August/September 1978 RAIN Page 5 WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS by Lee Johnson OK, now this seems a little incestuous even to me. But the Beatles were right about how we all get by, weren't they? When old friends do good work, they certainly deserve mention even if it does seem like the mutual back-patting that sometimes passes for honesty these days. But the new, revised Energy Primer by Richard Merrill and Soft-Tech by Jay Baldwin and Stewart Brand are not only very useful items for your heads, hands and your a.t. bookshelf; more on that later. They also reflect the kind of purposeful, feedback-to-thesystem that began for us in the noisy '60s, when we knew or felt we knew what we didn't like about society but didn't really have much of a positive agenda beyond some faint inklings here and there. Well, presto-chango! We're still all mouthing off about what's not going to work in America, but we've also been writing, designing and building some damn good stuff that has led a whole bunch of us (20 to 30 million, if you believe Stanford Research Institute) onto new paths that feel better than the old. And wouldn't you know it ... all just in the nick of time to smooth the energy and other crises (you name 'em) into a peaceful, humane transition, if we're smart enough to persuade another couple million Americans that our version of the future is cheaper, more cosmic, safer, more democratic, or just plain more fun. Now there's bound to be all sorts of ways to go about making that appeal. That's what these two books, and our own Rainbook are . . . starter kits with different packaging to help our fellow citizens toward the same end. Sounds patriotic, doesn't it? But then we think there are other ways to be patriotic and other things much more important to our nation than the national defense budget in making sure we all not only survive but thrive. For the past ten years or so, many of us have been trying to find them or develop them in our own country, and then tell you what we think they mean so you could decide what to do. And frankly, we've done it much more effectively than any government agency ... a debatable measuring stick these days. Perhaps Jay Baldwin best sums up what we've learned most recently about synergy over long distances: You may already have noticed there seems to be a lot missing that you 'd expect to see in a Soft Tech book. That's because I've purposely avoided needless competition with those on our side who are already doing a great job. Thus I've left most energy matters to the new edition of the excellent Energy Primer and its superb bibliography, and just about everything else Soft Tech doesn't mention to the remarkably cOrYI.plete Rainbook. Energy Primer (revised and updated), edited by Richard Merrill and Tom Gage, 1978,256 pp., $7.95 postpaid from: Delaeorte Press 245 E. 47th St. New York, NY 10017 Soft-Tech, edited by Jay Baldwin and Stewart Brand, 1978, 176 pp., $5.00 postpaid from: Co-Evolution Quarterly Box 428 Sausalito, CA 94965 ~ {\ /\ /i I~ I\J \I v /7 ~@J ~~,~ The Primer, for example, will appeal most to the individual oriented toward planning, building, or buying personal home energy hardware. Since energy is the first big crisis area, it's only natural it has its own technjeal bible and reference manual. And we're very lucky it was done by people who are not only professiona.lIy knowledgeable, hut experienced in handson construction, and grounded in the "self-reliance for local control" philosophy we share. That's what makes it incomparable. Soft-Tech, on the other hanel, covers those individual tools for living with more of an inventor's eye for the creative irony beyond the technical explanation. And it covers areas (agriculture equipment, small tractors, transport, steam power, building techniques) not in the Primer. Perhaps the best single item is Jay's piece on "One Highly-Evolved Toolbox." I'll let you discover it for yourself, for that alone is worth the price of admission. Add to that some of the best soft-tech articles from CQ and you've a real winner. In the future, I predict we'll see more of an emphasis on less costly, shared, community technology which Jay correctly realized we were trying to emphasize in RainbQok. Technological Jeffersonianism works, but it's expensive. both financially ar.d socially. And, hopefuUy, we'll have big, onctopic primers on "non-energy" areas like compost toilets, building, organic farming, neighborhood recycling, and s( ) on. Yep. That's what's next. Step right up and help us make the world work.
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