A user’s guide to economic, political, social and cultural collapse. In the face of political impotence, resource depletion, and catastrophic climate change, many of us have become reconciled to an uncertain future. However, popular perception of how this future might actually unfold varies wildly from “a severe and prolonged recession,” to James Howard Kunstler’s “long emergency,” to the complete breakdown of civilization. In The Five Stages of Collapse , Dmitry Orlov posits a taxonomy of collapse,
For those of us living in the economically developed countries of the world, our relationship to commerce is one of abject dependence. In order to procure food, clothing, housing or medical care—or just about everything else—we are forced to deal, not directly with farmers, tailors, cobblers, builders or doctors, but with middlemen who produce nothing and only add expense. In the process of erecting this elaborate commercialized, financialized structure we have lost sight of what it means to trade, which is to offer services or create objects of value and offer them in exchange to other service providers or producers of objects of value. This definition excludes those who make money simply by moving it from pocket to pocket.
This is by no means a new idea, nor is it the least bit radical; it is deeply conservative and highly traditional. It was Aristotle who first defined the economy as the exchange of goods and services for money, commerce as a parasite on the economy (where those who create nothing extract a share by trading) and finance a parasite on commerce (which extracts a share by switching money from hand to hand—a parasite on a parasite). A typical US politician, such as the president, who counts financial companies such as Goldman Sachs among his top campaign donors, could be characterized as a parasite on a parasite on a parasite—a worm infesting the gut of a tick that is sucking blood from a vampire bat, if you like.
[W]e are by no means at the end of the crisis that started in 2008. The bailouts have become a structural feature of global finance. The system is no longer self-stabilizing. Its sustained existence requires a continuous, concerted intervention: bailouts, “quantitative easing,” “liquidity injections” and so on-all euphemisms for printing money and handing it out to insolvent financial institutions to allow them to continue functioning. Left to its own devices, the financial system would collapse instantly. Nor are these interventions sustainable: the position of the governments that are continually backstopping and papering over the losses in the financial system becomes more and more untenable every time they step in. Although at present the United States is still able to borrow at record low rates, this is not because its debt is any more repayable than Greek or Spanish debt; it is because the markets think that it will be last to default; the United States has been described as “the best-looking horse at the glue factory.” It is the place where big money goes to die. With the US Federal Reserve now committed to endless money-printing and financial asset-buying, the prospects for the US dollar grow dim, and since it is still the reserve currency throughout much of the world, with it grow dim the prospects of other paper currencies around the world.
[O]nce an individual rises above the crowd and becomes its democratically elected representative, a chasm opens up, and the individual becomes very easily corrupted and swayed by moneyed interests. Elected officials soon form a class separate from the classes they represent, and the only force that can constrain them, and those who curry favor with them, is the popular will, expressed preferably through direct democracy or, failing that, open revolt. Another option, and the only one left if democracy does not exist or has been completely discredited, is some sort of enlightened despotism or benevolent dictatorship. Even a putsch that installs a military junta can be viewed as a positive development once a representative democracy becomes so utterly corrupt as to threaten the life of the population.
As the formerly developed nations deteriorate thanks to economic stagnation, aging populations and a host of other problems, the locals are often slow to recognize just how far they have fallen. While they wait for better times to return, immigrants and migrant workers flood in from the formerly developing countries, which are plagued with a host of problems of their own, such as overpopulation, soil erosion and economic disruption caused by rapid climate change, and take whatever jobs are available, be it swabbing out toilets in offices or washing dishes. An uncomfortable standoff results. The host nations find that they can no longer function without imported labor, and, consequently, cannot withhold social benefits from the foreigners either, especially not from their locally-born children. They then start making a half-hearted effort to integrate the newcomers into the nation-state. Meanwhile, the refugees and immigrants often choose to make a virtue of transience, understanding full well that jobs can move at any time and that they will have to move with them, and so they develop an internal rhetoric of self-exclusion—a system of values that undermines both local society and the state. It is, by all appearances, a no-win situation: half-hearted, even resentful efforts to make room by one side, greeted with indifference toward something that is perceived as makeshift and temporary by the other.
There is a danger that the long road from oral culture to written culture to digital culture will end with groups of humans helplessly clutching their dead smartphones, no longer knowing where they are, who anyone is or even where to have lunch. They have learned to cope with beingbombarded with millions of bits of information every day, much of it meaningless or irrelevant, but remembering almost none of it, because, you see, there was no need: the information was always at their fingertips.
I had Desperado back at the garage yesterday to get the electric step motor and controller replaced. I had the replacements shipped to the garage’s PO Box and the tracking claimed that it had been delivered but no one had gone to pick it up so cooled my heels for an added half hour until the PO opened. Then waited for the mechanic to go get it. The work finally began around 10:00 on what was scheduled to be an 8:00 appointment. They did get everything installed by noon but it didn’t work, the wiring was different. But I remembered reading about that and was able to find the wiring diagram for the replacement unit and everything was working by 12:15. I’m not sure how much longer they would have been using trial and error to get the wiring right.
The only other thing of note that has happened in my life was the receipt of tamales that I ordered online from Delia’s. They are rather small but just the right size for what I had in mind. If they were the ‘normal’ size I was planning of eating only half of one at each meal. I probably will not order from her again; not because of tamale quality but shipping. It was not the shipping cost, which was very high, but all the ice had melted by the time I received the package. The tamales were still frozen but I had specifically included a note that asked for a tracking number for the shipment which was not provided. The shipment was probably from McAllen, TX, where most of her restaurants are located, or maybe San Antonio, TX where there is one location. That made for a rather long shipping distance during the heat of the summer. I think I will order online again but have found a provider that is closer and cheaper that I will give a try in October/November. It is interesting that most of the online providers that I have found are located in Texas.