It occurred to me the other day that quite a few of the odder features of contemporary American culture make perfect sense if you assume that everybody knows exactly what’s wrong and what’s coming as our society rushes, pedal to the metal, toward its face-first collision with the brick wall of the future. It’s not that they don’t get it; they get it all too clearly, and they just wish that those of us on the fringes would quit reminding them of the imminent impact, so they can spend whatever time they’ve got left in as close to a state of blissful indifference as they can possibly manage.
I grant that this realization probably had a lot to do with the context in which it came to me. I was sitting in a restaurant, as it happens, with a vanload of fellow Freemasons.
We’d carpooled down to Baltimore, some of us to receive one of the higher degrees of Masonry and the rest to help with the ritual work, and we stopped for dinner on the way back home. I’ll spare you the name of the place we went; it was one of those currently fashionable beer-and-burger joints where the waitresses have all been outfitted with skirts almost long enough to cover their underwear, bare midriffs, and the sort of push-up bras that made them look uncomfortably like inflatable dolls—an impression that their too obviously scripted jiggle-and-smile routines did nothing to dispell.
Still, that wasn’t the thing that made the restaurant memorable. It was the fact that every wall in the place had television screens on it. By this I don’t mean that there was one screen per wall; I mean that they were lined up side by side right next to each other, covering the upper part of every single wall in the place, so that you couldn’t raise your eyes above head level without looking at one. They were all over the interior partitions of the place, too. There must have been forty of them in one not too large restaurant, each one blaring something different into the thick air, while loud syrupy music spattered down on us from speakers on the ceiling and the waitresses smiled mirthlessly and went through their routines. My burger and fries were tolerably good, and two tall glasses of Guinness will do much to ameliorate even so charmless a situation; still, I was glad to get back on the road.
The thing I’d point out is that all this is quite recent. Not that many years ago, it was tolerably rare to see a TV screen in an American restaurant, and even those bars that had a television on the premises for the sake of football season generally had the grace to leave the thing off the rest of the time. Within the last decade, I’ve watched televisions sprout in restaurants and pubs I used to enjoy, for all the world like buboes on the body of a plague victim: first one screen, then several, then one on each wall, then metastatizing across the remaining space. Meanwhile, along the same lines, people who used to go to coffee shops and the like to read the papers, talk with other patrons, or do anything else you care to name are now sitting in the same coffee shops in total silence, hunched over their allegedly smart phones like so many scowling gargoyles on the walls of a medieval cathedral.
Yes, there were people in the restaurant crouched in the gargoyle pose over their allegedly smart phones, too, and that probably also had something to do with my realization that evening. It so happens that the evening before my Baltimore trip, I’d recorded a podcast interview with Chris Martenson on his Peak Prosperity show, and he’d described to me a curious response he’d been fielding from people who attended his talks on the end of the industrial age and the unwelcome consequences thereof. He called it “the iPhone moment”—the point at which any number of people in the audience pulled that particular technological toy out of their jacket pockets and waved it at him, insisting that its mere existence somehow disproved everything he was saying.
You’ve got to admit, as modern superstitions go, this one is pretty spectacular. Let’s take a moment to look at it rationally. Do iPhones produce energy? Nope. Will they refill our rapidly depleting oil and gas wells, restock the ravaged oceans with fish, or restore the vanishing topsoil from the world’s
fields? Of course not. Will they suck carbon dioxide from the sky, get rid of the vast mats of floating plastic that clog the seas, or do something about the steadily increasing stockpiles of nuclear waste that are going to sicken and kill people for the next quarter of a million years unless the waste gets put someplace safe—if there is anywhere safe to put it at all? Not a chance. As a response to any of the predicaments that are driving the crisis of our age, iPhones are at best irrelevant. Since they consume energy and resources, and the sprawling technosystems that make them function consume energy and resources at a rate orders of magnitude greater, they’re part of the problem, not any sort of a solution
Now of course the people waving their iPhones at Chris Martenson aren’t thinking about any of these things. A good case could be made that they’re not actually thinking at all. Their reasoning, if you want to call it that, seems to be that the existence of iPhones proves that progress is still happening, and this in turn somehow proves that progress will inevitably bail us out from the impacts of every one of the predicaments we face. To call this magical thinking is an insult to honest sorcerers; rather, it’s another example of the arbitrary linkage of verbal noises to emotional reactions that all too often passes for thinking in today’s America. Readers of classic science fiction may find all this weirdly reminiscent of a scene from some edgily updated version of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau: “Not to doubt Progress: that is the Law. Are we not Men?”
Seen from a certain perspective, though, there’s a definite if unmentionable logic to “the iPhone moment,” and it has much in common with the metastatic spread of television screens across pubs and restaurants in recent years. These allegedly smart phones don’t do anything to fix the rising spiral of problems besetting industrial civilization, but they make it easier for people to distract themselves from those problems for a little while longer. That, I’d like to suggest, is also what’s driving the metastasis of television screens in the places that people used to go to enjoy a meal, a beer, or a cup of coffee and each other’s company. These days, that latter’s too risky; somebody might mention a friend who lost his job and can’t get another one, a spouse who gets sicker with each overpriced prescription the medical industry pushes on her, a kid who didn’t come back from Afghanistan, or the like, and then it’s right back to the reality that everyone’s trying to avoid. It’s much easier to sit there in silence staring at little colored pictures on a glass screen, from which all such troubles have been excluded.
Of course that habit has its own downsides. To begin with, those who are busy staring at the screens have to know, on some level, that sooner or later it’s going to be their turn to lose their jobs, or have their health permanently wrecked by the side effects their doctors didn’t get around to telling them about, or have their kids fail to come back from whatever America’s war du jour happens to be just then, or the like. That’s why so many people these days put so much effort into insisting as loudly as possible that the poor and vulnerable are to blame for their plight. The people who say this know perfectly well that it’s not true, but repeating such claims over and over again is the only defense they’ve got against the bitter awareness that their jobs, their health, and their lives or those of the people they care about could all too easily be next on the chopping block.
What makes this all the more difficult for most Americans to face is that none of these events are happening in a vacuum. They’re part of a broader process, the decline and fall of modern industrial society in general and the United States of America in particular. Outside the narrowing circles of the well-to-do, standards of living for most Americans have been declining since the 1970s, along with standards of education, public health, and most of the other things that make for a prosperous and stable society. Today, a nation that once put human bootprints on the Moon can’t afford to maintain its roads and bridges or keep its cities from falling into ruin. Hiding from that reality in an imaginary world projected onto glass screens may be comforting in the short term; the mere fact that realities don’t go away just because they’re ignored does nothing to make this choice any less tempting.
What’s more, the world into which that broader process of decline is bringing us is not one in which staring at little colored pictures on a glass screen will count for much. Quite the contrary, it promises to be a world in which raw survival, among other things, will depend on having achieved at least a basic mastery of one or more of a very different range of skills. There’s no particular mystery about those latter skills; they were, in point of fact, the standard set of basic human survival skills for thousands of years before those glass screens were invented, and they’ll still be in common use when the last of the glass screens has weathered away into sand; but they have to be learned and practiced before they’re needed, and there may not be all that much time left to learn and practice them before hard necessity comes knocking at the door.
I think a great many people who claim that everything’s fine are perfectly aware of all this. They know what the score is; it’s doing something about it that’s the difficulty, because taking meaningful action at this very late stage of the game runs headlong into at least two massive obstacles. One of them is practical in nature, the other psychological, and human nature being what it is, the psychological dimension is far and away the most difficult of the two.
Let’s deal with the practicalities first. The non-negotiable foundation of any meaningful response to the crisis of our time, as I’ve pointed out more than once here, can be summed up conveniently with the acronym L.E.S.S.—that is, Less Energy, Stuff, and Stimulation. We are all going to have much less of these things at our disposal in the future. Using less of them now frees up time, money, and other resources that can be used to get ready for the inevitable transformations. It also makes for decreased dependence on systems and resources that in many cases are already beginning to fail, and in any case will not be there indefinitely in a future of hard limits and inevitable scarcities.
On the other hand, using L.E.S.S. flies in the face of two powerful forces in contemporary culture. The first is the ongoing barrage of advertising meant to convince people that they can’t possibly be happy without the latest time-, energy-, and resource-wasting trinket that corporate interests want to push on them. The second is the stark shivering terror that seizes most Americans at the thought that anybody might think that they’re poorer than they actually are. Americans like to think of themselves as proud individualists, but like so many elements of the American self-image, that’s an absurd fiction; these days, as a rule, Americans are meek conformists who shudder with horror at the thought that they might be caught straying in the least particular from whatever other people expect of them.
That’s what lies behind the horrified response that comes up the moment someone suggests that using L.E.S.S. might be a meaningful part of our response to the crises of our age. When people go around insisting that not buying into the latest overhyped and overpriced lump of technogarbage is tantamount to going back to the caves—and yes, I field such claims quite regularly—you can tell that what’s going on in their minds has nothing to do with the realities of the situation and everything to do with stark unreasoning fear. Point out that a mere thirty years ago, people got along just fine without email and the internet, and you’re likely to get an even more frantic and abusive reaction, precisely because your listener knows you’re right and can’t deal with the implications.
This is where we get into the psychological dimension. What James Howard Kunstler has usefully termed the psychology of previous investment is a massive cultural force in today’s America. The predicaments we face today are in very large part the product of a long series of really bad decisions that were made over the last four decades or so. Most Americans, even those who had little to do with making those decisions, enthusiastically applauded them, and treated those who didn’t with no small amount of abuse and contempt. Admitting just how misguided those decisions turned out to be thus requires a willingness to eat crow that isn’t exactly common among Americans these days. Thus there’s a strong temptation to double down on the bad decisions, wave those iPhones in the air, and put a few more television screens on the walls to keep the cognitive dissonance at bay for a little while longer.
That temptation isn’t an abstract thing. It rises out of the raw emotional anguish woven throughout America’s attempt to avoid looking at the future it’s made for itself. The intensity of that anguish can be measured most precisely, I think, in one small but telling point: the number of people whose final response to the lengthening shadow of the future is, “I hope I’ll be dead before it happens.”
Think about those words for a moment. It used to be absolutely standard, and not only in America, for people of every social class below the very rich to work hard, save money, and do without so that their children could have a better life than they had. That parents could say to their own children, “I got mine, Jack; too bad your lives are going to suck,” belonged in the pages of lurid dime novels, not in everyday life. Yet that’s exactly what the words “I hope I’ll be dead before it happens” imply. The destiny that’s overtaking the industrial world isn’t something imposed from outside; it’s not an act of God or nature or callous fate; rather, it’s unfolding with mathematical exactness from the behavior of those who benefit from the existing order of things. It could be ameliorated significantly if those same beneficiaries were to let go of the absurd extravagance that characterizes what passes for a normal life in the modern industrial world these days—it’s just that the act of letting go involves an emotional price that few people are willing to pay.
Thus I don’t think that anyone says “I hope I’ll be dead before it happens” lightly. I don’t think the people who are consigning their own children and grandchildren to a ghastly future, and placing their last scrap of hope on the prospect that they themselves won’t live to see that future arrive, are making that choice out of heartlessness or malice. The frantic concentration on glass screens, the bizarre attempts to banish unwelcome realities by waving iPhones in their faces, and the other weird behavior patterns that surround American society’s nonresponse to its impending future, are signs of the enormous strain that so many Americans these days are under as they try to keep pretending that nothing is wrong in the teeth of the facts.
Denying a reality that’s staring you in the face is an immensely stressful process, and the stress gets worse as the number of things that have to be excluded from awareness mounts up. These days, that list is getting increasingly long. Look away from the pictures on the glass screens, and the United States is visibly a nation in rapid decline: its cities collapsing, its infrastructure succumbing to decades of malign neglect, its politics mired in corruption and permanent gridlock, its society frayed to breaking, and the natural systems that support its existence passing one tipping point after another and lurching through chaotic transitions.
Oklahoma has passed California as the most seismically active state in the Union as countless gallons of fracking fluid pumped into deep disposal wells remind us that nothing ever really “goes away.” It’s no wonder that so many shrill voices these days are insisting that nothing is wrong, or that it’s all the fault of some scapegoat or other, or that Jesus or the Space Brothers or somebody will bail us out any day now, or that we’re all going to be wiped out shortly by some colorful Hollywood cataclysm that, please note, is never our fault.
There is, of course, another option.
Over the years since this blog first began to attract an audience, I’ve spoken to quite a few people who broke themselves out of that trap, or were popped out of it willy-nilly by some moment of experience just that little bit too forceful to yield to the exclusionary pressure; many of them have talked about how the initial burst of terror—no, no, you can’t say that, you can’t think that!—gave way to an immense feeling of release and freedom, as the burden of keeping up the pretense dropped away and left them able to face the world in front of them at last.
I suspect, for what it’s worth, that a great many more people are going to be passing through that transformative experience in the years immediately ahead. A majority? Almost certainly not; to judge by historical precedents, the worse things get, the more effort will go into the pretense that nothing is wrong at all, and the majority will cling like grim death to that pretense until it drags them under. That said, a substantial minority might make a different choice: to let go of the burden of denial soon enough to matter, to let themselves plunge through those moments of terror and freedom, and to haul themselves up, shaken but alive, onto the unfamiliar shores of the future.
When they get there, there will be plenty of work for them to do. I’ve discussed some of the options in previous posts on this blog, but there’s at least one that hasn’t gotten a detailed examination yet, and it’s one that I’ve come to think may be of crucial importance in the decades ahead. We’ll talk about that next week.
253 comments:
All too true. Your post reminds me of Neil Postman's book, Amusing Ourselves To Death. In light of were we are today, Postman's insight from the 1980s rings all the more true.
Thank You
4/8/15, 4:59 PM
steve said...
Within our community here on the West coast the "business as usual" crowd are still winning with the advancement of illogical transportation plans. Very difficult to stomach the craziness while trying to prepare a lifestyle that will feed our grandchildren and those to follow us
4/8/15, 5:23 PM
Caryn said...
I think it could also explain the growing and very noticeable aggression and hostility we non-residents have seen over the past few years. I think I've mentioned that before: As a US expat, living in Hong Kong, almost every encounter with friends, family, businesses, etc., back in the States leaves me with this impression of some nebulous, unidentified rage seething beneath the surface. It feels like everyone is spoiling for a fight. This was not our experience up until about 5 years ago.
It COULD also (at least partially) explain the recent spate of police abuses that have become fairly prominent on the news. The latest coming from South Carolina looked nothing short of execution; which leaves one to ask, "What was that cop thinking?" "How on earth could he have done that?" Poor training as a cop is not remotely enough of an excuse - poor training as a human being is only faintly plausible. The important point being - he is not alone by a long shot in his actions.
Sorry for the length of this, but one other strong example I can't get out of my mind is the corporate gutting of the Hostess Baked goods company, again, because what happened there was by far, not an isolated incident in the corporate world. The CEO's and Senior managers purposefully gutting the company (short term gain) rather than follow the well-worn path of running and profiting from, (not astronomical profits, but good profits), or riding a successful, healthy company.
(This is one article about it, there are many others)
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/hostess-employee-tells-all-about-ceo-guttin
CUZ- to me it looks like those CEO's and those cops are acting like the end of the world coming. Whatever they do impacting the future doesn't matter, so they're just living for today, whether it's corporate looting or living out some Mad Max us-against-them execution. Neither actions are rational if one has faith that there will be a future.
This is a very important discussion that must be had. I don't know if it is possible to do anything, but I have to ask: What can we do about it? Community is crucial to us herd-animals, (humans). What can we do about our herd falling to pieces?
(2 more points, but I think you have a word limit on these comments).
Again, thanks.
4/8/15, 5:27 PM
Five8Charlie said...
I stopped taking my kid to her pediatric dentist when the TV went up in the waiting room in place of the aquarium.
On the other hand, there has been small pockets of real progress in America since the 1970's. You were able to get a Guinness in a run-of-the-mill restaurant - couldn't have done that 30 years ago!
4/8/15, 5:28 PM
bryant said...
It used to be the only place you saw so many TVs was at a Las Vegas Sports Bar, now it is everywhere. Airports, bars, restaurants, tire shops, parts stores, feed stores, dentist's offices, all relentlessly televisionated. For me, the nadir was going into the local school district's offices and finding a half-a-dozen TVs in the waiting room. As education and TV viewing seem mutually exclusive to me, I determined to self-educate my kids at that point.
4/8/15, 5:31 PM
Trent Appleman said...
That which you term a Butlerian Carnival is genuinely one of the most fulfilling and diverse modes of life possible to us at the present time. It can be and should be exciting, an alternative to the disillusionment and rage to which one would otherwise be the eternal prey and not the momentary victim.
Also, I would rather the slim but real savings inherent in not purchasing fly food to all of the high flying salaries in the world!
One quibble, and only one: the poor are in many cases not to be blamed, and the Social Darwinist sneering of at least a subset of the rich is as incorrect as it is ignoble. But if the poor involve themselves in extravagances like credit, car, cellphone, and TV use, then one cannot but regard them as proportionally responsible for their own poverty.
So much money has flowed through the hands of today's people -- including the humblest labourer -- and it has been wasted on trinkets as upon event horizons... When I think of the opportunity even a labourer has of becoming better off than over 2/3rds of the American population in less than one year of sustained expenditure trimming and savings accumulation it is truly exasperating.
No amount even of fossil fuels and equality of opportunity can make up for the inability to discipline oneself, which will forever remain the exclusive preserve of a small minority; and may fortune smile even upon them!
I can provide my own antidotes to rage and disillusionment, my own stimulation, my own excitement. But I am glad of the excitement and stimulation afforded by this blog and the comments of its readers; for they justify my keeping at least one thing in common with my times while mostly rejecting the rest.
4/8/15, 5:37 PM
Travis Marshall said...
4/8/15, 5:40 PM
Peter VE said...
My son has already voluntarily collapsed to a much simpler life, and we're slowly doing the same. Each year I know the garden better, and we use less. Each year I try to weave the bonds with my neighbors tighter. Each year I try to do more outside the money economy.
4/8/15, 5:48 PM
Jo said...
When we finally were able to admit the truth, yes, it was truly terrible and traumatic, but as you say, also cathartic and a tremendous relief. It was then that I resolved to make facing reality a more regular feature of my life. I don't ever again want to waste years finding ways to avoid the truth.
So I have been training myself to recognise the ways in which I distract myself and ask myself the question, 'So what am I trying to avoid today?' Interestingly, once I had gone through one terrifying life-changing experience and survived, facing up to other changes I knew I needed to make, like tackling the implications of a life with LESS, didn't seem so scary.
So maybe, all those people sitting in cafes looking at their coloured screens trying not to think about the terrible things that might happen to them, will be able to face all sorts of other realities after those feared terrible things have happened.
In the meantime, I tell my children, 'Put the phone down darlings, and come and tell me about your day..' Maybe if I can help them face their realities now then they can go clear-eyed into the future, because, my goodness, will they have some harsh realities to come to terms with..
4/8/15, 5:52 PM
Brian Rich said...
Meanwhile, my family and I are well into collapse, and this month will see some big changes.
4/8/15, 5:59 PM
Flagg707 said...
A couple of thoughts.
Another aspect of this denial might be Apocalypse fatigue. The people who planned for Bankruptcy 1995, or an economic collapse after the Dot Com bubble, or $400/bbl oil a few years back, or the collapse of the banking system in 2008-2009, etc. have probably warned their "unawakened" family members multiple times over the years of impending collapse, only to see the system recover, though at a lower level of operability for many users. This "proof" that the Man will always find a way to fix things, even if the little people get a few less toys, reinforced by family and friends tired of hearing about "the long run" might be just the kind of excuse for people who know better to ignore what appears to many of us as Catabolic Collapse in action around us. Just a thought.
Also, I think you may have found a new writing challenge - have readers describe their journey through the 5 stages of Peak Oil awakening and see where most landed after a few years in terms of mindset.
Thanks again for the writing and the platform for sharing these powerful ideas. And I don't even have to spend my April 8th in un-airconditioned Cairo to receive them... :)
4/8/15, 6:04 PM
Caryn said...
In the last 6 months here in HK, they have installed video screens on every public bus, running on an endless loop of infomercials, so we no longer talk to each other. It's bizarrely quiet. We just stare at the screen. Lot's of people, including me have missed our stops because of the distraction. The bus drivers insist they hate it too, but they can't turn them off.
Now, I may be imagining this because I can only see trees in this particular forest I am in; but I think people here are generally becoming less polite, less generous, less civil. There may be a causation, not just a correlation in those screens and our public civility. At the least, it is contributing to a downward spiral of our connectedness.
(ALSO: I would bet donuts to dollars, your scantily clad waitresses would have been more friendly and personable if they were not (literally!) uncomfortably exposed and visually exploited. An air of disdain and a smile that screams "FAKE!" may be their only cover of self protection in their circumstances.
Lastly: You touched on another facet of this decline that I think is pertinent to note. People who are 'waking up', disengaging from this screen induced torpor are largely doing so because they are in some ways falling through the cracks. One by one, or family by family; we fall through. I think this is the face of the stair-step down decline for most of us. True, there will probably be another Katrina or Fukushima that we aren't prepared for and can't recover from. That will precipitate a huge resounding crash to a big chunk of civilization as a whole. But mainstream living is going or gone for many of us. It matters not that civilization crashes. WE'VE crashed. This is the case for my family - Well, in our case, hanging on by our fingernails for the next 3 years (if we can) until our kids finish school. We are below those floor-boards and collapsing to LESS as much as possible in prep. Crazzazy-Hong Kong Preppers - HA!
I find it kind of perplexingly optimistic to find a positive path, mental and physical, however LESS filled with toys and gadgets, to travel on.
That's in fact, why I keep coming back here, so Thank You so much for showing me this path.
Let's keep walking.
4/8/15, 6:06 PM
O’Hollern said...
I remember during the "Arab Spring" a lot of TV news types gushed about the importance of social media in spreading democratic uprisings, and oh wasn't it wonderful? Well, maybe, but American kids ain't using it for that, okay? They're texting and watching stupid pet tricks.
