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150-Strong: A Pathway to a Different Future Paperback – January 24, 2016

by Rob O'Grady (Author), Dmitry Orlov (Foreword)

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Rob O’Grady is an engineer and father of three who has been stirred to action by his reflections on environmental issues and his everyday encounters with the perversity of our current system. Trained in the discipline of “sustainability engineering,” he discerned early in his career that to talk of sustainability in the world of business and politics was “to pour from the empty into the void,” because the underlying context is subversive of such efforts. Rejecting a career dealing in irreconcilable contradictions, he went into the construction industry and helped to build a thriving company that employs some 150 people. But he continued to think about environmental and economic issues. Having never come across an approachable account that, to his mind, adequately addresses the intractability of our current situation, he set to writing. He took an engineer’s approach—working from first principles, drawing on real-world experiences, and understanding the need to keep things practical and simple—and found, to his surprise, that the germ of a solution emerged. This book is the culmination of a journey that started from a vote of no confidence in our current system, and ended in a fledging hope that a better future might be possible.

Print length

228 pages
Language

English
Publication date

January 24, 2016
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.58 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1523676523
ISBN-13

978-1523676521
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (January 24, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 228 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1523676523
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1523676521
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.58 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,942,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #194,642 in Social Sciences (Books)

Customer Reviews:
25 ratings

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2 star		7%
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Karen E. Parker

I really enjoyed this well-written book

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2016

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I really enjoyed this well-written book. O'Grady provides a thoughtful critique of both capitalism and communism, whose weaknesses stem largely from the effects of scale and the resulting diminution of trust and accountability. His remedy--strengthening local communities--is an appealing one, and such ideas are gaining influence in the "buy local," slow food, community-sharing, and home-schooling movements. Unfortunately, these grassroots initiatives are overwhelmed by the tectonic forces of scale created by technology and centralization of political authority...which are fostering atomization and alienation. We have been heading pell-mell away from community, with potentially disastrous consequences.

This book is so clever, I kept hoping for a surprising solution at the end--some way to reconcile the considerable benefits of markets and technology with the need to restore trust and community. Alas, there is no magic bullet, only an intriguing, important, and beautifully articulated question. It's a question we must all think about, and soon.

19 people found this helpful

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Some good points but doesn't help much with reaching a solution

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2019

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Sets out some good critiques of today's capitalism and economics, but lacks depth. The basic idea that society needs to be organized around units of 150 or so people is fine, but there's very little here on how that might be done. I was hoping for more.

One of the biggest problems here is that O'Grady seems to have very limited background in ecological economics or sustainability. It's not necessary to re-invent the wheel. Herman Daly's laws of sustainability would have been very helpful here. (These are: renewable resources such as fish, soil, and groundwater must be used no faster than the rate at which they regenerate; nonrenewable resources such as minerals and fossil fuels must be used no faster than the renewable substitutes for them can be put into place; and pollution/wastes can be emitted no faster than natural systems can absorb them, recycle them, or render them harmless.)

As a former lawyer, I agree with O'Grady's assessment in Chapter 3 that the current legal system has problems. However, it's a pretty big step from there to tossing out the entire legal system, which seems to be what O'Grady is proposing to do in Chapter 3. In the U.S. at least, the legal system is based on the English common law, which in turn was based largely on practical experience. A large part of what the law deals with is attempting to apply common sense, thinking about what a reasonable person would do. In most civil lawsuits the aim of the judge is to push the parties toward finding their own settlement of their differences.

O'Grady seems to think that organizing society in groups of 150 can solve the problems of capitalism, communism and law. At least this appears to be the basic message of Chapters 1-4. I think the rule of 150 can help in some ways, but this is asking it to take on too much. The current human population size is simply too large, and wasteful habits of resource use are too ingrained. For most people in the US, their 150 would all agree that suburbia is a fine thing and that the automobile is the normal way for people to get back and forth to work.

O'Grady says very little about current attempts to do just what he is talking about. There are plenty of intentional communities out there that are trying to walk the talk in groups of 40-150 or so. Many are religious communities. Others are secular; examples include Twin Oaks, Earthaven, and Dancing Rabbit communities. These places can be wonderful, but they have plenty of problems. Small, tightly knit communities can and sometimes do have crime. Some communities, like the Amish, are very traditional, and highly intolerant of diverse ideas. Successful community governance is far from easy, even in a community that follows the rule of 150. If you are interested in practical issues of how to organize groups of people according to the rule of 150, you might do better to skip O'Grady's book and read one of Diana Leafe Christian's books.

On the other hand, when O'Grady is summing up his action points in Chapter 8, his proposals are quite modest. They amount to little more than keeping the problems of capitalism in mind, seeking to strengthen bonds with one's own 150 people, agitating for reform of democracy, and embracing technology. This isn't exactly bad, but I don't see how this is going to lead to any sort of thoroughgoing reform of society and its resource use. After all, if you're a Fortune 500 CEO, you also have a group of 150 people who are your relatives and friends, of which most are members of the 1%. How is strengthening a CEO's bonds with his 150 going to improve society overall? Maybe what O'Grady is saying that the direction we're moving in is more important than how far we get along the road. If so, it would have been nice to state it clearly.

I would have liked to see more on the barriers that exist to organizing humans according to the rule of 150. In most parts of the U.S., local zoning laws, building codes, and parking regulations make it difficult or even impossible to organize a tightly knit community of 150 people. This is one reason why intentional communities tend to occur in clusters.

