“Brevity is the soul of wit.“
William Shakespeare

From the top down: The future looks dire. Soaring unemployment, increasing energy prices and food poverty all seem unavoidable. And a growing mental depression about the nation’s state – the inability of politicians to say anything positive which is believable.

From the grass roots: The future looks promising. Individuals and families intent on creating new lives for themselves are moving in with experience in managing businesses. The possibility of creating food-based local economies is beginning to be realised. Real growth is on the agenda.

The Model
Population migration from rural to industrial life and the growth of cities was a “natural” human evolution in response to the development of the use of cheap fossil fuels.

The future will depend on the declining availability and increasing cost of fossil fuel energy, which will prompt human migration and evolution into and at the grassroots. What they do, where they live and how they prosper will shape the new era.

So-called “renewables” may delay the evolution, but their renewal may not be viable because they will require fossil fuel inputs.

Both kinds of migration, during economic growth and shrinkage, are processes which do not involve top-down intervention.

At the grassroots, the growth in the number of self-organising and co-operating individuals and extended families will gradually evolve into a new, radically different society.