4/8/15, 6:15 PM
Zachary Braverman said...
I guess it's no surprise that what is true for individuals is no less so for society at large.
4/8/15, 6:20 PM
Tony f. whelKs said...
"Run that 'progress' thing by me again, I think I missed something. The average (allegedly) Smart Phone now has a computing power somewhat comparable to the original Apollo programme, and now we can't put a person on the Moon even though 'everyone' has a Smart Phone...???"
However, I suspect it may be too subtle...
4/8/15, 6:29 PM
Andy Brown said...
I was curious as to whether there were any signs of turning away from the wages and consumption economy that has betrayed the hardest hit members of these communities - a bit ahead of everyone else's schedule - are there kitchen gardens? rabbits? community entertainments? any sign of people creating an exit for themselves from the bottom of the American economic hierarchy?
Now I know enough not to expect grinding poverty to be a great engine for activism or revolution, but still, Appalachia is an area that has living memory of traditions of self-reliance and resistance.
But no, I saw poverty and despair and a ubiquitous and utterly destructive black market of prescription drugs and crystal meth. And yes, a television in every dark hovel. There is a die-off (of more than just bodies) happening in Appalachia that I fear is a preview of how most Americans are going to fail to cope with an end to progress.
4/8/15, 6:32 PM
Jim Davis said...
4/8/15, 6:34 PM
Cherokee Organics said...
Yes, the TV screens are popping up here too in all sorts of places – the bank is my personal favourite: Sure we’ve just had a major scandal involving ripping off plenty of customers, but trust us, we know what is best for us – Ooops, sorry we actually meant to say you the customer and that other bit just sort of slipped out. Hehe!
The weird thing is that they usually have them displaying an image, but with no sound which I've always thought to be a significant point. I actively avoid places with multiple screens as it is just too distracting – look at the pretty flashy colours! Fortunately, there are still plenty of places that do not have any screens displayed, which is a relief.
I've often wondered - given where those screens are produced and just how unrealistically cheap they are, whether there is a subtext behind it all. Like it may be possible that these toys which are virtually gifted to us are just considered to be a nice helping hand along the road to histories dustbin - and we (well not all of us) happen to be cheering the helping hand along. It is weird you have to admit.
Thanks for the new word too: Buboes - sounds very unpleasant. No one wants swollen lymph glands.
Well most of those smart phones that I've seen have broken screens - which I'm cynical enough to consider as an apparent design feature to boost parts sales - but what do I know? Obtaining more sales from existing customers is always a possible but very risky growth strategy. And what does it say about our society that people jump up and down get very excited by a product that is so easy to break whilst at the same time holding that up that same product as representation of progress? It is all very weird to me.
If tools here don't road test well or are not able to be easily repaired, they get disposed of or converted into something else. There is no place for a lack of resiliency here.
The smart phones also distract people from the task at hand and on many occasions I've noticed that people start to look something up on the Internet usually to back up a point that they’re making on conversation and find that they are unable to find what they're looking for, but then repeat the same process over and over again. It is weird and it smells of a sort of intellectual crutch to me. The whole thing is like a giant "neg" and I bet the developers were saying to themselves: "I'll bet they'll buy this easy to break and hard to use product". The last thing I want to receive whilst I'm out for dinner or at the local cafe enjoying a coffee is an email - what an invasion of privacy. Now a guiness or even dare I say it – an excellent pale ale - is a whole ‘nother matter. ;-)!
cont...
4/8/15, 6:40 PM
Cherokee Organics said...
Yes, exactly. Shame should be heaped upon those that produce children and say: "I hope I'll be dead before then". It is an absolutely shameful admission of a very possible reality for both them and their children. It stinks. Shame on you lot. You know who you are.
Of course, there is plenty of work to do, it is just that many don't realise it yet!
Cheers
Chris
PS: My new blog entry is up: Easter Eggs. It actually isn't about the chocolate kind of eggs, but actual eggs that get produced by actual real birds. As I have a variety of heritage and more expected species of chickens here, and egg production is on the rise (which is all explained) there are all sorts of unusual eggs which get produced so I've matched photos of the chickens to their eggs. All good fun and quite informative, plus you'll get an understanding of why you would want a few different varieties and learn something about chickens in the process. Phew that was a mouthful! Oh yeah, there was a Blood Moon in the last week and I took a very cool photo of that. Excavations continued. Zucchini madness - how can a few plants produce so much fruit? Tomato and tree seed stuff. I also reveal how I can move 1 cubic metre (1.3 cubic yards) of manure in under 30 minutes. Plus there is more house stuff which looks at the heavy insulation and the commercial fire retardant (weird stuff) cladding. Enjoy, there's lots of photos as usual!
4/8/15, 6:40 PM
latheChuck said...
"Hey! I got a degree in computer engineering too, in 1981." I said.
"Wow." she said. "I'll bet a lot has changed in over 30 years."
"Yeah... What do you think the world will be like 30 years from now?"
"Who can say?"
"Well, we probably won't have much in the way of fossil fuels left, and sea level will probably be somewhat higher... I'm glad my house is more than 200' above current sea level."
... and it went on from there, to the possibility that the Church, which was 'a thing' 1000 years ago, may still help us cope with future challenges 1000 years from now.
And it wasn't just the two of us, but four or five engaged in the topic. If they show up again on the ordinary Sunday after Easter, it might be the seed of something.
And no TVs anywhere around.
4/8/15, 6:47 PM
Paul K. said...
4/8/15, 6:59 PM
Thomas Daulton said...
At this point I dive into conjecture, but I suspect the motivation for this denial is less from fear of risk or fear of the truth or fear of the future. I think it has more to do with the Straussian "Noble Lie". Many Americans see and recognize the signs of decline, at least at some unconscious level. But as befits a country founded on Exceptionalism, every single American thinks they're someday going to be the one-in-a-million breakout success, buy their way into some kind of gated community for the wealthy and powerful, and laugh Galt-style while the rest of their countrymen go down in flames. As Steinbeck aptly put it, average Americans to a man "see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
When people of a certain mind-set aid and abet and pass along the "Noble Lie" which the elite uses to maintain its power, then in their minds they become more like the elite by association, and therefore more likely to join it. To a people unaccustomed to systems thinking, the more of their neighbors who fall for the lies and the myths, the better their own chance of success.
When such a deceitful people sees the lies spread all over their TV screens, smart phones, and entertainment, they can spot the lies easily and it will actually make them feel better about themselves, thinking they're not fooled by something that the stupid proles obviously fall for. Unfortunately -- when everyone is actively promoting propaganda, and fewer and fewer people are actually fooled by it, the net effect is just the same as if the broader society buys into the propaganda wholeheartedly. I don't think the rich and successful are any more likely to hand out lifeboats and champagne to anyone from the steerage class regardless who does and doesn't understand the Noble Lie. I think the America of the future will have certain things in common with the past: if you're not born into wealth and security, and you're not ruthless enough to outright steal it, then your odds of achieving it by hard work are tiny, and your odds of being granted it on a silver platter by means of blatant @$$-kissing to your "betters" are probably even less than that.
4/8/15, 6:59 PM
Pinku-Sensei said...
We are Devo! Sorry, couldn't resist. Just the same, my smart-aleck outburst serves a purpose, which is to point out that the idea that the U.S. had reached a zenith in the 1960s and has be in decline (de-evolving) ever since has been around since the late 1970s, even the response to it at the time was "mutate now and avoid the rush," which was meant as a joke, instead of "collapse now and avoid the rush," which our host means seriously.
“I hope I’ll be dead before it happens.”
Someone who saw the onrushing catastrophe and came right out and said that was Joe Bageant. He decided to get out of the U.S. while he still could to avoid it, retiring to Belize. The irony was that by doing so, he collapsed and avoided the rush. He also got his other wish, as he died four years ago. That's not exactly how I want to collapse now and avoid the rush.
"Today, a nation that once put human bootprints on the Moon can’t afford to maintain its roads and bridges or keep its cities from falling into ruin."
I don't know if the nation can't afford to prevent those signs of decline, but it certainly thinks it can't. Michigan's Governor proposed a tax increase to fund road maintenance two years ago. Next month, that measure will be on the ballot. It's likely to lose, as no one likes it and would rather use its failure to beat up on the other political faction.
“Oklahoma has passed California as the most seismically active state in the Union as countless gallons of fracking fluid pumped into deep disposal wells remind us that nothing ever really 'goes away.'”
Welcome to an application of one of Barry Commoner's Laws: Everything must go somewhere, as there is no "away" in Nature. My students see all four of them every time they open their lab manuals and identify examples all during the semester. I'm sure some of my students from five years ago can still recite them. As for whether they'll apply them, I can always hope.
Speaking of fracking and California, Jerry Brown's announced water restrictions didn't include any constraints for either oil extraction or farming. Environmentalists and residential consumers are livid. As an expatriate Golden Stater, I can tell the people left behind that it's all about the money. Those enterprises make money with water, while homeowners don't. That's a big part of the resistance; the psychology of previous investment means that the winners under the old system still make money. Until that ceases to be the case, they'll continue their old ways.
4/8/15, 7:07 PM
Andrew said...
In the dream, I'm a passenger in an aircraft that is full of people looking at screens, of the sort you might find in a military radar plane - the interior is military and functional. As the flight goes on, the aircraft starts to vibrate and shake, as though something is wrong - but the screens don't show anything out of the ordinary.
I don't remember any end to the dream, other than the increasingly rough vibration and shaking and tilting down of the fuselage while everyone else on board ignored these things and continued to watch the glowing screens. I don't remember saying anything, rather just being a silent observer.
This dream was back before smartphones became popular - never forgotten it.
4/8/15, 7:10 PM
AlaBikeDr said...
4/8/15, 7:17 PM
My donkey said...
These supposed "words of wisdom" are typically printed on wood or canvas and hung on a wall. Here is the actual text of one of them:
"Follow the voice of your spirit. Listen to the wisdom of your soul. Dance to the music in your heart."
What is this supposed to mean? I get the impression that any word in one of the sentences could be exchanged with any word in the others without changing the meaning -- whatever that might be. If the intent is to inspire me or to wow me with profundity, why, after reading ten similar examples, do I get the urge to hammer an icepick into my eye socket?
4/8/15, 7:21 PM
Dave Brown said...
4/8/15, 7:22 PM
Brother Kornhoer said...
I especially notice the frantic nature of the blame-the-poor crowd - they know in their hearts they're a few paychecks away from being poor themselves, and that they'd better not fall off the treadmill or fail to kiss posterior enthusiastically enough. But such a realization would be too fearful to acknowledge, so they pretend it can't happen to them, and it only happened to all those poor people due to some character flaw. This also allows them to rationalize the heartless acts they themselves may have to carry out. Meanwhile they distract themselves with addictive behaviors of some kind or another.
Archdruid Greer, does this mean you're finally getting around to discussing education and the preservation of knowledge? Here's looking forward to it.
4/8/15, 7:59 PM
Nano said...
4/8/15, 8:06 PM
jonathan said...
on another note, i'm trying to picture the scene in which the wait staff at hooters or the tilted kilt put on their grin and wiggle act for you and your friends. too bad you were not (i assume) in your full archdruid regalia.
4/8/15, 8:08 PM
escapefromwisconsin said...
Have you heard the reliable chestnut that "We have more computing power in our pockets than NASA did when we went to the moon!" I usually respond either, "so?" or "when was the last time we went to the moon, again?"
4/8/15, 8:16 PM
onething said...
What I've noticed is that it takes quite a bit of attention to a topic to drill down on its details and get a good scope on it, and most of the time people stay on the surface. Thus, the iphone moment.
"To call this magical thinking is an insult to honest sorcerers;"
Now that was funny!
But I dunno, as much as a way to hide out, I think this screen proliferation is like a bad drug addiction. The dose just keeps increasing. It's to where people feel kind of nervous if left to their own devices. In the world that's coming, it seems like the least of our worries, as people will snap out of it in a matter of days and invent more satisfying entertainments, as they always have.
Again, not seeing the whole picture and its many interconnections, I don't think people are very cognizant that their lifestyles are making things worse for the next generation or that there is much they can do about it. The clarity just isn't there.
4/8/15, 8:20 PM
fudoshindotcom said...
How many people do you suppose will be honestly disappointed when that doesn't happen?
I hope the next GREAT CATASTROPHY is a little more original and entertaining, with the amount of amazingly imaginative hog-wash it took to put us in this mess I'd expect the Head-in-the-sand gang to be predicting a resolution at least as colorful.
4/8/15, 8:20 PM
Lynford1933 said...
One of the more gruesome illustrations of what you are alluding is the militarizing of the police force. A friend saw an armored personal carrier with "Police" on the side. What on earth would the police need an APC for in a civil environment?
These same "Hope I die" people leave their children to be raised by gangs which apparently is the only place the child gets some attention and life skills in that environment. An alternative for the child is drugs of various sorts and availability.
4/8/15, 8:24 PM
HalFiore said...
Next time, you might want to bring one of these: https://cornfieldelectronics.com/tvbgone/tvbg.home.php
(I haven't tried it, so am not endorsing the product, but it's definitely an intriguing idea. Might get you lynched, though, if caught. Denial can turn real ugly.)
4/8/15, 8:34 PM
RepubAnon said...
4/8/15, 8:59 PM
will said...
4/8/15, 9:16 PM
Vincent said...
There is a consistent theme running through your narratives in which you believe the US government is restrained in its ability to pay its bills, or unable to subsidize an industry which does not make economic sense on its own.
This is simply not true in a modern monetary system. The comment section is not the proper forum for this discussion, which I would like discuss with you in greater detail, but I am unable to find a link to contact you via email.
I believe once you understand the mechanics of our current monetary system, it will change your paradigm for the bases to some of your individual hypothesis
4/8/15, 9:28 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Steve, the Mayans built their biggest pyramids just before their population crashed by 95% and the survivors abandoned the cities. I expect much the same thing will be said of us by future archeologists.
Caryn, I've also noticed the rage, and I think it's another sign of the same thing. Anger is very often a cover for some other emotion -- in this case, stark shivering terror.
Charlie, well, to be fair, the restaurant was faux-Celtic themed, and that pretty much guarantees Guinness on tap.
Bryant, gack. I didn't realize that the electronic leprosy had become that widespread.
Trent, the thing that strikes me is that the people who generally go around criticizing the poor for spending all their money on consumer goods also spend all their money on consumer goods, but happen -- mostly because of the social class of their parents -- to have more money.
Travis, yes, I've seen that sort of thing. It's embarrassingly typical.
Peter, your parents had the great good sense to move to the nation that had just supplanted Britain as global hegemon, right as the golbal petroleum boom hit, and benefited accordingly. Not everybody can count on winning the jackpot that way!
Jo, the ability to learn from a mistake may just be the most important of all human skills; I hope you've been able to pass that onto your children, as they'll need it.
Brian, happy collapsing!
Flagg, apocalypse fatigue is certainly an issue; so many people have used the real crisis of our age as a hook onto which to hang apocalyptic fantasies that they've done a great deal to discredit the rest of us. Thus the steady drumbeat on this blog of "it's not the end of the world, just hard times..."
Caryn, excellent. That's exactly how civilizations crash: one family at a time, one community at a time, one region at a time, until finally there just doesn't happen to be anybody left who hasn't crashed in one way or another.
4/8/15, 9:40 PM
Claire said...
'I'll be dead by then' is a recurring comment from my sister; a woman who wouldn't dream of putting a hand for anything a grandchild wanted . . .
4/8/15, 9:47 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Zachary, good. Please put that phrase on the business end of a branding iron, heat it up, and apply it to the backsides of all and sundry.
Tony, funny. Given that two readers both thought of that, I think it's worth boiling it down into something pithy and using it as needed to deflate the iPhone moment...
Andy, that makes perfect sense to me. I expect a lot of Americans to respond to the crises ahead by replacing the "I hope" in "I hope I die before then" with something more active, whether directly or by way of drink, drugs, etc.
Jim, I think that nobody wants to say anything for fear of what they'd have to talk about.
Cherokee, that would make a good plot for a story: the Chinese deliberately sell the Western countries vast numbers of allegedly smart phones, etc., because they know that after X number of years of continuous use, everyone who uses them becomes a catatonic vegetable. Rather too plausible!
LatheChuck, that's very good to hear. Wouldn't be the first time that religion has become the one force for stability at a time of otherwise universal disintegration...
Paul, excellent! Yes, it is more real. The world of nature is the real world; things manufactured by human beings are our own mental creations -- that is to say, imagination at best, hallucination at worst -- given temporary material form. Long after the briefly concretized fantasies we call "manufactured products" have vanished away, seeds will still be sprouting in soil, and in the depths of ourselves, we all know and feel that.
Thomas, I'd considered that. The problem is that it doesn't explain the rage and brittleness that surrounds the various ignoble lies people tell themselves in this country. Catch a conscious liar out, and he looks sheepish or starts blustering; catch someone lying to themselves to try to hide from a terrifying truth, and you get blind rage. The latter's far more common these days.
Pinku-sensei, the phrase as I remember it was "Mutate now and avoid the post-Bomb rush" -- and yes, I had that in mind when I was writing about "Collapse now and avoid the rush."
Andrew, that's a splendid metaphor. My compliments to your subconscious.
AlaBikeDr, yes, there are still ghettoes of privilege where that kind of attitude is well ensconced. It'll be interesting to see how long that lasts.
4/8/15, 10:06 PM
mirela said...
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth
Reminds me of a short story by Le Guin - "The ones who walk away from Omelas". Collapse now = walk away.
4/8/15, 10:13 PM
PhysicsDoc said...
4/8/15, 10:13 PM
Pinku-Sensei said...
To be fair, Leonard Cohen is Canadian and his music is an acquired taste. That written, I've found people who appreciate the idea of collapse like it. I posted a link to one embed of the song at Kunstler's blog last year, and the commenters liked it so much that I gave them an encore.
@JMG "Charlie, well, to be fair, the restaurant was faux-Celtic themed, and that pretty much guarantees Guinness on tap."
Tilted Kilt? Guinness is Irish, not Scottish, but it figures that an establishment like that would not care about the details and have drinks more suited for Saint Patrick's Day than for toasting St. Andrew.
"Pinku-sensei, the phrase as I remember it was 'Mutate now and avoid the post-Bomb rush' -- and yes, I had that in mind when I was writing about 'Collapse now and avoid the rush.'"
I forgot the "Post-Bomb" but Mutate now and avoid the rush stuck. Thanks to your prompting, I found out that Devo was inspired by that passage from H.G. Wells. They were mocking progress even back then. Wells to Devo to Greer, who then cites Wells--the path of influence and tribute swallows its own tail like the Worm Ouroboros…
4/8/15, 10:17 PM
Kutamun said...
Little talismans that we gaze into , searching desperately for answers ; perhaps feeding the body of anxiety that now constantly attends the vast majority of westerners .
I like my iphone , i use it as a diary , recording dreams and synchronicities , feeding them into the belly of the beast like a virus . I use it to monitor my calorific intake with enormous health benefits ; i am able to use it to read the great novelists during waiting periods , carrying the full breadth of human intellectual endeavour around in my top pocket .
Above all , i try to minimise time spent surfing on the anxious- net , that insidious creation that seems mainly used to unite us all in our despair . As Morpheus advised in the Matrix " stay off the highway , its suicide , agents are everywhere " ... Sometimes i feel like hurling the thing into space , i will be sad when its gone , maybe
4/8/15, 10:18 PM
James M. Jensen II (badocelot/shiningwhiffle) said...
But what I mean by that is that, as a Type I diabetic, I hope a supply of insulin remains available long enough that I can die of something less awful than complications of diabetes.
Seeing as I have some heart issues, too, maybe I'll get that wish!
One thing I like to keep in mind is actually from the GURPS roleplaying game: one of the disadvantages (which gives you extra character points to put into skills or whatnot) is for a terminal illness. The thing is, if your character has more than two years to live, you don't get any points for the illness: as they put it, anybody could be hit by a bus in that time frame. I've always thought that was a rather practical point of view.
One hope I do have is that supply problems may finally inspire the FDA to loosen the overly-restrictive regulations that make generic insulins effectively legally impossible and guarantee Eli Lilly a near-monopoly on the industry. Of course, by that point generics will hardly be cheap, but it could help.
4/8/15, 10:19 PM
9anda1f said...
I’ve never had a blaring idiot box, nor do I frequent restaurants or homes of any well intentioned guests who have them on. I simply can’t concentrate on conversations or trains of thought for more than one minute if that type of energy is in the room. I’m not deaf as I can hear thunder 50 miles off, buzzing of beneficial insects six feet away and the sound of my own beating heart(actual function of blood pressure on the inner ear) during the day where I live.
I fell off the cliff 4 years ago. It was a devastating and emotionally torturous experience. Without money for gas, having failed at an attempt to save my rentals (and retirement) I found myself stranded in the channeled scablands of Eastern WA. Could I have returned to the city over the mountains west of there? Jumped on a plane, left all of my belongings behind and headed back to the north east? Sure I could have. Some of my friends had already begun to distance themselves from lack of contact or perhaps afraid they would catch what I had. Family members were living through their own gradual financial ebbs but supported me emotionally where they were able.
Instead I woke up. I gathered what no one can take from me; my degree in Environmental Science and Native American Philosophy, my PDC and all of my life’s observations of the world around me. I created my own employment at an organic farm instead of dooming myself to a route 90 off - ramp job and landed a place to stay in exchange for the permaculture knowledge I now have and put to good use.
Voracious reading, research, and well-designed action now fills the void where distraction and fear based self-soothing consumerism existed. Quietude and critical thinking take the place of endless hours of high profile restaurant work and quacking about the latest greatest gastronomic encounters at parties. Instead of shopping at Nordstrom’s I cut my own hair, chop my own wood, and make my own candles and so on. 800 perennial shrubs and trees have been planted from seeds, cuttings and some crazy Espoma award money that will provide food, medicine, fuel, wind breaks (needed), shade, mulch and native habitat.
