tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9612609.post3958783225600388968..comments2023-09-29T06:58:20.125-07:00Comments on Badtux the Snarky Penguin: The end gameBadTuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01345749557330760251noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9612609.post-31568114580380286312011-04-28T16:16:39.224-07:002011-04-28T16:16:39.224-07:00Thanks (I guess) for writing what I have been feel...Thanks (I guess) for writing what I have been feeling for a very long time. Chilling yes, but there's an old sci-fi book i read years ago and its title seems appropriate. "Earth Abides".<br /><br />Yeah, I'm a lurker.the cajunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10905358111623645338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9612609.post-76975936170544471512011-04-28T12:10:20.509-07:002011-04-28T12:10:20.509-07:00And what is worrying to the rest of the world is t...And what is worrying to the rest of the world is that your collapsing society is in possession of over 5000 nukes :-(<br /><br />Eunoia<br />PS:_ I've just posted some sarcasm based on your essay and linked to it :-)<br />http://home.egge.net/~savory//blog_apr_11.htm#20110429Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9612609.post-38122592253858504622011-04-28T12:00:47.245-07:002011-04-28T12:00:47.245-07:00Your points 1,2, and 3 collectively represent the ...Your points 1,2, and 3 collectively represent the corrupting power of money. Hence, the media consolidation --> mis/uninformed narcocracy. Hence the broken (aka bought and paid for) political system.<br /><br />Welcome to the new feudalism, courtesy of our trans-national mega corporate overlords.<br /><br />There is no particular reason for a big population decline, though. Population increased quite nicely in first millenium, except for those inconvenient plagues. every century or so.<br /><br />Now, the biggest health threat (remember the AIDS scare of 20 yrs ago - LOL?) is lard accumulation.<br /><br />At least until sea level starts rising, half the country is gripped in endless drought and the other half is blown away by tornadoes.<br /><br />Alas,<br />JzBJazzbumpahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07337490817307473659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9612609.post-87027447031940466932011-04-28T08:27:20.470-07:002011-04-28T08:27:20.470-07:00Bukko, I was making posts on my early proto-blog d...Bukko, I was making posts on my early proto-blog during the *Clinton Administration* sounding the alarm about some of these things. What's new is that I think we passed the point of no return during the Bush Administration. We're past the point where the United States has the intellectual or physical capital to handle the transition to a post-oil society without a mass die-off. We're at the point during the death process where organs start failing, where even things that are clearly and obviously necessary for the health of the body, like schools, start turning off. <br /><br />Regarding making proto-communities, that's all idealistic and all, but doesn't resolve the larger problem that the entire physical infrastructure fights against community. We don't live in communities, we live in isolated houses in isolated neighborhoods where to do anything we jump into a car and drive somewhere else. This will always fight against any attempt at real community. Indeed, this is why the evangelicals have been so easily led... they are isolated from the greater community around them, so are easy prey for their pastors feeding them lies about the greater community around them. They've built a pseudo-community around going to church and participating in church groups and so forth, but that is not the same as living in a real community.<br /><br />Bear -- I've studied the collapse of the Roman empire. The City of Rome had 1,000,000 people in 400AD. It had 20,000 heavily armed survivors huddled in the ruins in 500AD. You do the math.<br /><br />Nans, unfortunately once vital organs start shutting down, death usually comes fairly quickly. Ask Bukko about that, since he's in healthcare. And that's what we're seeing right now in the United States -- vital organs starting to shut down. So I fear that we will see the collapse within our lifetimes. Certainly within yours. Sorry. All I can say is that I've been doing my bit for the past 20 years to try to stave off the collapse, and it wasn't enough, but given the underlying structural issues it would have taken someone who was FDR and Abraham Lincoln combined to be enough, and our political system is no longer functional enough for such people to rise to power. Just another one of those necessary organs in the process of collapse.<br /><br />Jerome, the National Security State in my opinion is a parallel development, a cancer which arose because the corpus was already weakened by the other factors I mentioned. The Great Depression and WW2 combined with the destruction of mass transit in favor of the individual auto laid the groundwork for the post-war turn that happened where suburbanization led to the collapse of a sense of community, which led to things like urban blight and gated "communities" (which aren't, they're prisons for people scared of life, who huddle behind their walls in terror of anybody who doesn't look like them and even in terror of their own neighbors, who they fear are lusting for children's virginity). <br /><br />So it goes. Will post more on this later today, maybe...<br /><br />- Badtux the Apocalyptic PenguinBadTuxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01345749557330760251noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9612609.post-6108496378830239642011-04-28T06:47:50.212-07:002011-04-28T06:47:50.212-07:00TUXXXXXXXX! You sound just like me on this one. Wh...TUXXXXXXXX! You sound just like me on this one. Which is why I read you, for the confirmation bias. You didn't used to be so much this way, wouldn't you say? OTOH, I have become even grimmer during the past seven years too, and I had a bleak outlook on the future to start with. Pessimistic about the Big Picture while optimistic about my own life, of course.<br /><br />The most novel point you make, to me, is the observation about the Xtians. Right you are, sir! The basis of their belief system is delusional, but their social structure has some rational, survival-enhancing elements to it. One of the things that makes me feel better about living here is an organization called "Village Vancouver" which is trying to bring people in various neighbourhoods together who can share skills, tools, food and other resources in a post Peak Oil world. We're creating communities within the city like the Christer example you cite, only without the God BS.<br /><br />FWIW, the Sikhs here are doing what the Christians in the U.S. are. Ditto for the Muslims, I'm sure. You know who's going to be left out? The Chinese, especially the ones who are not religious (many Asian-focused Christian churches here, though) because they don't seem to have a unifying cultural hub the way many other ethnic groups do.Bukko Boomerangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02424677168216647964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9612609.post-24808514295687755502011-04-27T20:05:42.416-07:002011-04-27T20:05:42.416-07:00ahhhh Tux - -
Please stop being such an optimist...ahhhh Tux - - <br />Please stop being such an optimist. It will probably be even uglier than any of us can imagine.bearsensehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12000858896207125033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9612609.post-7527506904685097702011-04-27T10:06:56.156-07:002011-04-27T10:06:56.156-07:00I could not agree with your assessment more.I could not agree with your assessment more.nunyahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08833886980442919570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9612609.post-6942792732891019442011-04-27T06:58:06.436-07:002011-04-27T06:58:06.436-07:00Only a matter of time before the four horsemen rid...Only a matter of time before the four horsemen ride. The trick is to hurry up and die of old age before they come.<br /><br />Boy, I never figured the four horsemen would come covered with corporate logos, like NASCAR drivers... but that's very likely.<br /><br />Some small number of "people" will benefit massively from the destruction and looting of America. But other countries would be ill-advised to accept them as gold-plated refugees: Once it becomes obvious that destroying a country for profit works, they will make a habit of it.Nangleatorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01908938252272172718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9612609.post-41749893984134040882011-04-27T05:34:12.216-07:002011-04-27T05:34:12.216-07:00Badtux, I agree completely, but wouuld say that al...Badtux, I agree completely, but wouuld say that all those systems, especially our political system, started going to the dogs in the aftermath of WWII, with the creation of the National Security State (including the CIA), which put us on a permanent war footing, meaning that the industries which were beating ploughshares into swords for the war effort never took up making ploughshares again, as happened after all previous wars. This permanent war industry and it's military alliances,is the "military-industrial complex" President Eisenhower warned about in his farewll address, and the thing that killed President Kennedy, Dr. King, and Robert Kennedy. And, I think, is still in control, all the way.Jeromehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13859863442071202986noreply@blogger.com