In 2010 Tim Jackson spoke at the Alfred Deakin Lecture series at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia. This is what he had to say about starting an alternative community, 29 minutes into the lecture:

'I give you a choice here; you don't absolutely have to intervene in (the social system). You could at this point say, and I'm often tempted to say it myself, "This is too difficult; this is a stacked deck of cards; it wasn't dealt evenly. There's no escape from this mix of economic structure and human psychology. I'm going to find myself a small patch of land on a hillside somewhere (above the rising sea level obviously), and I'm going to spend the rest of my energy living in harmony with nature. Some vegetables, a few goats, a couple of chickens, and I'll spend my time in nice artistic endeavour with my friends and family (occasionally)" — not too many of them because that may not sustain a big community.

And actually, as your though train goes toward how many acres of land we would need for these nine-billion people, actually, you're tempted to believe perhaps you should take some armaments with you, to this hillside retreat. Kalashnikov, AK47: recommended armaments of choice in these circumstances. And you very quickly begin to realise actually this life boat strategy is not a very good one. There will be people clambering, "barbarians at the gate", when actually the system goes down. And increasingly you find yourself drawn back, in fact, to saying "what can we do, what can we do now? Is this really as impossible as it looks?"'

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Choosing to fail 

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