Money is fiat currency. Got it. First 5000 years of Debt. Got it. How Patriarchy and agriculture has shaped the world. Got it. Collapse isn’t linear, but fractal. Got it. How to disappear from the centralized monster. Got it. I’m no longer under the illusion that social security will be there when I need it and no longer interested in aiding and abetting an out of control empire or their bff elite friends. They can have their Earth and eat it to. Good luck with that.
The ability to Observe, Learn and Implement is worth more than everything I let go of.
Sheila
4/8/15, 10:31 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Dave, I see you've forgotten the protective spell I passed on a while back: There is no brighter future ahead. That said, I'll have a few things to say about possible futures in a bit.
Brother K., nah, it was one of the faux-Celtic themed versions. It still had a greasy quality, though as I noted, the food wasn't bad.
Nano, heh heh heh...
Jonathan, nah, those are my work clothes. ;-)
Escape, excellent on both counts.
Onething, I'm by no means sure I agree with you. Addictions are very often a way of hiding from some deeper problem, and I see that very much in the present case.
Fudoshin, I spent a year in the runup to the 2012 nonevent running an End of the World of the Week feature to make fun of apocalypse fandom. Of course they ignored it -- though I did field some engagingly furious denunciations when nothing happened that December 21. It was highly entertaining, no question.
Lynford, the police need an APC because the US is gearing up to fight a domestic insurgency, of course.
Hal, I'll keep that in mind!
RepubAnon, exactly.
Will, well, yes -- it's not hard to tell the difference between those who actually believe in and follow the gospel of Jesus and those who are using their own distortions of it to justify behaviors he condemned in no uncertain terms!
Vincent, you misunderstand me. It doesn't matter at all who can manufacture how much money -- money is simply a system of tokens. What can't be manufactured at will is real wealth: actual energy, raw materials, labor, and goods and services. That's what's running short at this point, not money.
Claire, and it's probably not worth pointing that out to her, either...
4/8/15, 10:36 PM
Donald Hargraves said...
4/8/15, 10:38 PM
John Michael Greer said...
PhysicsDoc, you may be right about the rich. I wonder what they'll be thinking when the mobs interrupt their favorite program to drag them off to the nearest lamppost.
Pinku-Sensei, well, yes, that's why I said faux-Celtic rather than faux-Scots. It's the usual American "Aloha, Amigo!" mush.
Kutamun, I never know when you're serious or making a joke...
James, understood. This has got to be particularly ghastly for those who depend on the machine to stay alive, and get to watch its current drivers go pedal to the metal toward the wall.
9andalf, exactly. My route out was more tortuous, and I got started earlier, but I remember the experiences involved vividly.
4/8/15, 10:42 PM
Jason Heppenstall said...
And all those people staring at their iPhones all the time (all over the world) - I think it has less to do with stimulation and everything to do with anaesthesia. They are treated to a never-ending sequence of mildly stimulating tosh (what colour is this dress; Look at this kitten dressed as a dog; such and such celebrity has plot up with some other celebrity ... as well as unimportant emails, status updates, 'news' alerts etc ) and the effect is mesmerising - a bit like lying on your back and watching clouds pass. The end result is probably similar to having a local anaesthetic injected into your cerebral cortex: it doesn't make the world's problems go away but it keeps you in a dreamy state where if the iPhone doesn't mention it then it doesn't exist.
Incidentally, I have noticed another modern way of dealing with cognitive dissonance: the cult of busyness. When people say they are always busy it's often a subtle way of saying "I don't have time to deal with the concerns that you are raising about the state of the world - I'm too BUSY." There is sometimes the implication that having the time to think about things is an indulgence. It's a neat mental trick, a bit like the one ostriches use when confronted with danger. I've touched on this in my latest blog post - along with my recent experiences working in the production end of the mind anaesthesia industry. I hope you will find it amusing.
4/8/15, 10:42 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Jason, nah, the pints simply put something pleasant on the other side of the balance. Your broader point, though, is entirely valid; there's a whole galaxy of ways that people who don't want to notice something can arrange not to notice it.
4/8/15, 10:45 PM
Andrew Crews said...
I think what we are seeing is time of the dragon yield to the birth of a unicorn age, in a most unevenly distributed way. You see the Iphone's and TV spam is not because these objects hold any material value, it is because they are talismans to ward off the evil demons of collapse and catabolism. There is a great serpent by the name of Ouroboros, who consumes its own tail to stay alive just a bit longer the personified version of catabolism. Much like buddhist papers and flags written with mantras, these talisman's are the cross we hold up to vampires and demons. I can almost envison people holding up their iphones to ward off rust, poverty and unemployment.
As the cycles continue, I notice that in an age where politics is gridlocked and power so conflicted a diffuse, there is somewhat a cult gaining momentum that only accepts shows of strength and fortitude as anything of consequence. While the average American demonizes Putin mostly due to propoganda, they actually according to polls respect him as a leader more so than the clowns in congress and the white-house. There is an air of envy, when people see leaders who get things done, whatever that may be for better or worse.
Personally, I have found most twenty somethings, including myself, have abandoned television watching the occasional documentary or series over some service like netflix or the internet. Young people are more likely to use adblockers and be annoyed or immune to advertising. I think these cycles of change are in the pipeline, it will just take later generations dying out for it to take full effect.
Anyway, I loved reading Twilight's last gleaming, Wealth of Nature and Decline and Fall, wonderful pieces. I am working on After Progress as well. Of course I've seen all these concepts in bits a peices and understood them fairly well, but they take on a new effect when applied in the more coherent and dense a form as a book, such is the way of human memory.
Best Wishes,
Andrew Crews
4/8/15, 10:50 PM
DVDfeels said...
If the link doesnt search it is by Brian ward-perkins: a real economic meltdown.
4/8/15, 10:51 PM
Allan Stromfeldt Christensen said...
You may also want to check out the site's inaugural post (at it's original site), The Netflix Wall, The Netflix Fall.
Cheers,
Allan
4/8/15, 11:01 PM
Rhisiart Gwilym said...
Too right! I always considered the very phrase 'magical thinking' an insult from people hopelessly mired in the current hyper-materialist extreme of scientific orthodoxy - the Dawkettes, as you might call them - aimed at the very idea of magic as a crucial part of the basic nature of reality; which of course it is.
BTW, I don't comment often, as you may have noticed John, so let me take this opportunity to say that I never miss an episode of TAR, avidly imbibed as soon as it's posted, simply because of its stratospheric, not to say geo-stationary orbital, level of insight into the unpopular realities now crowding in on us. TAR is simply unique. Ta very much for your extraordinarily good work, Archdruid!
4/8/15, 11:31 PM
das monde said...
4/8/15, 11:40 PM
Sabretache said...
How can I have been following this blog off and on for over 5 years now, with a number of substantive exchanges between us, without knowing or realising you were a Freemason.
I'm baffled and I really would love to know more about it. Help.
4/8/15, 11:57 PM
Val said...
Full disclosure: for the past couple of years I've been reading this and all the other blogs I follow on an iPhone, my only home-based web access. I plan to download the app for a Starfleet beacon, and am fully expecting to be beamed up at any moment.
As J.H. Kunstler was told by the wonks at Google - "Dude, we have technology!"
4/9/15, 12:04 AM
squizzler said...
In all fairness, the film Age of Stupid reached this conclusion back in 2009. For anyone with a "glass screen" to hand, I recommend it thoroughly.
http://www.spannerfilms.net/films/ageofstupid
4/9/15, 12:11 AM
jean-vivien said...
why not dedicate a section of your weekly posts to concrete initiative undertaken by individuals, and detail in which ways they run against or avoid the psychological pitfalls you try to describe ?
My understanding, from the outside of course, is that Western business culture likes to feature "projects".
Bridging the gaps between one of the fashionable concepts of corporate management and the L.E.S.S. mindset would help people... or maybe not ? I may have fallen into the old cliche that taking action is one of the things Americans do best.
4/9/15, 12:14 AM
Gloucon X said...
I love your recurrent mobs-lamppost-rich imagery. It would be interesting to see those types of events. When do you expect them to begin?
4/9/15, 12:35 AM
daniel said...
4/9/15, 2:07 AM
KL Cooke said...
"Follow the voice of your spirit. Listen to the wisdom of your soul. Dance to the music in your heart."
What is this supposed to mean?
It's not supposed to mean anything. It's supposed to cover up a hole in the wall board.
4/9/15, 2:28 AM
Ondra said...
thanks for this interesting analysis.
I think that you outlined only one option for majority: clinging to the passing lifestyle until bitter end.
The other option is some kind of violent explosion - like when Civil war of First world war "finally" began, many people greeted it with cheerful feelings. The source of these feelings was probably the fact, that the unbearable state of something-is-going-to-happen was finally blown away, and people can do something, not just wait for explosion.
Of course, such "solutions" have obvious drawbacks...
Regards,
Ondra
4/9/15, 2:45 AM
D. Mitchell said...
They made many statements about finding work, banking, using their apps, that sounded like hollow, weak, veiled attempts at justifying something that until 5 years ago was considered an unaffordable luxury in many of the fly over states. It still is in many parts, though the government is trying to peg it as a necessity by making children take classes over the web in schools. (One teacher for 5 schools of English classes in Middle school) or insisting they carry only laptops instead of books.
Whatever happened to the one tv in the entire school that teachers had to reserve a week in advance? What happened to computers being at best an aid in science or computer science, not high tech video game machines you carry around 24/7?
I'm so glad my children are limited in what gadgets are at their disposal. No tv. One landline. One tablet, which we share. My laptop in my office for work, which I do from home for their sake. That is the extent of their interactions and every piece I secured had to pay for itself in some way. How many Americans could live like that? I think we will find out sooner rather than later as each family collapses further every year.
4/9/15, 3:34 AM
Odin's Raven said...
Let the dead bury their dead?
4/9/15, 3:44 AM
evodevo said...
4/9/15, 4:09 AM
Christopher said...
4/9/15, 4:32 AM
Marc L Bernstein said...
The youth of this country is not being prepared at all for the difficult future (L.E.S.S.) that awaits them.
4/9/15, 4:57 AM
aunteater said...
The smart phone thing is puzzling. I don't own one (can't afford it, and don't reckon I'd want one if I could). Everyone I know who uses the things claims to be totally dependent on the devices to "keep in touch", but from the looks of it, it's just a way to ignore the people currently around you, in favor of people (or programming) not present. Nothing looks so lonely and out of touch as a roomful of folks hunched over electronic devices.
What will happen to these people(and the rest of us?) when we are forced in some crisis (major or minor) to rely on the actual geography-dependent social networks around us, which technology has allowed us to abandon?
4/9/15, 4:58 AM
Matt said...
What about those Apple and Microsoft technologies presentations, where the faithful gather to 'ooh' and 'aah' over the latest gizmo? It can't just be me who catches the whiff of the high ceremonies of the new religion.
Matt
4/9/15, 5:07 AM
Karim said...
JMG said: "it’s one that I’ve come to think may be of crucial importance in the decades ahead. We’ll talk about that next week. "
Dear John, would you accept a Gold Star from me (and perhaps from the rest of us) for the out of the ordinary cliff hangers you happen to deliver to us at frequent intervals ?
As a spolier, has this option something to do with religion and monasteries?
4/9/15, 5:10 AM
Don Stewart said...
Last evening I listened to a webinar with Daniel Siegel, the UCLA psychologist. I have no transcript, so take what I am about to say as a rough approximation.
A healthy mind depends crucially on integration. The mind is not just the brain, but includes the entire body proper, our gut bacteria, the people we know, and the broader environment. A 'desert island mind' cannot even be imagined, much less implemented.
The mind is also a complex adaptive system. As such, it shares features with other complex adaptive systems. One of those features is that, to function flexibly, it must be composed of individual components which communicate and interact with other components. (I would call this a pretty good description of Anarchism.) I will just note that while two humans, or a human and a dog, or a human and a domesticated plant can interact and communicate with each other quite well, a human cannot really communicate or interact with a government or a corporation. As we substitute government and corporate bureaucracies, we can expect the complex adaptive system to fail. Siegel said that when the linkages fail, we get either fatal rigidity or chaos. When the linkages work, we have what Siegel called 'integration' and 'health'.
I'll just remark that 'free trade' is really about the ability of corporations to construct global supply chains with a minimum amount of bother about interacting with anyone or any government.
So...as we go about abdicating more of our life to bureaucracies and global supply chains, we give fewer and fewer working links in our mind. Is it any wonder that many resort to the kind of burger joints featuring jiggle and TV screens that JMG experienced? Thinking, perhaps, that fake linkages are better than no linkages.
I suggest that 'freedom' means escaping from BAU and re-learning the art of using the linkages Mother Nature endowed us with.
Don Stewart
4/9/15, 5:27 AM
Cherokee Organics said...
Yes it would make an excellent story. I was channelling Sun Tzu who wrote in the Art of War: "If the enemy be at rest in comfortable quarters, harass him; if he be living in plenty, cut off his supplies; if sitting composedly awaiting attack, cause him to move." What better way than to harass the enemy through large scale distraction and better still they’ll pay for it willingly.
Wise words indeed and a nice summary of the situation. You may believe that I have some other subtext for looking for some sort of power, people or civilisation to blame for the present predicament and fall of empire, but no, both you and I live in magician states and I feel that other powers are well aware of that circumstance and the attendant weaknesses. And, I don't believe that they would hesitate to take advantage of that weakness.
I've always suspected that the screens in public places are also happily employed as a pacifying and controlling tool for either the patrons or the public at large - plus it greatly extends the reach of electronic messages into places that people would otherwise be communicating.
People here this week are describing the effects of the screens, but only hinting at their larger role. It is a bit 1984 really.
Cheers
Chris
4/9/15, 5:34 AM
ozquoll said...
Such a small occurrence, but somehow it gave me and my husband the creeps. And, reading this post, it seems rather emblematic.
4/9/15, 5:36 AM
Justin Patrick Moore said...
You can get them here:
https://cornfieldelectronics.com/tvbgone/tvbg.home.php
Turning off tv's in places like you mentioned gets quite the appalling reaction...
Justin
4/9/15, 5:36 AM
Fred said...
I had dinner at my nieces along with the company of the usual suspects from my sister’s family. These are all well educated people, but typically, I’m the one who represents, “the Voice of Doom”. When I attempt to turn the usual inane conversation toward something a little bit more substantial (and interesting) such as the galloping corruption in our government (both sides), the dominance of the economy by the Big Four (or is it five?) investment banks, the deterioration in local, regional and national infrastructure or the ongoing crisis in energy, the usual response is basically what I call denial. They are “dimly aware” of the issues but maintain that TPTB will keep everything on more or less an even keel.
But guess what? I was well aware that my niece who was hosting Easter dinner was running a farm with chickens and all sorts of other good things. But to my wondering ears I was also informed of my nephew’s chicken coop. “An amazing structure that must have set him back $1,000”, according to my nephew-in-law (I like to tell myself that my nephew somehow inherited his skill with wood and hand tools from ME).
And most amazingly, my other niece was ALSO raising chickens in HER chicken coop. This niece who is a card carrying member in good standing of the denialist club!
Obviously, these people are starting to get it. And they may not be articulating it in casual conversation, but there is NO WAY this group of people would be doing things like this unless they were experiencing growing (and grave) concerns about the future.
But we expect this, right? Change WILL come. And it will seep UP from the bottom. NOT descend down from the top.
4/9/15, 5:39 AM
Don Plummer said...
http://bizarro.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/bz-panel-04-01-15.jpg
4/9/15, 5:50 AM
Quos Ego said...
the phone waving anecdote is priceless: I guess our species is sticking its head as deep as possible in the worship of Gordelpus.
As Stapledon put it: The sun is setting, and we are not ready.
4/9/15, 5:55 AM
astroplethorama said...
REVELATION The downside of being ahead of your time is that your ruins might end up a playground for cavorting druids.
4/9/15, 5:55 AM
dfr2010 said...
4/9/15, 6:18 AM
squizzler said...
Jason Heppenstall - I like your comment about the modern cult of busyness - I assumed the reasoning was that important people have many demands on their time, so if you claim to be busy you must be important. I suppose the obvious response is to ask if the busy person needs help with their time management:)
4/9/15, 6:30 AM
beneaththesurface said...
Apart from retreating to my own house or walking into the woods, it bothers me that it's hard to escape the onslaught of screens, especially in places that were traditionally quiet sanctuaries. While I dislike the ubiquity of screens in restaurants, airports, train stations, and government buildings, their intrusion into libraries has caused me the most grief. I can write a long list of ways public libraries have been debased, but I think #1 on my list is the invasion of screen media into the book areas of the library. As someone who works in youth services at a library, my #1 workplace frustration is witnessing how the presence of screen media distracts children and families away from books (no surprise that frustration was articulated in my After Oil 2 story). During certain times of the day at some neighborhood libraries you will not find any children reading books; they will all be on the computers playing video games--often very violent ones with machine gun shooting too. In the Teen Space amidst the books, there is a large screen that is used for showing movies and video games or doing karoake, all library programs. It's ironic to me, that a library, supposedly promoting literacy, does so much to distract people away from books.
A few months ago, as part of a forum where staff could propose ways to improve our library system, I proposed that we reconfigure all the children's rooms so that the book areas are screen-free environments (& put the computers in a separate section at least), so that families wanting to come for books can more easily do so. I haven't yet gotten a response from the administration if this is an initiative they've decided take on; I should find out soon. But I was pleased that a number of staff agreed with me and thanked me for speaking up; not one staff person voted down my proposal.
4/9/15, 7:07 AM
Ray Wharton said...
I see the Burden of Denial all the time, and it makes some of my key relationships more difficult than I would like. I get a pass from many for being a Storm Crow because I live with serious austerity and am active passing the many blessings that come my way on. Thank you all who have been posting here in the years I have been reading, this agora has taught me the skills of recognizing those aforementioned blessings, there by making the best things in my life possible.
Question to the group. What helps balance self care with working authentically hard and well? I kick butt often on my works, but burn out some times, sage advice would be awesome.
Looking forward to coming post series, one project of mine is gathering a Hedge of Wizards to hedge against some of the uncovered risks of our era. Many people are doubling down on denial, but among the young alot are waking up, but they often lack the emotional tool kit to use the wake up call well. Listening to people on their terms is vital to helping with this; being loved and being listened to feel similar enough that most people don't distinguish them. Remember the screenbound are deeply lonely, much can be done by giving them an ear to chew, in fact I cation that this technique can be too powerful and must be only used with great carefulness.
On April 21st I will very publicly give up Facebook as a gift to myself, and hopefully to rattle some of my screen bound friends. Dang though, it will mean losing contact with many otherwise cool folks. And losing one of the few techniques for gathering people to working projects. The sooner I am pushed to improving the alternatives the better though.
Much gratitude to you all.
4/9/15, 7:09 AM
redoak said...
So I’ve started a 4H club in town and this weekend we’ve got the kids coming over to learn about sunshine, soil, and plants, to dig around in the garden and compost, visit with the chickens, and plant some tomato seeds to take home. The interest in the club is growing, people are really getting into gardens here in NH.
4/9/15, 7:32 AM
Amy Olles said...
But, you do what you can with what is available to you, right? :)
I agree with you on the TVs. I find myself avoiding some of the more popular 'sports' centric food establishments, because the barrage of blinky lights hinders my ability to enjoy the company. Plus all the environmental noise in the world can't hide bad food and poor service. I rarely have a good experience the few times I go. It's like modern day gladiator games of Rome...only the rabble watching now is expected to pay for the admission price and most of the infrastructure support price, along with the cost of the people that serve them. To put it another way, when you go out you pay for: the overhead costs of the restaurant via the food and beverage mark ups, and the wait staff salaries. Not to mention the tax subsidies you pay out to farmers to keep the base ingredients flowing to the processing plant. And though I can't explain it well, there's a another monetary drain in that the processing companies are enjoying tax breaks and standing up jobs in other countries where labor is cheaper.
The audience for the entertainment offered these days has such a short attention spans that multiple games must be presented at one time in order to keep them interested. That adds to the cost of production and requires more people paying into the process in order for it to work. (maybe my logic is off there, feel free to correct me if so). all said, I'm glad you survived your encounter (a good beverage helps).
Thank you for so patiently pointing out all the ways that we can succumb to the seduction of distraction. I enjoy your fluid descriptions and ability to repeatedly point out that perhaps putting the phone down, turning off the TV and venturing out into reality might actually help you in the long run. I'm going to start reading Peak Prosperity as well - thank you for the introduction!
4/9/15, 7:48 AM
Shane Wilson said...
In my darker moments, it's really hard for me to even see people as human, and not the zombies they're trying to be.
I'm amazed at the contrast between the behavior you mention above with the immigrants in my community. I've observed how poised, gracious, and humane they are in their interactions, how they carry themselves with confidence and self assuredness, yet are modest and conscientious all the same. I'm thinking, "oh, this is definitely the future, the successor people, the ones who will keep on going without missing a beat as the natives go mad."
4/9/15, 7:51 AM
Renaissance Man said...
I heard the neologism 'breastaurant' to describe the phenomenon of such establishments.
I suspect their proliferation has as much to do with the theme of this post as the buboes of TV screams everywhere: yet another way to distract and comfort.
4/9/15, 8:15 AM
Justin Patrick Moore said...
Of course the people there often still have their smart phones. They can't for a minute, think of something without having to look it up.
Still getting along without a cell phone just fine, much to some peoples dismay and horror. I like the old rotaries I have set up in the house. They have a sound quality cell phones can't live up to. Newer certainly isn't better.
4/9/15, 8:18 AM
Stein L said...
People know that the economy isn't delivering, that we are going through our resources too fast, and that the pollution we're causing is overwhelming the planet's ability to maintain a background against which we can continue our careless lives.
The other day, BBC's Inquiry did a program they called "Are we tired of talking about climate change?"
