James Howard Kunstler has restated his responses to what he calls "The Long Emergency." Kunstler often ruffles feathers with his harsh critiques of our nation's suburban wasteland and dependence on the automobile, and many label him a loon for his dire predictions on the world's oil supply. That said, Kunstler is a reactionary, and he longs for a "small" America--a country where localism reigns. Though he does not say it here, I find his course of action to be rather hopeful. It is a call to community and the "little way," where we buy our food from local farmers, work down the street from our homes, and care for one another. A few notable suggestions:

Expand your view beyond the question of how we will run all the cars by means other than gasoline. This obsession with keeping the cars running at all costs could really prove fatal.

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Farming will soon return much closer to the center of American economic life. It will necessarily have to be done more locally, at a smaller-and-finer scale, and will require more human labor. The value-added activities associated with farming -- e.g. making products like cheese, wine, oils -- will also have to be done much more locally. This situation presents excellent business and vocational opportunities for America's young people (if they can unplug their Ipods long enough to pay attention.)

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The age of canned entertainment is coming to and end. It was fun for a while. We liked "Citizen Kane" and the Beatles. But we're going to have to make our own music and our own drama down the road. We're going to need playhouses and live performance halls. We're going to need violin and banjo players and playwrights and scenery-makers, and singers. We'll need theater managers and stage-hands.

As I said, I find responses like this to be quite hopeful. Even if Kunstler is completely wrong about the oil supply, he is not wrong about saving our communities. Kunstler places his trust in people willing to be neighbors and families again (which could be ironic, given Kunstler's love/hate relationship with Democrats). While he (rightly) sees a place for the State in these responses (namely focusing on public transportation over alternative fuels), he squarely places most of the responsibility on us, where it belongs. So where is the hope in this? Kunstler himself explains in this essay:

It's a daunting agenda, all right. And some of you are probably wondering how you are supposed to remain hopeful in the face of these enormous tasks. Here's the plain truth, folks: Hope is not a consumer product. You have to generate your own hope. You do that by demonstrating to yourself that you are brave enough to face reality and competent enough to deal with the circumstances that it presents. How we will manage to uphold a decent society in the face of extraordinary change will depend on our creativity, our generosity, and our kindness, and I am confident that we can find these resources within our own hearts, and collectively in our communities.