Light Preparation

In her book Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs talks of five indicators when a dark age is approaching. These are: when governments choose economics over science, i.e. refusing to listen to their experts; breakdown of community and family welfare; higher education valuing credentials above higher education; a lack of care towards basic physical resources such as food and water; and institutionalised greed. Only one of these indicators is required to suggest the approach of a Dark Age - we are currently, globally, exhibiting all five.

Yet before you start panic-stockpiling and arming yourself, despair not. A Dark Age may not be quite as it sounds. Indeed, there was a BBC series addressing this fact called An Age of Light which looked at the proliferation of the arts and sciences in early Christianity, Islam, the Vikings, the Irish and even the so-called barbarians, to name a few. In Britain this was when King Arthur, most likely a Roman general who remained behind after his kinsmen left, united the warring tribes, a time that has given rise to countless legends and dreams.

Jacobs herself lived through a mini-Dark Age during the Great Depression in America, and says, 'For someone in her teens or early twenties...it wasn't really so bad,' whilst acknowledging that her youth was advantageous and that it was harder for older people to adapt. It was particularly hard for men who identified with being family breadwinners, and no longer could be. The key word here may be 'adapt'. When I was interviewing various economics experts for my thesis on sustainability years ago, that word came up again and again as being necessary for all aspects of business and finance.

A couple of times when I've been particularly hard up, I've resorted to foraging to supplement my meals. I remember one time in Herefordshire when I had the basics for a homemade pizza but it would lack a certain flavour and colour, it would be bland. Then I remembered, when swimming along the nearby river the day before, seeing some redcurrant bushes growing further down the bank. That was what I needed! So off I went, at first mostly wading, then, when the waters deepened, plunged in and swam until I got to the bushes. The mission was a success, and when I returned I made a fabulous pizza whose ingredients included feta cheese, olives, red onions, garlic and redcurrants, with a drizzle of olive oil. What could have been an experience of deprivation became one of joy and richness, that I remember to this day. I have many foraging stories like this that stand out, like feeding guests with sea spaghetti and sesame oil, or a long walk along cliffs to where saffron milk sap mushrooms grew under pine trees. These memories remain vivid whereas nearly all my visits to supermarkets in more affluent times tend to blend into one.

That the world is changing is without a doubt. It's always changing. All things must pass. Still, I would rather we not head into a Dark Age even if I do have some transferable skills, such as being able to cook with limited ingredients! It does provide some solace though, knowing that important qualities during such times are not necessarily those such as being able to fight, but rather more nurturing and even artistic skills. Jacobs considers Ireland as having gone through its own economic Dark Age in recent centuries, and cites how much its arts have thrived: 'The Irish stubbornly remembered who they were and what they valued, and refused to lose their treasured culture. They accomplished this marvel largely through the fragile medium of song.'

A further comfort is to be found in the nature of chaos itself. We tend to wish the world to conform to a mechanical model that is easy to understand. I meet this all the time when people discuss economic predictions with me. To some extent, when well-informed, this can work but inevitably comes unstuck eventually. This relates to black swan theory, referring to events that are outside the realm of experience and therefore unpredictable. I would also mention chaos theory as being particularly relevant. The physicist J. Doyne Farmer made a name for himself by applying chaos theory in such a way that he could beat the odds of a roulette wheel. Despite those trying to assure us otherwise, economics is chaotic. Yet the comfort I find here is that there is beauty in chaos, a hidden order, as demonstrated so beautifully in numerous fractals.

So are we inevitably heading to a time of chaos? According to some Hindu interpretations we are already in the Age of Kali, a time of de-structuring and immorality, the end of a perpetual cycle, before it gives way to the more kindly Age of Satya, a time of truth and goodness. If we are to ride the tiger then, I am glad it is a beautiful tiger, and that qualities of human nature likely to make the ride more pleasant are those that speak of the best within us. It may indeed be a time when creativity, meditation, love and kindness persist and triumph.