Among other participants was Robert Gifford, who is an environmental psychologist who has spent considerable time studying why we deny the need to turn things around.
His team has identified the various barriers we have erected, to avoid accepting the truth, and the program underlined how many there are - 31 by now.
Ancient Brain, Ignorance, Environmental Numbness, Optimism Bias, Lack of Perceived Behavioral Control, Uncertainty, Suprahuman Powers, Sunk Costs, Technosalvation, Lack of Place Attachment, etc.
A lot of work is being done trying to find out why we have such an enormous disconnect between awareness and effective action.
Two links - the first to the program, it's worth listening to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02mnn29
Here's a link to the Full Report of the American Psychological Association on: Psychology and Global Climate Change - Addressing a Multi-faceted Phenomenon and Set of Challenges.
http://www.apa.org/science/about/publications/climate-change.aspx
We're not ostriches with our heads in the sand, we've literally closed ourselves off from the real world and its challenges, and are off in fantasy-land. The nightmare place JGM chose to eat a meal in is a good metaphor for that place ...
4/9/15, 8:27 AM
Stein L said...
A point is made in the movie Interstellar, when the character played by Matthew McConaughey, a trained astronaut, is told by his daughter's teachers that the "old" history book she brought to class was the reason why she's been disciplined.
It contained an account of the Moon Landing, and "as everybody knows, it never happened. It was just propaganda, to trick the Soviet Union into emptying its treasury."
4/9/15, 8:32 AM
architrains said...
Now a year later I have an iPhone out of sheer survival, as life in the building design professions calls for ritual sacrifice at the altar of Cilahakrow (to add one to your Atlantean pantheon). There has been a lot of doubling-down on previous investment going on just within the professions, not to mention in the built projects. Even though people struggle daily with the computer technology that is supposed to make their lives easier, they just muddle along without giving it any serious thought - we have to stay competitive, right? Even when that comes at the expense of work-life balance. I inwardly laugh when it is the older managers (who are in the generations criticizing mine for being technology obsessed)who are constantly jumping at their iPhones and interrupting unimportant meetings with underlings to take calls from clients, or having meltdowns when emails aren't responded to quickly enough.
The considerable sacrifice of a design education makes for considerable willingness to double down on previous personal investment. In the meantime I do what I can to make sure my life is on a path to the Steampunk Future - likely not for civilization at large, but for myself at least.
4/9/15, 8:45 AM
trippticket said...
With a busy farmers market and craft show season bearing down, my wife and I took a few minutes (eventually hours) to read over the new FDA rules for herbalism. In a nutshell they are basically trying to squash herbal medicine out of existence. And it wasn't that way a year ago. Comfrey is now a bona fide demon. So is eyebright. Both major healing, that's right HEALING, ingredients in one or more of our products. As well as numerous others. Claims of diagnosis, healing, curing, etc, for any disease, disorder, ailment or condition, printed or verbal!, is strictly forbidden without mega-expensive FDA drug testing (think US$10 million to get started).
It feels really personal! Especially since we felt like we were well-positioned for the future and have already done a proper portion of collapsing at home. Can't they just leave us alone? Poor, disenfranchised, trying like heck to make a living in a non-predatory way? We're fine with all that. We're even fine with being mocked for our promotion of "unsophisticated, backwards medicine," when it's anything but.
But to be forced out of business by myopic regulatory offices interested only in preserving profits for their cronies in the medical-pharma rackets?
What does your comfrey cream do?
So many good things. (I mean nothing, it does nothing of any consequence.)
What is the Eyebright Elixir for?
Toning eyes and strengthening vision muscles. We've actually had reports of people dumping their glasses and contacts after prolonged use. (I mean nothing, it's just pretty. I'm not sure why we even make it.)
Would anyone like a handful of raspberry starts? Last I checked they weren't illegal yet.
Just grousing. Thanks as always for a beautiful post!
4/9/15, 8:52 AM
Cathy McGuire said...
Please excuse all the exclamation points, but I have been on 24/7 duty, slept one overnight in 8 days and have only had two nights sleep since… I will be more coherent soon… I hope.
4/9/15, 8:58 AM
Dr. Kris said...
You have my eternal respect and gratitude, good Sir!
4/9/15, 9:03 AM
Sean McPhail said...
Thank you for that image.
4/9/15, 9:16 AM
David Condron said...
4/9/15, 9:30 AM
Goldmund said...
4/9/15, 9:32 AM
Dammerung said...
I furthermore have the bitter impression that blind, stupid, malevolent luck will play as big a role if not bigger in the question of who makes it to the other shore with their life and limb intact, let alone something to live for. It's difficult to maintain even a shred of optimism.
4/9/15, 9:35 AM
Clay Dennis said...
I know several well meaning bar owners who lament this trend but have had to give in to it or go out of business. One fellow owns two establishments ,within a block of each other,and has several televisions in one and none in the other. These establishments have different themes but equal quality and price of beer and food. When any big sports event is going on, the bar with the T.V.'s is packed and the one without is empty. The sports marketing juggernaut has made sure these "must-watch" events are more and more common and as such are difficult to ignore.
A great example of this happended at our Pacific Northwest green wizards meet-up a few weeks back here in Portland. We had arrived early and taken over a large table in a back room of a large brew pub. The room was peacefull and its resident big screen turned off. As the lunch crowd grew several groups of customers arrived to sit at the remaining tables. They stared with horror at the blank television screen, and one of them got up to find a waitperson to rectifiy this disturbing situation. They found someone to turn on the screen and tune it in to the sports event that was more important than spending time with the friends and family they had brought with them. I am sure if there was no TV these people would have gone somewhere else. Luckily there was only one of these screens in a large room and we could easily ignore it, but the juxtaposition of the green wizards with those deep in denial was both comical and frightening.
4/9/15, 9:43 AM
Leo Knight said...
A restaurant down the street had much more traffic, since they have flatscreens on every wall, all sports, all the time. It gets especially weird when someone puts a song on the jukebox, like some insane John Cage composition. This restaurant has been in business since before I was born, a traditional bar setting, dark wood, masculine décor, horse racing memorabilia. It was once a cozy "man cave." Now it's a cacophonous mess. At least they don't allow smoking anymore.
I suspect I may not survive the gathering storm. My knee has been bothering me. Walking any distance, once a pleasure, is now a chore. This morning, I broke my glasses beyond repair. I thought of that "Twilight Zone" with Burgess Meredith crying over his broken lenses: "It's not fair!" But I have an appointment for an eye exam this afternoon, and a job interview tomorrow. Hope springs eternal.
4/9/15, 9:45 AM
Varun Bhaskar said...
Soma, the drug mentioned in "A Brave New World," has it's roots in India. Throughout the various rises and falls of empires the word has been used to describe many drugs. The drug was variously Ephedra sinica, Cannabis, Alcohol, and a number of other things now lost to history. The general trend seems to be a substance that altered our perception of reality. Soma in our societies case is literally anything we can get our hands on and consume in quantity. Pot, video games, movies, and so on. The list is massive. Wonder how the documents written during our second religiosity are going to handle sorting them out.
"and the deceiver stole the black blood of the divine mother, the fire of the light giver, the song of the wind, and the forge of the maker, all to bind the light of the gods. Unto the people the deceiver gave out wondrous gifts to fill their senses. He promised them freedom from their fears and their worries, and foolishly the people took his gifts."
- Excerpt from the book of the Wheel, author unknown.
I've managed to get three people gardening, and am thinking of taking up an apprenticeship. Need to unplug from my drug of choice - the news.
I'm hoping next week we start discussing adult education.
Regards,
Varun
4/9/15, 9:47 AM
jean-vivien said...
I don't understand how you can think that staring at our collective screens help people escape the realities of our time. I check Reuters.com daily, the French news sites... and I assume that the US news must made of the same cloth.
Honestly some days it makes the Archdruid Report read like a fairytale in Candyland !
Maybe what is missing is that old-fashioned thing which journalists used to do... you know, interpret the news, try to get the big picture yaddah yaddah...
To be fair, they do have opinion pieces, but there seems to be a certain threshold of abstraction above which nobody is looking at.
It is a great irony of our information age that we are using tidbits of facts to actually abstract ourselves from not so abstract realities !
I guess it all boils down to competing stories... and a topic for your other blog.
I also infer that outside the USA, the rest of the world is just checking the news to grasp if and when the whole mess is gonna hit them too...
4/9/15, 10:00 AM
Tasha T. said...
So I pick up my phone, looking for some mental stimulation: I find a paucity of primary thought, a surplus of shoddy secondary sources, and tertiary tracts too terrible to talk about.
So I give up and just read a book.
It boggles my mind when I see "science minded" Techies hold peer-reviewed journal article as the end all be all, and completely dismiss books as biased trash.
Don't they understand why colleges have publishers? The articles are often the framework for the eventual books. In many disciplines the meat of the research is in books (try to sum up two years of anthropological field work in 10,000 words).
But if the idea can't be explained in a 15 minute TED talk, it isn't worth anything.
I constantly have to resist falling into the positive feedback loop of the instant gratification of smartphones and an atrophied attention span.
Instead, I focus on developing skills that don't need electricity.
4/9/15, 10:06 AM
escapefromwisconsin said...
Even economists are starting to see the light:
One of the great mysteries about the U.S. economy today is the discrepancy between the objective and subjective pictures we have of the middle class. The numbers say that the middle class is doing OK or even improving its lot; middle class families themselves say they're being crushed under economic hobnail boots....The disconnect comes from the different approaches of economists and sociologists to defining the middle class. Economists do it by the numbers, typically defining the middle class as households with income roughly 50% higher and lower than the median....Sociologists, according to {William R. Emmons and Bryan J. Noeth], define the middle class "by evaluating demographic dimensions like race, education, occupation, and status."
Emmons and Noeth separated families into three groups, all headed by someone at least 40 years old:
Thrivers, which are families likely to have income and wealth significantly above average in most year and are headed by someone with a two- or four-year college degree who is non-Hispanic white or Asian
Middle class, which are families likely to have income and wealth near average in most year and are headed by someone who is white or Asian with exactly a high school diploma or black or Hispanic with a two- or four-year college degree
Stragglers, which are families likely to have income and wealth significantly below average in most years and are headed by someone with no high school diploma of any race or ethnicity and black or Hispanic families with at most a high school diploma
They combine the approaches and solve the mystery. In effect, they've shifted from defining middle class as merely anyone earning a middle-income to defining the class as a fairly stable demographic group and looking at how it's doing relative to middle income. By defining the middle class demographically, they find that families falling into the murky category of "neither rich nor poor" are under much more crushing economic pressure than the sheer numbers indicate.
By measuring the income and wealth of each of those groups against the economists' median standard, the authors show exactly what's happened to the economics of American households. The median income of the demographically defined middle class hasn't been as stable since the 1980s as the numbers suggest. It's 16% lower now than it was in 1989; relative to the overall U.S. median, it's down by 21%. To put it another way, the sociologically defined middle-class family ranked at the 55th percentile of U.S. income earners in 1989; by 2013 it had fallen to the 45th percentile. If you're riding in that car, it's a steep drop. The same trend shows up in wealth; the middle class has fallen short by about 24% of overall median wealth since 1989.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-why-the-middle-class-is-doing-20150407-column.html
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/04/the-financial-pressures-of-the-middle-class.html
4/9/15, 10:23 AM
Greg Belvedere said...
I have mentioned the TV b gone here before (a universal remote that fits on a keychain for turning off TVs in places where we would rather interact with humans). I have not bought one because it is another gadget and because I think people would turn on me like they did on John Savage in Brave New World when he interrupted the soma ration distribution. People might also consider it rude, but so is forcing someone to watch tv.
I have certainly noticed that people no longer try to deny our current trajectory when I mention the interesting times we live in. But instead they give one of the two responses you mentioned, "hey have you watched x show?" or "I will be dead by then"
I find it pretty boring when I get together with family and they spend so much time talking about the TV shows they watch and they have little attention span to hear about the things I'm doing in the real world. I admit I still watch a very limited amount of TV online, but the fixation on it amazes me. We watch at most 3 hours per week and even that number seems to be steadily dropping as I lose interest and have other things to do.
While my wife and I have long felt a feeling of release about not having to buy into the mainstream american lifestyle anymore, it certainly pains me to see family members who are riding for a fall.
I'm also glad I'm not single. I hear bars are full of people looking at dating, or hookup, apps on their phones. Sometimes to meet people who are in the same bar/club they are in. Many of the popular apps are based solely on appearance.
4/9/15, 10:36 AM
Rita said...
I wonder whether those Westerners who have adopted a belief in reincarnation will move toward a more traditional view of it. It seems that the Eastern view could be summed up as "Oh no, not again," with the goal of spiritual development being an escape from the pain of earthly existence. Westerners, particularly of the New Age type, seemed to have a more "Whee, another turn," approach to the idea of rebirth. Do you see this changing?
4/9/15, 12:26 PM
Matthew Sweet said...
The second experience had to do with the environmental sustainability office at a workplace of mine. I worked in that office for a time. They recently had an opportunity to get a renovation done, and one of the key elements was the addition of an LCD TV above the entryway with constantly streaming content about their programming. It always struck me as contradictory that a sustainability office would be so interested in consuming electronics and electricity to power it, although seeing it through the lense of L.E.S.S. is even more of an indictment.
Finally, someone needs to make a L.E.S.S. infographic that can be spread about the interwebs.
4/9/15, 12:37 PM
Pantagruel7 said...
4/9/15, 1:42 PM
Zach said...
I'm confused. Cargo Cults aren't magical?
4/9/15, 2:14 PM
FLwolverine said...
The comments following the post raised the topic of female heroes and why so few stories were told of women undertaking quests. And then raised the question of how a woman would respond to the challenge of a quest, and whether that would be different than a man’s response. To which the Archdruid replied, that’s a good question but one “that women will have to answer.”
I’ve been thinking about that answer for a good while. Now, spurred on by the latest Space Bats challenge and JMG’s story of Atlantis, not to mention Cathy McGuire’s diligence in completing her novel and posting it online, I’ve finally completed my answer in the form of a continuation of that story, which is posted here:
http://singingdownthelongdecline.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-new-tale-meg.html
I’ve quoted from the original essay, with proper attribution and links, which I hope JMG will permit. Also, as I say in the introduction to my story, I have undoubtedly made mistakes in my depiction of Middle Earth, and I hope that those who know better will be patient and forbearing.
Thank you, Archdruid, for the motivation, not only to write something, but to finish it.
4/9/15, 2:26 PM
Mickey Foley said...
I like hearing about the Archdruid living in the world of Hooters (my guess) and smartphones. I usually imagine you in a secluded, old-fashioned homestead in the woods, restricting your contact with mainstream culture to the bare minimum. I think it's important to remain engaged with the mainstream. I think there are many more receptive ears out there than we're inclined to believe.
But you're right: the urge to deny collapse is strong and pervasive. However, I think what keeps most people chained to the mainstream is emotional dependence. Our social lives seem to be in a much more advanced state of decay than our economy. I used TV and material goods to fill the psychological and spiritual voids encouraged by the mainstream culture. A lot of people seem to be doing the same.
Ergo, I believe the answer is rebuilding community, to provide for our psychological and spiritual needs, thereby eliminating our emotional reliance on the American Dream of mindless consumerism.
I'm still trying to overcome the need for my parents' approval of my occupation. They still have a lot of faith in Progress, which makes them less-than-thrilled about my interest in organic farming. Unfortunately, I've lost touch with the friends who would've been most supportive of that career choice, but the friends I have now are still pretty supportive of that. I'm trying to make friends with people who are interested in sustainability. Luckily, I'm an amateur playwright and comedian, and you can't swing a dead cat in those scenes without taking out a dozen or so like-minded folks. (Apologies to my fellow cat lovers.)
4/9/15, 2:52 PM
Cathy McGuire said...
Add to that the irony that that plaque or scroll was made in less developed nations by essential slave labor. I hope they can’t read English…
@Jean-Vivien: I have a humble suggestion to submit :
why not dedicate a section of your weekly posts to concrete initiative undertaken by individuals, and detail in which ways they run against or avoid the psychological pitfalls you try to describe ?
That’s what the Green Wizards Forum is for: www.greenwizards.org
@Ray Whatron: Question to the group. What helps balance self care with working authentically hard and well? I kick butt often on my works, but burn out some times, sage advice would be awesome.
For me what helps is to remember if I fall apart, I am helping no one and will need much avoidable help myself. It is a gift to others to be in balance and caring for oneself as much as possible. I’m sure there’s a significant reason that our modern culture sees true self-care as “selfish”. I am spending much of my first day back from caring for my Mom in self care: resting, soaking in the beauty of Nature and later getting a chiropractic session… Balance allows us to know what the next right thing is… so it’s essential. This would also be a great topic over at the Green Wizards Forum.
4/9/15, 2:52 PM
Mickey Foley said...
4/9/15, 2:58 PM
ando said...
4/9/15, 3:00 PM
wagelaborer said...
But, as they did with union workers in the 80s, they grandfathered in the older workers and are only screwing the newer workers. This she approved of. THEN, though, she gave her final plug, and said that "I'm running because I have grandkids and I care about them."
I was sitting there thinking, your grandkids? The ones who will get jobs at half pay and no pension? Yeah, you really care about them, lady.
As for people secretly knowing the truth, I doubt it. They blame the poor because they can tell themselves that it will never happen to them. They are worthy.
Watch TV news, and they daily report car crashes, because millions of them happen daily. Over 40,000 Americans a year die. And yet, the chirpy talking heads used to report on whether there was alcohol involved. Now, it's cell phones. Either way, the destructive way that Americans travel is never blamed for the ensuing carnage.
My kind of people do the same thing with cancer. "But I only ate organic foods!"
4/9/15, 3:15 PM
John Roth said...
4/9/15, 3:22 PM
wagelaborer said...
There are also memes that say things like, "John doesn't care what other people think. John is free".
No, John is a sociopath. But individual paranoid sociopaths are so much easier to keep divided, so we are told, constantly, that that should be our goal.
4/9/15, 3:25 PM
jean-vivien said...
good short story, thanks for sharing it.
4/9/15, 4:04 PM
trippticket said...
Ma'am, if the difference between Eastern and Western views of reincarnation is "oh no, not again," and "Wheee, another round!," respectively, consider me firmly entrenched in the WESTERN school...on purpose.
4/9/15, 4:06 PM
John Michael Greer said...
DVDfeels, thanks for the link -- I'm a fan of Ward-Perkins' work on the fall of Rome, so this is particularly welcome.
Allan, glad to hear it! Keep up the good work with that site -- it's needed.
Rhisiart, diolch yn fawr! I like "Dawkettes" -- perhaps they're all doing the kick-step to Offenbach's "Can Can"?
Das Monde, that being the case, since there are no supermen or wonder technologies on their way, nothing will save all of humanity, and so we can get to work on what's still an option!
Sabretache, you haven't been paying attention -- I've talked about my Masonic activities repeatedly on this blog, for example, here and here. As for your bafflement, well, I'm baffled that you're baffled; you know that I consider the rebuilding of civil society one of the major needs of our time, and you know I consider personal action the foundation of any meaningful response to such needs; joining and supporting a voluntary association that's been one of the core elements of civil society in the US since colonial times seems like the obvious response to me.
Val, did you mention to them that Islamic State also has the internet, and has been using it quite skillfully of late?
Squizzler, exactly. It's not as though people didn't have every opportunity to find out.
Jean-Vivien, I prefer Churchill's comment: "The American people can be counted on to do the right thing, once they have exhausted all the other possibilities." As for taking action, as Cathy commented, that's what the Green Wizards forum is all about.
Gloucon, heck of a good question. In the runup to the French Revolution, quite a few people knew that an explosion was coming, but the timing was a surprise to everybody. The situations are closely comparable, so figuring out just when the current version of Madame Guillotine will come into play is a very hard call.
Daniel, that makes sense. I'm still processing the implications.
Ondra, yes, that's also an option. Given the way things are shaping up, the comparison to 1914 may be uncomfortably close.
4/9/15, 4:46 PM
Wayne Freeman said...
We also got a plethora of video screens, as you found, just above eye level, impossible to ignore, each tuned to a different game. This was a new phenomenon as we had been to the same restaurant a few months before.
I needed to visit the restroom which I thought would provide a brief respite from the visual cacophany before my burger arrived. It was not to be, for as I stepped into my place at the urinal I found myself face-to-face with a video screen. There was one just like it at every urinal and above the sinks. There was no escape.
It's a sad state of affairs when a guy can't take a (substitute appropriate alliteration here) in peace.
4/9/15, 4:53 PM
Patricia Mathews said...
4/9/15, 4:57 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Raven, nicely put!
Evodevo, try it sometime. You'll be impressed by how fast they'll change the subject.
Christopher, good gods. Okay, that's well into self-parody territory!
Marc, agreed. It's going to be harsh.
Aunteater, my guess is that most people will be frantically tapping at an assortment of blank screens, trying to get something to happen, until the night closes in around them once and for all.
Matt, glad to hear it. The next step is to fling the screen out the window, you know!
Karim, thank you and I'll be glad to accept one! Put it down to a taste for old-fashioned pulp fantasy fiction, where the cliffhanger was an essential part of the story. As for spoilers, mum's the word...
Don, that's fascinating. I'll have to see if Siegel has published any of this in print formats; it sounds worth following up on.
Cherokee, of course rising powers will take advantage of the weaknesses of the US and its allies. The question is simply who's going to exploit which weakness in what way. Me, I wonder how many Chinese electronic components have been rigged with little internal self-destruct switches, or the like, so that they go dead on command -- and how many of those components are currently installed in the military technology of the US and its allies...
Ozquoll, that must have been eerie. It would make a great painting -- an assortment of people standing apart from one another, their faces lit from below by their allegedly smart phones, the expressions of lost souls on their faces, all against an evening landscape and a darkening sky.
Justin, I trust you can keep it hidden while using it. Being lynched by a restaurant full of people who are desperately trying to avoid thinking about their lives and the future doesn't sound like fun to me.
