Transition and Occupy are like two legs

The Transition movement (to a sustainable lower-fossil-fuel economy, that is)and Occupy are like two legs. Together they'll carry us further and more stably than we can hop alone. In a nutshell, Transition has a stronger, more developed analysis and Occupy has greater energy and imagination.

Personally I've had much more experience with Transition but the conversation there hasn't grabbed hold of people like Occupy has. It hasn't got them into the streets; it hasn`t challenged the power structure directly with talk of direct democracy. Occupy provides a visible problem - gross wealth disparity in a time of widespread monetary pain - that a lot of people, even if not quite 99%, relate too. Many feel the financial pain now, or are worried that they are going to feel it soon. When someone stood up and spoke to Transition at an Occupy meeting in the rural area I live in, she was greeted with respectful nods and assent, but it didn't seem to me that Ttransition was where people were living and breathing.

Transition's analysis speaks to our need, as individuals and as a collective, to reduce consumption to sustainable levels and build local economies that can survive the limited external energy inputs we'll have in the future. Most people can't relate powerfully to that yet; though it might seem true, it seems abstract and far away. Even though resource depletion, ratcheting oil prices and falling supply are hidden stories behind our daily news events, they lurk in the shadow. The inevitability of our needing to live within our means hasn't struck home. But for many Occupy does strike home. And it makes friends every day by its continually open come-as-you-are policy to newcomers.

But Occupy's numbers and enthusiasm provide a perfect growing medium for the ideas that Transtion's bringing forward so clearly. Transition needs Occupy's energy; Occupy benefits from Transition's smarts. Personally I see the need for both in my future, and I imagine that the two are going to walk a long way together, to their mutual benefit.