Local resilience in systemic crises: WOOO vs. YOYO
by Vinay Gupta • January 18, 2013 • Everything Else • 2 Comments
Dougald wanted me to write up a couple of concepts quickly. Firstly, the “don’t wait for State help in a systemic crisis.”
- The State has about 1% of the population as first responders: police, army, fire service, coast guard, the lot.
- In a systemic crisis, there’s no enormous reserve of people from unaffected areas to draw on for help.
- In such a systemic crisis – financial collapse, pandemic flu, massive grid failure – resources will cover the worst 5% or 10% of the people affected. Think of this in terms of “how many people can one policeman help if they’re all in equal trouble?”
- Therefore, make all efforts to stand on your own feet* during such a crisis, because you don’t want to be in the most badly affected 5% of the population that receives help from the State.
Lucas has an interesting perspective on the modes of “standing on your own feet.”
- YOYO is the standard model, “You’re On Your Own,” as said when the last plane leaves.
- WOOO is the new model, “We’re On Our Own,” said when people organize mutual aid in times of crisis.
It makes all the difference in the world, but remember that resilience grows as assets exceed liabilities: it’s important to count group strength, not just group size, when considering the resilience of teams. It doesn’t matter how big your group is, you can’t make insulin or zoloft.
Amanda Ripley has made the point that emergencies have been seen as something to be handled by state-run specialists, with no training given to the public. A huge improvement in survival could be made by some basic training to the masses.
Indeed, this raises a very interesting set of questions about what kind of training would be appropriate to skill up large proportions of the population for resilience; how best this could be delivered; and how to avoid it looking like the proverbial terrrist training camp.
Gamification? Martial arts clubs? A branch of the WI? John Michael Greer has had some interesting posts in recent months about traditional local organisations like the Masons, Oddfellows etc providing a useful training ground in the tenets and procedures of local democracy.