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If our ecology really is collapsing, this is going to get worse. As resources become more and more scarce, powerful first-world countries are not going to want

If our ecology really is collapsing, this is going to get worse. As resources become more and more scarce, powerful first-world countries are not going to want to regress in their standards of living, which I speculate is going to lead to increased global conflict.

gdubs 6y ago
The US defense department has been saying basically this for over a decade in fact.
paulmd 6y ago
our inability to deal with the climate collapse is only a second-order effect, we are completely unable to deal with anything right now. If it wasn't the climate crisis, and if it wasn't the pandemic, it would be something else. Our political system is far too polarized and far too plagued by anti-intellectualism, it simply can't respond to anything. Russia and conservative media (murdoch media, etc) seeding regressive/anti-intellectual movements has been massively successful, western society is just completely unprepared to deal with freedom of speech being leveraged to spew an unending firehose of bullshit, it's a "copyleft" style trojan approach of using our own democratic values against us. The firehose of bullshit has led to the rise of anti-intellectual movements, an anti-intellectual president, and a party that just votes absolutely lockstep with him no matter what he does. They don't give a shit about absolutely anything, not fires or hurricanes or plagues, and just let all these problems fester. It has a lot of other negative effects too of course, but we have reached the point where we simply can't respond even to acute crises anymore, our system has long-since lost its higher functioning in terms of setting goals and being able to execute them (what you'd call "self-actualization" in maslow's hierachy) and now is struggling even to maintain basic homeostasis (the "physical needs" tier of the maslow hierarchy). (I include Brexit, Bolsanaro, Duarte, etc in this as well - western democracy is in deep fucking shit worldwide and if we don’t get our shit together and deal with the firehose of falsehoods we will be supplanted by more authoritarian forms of government that don’t suffer this vulnerability because they don’t tolerate free speech and dissent.) It is also super depressing to know that even with everything that's gone on, less than 5% of america has even changed its mind. Even with the plague, even with the fires, even with civil unrest and mass arrests, even as the post office is dismantled and we lose the ability even to get a fucking package on time, 40% of america will go in the booth and pull the lever for more of this. It goes beyond just "doesn't affect me, who cares", or "that's 20 years from now me's problem", this has all affected everyone, now, today, and people still want more as long as they get to own the libs. It's maddening.
- IG_Semmelweiss 6y ago
  Anti intellectualism has a root cause. Intellectuals have led us to credit crisis. But "Nobody saw it coming!" Is not a response. Remember that statement? Intellectuals have led us to forever wars everywhere. Intellectuals have overseen the collapse of the family unit in the last 70 years Intellectuals old us in the 90s that the polar caps would melt in....2020 Intellectuals have led us to a permanent underclass of people in cities like detroit, chicago, NY and Philadelphia. I'd say that's enough. People have a right to call out the bullshit. Because most of what intellectuals say is bullshit. Human knowledge is limited. intellectuals have failed to exercise basic humility. The bill is now due and those institutions need to dissappear (unis, newspapers etc) so something new can rise.
- dontcarethrow2 6y ago
  I agree with your observations except the anti-intellectual movements. Those are grassroot, obviously allows us to believe anyone to be the boogeyman. I really struggle with the perspective of 'The Russians are out to get us and enslave the world(forever that is their goal) so buy our guns and install our defense systems. Economy machine go brrrrr'.
jnurmine 6y ago
Are you familiar with Jem Bendell's "Deep Adaptation"? Its premise is that near-term (climate-induced) ecological-societal collapse is inevitable and unavoidable, and the way forward is to adapt to this, as there is no longer a way to mitigate it.
- daveslash 6y ago
  No, I'm not familiar. I'll look it up. Thank you.

gdubs 6y ago

The US defense department has been saying basically this for over a decade in fact.

paulmd 6y ago

our inability to deal with the climate collapse is only a second-order effect, we are completely unable to deal with anything right now. If it wasn't the climate crisis, and if it wasn't the pandemic, it would be something else. Our political system is far too polarized and far too plagued by anti-intellectualism, it simply can't respond to anything. Russia and conservative media (murdoch media, etc) seeding regressive/anti-intellectual movements has been massively successful, western society is just completely unprepared to deal with freedom of speech being leveraged to spew an unending firehose of bullshit, it's a "copyleft" style trojan approach of using our own democratic values against us. The firehose of bullshit has led to the rise of anti-intellectual movements, an anti-intellectual president, and a party that just votes absolutely lockstep with him no matter what he does. They don't give a shit about absolutely anything, not fires or hurricanes or plagues, and just let all these problems fester. It has a lot of other negative effects too of course, but we have reached the point where we simply can't respond even to acute crises anymore, our system has long-since lost its higher functioning in terms of setting goals and being able to execute them (what you'd call "self-actualization" in maslow's hierachy) and now is struggling even to maintain basic homeostasis (the "physical needs" tier of the maslow hierarchy). (I include Brexit, Bolsanaro, Duarte, etc in this as well - western democracy is in deep fucking shit worldwide and if we don’t get our shit together and deal with the firehose of falsehoods we will be supplanted by more authoritarian forms of government that don’t suffer this vulnerability because they don’t tolerate free speech and dissent.) It is also super depressing to know that even with everything that's gone on, less than 5% of america has even changed its mind. Even with the plague, even with the fires, even with civil unrest and mass arrests, even as the post office is dismantled and we lose the ability even to get a fucking package on time, 40% of america will go in the booth and pull the lever for more of this. It goes beyond just "doesn't affect me, who cares", or "that's 20 years from now me's problem", this has all affected everyone, now, today, and people still want more as long as they get to own the libs. It's maddening.

IG_Semmelweiss 6y ago
Anti intellectualism has a root cause. Intellectuals have led us to credit crisis. But "Nobody saw it coming!" Is not a response. Remember that statement? Intellectuals have led us to forever wars everywhere. Intellectuals have overseen the collapse of the family unit in the last 70 years Intellectuals old us in the 90s that the polar caps would melt in....2020 Intellectuals have led us to a permanent underclass of people in cities like detroit, chicago, NY and Philadelphia. I'd say that's enough. People have a right to call out the bullshit. Because most of what intellectuals say is bullshit. Human knowledge is limited. intellectuals have failed to exercise basic humility. The bill is now due and those institutions need to dissappear (unis, newspapers etc) so something new can rise.
dontcarethrow2 6y ago
I agree with your observations except the anti-intellectual movements. Those are grassroot, obviously allows us to believe anyone to be the boogeyman. I really struggle with the perspective of 'The Russians are out to get us and enslave the world(forever that is their goal) so buy our guns and install our defense systems. Economy machine go brrrrr'.

jnurmine 6y ago

Are you familiar with Jem Bendell's "Deep Adaptation"? Its premise is that near-term (climate-induced) ecological-societal collapse is inevitable and unavoidable, and the way forward is to adapt to this, as there is no longer a way to mitigate it.

daveslash 6y ago
No, I'm not familiar. I'll look it up. Thank you.