Fred, that's very good to hear. Where chickens go, the rest of green wizardry will sooner or later follow!
4/9/15, 5:05 PM
oilman2 said...
Those with less "stuff" tend to transition to less more easily. By less "stuff", I tacitly mean those who have less due to their income levels being toward the bottom echelon of normal.
I have an entire family who went "back to the boonies" near my farm. It was precipitated by one child losing their job and nowhere to live at the means they had. Thus they bought a small trailer and moved it onto some property, via a 99 year lease, owned by other family members. No water, no sewer, no electricity. They got electric, but boost it with tiny solar. Water is hauled in weekly and sewer was recently installed with pickaxes and shovels. Their outgo is minimal, increasing their income. Their luxury is no noise, no television (save weekly Redbox binges), stars all around, and progressively better living conditions as they develop what they need.
Formerly, this pair were working IT and in insurance (AIG), got burned and when government assistance ran out, decided to do what they needed to do. Their 2 kids are thriving in this environment.
Item 2 is that the younger seem to be either aware that the future will change drastically, or else in complete denial and drinking the kool-aid pouring from the TV and internet. There are very few that do not fall into these two categories from what I have experienced in the last 10 years. The latter appear to be prominent Iphone waivers and believe in transhumanism and other such rubbish.
There are small groups of aware 20-somethings banding together and figuring out what to do to in order to deal with a life not-so-easy. They discuss possibilities, and are honestly shunned by the other segment of their peers, those bathing in the elixir of digitized distractions.
I have one group working on my farm building with me, and recently another guy bought property down the road, and his 20-somethings and friends are colluding, going as far as borrowing ideas and equipment from my group. But all are trying to live simpler and closer to an older normal - the land and the seasons and no 'daylight savings time'.
I have both groups within my offspring, and those that are working on the farm are actively aware that their brother and sister are likely to show up hat-in-hand sometime in the future. They will be met with open arms and opportunity - and a few told-you-so's...
Again, just my own observations but I think that some of us elders (with remembrances of low energy ways due to poverty) and the 20-somethings are forging on down the slope effectively. It is the 30-40 somethings that I am not seeing and who seem to be very "butt-hurt" (per my 20-something) about their lot and in extreme denial of a viable future.
Not to say this is all encompassing - just something we all discussed and seemed to have observed during a ride to the farm last week.
4/9/15, 5:38 PM
oilman2 said...
I agree with your assessment regarding the mental health of anyone who watches most of television. I actually saw a movie a couple of years ago where ice floes sank. I was speechless, struck dumb by the ignorance it portended.
Streaming TV was at first a way to better programs - now it has also succumbed. The History Channel actually has a show called American Wiseas*, and watching the TED channel is like watching science books being set to the torch...
Good books are the answer - and the way forward through the miasma. Buy them as long as the government allows and hoard them. Remember - here in America they still burn books when they make people think excessively...
4/9/15, 5:58 PM
Justin said...
I think another sign of the repression, avoidance, cognitive dissonance and projection is a universal ad lib among Americans.
The ad lib is: The problem is X, only people are too stupid/asleep/unaware to fix it. Pretty much every American thinks they have a handle on the issue, and that the problem is that other Americans won't correct their behavior to solve it. Of course, from that projection, it follows that its inevitably coming apart so nothing can be done.
4/9/15, 6:51 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Quos Ego, it's sticking its head as far as possible somewhere...
Astroplethorama, why, yes, I do find that one particularly funny. How did you guess? ;-)
Dfr2010, the notion that all of life ought to be fun is one of the oddest superstitions of our time, no question.
Beneath, I'm delighted to say that our public libraries up here in north central Appalachia have no TVs. Computers, yes, but that's as far as it's gotten yet. When they install TVs, I'll turn in my library card.
Ray, delighted to hear it. I plan on talking down the road a bit about the bizarre notion -- well publicized in the media, of course -- that it's not an option to go to a state of less connectedness.
Redoak, excellent! I hope the 4-H club goes well.
Amy, nah, it wasn't a bunch of Druids -- as far as I know I'm the only Druid in the local Masonic scene. Think middle class and working class guys, some retired and some still working, from what passes for a big town in the north central Appalachians, and you'll have a fair idea of my fellow carpoolers -- which may also explain how I ended up at that place.
Shane, well, yes, it was kind of surreal.
Renaissance, yes, that's about it. "Breastaurant" is a keeper, btw!
Justin, I'd go to a bar like that, hipsters or no hipsters.
Stein, "Recharge Zombies" is another keeper. Many thanks!
Architrains, I wonder at what point the total loss of productivity due to too much time spent on allegedly smart phones starts to have measurable negative impacts on the economy. We may already be there...
4/9/15, 6:57 PM
Caryn said...
Yes! I totally get that. As a primary school art TA, that 'touch-screen' expectation of how the physical world works is by far, my students' biggest handicap and has become what we primarily teach to overcome. Our art instruction has increasingly become more 'crafts' than 'arts' because that hands-on, tangible materials-manipulation, (everyday physics) seems to be where the real gap in their capability is.
Clearest example: In our lesson plan, every year group must have at least 1 sewing project. Almost none, (300 kids, aged 5 to 12) knew how a knot is tied, let alone how to do it themselves - just the basic mechanics of it. They would put it on the table, touch the thread to the needle and look at it, then look to me and ask, "Why is it not working?"
I find myself saying constantly, "See? It doesn't do it by itself. You have to MAKE it happen. Yes, it's more work, but the good news is - when YOU make it happen, you can make ANYTHING out of it!" This goes for every material we use; clay, paper, fabrics.... Most have never played with play-dough or made paper airplanes. They've never been allowed to handle any sharp object, including a sewing needle. IMHO, our once-a-week instruction is not enough.
You're right, this is cause for GREAT concern.
Ironically; I think this is an affliction that affects wealthier kids / schools, like ours, far more than poor ones who can't afford the technology.
The good news is: Some get it and for those; I can't shoo them out of the art room with a stick at every single break, lunch, 5-minute free time… They can't get enough of 'making stuff' happen. (I don't shoo them, actually - I love it).
If you work with kids, IMHO, THIS is the new challenge: To integrate into your projects or lessons: hands-on, tangible, everyday physics. Play-dough, paper-airplanes, spit-balls.
HA! Who-ever would'a thunk!?
4/9/15, 7:13 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Cathy, I think the fact that you're reading this post rather than simply stumbling off to sleep counts as heroic dedication. Sweet dreams, and don't worry about the exclamation points!
Dr. Kris, you're most welcome, and thank you.
Sean, just one of the services I offer. ;-)
David, I found that out a long time ago -- I have plenty of Christian friends.
Goldmund, I find it easier to laugh at the absurdities of contemporary life by taking the long view, and remembering what those stadiums are going to look like in fifty years or so.
Dammerung, quite the contrary. For something like the Butlerian Carnival to thrive, it's got to start small, with individuals embracing the role of early adopters and spreading from there. I'll be discussing this in more detail shortly.
Clay, of course -- the bar and restaurant owners are simply giving the public what it wants, which in this case is something to numb them into insensibility.
Leo, best of luck!
Varun, that's an interesting point. It would be worth doing a detailed survey, but it does look as though modern industrial society puts more resources into allowing its inmates to sink into a drug-sodden coma than any other society in history.
Jean-Vivien, did you think that any of the screens in the restaurants over here show the news? If so, permit me to disillusion you. They show everything but -- and our TV news isn't news any more, except to the same extent that Pravda in the Soviet Union's heyday was news. (I sometimes think that when the Soviet Union broke up, all the people who used to write those giddily counterfactual propaganda pieces for Pravda all came to the US and now work for our media.)
4/9/15, 7:17 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Escape, fascinating. Thanks for the links!
Greg, yes, I've met far too many people who seem to be unable or unwilling to talk about anything but what's on TV. I tend to avoid them.
Rita, fortunately, the New Age is not representative of Western spirituality in general. What I've seen in Western traditions that embrace reincarnation is something closer to "Okay, if I can deal constructively with what's on my plate in this life, I can move on to something a notch or two more interesting the next time around" -- which seems quite sensible to me, certainly.
Matthew, do you know how to make infographics? I don't...
Pantagruel7, delighted to hear it.
Zach, not at all. Magic is the art of causing change in consciousness in accordance with will. Cargo cults are a desperate attempt to avoid personal changes in consciousness by demanding that the universe change instead. What do they teach children in school these days?
FLwolverine, thank you. A very large part of my job -- one of the places, in fact, that my job overlaps with that of Gandalf, Radagast, et al. -- consists of challenging people in ways that get them to rise to their potential; it's always good to see when such a challenge gets taken up, and capably, too.
Mickey, nah, I live in a brick house on a little lot in a small city in the Appalachians, fifteen minute's walk from downtown and about the same distance from the nearest woods of any size. As for swinging a dead cat, try a live one instead -- your friends will appreciate the claw marks. ;-)
Ando, thank you. The thing is, the stone is rolling now, and I'm not the only one pushing it.
Wagelaborer, I think you missed my point. It's the attempt to convince themselves that they're worthy that drives people to insist that the poor must be to blame for their own poverty.
John, it is indeed. Many thanks!
4/9/15, 7:33 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Oilman, I know a few 30- and 40-somethings who get it, but very, very few. On the whole, your generalization matches my experience. If packs of 20-somethings are beginning to coalesce around shared projects and opportunities, that's a very good sign indeed.
Justin, good. Very good. Yes, that's a common way of dodging the issue, too.
Caryn (if I may interject), many thanks for this. That's going to feed into a very extended discussion down the road a bit.
4/9/15, 7:38 PM
Peter Robinson said...
In this film, a group of 12th Century English copper miners dig a tunnel through to late 20th Century New Zealand. They have no idea that they are no longer in the 12th Century but are unfazed by the technology. They assume that this is normal for large cities, of which they have absolutely no experience. Their solution to crossing a busy freeway is to dig a tunnel under it, because they are very good at digging tunnels.
However, when faced with a store window full of blazing, blaring television sets, they assume that these are demons and run away screaming. They are not far wrong!
4/9/15, 7:48 PM
Unknown said...
And no, a lot of us aren't likely to make it, skills or no skills. Depends on the speed and intensity of chaos and collapse in part.
Me, I've no children and few reliable friends, and I'm a bit older. Have been working on the building community part for some years now, and its hard work! You can't be looking at the effort/reward ratio, or you might give up in despair. If it's good to be there and doing what you do, that might have to be good enough, I think. We get so awfully ambitious! Maybe more "step by step catchee monkee" (quote from "Kim") is called for. Even though getting free is urgent! Make haste slowly, another bit of advice from the middle ages. Works for me, but then I'm the sort who gets hurt badly (physically not least) when I try to make haste any other way!
I think the expression "I hope I'm dead" really means "I can't get there from here," or "I'm in despair," or "What?" At a certain level of extremity, thinking beyond the present, even to consider one's children, isn't happening. I think it's a measure of the desperation of people that they say this. Concentration camp feelings, I think.
When the lights do go out, everything being equal (as a commenter who went to Nawlins and Haiti to help noted in this thread) a lot of good stuff happens, human-wise, despite all the other lot-of-awful stuff (human-wise and materially).
My point? You can emulate Yeats' poem if you've the energy and inclination, and "rage, rage, against the dying of the light," or you can sit down, quiet down, and reach out to your neighbor and yourself on the spot. I don't know. I'm sure there's a lot of love and compassion among the readers here, but tonight I just was feeling/seeing everything else, with a few exceptions. Maybe just me feeling sad and not noticing. Corragio!
4/9/15, 7:51 PM
Agent Provocateur said...
I agree that, as you have suggested, most citizens of the USA, regardless of their social-economic class, know at some level that the bloom is off the rose for their country. How could one not? Once the city that used to manufacture most of the automobiles in the country (what could be more American than building cars?) goes bankrupt, one must know its all downhill from there economically.
Certainly there is little sign that this knowing is fully acknowledged or articulated. It is probably registered consciously as more of a vague sense of ill ease for most. One reason it is not fully recognized is that the skills to do so have been deliberately allowed to atrophy. Those who create and sustain the tone of public life in the USA saw it in their favour to lobotomize the nation.
The TVs and screens everywhere reflect and encourage that dumbing down process. I suspect that if you we not “in tow”, you would not have stayed at the restaurant. I feel sorry for the waitresses. Working at such a place in such a way reduces their sense of themselves. Much the same happens for the regular patrons if there are any. I recall the culture shock of going to a big box cinema some years ago. It was the full body assault on one's senses and values. I expect your experience was much the same but slightly subtler. At least the beer was good!
And thus the morale is that consumption of alcohol can be a functional response to a dysfunctional situation ... at least in the short term.
4/9/15, 8:41 PM
nuku said...
This might have some relevance for the situation you are highlighting now.
4/9/15, 8:47 PM
Agent Provocateur said...
There are other responses that just denial, distraction, or inebriation of course. Other typical dysfunctional and predictable responses are the bog standard trio of anger, bargaining, and depression. Mix in some sustained substance abuse or just a legal addiction (excessive screen time?) and you've got a working way to avoid reality.
I have soft spot for neurosis i.e. “avoiding real problems in your life by creating and focusing on unreal ones.” Its the thinking man's way not to think! As it has a creative element to it, I think its a step above your more plebeian dysfunctional responses. Of course I'm not looking down my nose at anyone. From each according to their ability to each according to their needs what? We all should be free to spike our individual glass of koolaid however each of us wants.
OK. More seriously ... L.E.S.S is good. It allows the mental space to comprehend the problem so as to think of actual functional responses as well as frees up financial resources to do something functional. I don't see it as an actual full course of action in itself however; just a good first step. You have given dis-inter-mediation as one practical course of action in other posts.
I can think of one other general guideline. Situation yourself in that part of the local economy that has legs in the short and medium term. If one produces good and services that are inexpensive and fluff, it may have legs, the recreational drug and entertainment business did well during the great depression. On the other hand, if one's product is expensive and not essential, one is in a very poor position. Readers can work out the other two quadrants themselves.
4/9/15, 8:47 PM
onething said...
I find human life so full of delusion and odd motives, nature is truly the antidote.
" Onething, I'm by no means sure I agree with you. Addictions are very often a way of hiding from some deeper problem, and I see that very much in the present case."
Well, now, that is true, isn't it.
I find it a bit hard to reconcile the passivity of the American populace with the idea of an insurgency.
"My wife and I have had a lot of fun playing with a TV-Be-Gone"
Since this exists, there must be more of us...I wonder how many? Someone should take a poll.
4/9/15, 9:15 PM
Tony said...
4/9/15, 10:41 PM
James Fauxnom said...
4/9/15, 10:49 PM
Cherokee Organics said...
Exactly. It could even be simpler to arrange than that too - critical components that are designed to fail under stress. So many people are specialists these days that they forget about the big picture: Most contracts for that sort of supply contain detailed specifications. The supplier then delivers the product with certificates, someone else bolts them in and it is then long forgotten about... The purchasers rely on the rule of law to enforce the certification, but didn't Sun Tzu say something about applying ruse? And what would the rule of law mean when in such a scenario anyway?
Just sayin, I wouldn't allow any supplies to come from off shore for military stuff - at all. Seems common sense to me, but other people want to save a buck or two.
The recent repairs to the steel plate on the 4 year old wood fire box here has had me thinking about such matters as I spoke to a guy down in Tasmania who’s wood heater is over 20 years old, locally made, with local steel and not showing signs of damage. He suggested that a lot of import steel - it is still locally made, just not as cheap as the import steel - has a high percentage of lower grade ore and recycled steel in it's make up.
And people say the local car manufacturing industry is not worth saving because the imported product is cheaper. They forget about the very serious strategic role that such industries and people involved in them play. During war situations importing stuff is very difficult and imported military hardware would be a massive target. Again, just sayin…
Cheers
Chris
4/10/15, 2:31 AM
FiftyNiner said...
Don't ever view your Asperger's as anything other than Nature's attempt to make a better, more thoughtful human being! I have read history all of my life and you are the preeminent weaver of the fabric into a workable whole of the human story.
The question now is whether the decline and descent into Chaos will be paced in such a way as to give humanity time to begin to understand what is happening. My hope is that it will. If, OTOH, there is a cataclysmic decline, we will
be confronted with a national government in full damage control and the People will see once and for all what they are about. (Not to drift off into politics, I told my brother-in-law years ago that if we lived long enough we would see the Republicans try to take up all the guns and we would see the Democrats try to dismantle the social safety net. Both of those things will be about their own craven self-preservation when faced with a populace that has had ENOUGH!)
But I don't want to too much anticipate your much awaited next post.
Reading you has made me aware of how much of the history that has been written in modern times is based on fallacious assumptions about the real world and how it actually works. That which politicians, journalists and historians cannot conceive just does not exist--until they get hit in the face with that dead or LIVE cat!
4/10/15, 4:42 AM
Kyoto Motors said...
4/10/15, 5:10 AM
Kyoto Motors said...
4/10/15, 5:17 AM
Shane Wilson said...
4/10/15, 5:45 AM
fudoshindotcom said...
My crass poking of fun at those who cling ferociously to obliviousness is, in fact, an exercise in self-flagellation.
I spent four decades as a full, card carrying, member of the "Part-of-the problem" tribe.
I can't even lay claim to an "AHA" moment. For me the revelation came when I was unceremoniously ejected from the rat race, and took a year to fully coalesce.
The realization that one has been so thoroughly duped is a bitter pill indeed. It is also very good medicine for dispelling illusions.
Employing minimalism, organic gardening, and intentional technological regression has allowed me to cobble together the simple, peaceful life I now enjoy.
maybe, with further practice, I'll be fit to join the "Part-of-the-solution" tribe.
Thanks for the constant encouragement to challenge mainstream wisdom, observe how precariously it is knitted and how easily it unravels when a single thread is gently tugged.
If by chance we ever meet, the guinness is on me.
4/10/15, 6:02 AM
earthworm said...
"David Byrne, the musician, was in NY during Sandy. He made an observation on watching hordes of people waving their phones and computers in the air, desperately looking for "juice". He called them Recharge Zombies."
Here's one for your green wizard dictionary:
TECHNO-ZOMBIES:-
DEFINITION:
Term used to describe an old subset of humanity only able to relate to the world through the mediation and interface of their 'smart' devices and the resultant [effective] lobotomisation of such humans as they became subsumed and increasingly reliant on devices that were designed to trigger dopamine release through Pavlovian response patterns.
ORIGINS:
First recorded use: 475 BCC (Before Catabolic Collapse) ~ approx early to mid 21st Century old calendar. Partial transcribed records of TAR.
DERIVATION:
Attributed to one of the 'Talking Heads' - thought to be a reference to a popular prophet of the time [*see 'other references' below] and a reference to 'recharge zombies'.
HISTORY:
Following on from food technologists' identification and exploitation of the 'Bliss Point':
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Corporate device manufacturers employed the base principles as used by food scientists to develop online media and associated devices to achieve a technological bliss point.
This reached its zenith in the early part of the 21st century (old calendar) with media delivery through BlanketCoverage™ [BC] using all available surfaces and substrates. It was designed and implemented throughout NorthAm during the early 21st before full onset of Catabolic Collapse. However, an unexpected consequence of BlanketCoverage™ was the
development and increasing adoption of BLIPAT (Bliss Point Avoidance Techniques) based on Green Wizardry L.E.S.S principles (Less Energy, Stimulation & Stuff).
Although legislated as Un-American, Green Wizardry and L.E.S.S was just one part of the Great Butlerian Carnival, but there is still some debate about how the Geedubs (Green
Wizards) avoided the fate of other dissenters of the time.
It is not clear of the exact cause of the cataclysm that engulfed the techno-zombies, some say it was 'the great recharger', but more recent research suggests that the techno bliss point just resulted in people wasting away. After the die-off, there was a temporary resurgence with the advent of something called the iSelf - a tattooed smart** device that ran off human bio-electricity. This was short lived (quite literally) when the Coronal Mass Ejection of 2038 caused a feedback surge that put the neural software into perpetual reboot.
The exact number of deaths attributed to techno-zombism is not known.
OTHER REFERENCES
*Techno-zombie day is still marked in Southlands to recall the great loss of life when the great recharger in the sky failed. Residents gather and hold up small blocks of wood (apple wood is traditional, but bark and other tree varieties are acceptable) and hum the
great invocation "We're on a road to Nowhere".
**Smart device is thought to refer to the feeling of 'smarting' that resulted from use of the device. Debate now revolves around the level of smart and whether it was the feeling of a light slap to the face, or perhaps the psychological pummelling due to intense levels
of cognitive dissonance induced by prolonged exposure to BlanketCoverage™.
4/10/15, 6:13 AM
Ares Olympus said...
On a different perspective, I was reminded of Leonard Shlain's book that suggested written language changes how the brain develops and strengthens the rational brain, so makes me wonder about our modern high-stimulation media puts us back under a spell, yet also in some overstimulated version of our pre-written language ancestors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alphabet_Versus_the_Goddess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QQuD62RxrU The Alphabet vs. The Goddess Lecture by Dr. Leonard Shlain
And that opens the need for "L.E.S.S." (Less Energy, Stuff, and Stimulation), or primarily the third one which comes from the first two, and ignoring our wider predicaments of limits, at a personal level, the "slow movement" in all its permutation seems promising for those who can practice this discipline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Movement
My own favorite "slow" is travel, at least I've managed to only take a jet trip 4 times in my life, and my bicycle seems quite fast for my daily needs for movement, physical awareness, visual stimulation, and free exercise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Movement#Slow_Travel
Lastly, unrelated, but I just noted a recent speech of yours online, along with a number of others at a New York City event "Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth." So its nice to see and hear your voice, rather than just your written words. I'm sure other readers would like to listen to it too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkwjTa3Wdn4 John Michael Greer: False Promises, October 25-26, 2014
4/10/15, 6:17 AM
Ed-M said...
