The solution has to be mostly in terms of developing small, cooperative, highly self-sufficient economies in which there is no growth and in which we can live very simply.

The transition to The Simpler Way cannot be organised or led from the top, i.e., by states, governments or experts. It can only be a grass roots development whereby ordinary people begin coming together to develop their localities into economies that enable them to take control over their own situation.

Therefore a great deal of educational effort is needed to enable people to see why we must start transforming the places where we live towards The Simpler Way. Obviously nothing will change in our existing suburbs and towns until most people understand that there must be a shift from consumer society, and that there is a sustainable alternative.

This means two things must be done. The first is to "educate" about these issues as much as possible, in whatever ways we can, including especially simply talking about them to others, whenever possible. The second and most important is to start building alternative settlements right now, so that the existence and merits of these examples can be seen. People in mainstream consumer society are not likely to adopt The Simpler Way unless they can see impressive examples of a better way as the problems of consumer society increase.

It will inevitable take a long time and much trial and error learning for a community to develop the alternative outlooks, values, and ways and infrastructures, technologies, economies and cultural systems. There must be a long and slow process in which people learn by experience the new ways of thinking, producing and living. Especially difficult is the fact that new sources of life satisfaction must be adopted, and these will be very different from the satisfactions consumer society offers. Again such things can only become widely understood and accepted through a long process of educating and of exposure to examples, and most effective here will be the establishment of impressive examples.

These points show that the classic anarchist view of social organisation and of revolutionary change is correct. Firstly the limits to growth analysis shows that big centralised, authoritarian social systms are not possible. In the coming world of scarcity viable social organisation must be on the small and local scale. People must organise and control their own local socio-economic systems (some role for states would probably remain), through highly participatory and cooperative arrangements (e.g., committees, working bees and town meetings). Thus it would seem that the classic Marxist vision of social change must be rejected for the coming revolution. It will not make sense to organise in terms of a centralised party that takes control of the state and pushes the changes through. The state cannot make eco-villages work!

In addition, changes in structures will not occur until after the changes in values and ideas have been well made. People will not develop local economies, including gardens and workshops and little firms right throughout cities, if they have not first come to see that this is necessary, and come to want to adopt The Simpler Way. (The Marxist view is that the changes in values will be brought about slowly long after control of the state has been taken.)

The best way to begin would seem to be to establish a community development cooperative. Its first project would be to begin a garden and workshop that would enable participants to start using local resources to produce for themselves some of the things they need. In time many other functions can be taken on, including bread baking, toy making, car repair, waste recycling and repair of appliances, bicycles and furniture, poultry, fish, fruit, house insulation and renovation. These activities also provide alternative sources of community and entertainment. In time links can be made with the surrounding economy, e..g., by selling vegetables to the local restaurant. Later, working bees can do things that will make the locality more self-sufficient, local banks and business incubators can be established, small firms set up, etc and town or suburban import dependence thereby reduced. Above all the community development cooperative would works on the educational task of getting more local people to see the importance of what is being done. In time the community development cooperative becomes the centre of participatory town self-government.

The basic Marxist view would be that capitalism will not allow such a strategy to succeed. If our local initiatives begin to become a threat they will be crushed. This might be so, but it can be argued that trying to get the examples going is still should be our top priority because this will at least contribute to establishing the viability and wisdom of The Simpler Way in the cultural memory. If in the far distant future humans ever get another chance to build a sustainable society their chances of taking the sensible path will have been increased if we in our time are able to establish memorable instances of it.