I finished reading Jim Kunstler’s new novel A History of the Future this weekend. I was fortunate enough to get an advance copy from Jim before it is available to the public. It was a doomily enjoyable read. It’s 336 pages long and tells a fascinating story of the future. It’s his third novel in the Made By Hand series. When you run a blog about the various unsustainable economic, social, energy, and resource dynamics in our world it can become quite theoretical and not readily applicable to your every day life. Kunstler is a fantastic writer and he is able to meld the issues we talk about every day on TBP into a personal tale set sometime around 2040 in the small village of Unionville, NY. He essentially documents a week in the lives of those who survived the collapse of our modern civilization. It’s a brutish existence for some, but others thrive in the new environment.
The reasons for the collapse are vague, but they involve a war in the Holy Land (fitting this week) in which the U.S. is drawn into. Evidently nuclear bombs destroy Washington DC and Los Angeles. The supply chain breaks down rapidly. The city dwellers die off rapidly. Only those smart enough to get out into rural areas survive. All levels of government collapse. The country breaks up into pieces, with a southern white republic, a southern black republic, and the remnants of the Federal government centered around the Great Lakes. The story is compelling and believable. It helps you understand the fragility of our existing economic, political and commercial structure. The dialogue below between two of the more successful characters in the novel captures the essence of our future versus the present:
“In the old times, at the airline, I had a lot of employees. But they got good wages, benefits. The corporate structure took care of it all. Now, it’s gotten all personal. There’s no human resources office doing payroll. I’m basically cash poor. I’ve got the house and the furnishings and the operations, and my animals, but that’s all sunk costs, a lot of it paid for when there was still paper money circulating. Now, we don’t have enough hard silver revenue coming in to pay these people properly in the old sense of money wages. They know it, I know it, but it is what it is. They get some coin and most of their food and some goods. Also on the plus side for them, there’s no taxes these days and no mortgage payments, no car payments, no gasoline to pay for day in and day out. I like to think that the benefits balance out for us and them. But it’s a different social structure now, real different, and I imagine over time the lines between us will just grow sharper, and that’s troubling. We couldn’t run our household without help now, with the electric down, no machines, no vacuum cleaner, no washer and dryer. Now everything has to be done by hand. In the old times, we had a housekeeper who came every other day. It was enough. Everything seemed to run itself. Now it seems we need all these….servants. I’m uneasy with it.”
“When things ran on automatic, a lot of people had no jobs and no purpose.” Andrew said. “People need a place and a purpose. We have an obligation to provide that now. It’s probably the best we can do.”
“The way things are going, this won’t be a democracy anymore.” Andrew had to laugh. “Democracy?” he said. “We don’t even have a government as far as I know.”
“Pretty soon, those of us with property that’s been maintained and improved and kept productive will have to go the way of Bullock does – straight up feudal. This thing of ours is going Middle Ages.”
After reading the novel you will come away with an appreciation for self sufficiency, the ability to grow and raise your own food, courage and fortitude in the face of adversity, the importance of personal relationships, the crucial necessity of being close to water sources, the need for hard currency as opposed to fiat, community cooperation, and the character and integrity of people. Only the strong and prepared will survive in the future that is our destiny. Put down the iGadgets. Learn farming skills. Learn to use a gun. Accumulate silver and gold as your resources allow. If possible, relocate to a rural area near water resources. Stop playing their game. Seek out like minded people.
The history of our future will be simpler, harder and for some – more satisfying. For those captured by the delusions of modernity, the end will be swift and brutal.
I enjoyed the book immensely. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a realistic picture into the not too distant future.
Looking forward to reading it.
“on the plus side for them, there’s no taxes these days and no mortgage payments, no car payments, no gasoline to pay for day in and day out.”
“Democracy?” he said. “We don’t even have a government as far as I know.”
Sounds like paradise to me. I’m sick and tired of working and paying for 20 million useless union government drones, the 100 million FSA, obese people on food stamps, that have abused and destroyed their health and expect somebody else to pay. Nobody takes any personal responsibility for their actions anymore, everyone is entitled, the disability scammers. The criminals in Washington, the government is our enemy, fascists, tyranny, an outright danger to our lives and freedom.
