I think you are overly optimistic, despite the gloomy tone of your essay because you largely overlook the “elephant in the room”: accelerating climate destabilization due to relentlessly rising CO2 emissions. Mislabeled “climate change” by the Bush regime as a strategy of denial (“the climate always has changed; what’s the big deal?) ACD (anthropogenic climate disruption) is accelerating and will quickly pull the rug out from under the best laid schemes of the East and West alike. It won’t be pretty, but the best we can do as individuals is to grow gardens, grow community, and grow awareness. The rapid propagation of Permaculture theory and practice at the local level is the last best hope for any of us to survive the inevitable maelstrom of global collapse.