w/r/t the tragedy of the commons... The thing that I'm a little afraid to say out loud is that I don't see how any of this is solved with our current political

w/r/t the tragedy of the commons... The thing that I'm a little afraid to say out loud is that I don't see how any of this is solved with our current political structures. Sovereign nations? Democracies? At some point -- when the sh#$ really hits the fan -- these structures are going to seem like idealistic but ineffective luxuries. I suppose catastrophe (my sense is there will be no need to engineer it) could spur inspired alignment; or some kind of global consciousness awakening event (we're waiting, Jesus 2.0/Whatever). The long arch of hope seems pretty hopeless from an individual's perspective at this moment in time, so much so that I actively try (and fail) _not_ to think about this. I can't imagine what folks at, say, the pentagon, are planning out who spend all day obsessing on it. They must have some pretty dark scenarios mapped out. Simply put, we have grown to the size of our resource container and that container is about to shrink. We're far from ready. The species will likely eek it's way through. Civilization? Not so much.