Anyway, splendid article on denial, JMG. Speaking of denial, my siblings expect me to find a *real* job with an employer, and are absolutely flummoxed why I haven't gotten one. (Yes, I am one of those long-term unemployed -- redundant is the British Anglosphere term for it -- and my money ran out a couple of years ago.)
On a different note, some green onions I bought from a supermarket and whose remnants I planted in the back garden are all taller and stouter and more succulent than they were when I bought them. Organic and permacultired really are better than conventionally grown. Plus, they've escaped cultivation and their children are now all over the neighborhood, hehe!
4/10/15, 7:21 AM
Flagg707 said...
This "re-enactment" theme seems to be building continuously and strikes me as a growing "stealth" way for those of us who regard ourselves as a tad bit more awake than our neighbors to get involved in preparing ourselves for potential changes ahead.
4/10/15, 7:21 AM
Mark Rice said...
4/10/15, 8:08 AM
Charles DeYoe said...
Something I'd be curious about would be the role drugs have played and will continue to play in society. I'll sometimes read something by counter-culture authors from the 60s and 70s who predicted that drug usage would allow people to free their minds to an extent previously thought impossible. And of course entheogens have a long history in many societies.
But I personally am not a fan of the usage of illegal drugs and know of a great many people who have been messed up from their use. And even though something like marijuana comparatively harmless, it seems to me that most people I know who use it primarily use it as a tool for mindless escapism, usually paired with watching TV. (I'll admit that I am not sure if my disdain stems from my own snobbish/elitist tendencies rather than anything more legitimate.) Further, in my area heroin abuse is endemic; the library I work at, until recently after we hired more security, overdoses used to be a very routine occurrence. Meanwhile the amount of nonviolent drug offenders who are filling the prisons is staggering...
I'm sure I don't have much to offer on the subject that you don't already know, but I would very much be curious to read a post on your thoughts on the matter!
4/10/15, 9:17 AM
blue sun said...
It depicts a father, mother and child running leisurely toward the viewer through a field of flowers. Butterflies flit by. They have carefree, almost goofy, grins on their faces. In the background, a mushroom cloud forms. The caption reads: "HAPPYish. Are you?" This says it all.
You can view the image here: http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjM5NzAxNzQ3MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDg2OTA3NDE@._V1_SY317_CR9,0,214,317_AL_.jpg
4/10/15, 9:45 AM
Brian Cady said...
4/10/15, 9:50 AM
Moshe Braner said...
- Here in Vermont people worship the founders of the ice-cream brand "Ben and Jerry" - even though they've since sold it to a multinational corporation. One of those founders coined a phrase that is commonly seen around here on bumper stickers:
"If it's not fun why do it?"
Whenever I see that sticker, I feel like asking the driver: have you ever sat in a traffic jam? Washed a dirty dish? Filled in tax forms?
4/10/15, 10:11 AM
David said...
On the other hand, as I am at least semi-awake now, I can notice what is happening to the system that everyone assumes will continue to operate as it always has. One case in point is this article here, which is going to accelerate my transition to barter...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-10/citi-economist-says-it-might-be-time-to-abolish-cash?cmpid=yhoo
Admittedly, I should be doing it anyway.
4/10/15, 10:34 AM
Gregory said...
I agree with your post for the most part but the irony is thick as I read this post during my lunch break on my allegedly smart phone, and plan to download your conversation with Chris Martenson on to this device so I can listen next week while I work. It will be a welcome distraction from my job which is not a bad job, but is also not intellectually engaging.
4/10/15, 10:44 AM
pygmycory said...
4/10/15, 10:56 AM
Shane Wilson said...
30-40 yr olds,
Most of us who weren't aware at the time, but are aware now, are pretty embarrassed at what we were doing in the 90s. That being said, we're the last generation that was aware of the psychotic personality switch the U.S. made in 1980, and remember the national mood before Reagan, however dimly.
4/10/15, 11:16 AM
George Coles said...
4/10/15, 11:49 AM
Elizabeth Kennett said...
As usual, thank you for the Archdruid Report. I've been noticing all the comments on the spread of TV screens. Am I the only one to wonder how many of them contain cameras to watch the watchers? Or, possibly, the non-watchers?
Elizabeth Ann Kennett
4/10/15, 12:44 PM
Christopher Kinyon said...
4/10/15, 1:01 PM
Marinhomelander said...
It will shut off every television known to man. I plan on going into restaurants and screaming 'AWAY SATAN!" as I gesture wildly at the T.V.s and I surreptitiously push the remote.
Believe it or not, they actually sell such things.
4/10/15, 2:46 PM
valekeeperx said...
Yep, agreed, great stuff.
I, too, have seen the multiplying TV phenomenon in the restaurants, bars, and many other places. And, we have one of the faux-Celtic breastaurants here in our town, though I’m happy to say that I’ve never been. There are a few older places that seem to have maintained immunity to the TV virus, though, even in many of those music is piped in. In fact, my place of work is located in the downtown of one of the larger LA satellite cities. A few years ago, the city remodeled the downtown outdoor walking mall. As part of this remodel, the new lampposts were fitted with speakers. So now, music blares all along the walking mall from sun up to sun down and beyond (please feel free to work that into the lamppost/gallows motif). Apparently, all of our activities must now be accompanied by a soundtrack. In addition, most mornings, there is a crew “sweeping” up leaves and debris using gas powered leaf blowers. What a lovely greeting as I walk up through the haze of dust, fumes, and noise. Oh happy day! Progress has bestowed such wondrous gifts.
Best regards one and all.
4/10/15, 4:32 PM
BoysMom said...
I'm mid-thirties: I don't remember Reagan's elections, I do remember the Berlin Wall coming down. My demographic wasn't old enough in the nineties to do anything more embarrassing than believe the lies about student loans so we could get a degree and a wonderful job.
4/10/15, 4:43 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Unknown, if you glance back a ways to the posts I've done on practical action, you'll find quite a bit of what you're looking for. This week's post was social criticism, so, yes, you're going to see a lot of people being critical of their society.
Agent Provocateur, good heavens, of course I'd have gone somewhere else if it was my choice. One of the realities of carpooling with fellow Masons is that you get to have lunch in places you might not otherwise ever visit -- which can be a good thing or a really, really awful one, depending. That said, it's useful to check out what's going on in the unreal world where most Americans spend their time -- and, as already noted, the meal wasn't bad and the beer was, well, Guinness.
Nuku, once again, the line between satire and reality is hard to trace...
Agent, good. We'll be talking about practical options shortly.
Onething, Americans are mostly passive from the neck up; they're perfectly willing and able to go places in large numbers and do stupid things, as long as they don't have to think about it. That's a dream come true for the manufacturers of insurgencies, who just have to get them stampeding in the right direction.
Tony, good question. It must be entertaining, though.
Cherokee, as far as I can tell, the Australian government has to be assuming that there will never be another shooting war large enough or close enough to interfere with shipping. When that turns out to be wrong -- and it will -- well, I just hope you get along well with your new overlords.
FiftyNiner, I should do another post on the pace of decline sometime, shouldn't I? The key point will be that the closer you get to the collapse process, the more it breaks up into a fractal landscape of macro-, meso-, and microcollapses at many different rates of speed. That's why so many people have managed to convince themselves that the collapse that's currently under way isn't happening at all -- after all, only a certain fraction of the people they know are permanently out of work, only some bridges and roads are falling apart, etc., etc. That cat is already swinging, but it only has some of its claws out...
Kyoto, I figure that's why all the hype these days about self-driving cars. That way the people on board don't have to interrupt their time spent staring at screens so they can look at the road!
Shane, or simply hypocrisy, like the preachers who praise traditional marriage every Sunday morning and go pick up a boy toy at the gay bar in the next county every Saturday night.
4/10/15, 7:32 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Earthworm, excellent! I see a Space Bats story in there...
Ares, many thanks for the links! The thing Bradbury missed was that a single program still allows too much thought. That's why all the different screens show different programs -- viewers can jump from program to program and keep their nervous systems sufficiently off balance to keep troubling thoughts from ever emerging.
Ed-M, glad to hear it. I don't imagine you'll have heard of ramps -- they're a wild onion that grows here in Appalachia. We got some from a friend and planted them in the back garden, and they're up this spring, a nice bright green patch of them, over between the comfrey and the Joe Pye weed. So your green onions have a relative waving to them from afar!
Flagg, stay tuned to that meme. I expect to see it take off in a big way, and for good reasons, in the time immediately before us.
Mark, hmm! I didn't watch it -- I'd discarded TV by that time -- but it's interesting to hear that the idea was in circulation.
Charles, I'll consider it. By and large, I'm not impressed by the claim that drugs can have any sort of positive impact on the crisis of our age, even on an individual level; that hypothesis has been tested quite extensively since Timothy Leary's time, and the results are not particularly impressive.
Blue Sun, that image is spooky. Yes, it does rather catch the national mood, doesn't it?
Brian, actually, you're a year late -- note the date on the post -- but it's still an interesting study!
Moshe, comforted a child in pain? Been through labor pains -- your own or those of your spouse? Helped someone face their own imminent death? Exactly.
David, we all have work to do. You're doing it, which is the point that matters.
Gregory, oh, granted. There are plenty of ironies in the fire just now!
4/10/15, 7:51 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Shane, well, you're one of the few I mentioned in my response earlier.
George, thank you.
Elizabeth, an interesting question. If so, they got to see me being very bored.
Christopher, good. You're noticing the time-wasting effect -- a lot of people never do catch that.
Marinhomelander, they do indeed. Several other commenters have mentioned brand names, in fact.
Valekeeperx, all this is reminding me increasingly of one of my favorite children's novels. Stay tuned to next week!
4/10/15, 7:59 PM
Ray Wharton said...
I have the reading material of ten thousand geniuses at my beckon call, but so does everyone, and being mortal beings, with time enough on this Earth to study one or two great minds to their full depths and perhaps if one is a scholar by disposition time enough to know a couple dozen fairly well, this great power has a dark side. Because the more works are available to a culture and the more individualized choice each member has concerning who they study, the less our wisdom paths and experiences overlap. Granted, in the deep past when a culture was limited to a tiny handful of sources, say the Bible and Aristotle, it created something like intellectual inbreeding over time, but to lift an idea from Plato and the Buddha, the opposite of a bad idea is usually a complimentary bad idea.
As our access to knowledge has multiplied to give us more sources we have as a culture taken a path opposite of Einsteins prediction, we know nothing about everything. I have read some Plato, but never studied it in-depth because I moved on to Spinoza, Gabran, Carse, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Bateson, Goethe, Spengler, Mollison, Franklin, Darwin, Sagan, Stamets, and a dozen other intellectual flings I never got to know that well or called back the next morning.
Now through social media the size of thought most often encountered is cut in to a piece slightly smaller than a television commercial. A one liner or quip from anyone rarely gives context, or can guide one back to the lived experience the person developed their thought from. Knowing any stand alone thought ripped from the life and times of its source is as close to knowing nothing as a hand ripped from its body is to death. But we can see these dismembered parts of every thinker you can name quoted automatically on any of the screens that line the walls of public places and the palms of most Americans.
The power, called thinking, to see many different claims, experiences, sensation, questions, accusations, explanations, excuses, justifications, hopes, fears, dreams, suppositions, orders, prayers, accounts, reckonings and requests together in a cohesive whole and see each as it relates to its neighbors, and to imagine how they might relate to others is not something that we posses by birth as humans, any more that a person raised in man constructed environments can naturally make sense of the ecological relations of a rain forest. It is developed through encountering and struggling to make coherent sense of complicated thoughts. The fact that our culture has so many things to allow us to avoid this activity, in exchange for sound bites and articles that, though some times long, very often are schulpted to manipulate our feeling more than stimulate our minds is alarming.
"Common sense is the most well distributed commodity, because each person is convinced they have an adequate share." some dead dude, and I ain't gonna google who. All of us are sacrificing our potential (which in each case is quite finite, but vastly greater than is commonly actualized) when we let ourselves be split thus.
How much of why this is can be attributed to the burden of denial? Concerning the collective situation of our society, I would say a respectable minority, concerning the burden of denial generally (including all the other things humans have do deny in the daily life of social primates) most likely a modest majority. Of course measuring proportions of such things is very very tricky, the law of cause and effect is tricky.
4/10/15, 8:01 PM
Shane Wilson said...
Well, when I was in college (university) in the 90s, and for a good time after I'd left, I was partying it up, drinking too much, taking advantage of cheap gas prices to do the same all over the U.S., taking advantage of said cheap gas to move all over the country to "find myself". That's what I and a lot of people I knew were doing. I meant to say "30s-40s" instead of 30-40. Gen X'ers. We're a small generation sandwiched between boomers and millennials, and have awkward characteristics of both. Enjoyed the wild times of the 90s, some got good jobs and did well, still won't have good retirements and will be kinda old (I'm going back to the traditional definition of anything over 40 as "over the hill", as I firmly believe collapse will accelerate aging and shake us out of our youth obsession and the lies we tell ourselves about how old we really are) when things really start to fall apart. Just like the silents, another cusp generation, didn't suffer through the Depression or WWII, yet didn't participate in the cultural upheavals of the late 60s.
4/10/15, 8:47 PM
FiftyNiner said...
This is not news but one of the most egregious ways that people are in denial is in the amount of water that they use.
Last year when mother was quite ill our washing machine decided to call it quits.
I really didn't have the time to shop for a new machine, but in the searching on the internet I became aware of how much water a typical wash and rinse cycle of the average top loading machine uses: up to 42 gallons!
I decided to buy a Wonder Wash tumbler hand operated washer for which I used the old machine as a work surface. For fifty bucks I was not disappointed. We strung up new clothesline in the back yard and I was back in the laundry business. The thing that amazed me was that we immediately realized a $30 to $40 per month savings on the water bill! I plan to take the savings on the water bill and construct an outdoor laundry just off the garage, with washtubs, a hand wringer and scrubbing board, This was the kind of laundry that I first remember my mother having in the 1950's. The only difference was that she also used and iron wash pot! So, I have "collapsed" backward about 60 years.
4/10/15, 9:01 PM
oilman2 said...
Collapse is definitely ongoing, with the demand destruction seesaw currently destroying my business area, oil drilling. The last big collapse bump was the stock market dump in 2008, which was preceded by a huge oil price spike - don't think that was coinkydink - globalism is sensitive to oil price greater than $.03 per ounce (I use oz because oil is highly undervalued relative to what it delivers to society).
Today's demand destruction is due to QE, which allowed oil guys to attract capital investment by offering 5% return when banks and bonds only offered 3% at best - resulting in massive cash influx from the flood of dark pool money waiting for a chance to earn. The resulting shale oil boom, unsustainable, threw lots of oil into a market in the midst of global deflation (bubble). Now we have excess oil, and declining wages/employment as capital pools up within the .01% group and oil industry downsizes back to pre-shale boom levels.
Next up is an oil price shock when people finally realize that without $90/BBL oil, we cannot afford to find more - low oil prices are uneconomical for exploration as the cheap finds are long gone. Combining world depletion, even with consumption flat, this spells an eventual ouch...
Mesocollapse could be seen 10 years back when Wallymart quietly but systematically reduced their China-built product offering. Ostensibly, they widened the aisles in all their stores. Surreptitiously they also ceased carrying many items, while increasing the major throwaway profit items. Why? Chinese prices rose on the back of a rising Yuan...
Home Depot also curtailed their product offerings, downgraded their lumber offerings and reduced quality while maintaining prices.
Microcollapse can be seen easily - just drive through any metropolitan area. You will see empty strip centers, empty mall spaces and a dearth of Mom&Pop businesses. Retail space renters DO NOT want Mom&Pop. They want chain stores who accept higher rents, CAMS and other nonsense because it comes out in the wash for big S-corps offshoring their profits. Mom&Pop cannot even open a business without mortgaging their entire life any longer - even with life-mortgaging, it now requires partners or inheritance windfall just to open the doors.
Technical innovation is displacing many jobs and few are talking about it. But one glaring example is found in grocery stores and bulk hardware stores (Lowes, etc.) - where the self-serve checkout lines now outnumber those with cashiers. Home Depot now closes all save one lane of cashier checkouts after 6pm, forcing the issue.
Waiting jobs are seeing touch-screens or I-menus curtail even this staid profession in metro cities.
Fewer low wage jobs are on the horizon - problematic in a service oriented economy.
The collapse is here, but the Great Unraveling is only visible in the rear-view mirror to those with a 30 or 90 day outlook. Soundbites are insufficient to explain it and those in the media dare not expound on it, while many listening do not have the faculty to comprehend it.
Slow motion collapse is invisible in a digitally paced world...
4/10/15, 9:40 PM
nuku said...
Re drug use and freeing the mind:
Drugs have been used by many human societies as a way to induce transcendent experiences. From personal experience with LSD in the early 60’s (when it was still a legal drug because the authorities didn’t know about it), I can say that given the right circumstances these experiences/experiments did in fact open/free my mind to some extent and were life altering in positive ways.
The experiences can temporarily break down one’s underlying personal/ social programming, giving access to bigger pictures and larger contexts. It is then up to the individual to continue the process of self-investigation in a more orderly fashion using tools such as JMG has at his disposal as a Druid.
The 2 abiding lessons I took away from those experiences are 1) that the Universe is an organized structure of incomparable beauty and complexity,
2)that my puny human mind will never be able to comprehend more than the tiniest bit of that structure because it cannot completely escape from its own limitations.
I am extremely sceptical of anyone using drugs who claims to come back enlightened or bearing universal truths.
After several LSD experiences, I realized that if I wanted a non-drug induced transcendent experience, all I needed to do was listen with full attention to Pablo Casals play the Bach unaccompanied cello suites.
4/10/15, 11:05 PM
Scotlyn said...
4/11/15, 1:59 AM
Cherokee Organics said...
Yes, I agree entirely.
To put it bluntly, they are dolts because they ignore the lessons of history. Back in the 19th century, there was very real and serious concern that the Russian navy would pay a visit. The Great White Fleet exerted its muscle here whilst we were still English colonies and we did what we do well: We got them drunk and entertained them. The Japanese bombed Darwin during World War 2 and also just happened to get a mini sub into Sydney harbour. Didn't a small German raider sink the pride of the Australian fleet off the coast of Western Australia, losing all hands on board during World War 2 too?
Sun Tzu said something about long supply lines, but then Napoleon thought he was above such concerns as well so it is probably a very common error. Such hubris.
Such short memories too. Meanwhile in today's world, the US is landing 1,000 marines - as they regularly do each year - in Darwin whilst the powers that be in Canberra appear to be agreeing to China's proposed banking arrangements. It must be inordinately stressful for them to say both yes and no at the same time meanwhile filling the media with hot air and posturing – I can only conclude that they are perhaps morally flexible which is hardly surprising given how many of them have a certain professional background predisposed to that particular condition?
You are doubly correct. We have always had overlords here. It is funny that the powers that be here never consider taking the option of taking a big hit to the national income and standard of living and simply manning up to the challenge of becoming independent (or at least largely independent). My guess is that it will happen eventually - when there is nothing left to take.
On an altogether more positive note, I finally visited my favourite naked hippy, old school, second hand book shops today looking for both William Catton and Clarke Ashton-Smith books and completely failed to find either which was a real surprise. Even Ursla Le Guin's book mentioned earlier this week wasn't there. All I can say is that your readership is large indeed and perhaps in the future I should move somewhat faster?
On a positive note, and I believe that you will approve of this - I picked up a 1969 book entitled: Public Speaking and Chairmanship. Well blow me down but there is some serious complexity involved in running a proper and orderly meeting. No wonder all three of the groups that I've been involved with in recent years were a disaster zone on such matters. The rules, guidelines and order are in place as much to protect the group as the members themselves. There is a certain laziness in side stepping such niceties, but it doesn't end up well.
You'd love this but the book covers various meeting problems for example: Discussion out of control; the side talker; the over talker; the non talker; the grievance airer; and best of all the arguer. I tell you what, I've met a few of all of that lot in my time. Fortunately it also has much discussion about how to combat these individuals (or members maybe a more appropriate description).
Take that! from the dread pirate Chris - nemesis of all meeting time wasters and wafflers!
Cheers
Chris
4/11/15, 4:30 AM
Cherokee Organics said...
I'm having a quiet day today - no work, all play and lots of fast typing - the fast typing was courtesy of a state government experiment many decades ago, but that is another story. True story.
As I was reading through the comments, it brought to mind an incident I mentioned to you many months ago and something I read a week or so back clicked into place with your story.
Now as an interesting side note, I am unaware of the type of restaurant operating down here that you described. Ladies in that particular employment are known down under as "skimpies" and they tend to be more a feature of bars at remote large mining towns. Just sayin there is something in that fact...
Anyway back to the main discussion point. So many months ago I was at a restaurant and also at that same restaurant there also happened to be a bikie gang - now I realise that sounds very dodgy indeed and brings into question my own choices, but I can assure you it was an unusual and unprecedented coincidence. Me, being me, I took the advantage of that opportunity to quietly observe them - no harm in that as long as you don't bring any attention to yourself.
What was fascinating is that not one of the members and their partners present were on a smart phone (or even displayed one) and they all were existing in the moment and seemed to be largely having a good time.
So I was reading an article by the very respectable crime journalist John Silvester the other week and spotted this about bikie gangs: The brutal truth: there is no outlaw code. I agree with everything the guy wrote as it seemed pretty common sense, but one bit really troubled me as it documented a disengagement of a certain section of the community. I'll repeat the quote here:
"And yet the publicity generated from police raids by the Echo taskforce has a bizarre side effect.
Bikie bosses say they have never had so many inquiries from men who want to join, claiming they can't keep up with the demand."
Chilling stuff as the barbarians are clearly already within the gates.
Cheers
Chris
4/11/15, 5:18 AM
Cherokee Organics said...
You ask: What helps balance self care with working authentically hard and well? I kick butt often on my works, but burn out some times, sage advice would be awesome.
I don't know whether I can offer sage advice, but I'd suggest a good way to know what your limits are is to explore them whilst keeping alert for signs of internal stresses.
