tenets
Optimism + Rejecting Doomerism
This may be the most difficult one for me. Referencing my aforementioned emo-ness, and considering the state of the world, I think it’s justified in being difficult. The world is falling apart. And not in a beautiful autumnal way of colorful leaves and the smell of damp earth. But in a horrific, empiric end of days, Idiocracy-inspired absurdity. But in order for any of the other tenets to have a chance, ultimately you gotta be optimistic for the future. You gotta be able to pierce the fog of smoldering empires and see past their resistant demise. For me, that means maintaining a life grounded in spirituality and the wider perspective it allows. I mean, shit, anything’s possible. Anything. However improbable, it’s always possible, even if it doesn’t seem so.
Do-It-Yourself + Decentralization
This is where the punk comes in. And while I’d never describe myself as a punk at any stage of my life, I much prefer my rebel music be boom bap hip hop or revolutionary roots reggae. This may be the easiest solarpunk pill for me to swallow. I can be quite particular and have learned the easy way to appease my tastes are to do things myself. I tend to outsource very little. And plus, fuck institutions! All of ’em. We’re just numbers to them. I much prefer faces and friends to numbers and trends. We need way more community and much less society. It’s the difference between a brick wall and a stone one. For the sake of this metaphor, dry stacked walls are going to be ignored. Both walls use mortar and serve the same purpose. Yet in the stone wall, the stones still retain their individuality, their personality. While in the brick wall the bricks are forced to conform. In short, we all gone DIY this bitch, together!
Renewable Energy + Sustainable Technology
Who hasn’t heard of renewables at this point? You know, the sun, water, wind, tide. All that jazz. But not just renewable, it’s gotta be non-toxic, non-harmful, and non-invasive. I’m not going to get into the ethics and morality of our current Green™ energy aspirations, but I will say that ultimately burning fossil fuels seems bad for almost everyone involved, even those oligarchs getting selling it. In alignment with solarpunks’ anti-consumerism, there is conservation. It’s not about having an infinite amount of energy to tap into, although I’m sure that capability already exists on this planet, it’s about using only what we need. Even if we need solar powered lights for our year round freshly grown sweet, sticky green.
Regenerative Design
Maybe this could be tucked into the previous paragraph, but whatever. This is about building systems, all systems, with an eye on sustainability and harmony. It’s regenerative agriculture. It’s just, mindful urbanism. It’s permaculture. It’s decentralized social media. It’s acknowledging the sacred cycles of life and not just embracing them , but enhancing them. The systems are free to move with the seasons, whether they happen quarterly or whenever Pluto’s lumbering ass moves into a new house.
I can’t believe it took me this long to find the word that so perfectly sums up the direction I’ve been moving in. Solarpunk is so all encompassing that I think I’ll be investigating and contributing to it as much and as long as I can. I plan to dive into the movement, and specifically it’s aesthetic and place our current society in Solarpunk Pt. 2 | Solarpunk in Culture. Below you’ll find some sites I used to get my head around Solarpunk. Show them all some love, and if you want, let ’em know who sent ya.