One person found this helpful

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Michael S

I Have Been Longing for this Book

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2016

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This is the book that I have been waiting for years to read. I only started reading it this morning and I am only up to page 37 and my enthusiasm grows with each page. As a bonus it is beautifully written. I first became aware of the seriousness of the global situation when I read James Kunstler's "The Long Emergency" in 2008. That book stunned me. I went into "shock" and denial for 2 or 3 years and then began reading LOTS on climate disruption, peak oil, species extinction, etc. O'Grady's book is amazing. It seems like a miracle to me. I would be deeply remiss if I did not direct readers of this review to the amazing collection of interviews that Ken Rose conducted over several years: [...]
It was these interviews by Ken that helped me slowly over several years get over my denial and my angst in response to the global catastrophe. I am also deeply grateful to a host of other people: James Kunstler, Morris Berman, Carolyn Baker, Guy McPherson, Richard Heinberg, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, John Michael Greer, Dave Pollard, Stephen Jenkinson, Bill McKibben, Charles Eisenstein, Daniel Quinn ... There are many more wonderful people I could name. O'Grady's book is one of those books that makes reading other books on the same subject superfluous.

18 people found this helpful

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Panneerselvam Posangu

I would recommend it to all my friends

Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2016

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A very important book. I would recommend it to all my friends. While explaining the inherent conflict between profit motive and sustainability,
author's emphasis was rightly in framing the question clearly and simply. I am sure that author's Reconciling Principle, the rule of 150 and action plans will encourage readers to move beyond discussions into the realm of action.

A good and compassionate work.

Thanks to the Author, Rob O'Grady and Dmitry Orlov.

3 people found this helpful

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Raye

Worth the read

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2016

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Worth a read - this book has me rethinking neighborhoods, social circles, and how we support and influence each other. It is a call to personal responsibility with realistic parameters.

4 people found this helpful

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Tin Woodsman

A lot of good ideas, not a lot of development.

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2016

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Having been a faithful reader of the Orlov, Kunstler and Greer blogs for some five years, I am definitely sympathetic to the great majority of the ideas presented in this book. From the excerpts I read online I was enticed to purchase the eBook. I read it over a few days and can say I enjoyed it, but I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of depth to which the author develops the lines of thought he offers. I will look for more from the author in the future, as I find his writing style appealing and expect him to improve with experience.

6 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Human Evolutionary Psychology Explained, Finally

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2016

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I purchased this book after reading about it on Dimitry Orlov's blog, so I knew it would be good from the get-go. I'd heard about the 150 hypothesis for years, but here it is fleshed out. If you are interested in human evolutionary psychology (and who isn't?) you will find that this book helpful and interesting.

2 people found this helpful

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JCH

Engrossing Read with many Positive Ideas

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2016

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Rob O'Grady writes succinctly and without pretension and has produced an excellent and engaging read that will put some wind in your sails. For anyone feeling a bit overwhelmed or disempowered by the scale of the problems facing us, 150 Strong provides you with the starting point to take back some control. His engagingly light manner and distillation of numerous historical and contemporary examples makes it an engrossing read - something I got through in two sessions. I'll probably read it again at some point, and have already recommended it to friends. One minor quibble is that it seemed to me like the book could have done with an extra chapter detailing what a modern-day 150 Strong network might look like in practice - would it include, for example, useful social media contacts and faraway friends or would it just contain people living on your street? - but perhaps this is just left for us to contemplate.

One person found this helpful

Matt Bedford

Two Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2016

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Found it all a little boring honestly, though the writer's heart is in the right place.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Cohesive group limits within, Enemy groups without

Reviewed in Australia on May 26, 2016

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Definitely a strong book on one notable emergent fact on the strength and limits of our social ability, and our failures to make it work in our world today. Its strong advocacy makes one think why this ability is not working well for us today, with vast disparities in wealth and power between different "classes" of people. The book is not so strong on the difficulties of changing our current penchant for mass urban conglomeration and hierarchical specialization, which depends very much on the vast amounts of fossil fuel energy we use to feed ourselves and transport everything around.
A good read, lighter than I expected. It makes a good point that our social groups organize best around smaller groups, in which we can get to know the individuals well. 150 is a best conditions, ideal upper limit. I would be interested to know if there is a lower practical limit for less than ideal, or more socially hostile, time and encounter-limited conditions. Our social abilities between disparate groups are perhaps more important than our natural born-into and grown-up in groups, in which so much common heritage and meaning can reduce the work of communication. How do we measure the shared social IQ between individuals who have initially little in common?
Ideal conditions are probably small village like. Shared language and culture, everybody has to work in cooperation for mutual benefit. It requires people are highly visible to each other, there is time for everyone to learn, and relationships are positive investments. This book is great addition to our general public reading, especially for those people who have never heard of the Dunbar number, and I found from conversations that this included a lot of otherwise well educated activists. The books subject fits in well with other books and authors I am bumping into, including Keith Farnish and his "whole of civilization" break-down, (Times Up!) where "tools of disconnection", inhibit our natural social organizing ability. As the energy and system supports for civilization collapse, it should be obvious that social - group connections will become paramount for better chances of survival, but also that inter-group rivalry is going to be a killer.

Cliente Amazon

Inspiring book / Libro inspirador

Reviewed in Spain on May 31, 2016

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Great book. Very good ideas expressed clearly about how to reinterpret your ideas of community. / Gran libro. Muy buenas ideas escritas con gran claridad sobre como reintepretar tus ideas de comunidad.

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Bruce Beach

Towards where the future leads

Reviewed in Canada on October 4, 2016

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Near and dear to my view of the future. Unfortunately not many thinking that way yet, but quickly evolving circumstances will soon and quickly force itself upon us.

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150-Strong: A Pathway to a Different Future Paperback – January 24, 2016

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