Burning out is a poor use of your time. I'd suggest you have to do the above and learn to say "no" as politely and firmly as possible.
Be aware that there are some cultures where it is in your interests to say "yes" and do "no", so you always have to be aware of context, people and environment.
Essentially it is best to be realistic in your goals though.
Cheers
Chris
4/11/15, 5:30 AM
Cherokee Organics said...
Not to stress mate, I still remember wondering as a small child whether I could somehow employ the miracle of "Supply Side Reganomics" whatever that was to improve my lolly supply. And whilst we're at it, few adults at the time could explain the concept clearly to me either! Just sayin...
Cheers
Chris
4/11/15, 6:47 AM
Nastarana said...
I have been thinking for years we may be reduced to buying or trading for herbals, herbs themselves and open source and heirloom seeds and plants on a kind of informal black market.
4/11/15, 7:12 AM
Ed-M said...
Well the developments on the homefront have taken a turn for the next stairstep of my own personal collapse. It turns out that, after letting the house my partner and I live in fall down for the past twenty years, the real owner has finally decided to gut-rehab it, either into a single 4BR or two 2BR condominiums. Apparently he finally caught wind of the so-called progress the real estate market is making here in New Orleans (inflating a bubble is more like it). Average household income is $35K and the average rent is $1200/mo; average house prices are $300K and for a $100K house the monthly insurance note is as big as the monthly mortgage payment, making the monthly costs for that to be about $1000/mo. Such is life being a collapsnik in a 'hot' RE market in a gentrifying city. ;^)
4/11/15, 7:38 AM
heather said...
I also watched and enjoyed the BBC shows you mentioned. I found them inspiring in practical ways- am learning to make baskets after seeing it done and thinking, 'I could do that', and teaching kids to make them too- and also useful as an entry point into conversations about LESS with family members who were watching with me. A less-evil application of the glowing glass screen, in my opinion.
Re the reenactment scene in general, a very popular field trip among the homeschoolers' group I belong to is an annual pilgrimage to one of the many historical programs offered by various parks and historical sites, where families dress in period costume for a weekend and engage in various period crafts and activities. This year we are staying at Sutter's Fort, just before the Gold Rush. Not really deep or truly authentic by any means, but it's a start, and hopefully a memorable and inspiring springboard for the kids.
--Heather in CA
4/11/15, 8:01 AM
Donald Hargraves said...
4/11/15, 8:20 AM
Roger said...
We see much of the same decline and malaise. Our civil service too is a sewer of sloth and indifference. And worse, a kafka-esque maze that serenely inflicts grotesqueries on its citizen-victims.
Like our Dept of Veteran Affairs making de-limbed Canadian war veterans prove, on an annual basis, that they are still missing the arm or leg they left behind in Afghanistan. Can you imagine?
So, it won't astonish you that we too see distraction in the political sphere.
For example, in one of our recent mayoral elections we had a ranting fat-man running against a former government minister. The fat-man vowed to end the corruption and waste that grips city hall. The former minister touted his executive experience. He also happened to be a married gay man who, along with his husband, (both Caucasian) adopted a black baby boy.
You can see the outlines of where this is going. Guess who the local intelligentsia and establishment supported? Not the ranting fat-man. Stop corruption? Why would the establishment want that?
The enlightened would claim that sexual orientation was irrelevant. But I'm not very enlightened. I saw it as central to the candidacy, that is, implicitly the shining example of what could be done by a truly progressive society (ie us). All other things being equal, maybe it was. But also very useful, like I said, as a distraction from the opponent's issues. It was an original approach, I'll grant them that.
Original or no, the intelligentsia miscalculated. The man-in-the-street wasn't having it. Guess who won by a wide margin. You guessed it, the ranting fat-man.
Do you think the election campaign was a circus? You should have seen the aftermath. You see, the citizenry voted wrong, the establishment couldn't reconcile themselves to the result and so, after the self consoling sneer-fest, set about overturning the election, by hook or by crook.
Respect for a democratic vote? No chance. End corruption and waste? Not in this life-time.
You may have heard some stuff about our ex-mayor's excesses. Yeah, well, we have a long tradition of that here. Like, for example, the founding father of this country (Sir John Eh?) and the ex-mayor of Calgary (Ralph). Roaring drunks these guys. Ralph got government business done at his table at the St Louis Tavern. Both men were highly effective. Ralph was later elected Premier of Alberta. No matter.
Was Rob Ford a drunk? Yes. Did he use crack? You bet. Did he employ a two-bit hood as a driver. Yes. Ford consorted with low-life. Tell me, is drinking fine wine with crooks in five thousand dollar suits any better?
In the end, was Ford charged with anything, let alone put on trial? Nope, not even after months and torrents of police effort to pin something, anything on him.
So what about this preening we do about our alleged mercy and compassion? Was there any shown towards Ford with regard to his addictions? Not a stitch, not by the glitterati. He had to be gotten rid of no matter what. Due process? Bollocks. Fairness? Not here.
This was a Barnum and Bailey affair whose sole object was removing this obese annoyance that threatened to upset the gravy-train. And, with so much money at stake, this obviously couldn't be allowed.
4/11/15, 9:47 AM
Daniel Cowan said...
Regarding the omnipresence of entertainment media in our public spaces: does anyone, JMG or anyone else, have any ideas about coping strategies these kind of noxious infuences?
In my personal life, they are easier to avoid, but I have had a hard time dealing with these things in the workplace. I used to work in kitchens, some of which played music at extreme volumes - one kitchen even had two seperate stereos playing two different streams of music, which was a nightmare on my nervous system.
I'm currently working in plumbing, which is not as bad, but many people like to listen to very loud music as they work - and lot of it is radio stations that play music that sounds to me very aggressive and kind of negative, it wears me down by the end of the day, makes it hard to concentrate.
Eventually, I'd like to remove myself from these situations where I'm caged into consuming streams of electronic 'entertainment', but in the meantime, when I'd like to derive pay and specialized skills from these workplaces, I'm wondering if there are any mental techniques I could use to lessen the impact of the sounds of TV/radio, and let it pass by me more?
4/11/15, 10:15 AM
Anselmo said...
4/11/15, 11:22 AM
dragonfly said...
4/11/15, 11:26 AM
Steve W. said...
4/11/15, 12:10 PM
HalFiore said...
Followed by, "So you can relax now, and take a deep breath."
What we need is people who realize this is about what we leave behind for the future, not the little pizzant comforts of the most indulgent handful of generations ever to walk the Earth.
4/11/15, 1:57 PM
oilman2 said...
Within Lowes, there are now screens within departments directing you to other screens for great information about how to repair your widget or perform a task. It is the entire concept of one screen directing you to another within a store filled with supposed 'service employees' that brings my grin. Yet these same employees are oblivious to their pending redundancy, readily evident around them.
My daughter was with me today buying hinges, etc. I have a flip phone, she has I-phone 6-7(?). Upon entering a store, her phone went off with txtmsg sounds. She was sent coupons and advertising as she entered the store, all tailored to her most recent shopping habits. The screens are everywhere - the younger generations buy them, live with them and many love them.
If we drive about 25 miles, there is still a seriously low tech bar buried in the woods (more tavern, as there are sometimes meals). This bar has no television, no radio - just an old classic jukebox with 45 RPM records that still costs a dime to play. This bar has been there for 35 years, and you will find conversation, argument, seduction and even quietude merely by selecting your seating.
Found out that this bar is no longer acceptable due to structural deficiencies - the restrooms, doorways and lack of ramps do not support the handicapped. Hence the county has required them to put in these improvements by CERTIFIED and APPROVED county contractors or else shut down. Option B is likely as the costs to upgrade exceed the cost of the building. Surely it makes sense for the 1% handicapped population to have access to 100% of everything? And of course, nobody would dream of insulting the handicapped by assisting them....
Public officials and regulations make complete cents, right?
4/11/15, 4:00 PM
JML said...
What do you think of the philosophy of permaculture, JMG? Is it a viable alternative to the drawbacks associated with traditional agriculture?
4/11/15, 4:06 PM
jonathan said...
i don't know about any mental techniques for noise abatement, but i am very impressed with the efficiency of ear protection devices available today. for a relatively low price you can get headphones that deaden sound above a defined decibel level while still allowing normal conversation at lower levels.
4/11/15, 6:54 PM
trippticket said...
"Permacultired!"
Now there's a word I bet the Archdruid can really appreciate;)
(As I type this from the inner sanctum of my VERY permaculture-esque landscape.)
Trippticket
Steward of Rivenwood
Talking Rock
Lower Appalachia
4/11/15, 7:18 PM
Unknown said...
@Cherokee Organics--Is the book you bought by Alvey and Laffey? I found several books with similar titles listed online but the one with the exact title Public Speaking and Chairmanship is Australian. Only 128 pages long (in the 1977 edition), and it's divided into two parts, with Alvey covering public speaking and Laffey covering meetings. Sounds good; I'm going to see if any local library has it.
4/11/15, 7:36 PM
trippticket said...
Just read your comment toward the top (I tend to work up from the bottom as our host updates, and sometimes the first comments are the last ones I read). I've noticed the same thing around here in north Georgia. Now, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of really great gardens, and a lot of beginners' gardens, and lots of livestock, too, around where I live. But a significant portion of the local population is just dirt poor, and there ain't a tomato in sight...
What exactly are they expecting to happen next?
4/11/15, 7:41 PM
Unknown said...
@Daniel Cowan--You have my sympathy. I worked under similar conditions for nearly thirty years and never got used to it, though I did learn to concentrate well enough to do my job. Some of those yahoos would turn up their radios and then walk away for half an hour. Two or three different stations at once, all of them playing crummy pop music. Loud because these guys were half deaf from using power tools without ear protection.
It definitely wears a person down. One thing I thought of doing but never got around to was to make mix tapes of the kinds of music I like and crank it loud enough for the others to hear, not to drown them out but in hopes that they would like my music better and would turn off their own radios in order to listen to my selections. Never did it though; just took an early retirement and that was one of the reasons.
4/11/15, 7:50 PM
Phil Harris said...
Thanks for the link to Bryan Ward Perkins lecture at BYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHduMbabjFM
Like JMG I am a fan of Bryan WP and have his book. Fascinating that Wales was the last part of the Roman Empire to fall to invasion militarily in 1277, though the people had retained little or none of any 5thC 'Roman' life. (Early on in post-Roman Wales there were still graves marked with Celtic names in Latin inscription.)
Bryan WP's makes larger points about economic complexity; for example, coinage appears only when it is needed. This as I understand it, appears true also for literacy, numeracy and other tools such as a wheeled economy (bulk trade) or even anything much of a non-local trading economy. Big subjects!
best
Phil
4/12/15, 7:55 AM
A.S. said...
As you have suggested, I started reading William Catton's Overshoot. Just yesterday I read these passages:
"Progress also posed other problems. In medicine, new techniques of prolonging life thrust upon unprepared and unwilling human beings the burden of decision (rather than leaving to luck and microbes the task of 'deciding') when human beings should die.... they also began to give to the living more power to implement the antagonism between themselves and the unborn, antagonism which was being intensified by the age of population pressure. For the whole Western world, the tradition of bestowing upon future generations advantages exceeding those received from the past was becoming inverted. We had become competitors with, rather than benefactors of, our descendants." Pg. 59
And later on he writes:
"As other mammalian species have moved into a post-exuberant stage, increased antagonism and competition typically have led to increased violence and behavioral degeneracy. Status hierarchies become more abrasive. Care and training of the young become inept and even reluctant; the young come to be treated as intruders." Pg. 107
It seems that the response you outline in this week's post can be seen as a common symptom of being a part of a post-exuberant world.
4/12/15, 10:33 AM
onething said...
I would consider those little spongy earplugs, to muffle it.
4/12/15, 10:35 AM
onething said...
Once size fits all laws are unjust.
4/12/15, 10:48 AM
Leo Knight said...
My last rented home was in a suburb of Baltimore. We had a small garden area, which my fiancé planted with herbs, peppers, tomatoes, etc. She also planted small pots of herbs inside. We had plants stolen, tomatoes eaten off the vine. Once, the landlord had a handyman "tidy up" the garden. I asked him to wait until my fiancé got home, but no, he knew which were herbs and which were weeds...NOT. After that, and other incidents, she gave up, keeping only the inside plants. Perhaps the people you see have been kicked in the teeth so often, they just don't want to try again.
4/12/15, 11:06 AM
Shane Wilson said...
4/12/15, 11:59 AM
Shane Wilson said...
4/12/15, 12:18 PM
HalFiore said...
Which I guess would raise the question of how previous civilizations enabled their subjects to avoid the reality of decline and disintegration.
4/12/15, 12:57 PM
Shane Wilson said...
Appalachia has been exploited for over 100 years, and that exploitation has taken its toll on the culture. Coal mining has also ravaged the landscape. For a history of the area and its exploitation, I recommend Night Comes to the Cumberlands, by Harry Caudill. It's a good history of the area, and shows how the culture has been destroyed.
4/12/15, 1:54 PM
The other Tom said...
Your story about the "bikie gang" reminded me of a similar experience of mine when I inadvertently stopped in a biker bar in rural eastern Connecticut. It was winter, no Harleys in sight, so once I'd looked around and realized I didn't fit in I said to myself: "Just be cool, finish your beer and saunter out." But to my surprise, I never sensed any hostility, and even had a few more beers while talking to several of the guys. Of course, I behaved myself, and it helped that I'm a blue collar guy who doesn't radiate privilege or pretentiousness. I wouldn't want to forget where I was, though.
There was a story on NPR here a few years ago about an FBI agent who went undercover and joined a biker gang. He became so close to these people he eventually considered switching sides. The interesting part was that he had never before experienced the loyalty and empathy he got from the gang. He said the moment he almost decided to quit pretending and really join the gang was when his mother died. The FBI colleagues were sympathetic in a desultory, obligatory way, while the gang members gave their heartfelt comfort. In a modern society where loyalty is absent or at best conditional it's easy to see why gangs would be attractive to some. It seems like a toxic side effect of globalization.
I think it is useful to consider how we are going to get along or at least coexist with gangs, especially as growing insecurity makes them so viable.
4/12/15, 2:16 PM
nuku said...
Re loud radios on building sites:
How about asking these bozos to wear small portable radios/media players with ear buds. Keep their crappy “music” to themselves?
4/12/15, 4:39 PM
Janet D said...
It's hard to find friends, especially for my son. So many of his friends, now that he's headed to 13, have disappeared into an electronic hole.
My kids' friends, when invited, show up at my house with iPods/iPods/whatever in tow. I allow them for a time, then confiscate them. A number of the kids literally don't know how to play w/o electronics. I can always tell the ones who are addicts because they literally will ask me every 15 minutes if they can play whatever electronic now.
I allow my kids to read in restaurants. In the last few months, I've had two different servers comment on how nice it is to see kids reading. They say they never see that anymore; they only see the kids sunk into screens.
The generation rising now is, as a whole, going to have so few skills - practical, emotional, training, educational - to deal with what is coming their way.
I try not to think about it much. Too much frustration with no way to resolve it only leads to depression.
4/12/15, 4:53 PM
Cherokee Organics said...
Correct and well worth your time. The book is Australian and very old school in its step by step formal approach. Public speaking is not an issue for me, so I actually purchased it for the insight into the role of the Chairman and how to go about running group meetings - which is truly mind boggling in its complexity.
Incidentally the authors were actually Frank Alvey (who wrote the public speaking part) and R G Lathey (who wrote the Guide for the Chairman, Secretary and Discussion Leader).
The general laziness and disrespect for formal process that I have witnessed in a few community groups now is quite clearly a false economy and I suspect is driven by various egos for thier own purposes. I have had enough of that sort of rubbish over the last couple of years and am about to start kicking. The process is clearly there to protect the group as much as the members and it is little wonder that the remaining effective community groups have a long established history.
Cheers
Chris
4/12/15, 5:24 PM
Ron M said...
4/12/15, 6:02 PM
oildepletion said...
I've not had reason to comment here before - but this post really did resonate! OOH, I doubt that the meritorious behavior on the part of random individuals will forestall the most likely unpleasant aspects of our future. OTOH, it seems complicit not to take some action. As an old retired guy who likes to bicycle and has some spare time, I've partnered with our local county to encourage more people to ride bicycles for recreation instead of more car oriented activates. A very modest idea but I figure anything to reduce motor vehicle use is a start. So, I created a website http://www.bikex.net/ to encourage cycling to visit the many natural attractions and villages in our county. The tourism people have been supportive and the site has had some modest success - even if less than hoped for.
Recently, I agreed to help someone create a website prototype that had certain features (blog, forum, etc). As the site would only be a technical example, the content was irrelevant. However, I needed a theme to organize my thoughts so I picked my two major biases - cycling and the state of the planet. The latter topic echoing much of what's in your books and blog. I've sent the link for the site http://www.bikex.net/virtue to a number of friends just to get some feedback on how it appeared on their various screens (please don't give up on me here) and incidentally, what did they think about the content. The content, of course, is a direct attack on our car culture and excessive consumption habits (i.e. JMG - LESS).
The point of my rambling here is the fact that most of my friends are pretty environmentally sensitive and do generally try not to be wasteful - but, with the exception of one friend, the response has been noticeably muted. No one suggested that we really ought to challenge our car culture and promote bicycling as a positive step for using less energy. Brainless motor vehicle usage is obviously the low hanging fruit for cutting fossil fuel consumption. Which supports your contention that most people do understand the problem at some level, but really don't want to face the obvious.
4/12/15, 7:41 PM
John Michael Greer said...
FiftyNiner, excellent. Yes, that's just one of the technologies that are set up to function as though there are no material limits.
Oilman2, I suspect that a lot of people are going out of their way not to notice it. Still, you're quite correct that this is what collapse looks like.
Scotlyn, glad to hear it. I'm not sure how many American children could figure out what to do without a video game handy...
Cherokee, Australia could have become a major regional power, but has backed away from that status over and over again, in favor of the status of local lapdog of whatever major power dominates the western Pacific. I'm not at all sure that's a safe strategy in a world in which the Chinese might just as well decide that the best use for Australia is as a consolation prize for the Indonesians. As for the book, excellent! Yes, that's exactly the sort of thing I referenced in an earlier discussion. The real challenge will be getting anyone else to follow the guidelines in the book -- yes, they make for good, effective, pleasant meetings, but they get in the way of all sorts of currently popular power games and passive-aggressive maneuvers, and we can't have that, can we?
Ed-M, ouch. Well, best of luck finding an affordable place for the next rung down the ladder of decline!
Donald, yes, that could certainly be involved.
Roger, thanks for the update from north of the border! None of this surprises me.
Daniel, I wish I did. One effect of my Aspergers syndrome is that I'm unusually sensitive to noise, and the only approaches I've ever found to work involve either going somewhere else or causing the noise to stop by whatever means are most convenient at the time. (A five-pound sledgehammer with a long handle is profoundly soul-satisfying, but not always appropriate.)
Anselmo, thank you -- I'm glad to hear that. I figured it was mostly an American habit, anyway.
Dragonfly, true enough; you didn't mention where you live, but my guess is that good old-fashioned corruption has a lot to do with it.
4/12/15, 9:55 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Hal, that would work. One that I like to use instead is, "Have you talked to your children about the world you're leaving them?"
Oilman2, and no doubt the big chains had a lot to do with getting the county requirements enforced, as usual...
JML, I have a very mixed opinion of permaculture. The philosophy as expressed in the original books seems very sensible. Here in America, though, I see a lot of talk and a shortage of action -- there are noble exceptions, including some people who comment here, but I have yet to see enough of them to make any kind of difference, and I've seen far too many people who use the edible food forest that they haven't gotten around to planting as their excuse for not doing anything else to get ready for the end of the industrial age. Now of course that's not the fault of the philosophy, but the philosophy always comes attached to a cultural and social context, and -- again, with noble exceptions -- that's not always helpful.
Trippticket, why, yes. ;-)
AS, yes, and that's a valid point.
4/12/15, 10:04 PM
John Michael Greer said...
Shane, your first sentence may be the understatement of the century. Something stinks in America.
HalFiore, a good question, which deserves more research than I've given it. Hmm...
Janet, the upside is that your kids are likely to make it. A great many others won't. I know that's a very cold consolation, but there it is.
Ron M, you know, I'd completely forgotten that Lewis had used that, but of course you're right. I'm not much of a fan of his children's books; the adult fiction and nonfiction, now, is another matter.
Oildepletion, welcome to the comments page! Yes, I've seen that response before, over and over again. I'd point out that at this point, it's too late for any action by anyone at all to prevent the end of the industrial age -- but it's not too late for individuals, families, and communities to take action to preserve as many worthwhile things and skills as possible through the impending crisis years, and mitigate many of the worst features of decline and fall. That's basically the core theme of this blog: given that industrial civilization can no longer be pulled out of its terminal descent, what can be done for the sake of the future? I'll be talking about that next week in some detail.
4/12/15, 10:15 PM
Ray Wharton said...
A regular shtick I talk about is "cargo cult permaculture". The one who builds an herb spiral on the edge of their garden and calls it permaculture, or more generally speaking incorporates a couple of well promoted techniques that have come out of permacultural thought with out doing any of the thinking for themselves. The concepts of permaculture have deeply influenced my gardeening and farming practices, but nothing I do looks much like Bill, Geoff, or Sepp's works. I live in Fort Collins Colorado and face fairly different challenges than the challenges their most popularized works face. By mixing what I have learned from their thinking with my own person exploration of the four elements (thanks to the AODA for a handsome chunk of that btw) I have a good instinct for gardening which have lead to some garden experiments I have been quite pleased with. Right now I am riddling alot about how to move the best lessons from my experimental semi-community garden of 3000 square feet to be useful at the 120,000 square feet of garden space at the CSA I apprentice at; all the while with out unduely disrupting that system. Recently Cherokee laid out some principles for drought tolerance on these forums, I have been thinking much about his comments and they will influence this seasons trials considerably.
