I guess every blogger should let potential readers know why they have decided to 'blog' their thoughts on the Internet for all and sundry to read. This is my attempt to do just that.
I see many threads in the world around around as converging. Most of these threads are of a negative nature.
You are rolling your eyes right now; "Oh Nos - Another Doomer!"
I hope to stimulate a more intellectual and measured response to the issues we collectively face. That is, if you, like I, wish to make the world a better place, or even a place where humans continue to exist.
There is so much denial of what is staring us in the face, if we choose to lower the pillow during the scary bit of the movie and confront what the director has intended, then at least we may understand our situation, and perhaps find ways to improve the situation. I use the analogy of a scary movie for good reason; much of what I will blog about is scary.
So much of what we take for granted is now in jeopardy. And I speak as a first world person, not one of the disenfranchised who had the misfortune to be born into less positive circumstances. The disenfranchised live in the first and third worlds - my family, on the cusp, would have been middle class as little as 5 years ago. Peak oil is creeping up on all of us.
"In 2007, 923 million people were reported as being undernourished, an increase of 80 million since 1990-92"
We have added many millions of us to the world since then, despite the "Green Revolution", more and more die every year. This is a tipping point for humanity, live on television, as long as you are not switching over to "reality T.V." to avoid the inconvenient truth. There are too many of us, and the world cannot support us, especially with constraints on energy on the horizon.
Population, or more correctly, overpopulation is the cause of ALL humanity's woes. 1 million hunter gatherers could do as they wished, till the sun gives out and envelops the earth. 7-10 billion humans (within the next 30 years) aspiring to a techno-utopia as seen on T.V. it's just NOT GOING TO FUCKING HAPPEN.
So my first bit of advice, is to throw away the T.V. (Responsibly, I might add.) It is rotting your brain, and will let in all of the plutocracy who wish to continue the current system of growth at any cost. Revel in your local culture, if you still have one. If not, connect with others, build resilient communities and build a culture of the future. That has a future. I work hard in I.T. my profession is without a future.
T.V. is meant to "Green Wash" all the things that will keep the elite rich, you poor, the populations growing (their market of serfs) and the planet dying.
My family doesn't have a T.V. We watch what we want to, when we want to, on the Internet. No ads for 'Bratz' dolls for my daughter to consume and the toxic sexuality these little zombie dolls represent. My daughter is going to be a whole lot more powerful than the marketeers definitions. More a Sarah Conner than a Paris Hilton.
I digress, as is a blogger's prerogative.
No one can put a certain timeline to how the fall of our civilisation will take place, unless you are Ben Bernanke. It may even just depend on your definition of what makes a good civilisation; think Blade runner. As long as you think the government is looking out for you, that you are owed something by the universe, then you consign yourself to slavery, to a system that will in the short term reward your docile sycophancy, in the long term it will place you in a herd.
A herd driving relentlessly towards a pasture of dust and lamentation.
*This blogs reading/watching list:
"Make Room, Make Room" by Harry Harrison
Info on Bill Hicks
How to grow a food forest