Current season experiments: flag stone mulching of no till beds; digging fork aeration; stick and bark mulching; spent mushroom block offerings to the worm cities; drought friendly 'ornamental' grasses as wind break and shade; trench gardening; native fruit bushes; scouting the common trash generated by row vegetable gardening as practiced in the area as salvage sources.
Current preliminary results: building cold frames out of sod and leaving starts in the trench that I sourced the materials for the northern wall have created habitat for the starter trays which are temperature an humidity stable because of the strong influence of the Earth element, and the starts hardened of in these 'cold trenches' have thrived so far; though the adequacy of the trenches when tried by wider temperature drop or rain bursts have not been sufficiently tested.
your results will surly vary.
4/12/15, 10:32 PM
John Michael Greer said...
4/12/15, 11:15 PM
Somewhatstunned said...
Re: promoting cycling (and walking - both "active travel" in the jargon). Can I just add that aside from all the general benefits of not-driving (communication of serious intent, way of starting conversations, becoming less dangerous and antisocial, improved personal health etc) - aside from all these, there is a very personal and immediate pleasure in using ones own muscle power to do actual things.
I (personally) would go on to say that using ones own muscles in this way is also a very intimate way of experiencing the natural world - that part of the natural world which is ones own body.
Yes, pushing for more walking-anbd-cycling is a major Good Thing!
4/13/15, 12:00 AM
donalfagan said...
Around about the 1970s, though, tax laws began to reward the quick depreciation of speculative buildings, and we started designing toilet rooms, lobbies and everything else to the functional minimum - even in supposedly upscale projects.
ADA standards certainly seem overly generous compared to what we see for the able-bodied now, but compared to what used to be the norm in public and upscale commercial buildings they aren't that outrageous.
4/13/15, 6:51 AM
Shane Wilson said...
I remember the '84 presidential election. I was in te 3rd grade. I would taunt the kid next to me by saying "Mondale, Mondale, Mondale!" in a teasing way, to which he'd retort back "Reagan, Reagan, Reagan!" in the same taunting way. I covered my desk in Mondale/Ferraro stuff, he covered his in Reagan/Bush stuff. Who'd have thought that by the time we grew up, adult political discourse would descend to the same level!
4/13/15, 7:25 AM
Nastarana said...
The various intermediators care about one thing only, which is maintaining their own privileges and comforts. It is people like these who call in the barbarian warbands, and I believe they would gladly collaborate with ISIS or Ghengiz Khan if assured important positions in the bloodstained new regime.
Janet D., I can tell you that I raised two girls much as you describe--no TV, and limited TV when we did have one, no cell phones, meals cooked at home, etc. and both girls did 'make it' in the sense that both now are law-abiding, gainfully employed citizens.
4/13/15, 7:30 AM
Matthew Casey Smallwood said...
http://johnbburnett.com/resources/rossi_sacred-cosmos.pdf
Which, I suppose, is why I find myself having more in common with an archdruid's magical view of Nature than my teachers, who thought that the universe was reducible to atoms in motion, with no inherent purpose or meaning.
4/13/15, 9:16 AM
pg said...
4/13/15, 9:53 AM
librarian@play said...
4/13/15, 10:36 AM
limitstomaths said...
What I suspect could be transformatively helpful in this context is an appreciation of the positive domino effects that could result from creative, meaningful, sentient entrepreneurship in this hyper-interconnected context. One might call this an opportunity for Matryoshka activism -- where unlocking solutions at one level results in unlocking solutions at multiple other levels simultaneously ... naturally requiring a much more integrative strategization and thought process (or perhaps just good luck from so many things lined up in just such and such a way, or perhaps both).
I happened here I think half and half -- (half) things have just been lining up so that surely others are thinking deeply about conscious engagement in a highly transformational era; plus (half) I've invested myself in address this uniquely hard problem of the anthropocene as a response to my own "enormous strain that so many Americans are under," -- caring for/about my kids & all kids.
If Toynbee's creative minority is going to spontaneously emerge, perhaps it will happen by some combination of intentional search and accidental discovery.
Thanks for the thoughts, all -- and especially the spark to action on those thoughts.
4/13/15, 12:45 PM
PatriciaT said...
4/13/15, 1:23 PM
Patricia Mathews said...
And the importance of access to a restroom cannot be overstated. I have been in airports without correct change back when pay facilities were the norm, and at public events where the lines before the rooms for women were half an hour long. I was on a road trip from Albuquerque, NM to Tempe, AZ with a man in a wheelchair and his wife, and gained considerable insight into the need for accessible entrances, facilities, and parking spaces.
No. It's not waste. May you never be in such need.
4/13/15, 1:55 PM
jean-vivien said...
I wanted to give some hindsight on this week's blog post, pure speculation unfortunately. It seems you are reaching for the borders of your other blog's dominion with your latest post.
Quite incidentally, I have been studying the landscape of my dreams for several years now. Basically, taking notes on paper of my whole dreaming experience.
I have always been prone to bouts of microsleep, most probably due to an easily clogged respiratory system, and interestingly, not only have I become better at remembering and piecing together my dreams (or maybe it is just a natural process of maturity in the brain... I don't know) I have also developped very vivid flashes of dreaming which occur in my somnolence state.
I was very surprised to discover that entire pieces of dialogues or stories were briefly popping into my mind. This is not schizophreny : I am perfectly aware of what belongs to dreams and what belongs to daydreaming.
Om a side note, this is also why sleep deprivation is an effective mode of torture : the more deprived of sleep you are, the harder it becomes to tell apart reality from your inner stories, which involve a lot of what you fear.
Again, I do not know if that "shaping of stories" is a natural process or if I have pushed it myself by actively engaging my dream memory. I have also observed that the environment plays out in how I sleep at night : a warmer or colder temperature will yield a slight difference on the length of the stories, on the vividness of the pictures...
It has clearly shown me that our brain does not create stories in the same way depending on the external environment or the mental state.
If, as I think is the case, human consciousness is in a large part derived from building stories, I believe it is entirely plausible that being exposed to the current landscape of leisurely media has affected not only the content of the inner stories we build, but their nature as well.
This is not a scientific reasonning, just an intuitive leap of the imagination, half-analogy half-extrapolation to all the other people who are not me.
Basically, we are being prey to a cognitive distortion that has been building pretty insidiously : we think that our level of intelligence has remained the same, because the volume of our thoughts has remained constant over time.
But each of the thoughts making up that volume has actually been decreasing in length. The change has been gradual... so we haven't noticed it yet. And the screens make for an easy culprit, since they work by increasing our optical light intake which is known to increase our short-term focus. There may be such a thing as short-term and long-term focus, playing out in how we build inner stories.
4/13/15, 7:21 PM
jean-vivien said...
And it could be that one of the counterspells might be to "reenchant the world", as Kunstler puts it, that is give more meaning in your landscape by reclaiming somall businesses where you can go walking, etc...
Where I live is quite enchanted enough but I can imagine how it might feel to live in the USA. Another counterspell might be to develop rituals that train you to build longer and longer stories.
Magickal practice usually involves invocation of some sort. That raises a basic question : how do we invoke longer stories ? My experience from dream recall is that once you have outlined the contents of your night's dreams, you tend to forget some of it along the day and later have to try to remember it more than a few times.
I suspect this is where invocatory practices will come in handy : even if the mind is worked upon by exercise, just like you do with your body, the self-suggestion benefit from magickal practices could help a lot.
And you could extrapolate that sort of practice to the very ability of building longer, more coherent stories. This is truly a topic for your other blog, as I believe that the effects of global decline will be eloquent enough to inspire us. And just shutting out the screens is usually enough for me that I don't need magick to engage in longer stories... But your mileage may vary.
I am not sure of the practical implications. As usual with magickal themes, the real-world implications may be far-reaching on the social or political plane. Therefore its connection with this blog as well.
Or it could just be that repetitive, manual chores like housework, performed away from screens or modern sensory inputs, can be a good complement in a balanced mental lifestyle. I noticed flashes of microsleep where I would just get the physical sensation of the body movements after a day of a repeated physical activity that I am not used to practicing.
Walking could be one of the "story rituals", and it may be part of the feedback loops which make us conscious.
Since even my food intake shapes the way I build stories, I assume that there is a lot to explore there. Inner story-bulding could be an essential tool in dealing with the decline of industrial nations.
4/13/15, 7:22 PM
Janet D said...
His song 'Manifesto' (the first one) contains the lines:
"...There is no medicine
In the television
So turn it off
And turn yourself around...."
...which are lines that certainly apply to this week's topic.
You can listen to it here
Posting in case anyone else likes to dance around their kitchen to good music (with a glass of wine) while making dinner. Although my children tell me my dancing skills are hopelessly 'nerd-mom' style, I don't let that stop me, much to their horror. Life is short...dance while you can!!
4/13/15, 8:16 PM
Cherokee Organics said...
Yeah, probably. We did that business over in East Timor recently. They do have a lot of oil reserves. But then Indonesia did that business over in West Papua too which has lots of land and forests.
Overall, I think we have been complete dolts and have acted poorly in relation to the Indonesians - whom are a mostly mild culture. Mostly, I believe we look like hypocrites in their eyes.
Oh yeah, I spotted this one in the newspaper as Liebig's law seems to be biting hard in the world of zinc mining. Not good. Actually, really not good as zinc has a lot of industrial applications and very few substitutes: Zinc proves hard to find in a world that's full of gluts
We are only as good as the weakest link. It is really weird because the article fails to make the connection to the rapid and serious decline in supply to the reporters own existence. Weird.
Cheers
Chris
4/14/15, 5:27 AM
club lowlow said...
Saw this article on Aeon and thought of you. Care to agree or disagree?
http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/could-we-reboot-civilisation-without-fossil-fuels/
4/14/15, 5:52 AM
heather said...
What a cool song. Thanks for sharing it. Excellent encouragement for us all. Nerd moms of the world, unite!
Heads up- People sharing the song with kids should preview the song all the way first (unlike me), since there is one single instance of profanity in an otherwise beautiful and inspiring video. Although there is deep truth in the line, "let's face it, the world is f-ing racist", you may want to decide whether and how to frame that language with your kiddos. It really is a very nice song with an empowering message- my kids and I decided we will just bleep that part ourselves, after, of course, the conversation about the frustration and desire for emphasis revealed by the original.
--Heather in CA
4/14/15, 7:27 AM
FiftyNiner said...
I very much appreciate your insights into dreaming and its centrality to our mental health and creativity. I do not think at all that you are at the borders of the blog's dominion. If we are to have people with the insights to deal with the many problems that this collapse will bring, somehow our culture has to get rid of this preoccupation with the "waking" manipulations of the "symbols" of our culture and the physical "materials" of it and teach children once again how to dream. Daydreaming and night dreaming are essential to mental health and a sane world.
I was trained into the graduate level to be a teacher, but I give thanks everyday that I was not put into a preschool or kindergarten at some ridiculously early age. I think that the play that I engaged in outdoors and the reading that my mother did to me were infinitely more important than anything that could possibly have happened in any preschool classroom.
It has always been my belief that the violence so prevalent in American life can be linked to the many ways that our industrial society has interrupted the natural diurnal rhythms to which all life on earth adheres. What violence the culture has wreaked on us with street lamps to make us "safe" at night and "swing shifts" at factories to make us prosperous!
Would any other animal have been so stupid or gullible?
4/14/15, 9:38 AM
Janet D said...
Oops, sorry about not mentioning that one *non-child-friendly* word. Few of Nahko's songs have swear words in the lyrics, but the f-bomb is occasionally there. He has also some incredible songs that pull in his background (he was conceived when his grandmother sold his then-14-yr-old mother into rape, and after birth he was adopted by an evangelical Christian family with the expected resulting identity crises later on), so it's good to ensure all lyrics are on your 'permit' list as well.
Other than protestations about my dancing, I find that my children and I really connect around his music. The other day we were all singing out loud and rocking in the car to O Great Spirit - it's neat to have that shared experience (no swear words in this song).
It's the ADR blog that made me look at his music differently. Rather than just "I like this music", I noticed his grass-roots-only significant success with the young (& often disenfranchised) in the U.S., Europe & Australia and his lyrics, such as:
"...Interconnected in the wreckage of a Paradigm on its way out, way out...
.......While the ship slowly sinks, Ive been directed to sing..
I'm like a wrecking ball, Breaking down the walls of the past, a minimalist living on bliss,With the last of my cash
You're gonna be justified, With how you treated the land,
You're gonna be by my side When I stand and demand
a change...."
4/14/15, 10:30 AM
Myriad said...
4/14/15, 11:11 AM
James said...
http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/could-we-reboot-civilisation-without-fossil-fuels/
4/14/15, 12:59 PM
Unknown said...
Those TVs, lol. It is so true. There is a regional supermarket chain that recently built a gigantic, new store. It was on the site of the old one, but of course they couldn't remodel the "old" building; it had been built a whole 30 years ago, obliterating a historic dairy farm with beautiful brick buildings. They built and entirely new structure on the lot, then razed the old one and made parking. There had always been a sit-down deli, but now it was a much bigger room with high ceiling, two stories, maybe more. There were large flat-screens hung on every wall at the second-story level. I stopped counting at 14. The really hilarious thing was that fully half of them were on the same thing, which was Fox News. Even adjacent ones both had FN.
I guess I am one of those who often says I hope I'm dead before it happens. I'm not trying to make excuses, just provide a few words about where that perspective might come from. I don't have any children. I have a bunch of nieces and nephews and grand- nieces and nephews. But I always lived far away from them and never bonded that well because reasons. I like them, but most of them seem to be pretty clueless about this stuff, just going on with the normal middle-class aspirational things and I don't think I would be able to make them understand what is happening if I tried. Everyone else I know is old. I would like to do something but I don't know what. I grew up on a farm, but my attempts to grow food, etc., have been pathetic failures. I'm pushing 60 and for several reasons I would say the odds of making it to 70 are no better than even. I still am more or less glad to wake up in the morning, but too tired to do anything that matters. I put food in the bird feeders in my yard and make sure they have fresh water. I don't know many human persons and the ones I do don't listen to me about anything.
Sorry to be a downer about things, but you mentioned the "I hope I'm dead" crowd and I just thought I would say something that might explain it a little. I'm not saying I like to be that way, but there is is.
I guess you have rules about length so this is probably too long and rambling to post, but it was kind of therapeutic writing it anyway. I do enjoy reading the blog.
4/14/15, 2:54 PM
Avery said...
Who won the "where will they drill next" contest? Come up and claim your prize.
4/14/15, 5:29 PM
Myosotis said...
A town on the edge of the Portland metro area is declaring some farmland blighted to make it available for industrial development. How short sighted.
4/14/15, 6:48 PM
latheChuck said...
Match three screens of interest and compatible sexual orientations, and marriage becomes a possibility, if only for a few years.
It ain't much, but maybe it's all they've got to work with.
4/14/15, 7:03 PM
Robert Mathiesen said...
This is especially true if you are a person who uses sentences and stories as your usual means of thinking and remembering incidents in your life. Dreams, like every kind of intense experience (including mystical experience), are always reduced enormously if you do this, that is, if you think and remember by means of sentences and words. I'm one of those people who doesn't do this habitually; instead, I think and remember, for the most part, in patterns and networks, textures and other sensations. So I notice how much is lost every time I try to put any memory or any thought into words in order to communicate it to some other person.
I suspect that anyone can (with practice) learn to remember his or her most profound dreams and waking experiences without using sentences and stories, and can keep these memories alive by deliberately re-calling them to mind. If you store these dreams and experiences up in your mind in this way, then you don't need to write them down. The very process of verbal description destroys the meat within the shells of one's dreamt or lived experiences. If the meat is not destroyed in this way, your experiencse will nourish you more fully.
4/14/15, 7:14 PM
pg said...
But what helped in more lasting ways, for me anyway, was to practise Dr. Andrew Weil's prescription for calming breathing (4-7-8). Meaning counting to four while breathing in, counting to seven while holding the breath, counting to eight on the exhale.
Persistent practice of this is strange at first-- which showed me how very shallow my breathing had become as a habit. Easing into the discipline of the 4-7-8 rhythm shifted a number of things: my focus, my attention, my body's adrenaline/cortisol response.
A second piece that helped a great deal might be an incantation (though he'd likely not call it such) from Eckhart Tolle's book A New Earth. I mean where he speaks of our inner resistance as a hindrance to realizing what else might be going on;as long as you resist, the insight is, you hold on to a particular, now frozen, interpretation of your perceptions. If your ego can let go, you no longer identify your sense of yourself so much with what you thought was true.
That leaves openings to see what's really going on, maybe for your coworker, too.
Not sure I'm being clear; these are huge topics.
Maybe another (related?) way to work with one's perceptions is to keep in mind the idea from martial arts: use the energy of your opponent as you get out of his way?
you can't control the other guy or gal. But you can go some distance controlling your breathing, your attention.
I have been working on the Sphere of Protection ritual for some weeks ( Thank you, JMG); I did pick up on that message. The neighbors must think it's calesthenics. Just as well: one of the neighbors is an exterminator.)
Anyway, as the Weil and Tolle ideas I reference date back to about 2005, I hope you won't mind the mention.
Thank you for your kindness.
pmg
4/14/15, 9:30 PM
pg said...
l
4/14/15, 10:25 PM
Shane Wilson said...
4/15/15, 2:31 AM
jean-vivien said...
of course you're right, and I have missed the obvious, in what amounts to a humbling bookcase example of blindness to whole systems. I had always assumed the superiority of waking experience over sleep, and it is so much easier to notice the effects of waking events upon the dream experience... however I have never thought of the other direction, that is how dreams can - and do ? - shape our waking experience. That would be a lot more subtle and tenuous set of observations to make... wish I had thought of it earlier.
So since we have covered the first direction, has anyone some insights to share in the other ? For example, how did your dreams inform the way you watch TV, or peruse screeny glossy gizmoes...
4/15/15, 3:03 AM
jean-vivien said...
4/15/15, 3:05 AM
by Aurok said...
The plot of the book is that (spoiler) there is an unconscious persona living in the main character (who works a mundane office job and hates his life) and this persona seeks to unite people in their mutual love of destruction (the titular fight club) only to turn that love into organized terrorist activity designed to destroy industrial civilization and restore a more peaceful hunter-gatherer existence.
Now, replace terrorism with opulence and over-consumption, and I'd say this plan of self-loathing white collar workers is succeeding beyond all measure.
Considering the book and subsequent movie were resonant enough not only to amass an audience, but to inspire a series of real world fight clubs, it's hard to see the destruction of the first world as anything other than intentional. We saw what we built, we hated it, and we set out to destroy it in the most efficient and permanent manner possible.
4/15/15, 5:46 AM
Denys said...
4/15/15, 11:15 AM
Michael McG said...
Thanks for challenging contexts Arch Druid in the adventures of LESS!
About 9 months ago I started giving “Collapse to avoid the rush” a shot leaving a highfalutin position on the front lines of Techdum to try my hand at something closer to physical reality. Pay is down to 10% of base, but enlightening my understanding people in lower pay rungs (now me).
In Tech I regularly worked with people from China, India, Africa all without going anywhere. The new job required me to work at many different places well out of walking distance or public transport. 28% of my net income was spent on transport (not counting time).
A value thing that most gets me from the people in my new realm is: the devotion/investment in gadget phones and services. Money people on this level spend on this I estimated per interviews to be 10-15% of net.
In further conversation with my low income mates to find out reasons for expensive device fetishes and awareness of transport costs I found they had little to no awareness but rather accept auto transport cost. “It is what it is.” Quote from interview.
They were flabbergasted that I should even question devotion to the gadget. Most of these people are younger than me and very smart in terms of processing ability but seemed to lack a means to formulate context outside of narrow ranges.
I’m due for another change of ladder rung. Fortune smiles as the local hardware store calls to tell me I’m hired.
Hourly will drop 7%, offset by a huge raise in net after expenses as transport costs will be little more than an extra bowl of oatmeal per morning plus bike and or shoe wear to cover a 7 mile round trip.
Another boon is a tremendous transport time save (est. 10 hrs/wk.) assuming biking. On the minus, I lose employer sponsored healthcare coverage with a $2000 deductible (10% of Gross per year) costing me 8% net wage premium contribution.
With the hardware gig /pay reduction, I’m eligible for “Free Healthcare” from government without a deductible.
I have always loved hardware stores and look forward to working at one.
Viva Evolution! Sic Transit Gloria Cookie Crumble…. ;>).
Michael
4/16/15, 3:48 PM
Steve in Colorado said...
By and large, most complex, custom electronics these days (beyond the digital toaster oven and refrigerator) no longer design and build custom silicon. Rather they use an FPGA chip. The programmable part of the FPGA means that it can be configured into whatever electronic parts a project wants/needs. A tiny processor here, some A/D sensors there, some memory, and so on. This allows the use of an off the shelve chip which can be customized in software, rather than requiring the development of a custom silicon chip; much cheaper and faster for most projects.
And since it is programmable, the same chip can be used in one gadget one day, and then plugged into another with a new program and serve an entirely different purpose another.
Certainly FPGAs are fairly high up on the technology curve, at least to make them. But they exist in the millions and can be repurposed into a variety of other things, as long as the level of technology allows for PCs and some folks left who know how to program them.
I'm not suggesting here that FPGAs are the saviour of electronic gadgetry in a collapsing world. Rather that they may offer a possible intermediate step before we devolve into harvesting used 74xx series electronics from the dumps.
4/18/15, 2:33 PM
donalfagan said...
4/28/15, 5:59 AM
Harold Missamore said...
It just depends on which half youre categorized in, I guess.
Anyway, 16 on seems to be the U.S., once pretty much 1-15.
Just pondering the other dimension a little. Does anyone think that dimension exists?
If not, what propels it? The seeming playing out of the other side? Just wondering.
5/10/15, 9:58 AM
Bob Patterson said...
And I decided that computers did not prodcuce anything. But, they were an idea similar to that of God. Everything reduced to yes or no, remembering forever until told to forget, mannipulating data in ways andf speed we were jealous of.
5/22/15, 11:49 AM