This was a great country once, and it can be again. But before that can happen, there has to be a major catastrophic reset, and it is coming. I hope all on TBP have prepared for what is coming; you’ve certainly had ample time. I look forward to taking this country back from Obama and his psychopathic minions. Good will prevail, truth, spirit, count on it, and be ready for anything!
AWD & Eddie
Good news. Doctors and dentists are still in demand after the collapse.
Bad news. You no longer have hot nurses and assistants to help out.
AWD – you should brush up on leech therapy.
Make no mistake, the shitstorm to end all shitstorms is coming. BC-LR to all
Leechs are good, as are maggots. Eat dead tissue. I have a guest house, which I’m turning into a triage clinic after SHTF. Will trade medical services for food etc. Have some meds and supplies stockpiled, and I won’t have to fight government regulations and the socialist state of Illinois never paying their bills.
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A nuclear attack on LA & DC would be tragic. Take NYC & San Fran, too, and we got a deal. Just kidding.
I think JHK is a little optimistic with regards to post-apocalypse dentistry. My guess is that dentistry will mostly be what used to be called “cold steel and sunshine.”
I am stockpiling lidocaine, the pure powder. The stuff you can get through channels has a shelf life of a year, maybe two if you’re lucky.
I’ve been following the “World Mady by Hand” series since the first novel caught my eye.
Kunstler tends to take pot-shots at capitalism or anyone trying to improve society at large. The guy who ramrods the crew that scavenges materials to keep things going (nuts, bolts, screws, rivets, raw materials, etc) both him and his crew are portrayed as murdering thugs. While folks are more than happy to crab and badmouth this bunch – while still doing business with them, instead of teaming up and giving the murdering thugs some competition – is very telling.
The biggest landowner – Mr. Bullock – owns about 3000 acres. He employs (is that the right word?) loads of people and has the vision to keep things going. Animal breeding – especially horses. No more fuel means no cars, which means you either ride a horse or utilize shank’s mare (walking). A small hydroelectric plant for his property. He is an established trader, having built a fairly elaborate dock down on the river where his property extends. He sends boats laden with trade goods – most of which he has produced on his own property – both up- and down-river.
Thing is, Bullock has the resources and the strength of will to make things happen. But everyone else is moping around and bitching about how good Bullock has, or trying to hang on by their fingernails. Somehow, it’s easier to just bash Bullock as an egotistical, opportunistic asshole rather than giving the guy some competition.
Except for Bullock and the murdering thug assholes, nobody in Unionville seems motivated to do a damn thing, other than scrape by and bemoan their lot in life. The only people (other than Bullock and the thugs) who actually try to accomplish anything are a bunch of weirdo Fundie out of towners who are from Virginia.
I found myself sympathizing with Bullock. If these useless douchebags, who are so damn hung up on deeds and titles and all sorts of minutiae from the Old World, they’re willing to allow themselves to be hamstrung into paralysis, then I side with the guy making shit happen.
See, because everything was digital, when the power went, unless it was actually written down somewhere, nobody can “legally” claim ownership of any land that is vacant. They don’t seem to understand that if the ‘rightful’ owners are not there, and haven’t been there for years, then THEY AIN’T COMING BACK. They’re probably deader’n shit.
Which means even though they COULD get off their asses and actually DO something with this abandoned land – another hydroelectric plant, growing crops, raising cattle, a tannery, a small munitions plant (since bullets are rare to nonexistent), ANYTHING to help advance their dying society – they won’t because the douchebags-in-charge won’t declare anyone Missing, Presumed Deceased. On one hand they say “there ain’t no government” but then wait around for “the government” to come back around and make decisions for them re: the disposition of the only resource that matters anymore… LAND.
Derp. Give me a guy like Bullock anyday over these whiney, do-nothing bitches…
shit… MADE by hand… dammit… wasn’t wearing my glasses….
derp.
I hear too that once done, leeches are also a good source of high quality protein for your smoothies.
But seriously, the problems facing the US today faces, ALL countries with a central bank, which issues that countries currency by creating the money out of thin air and then, loaning it to said country at interest.
The American CONSTITUTION forbids anyone but the government from issuing the countries currency. And yet, several times, the US has had a central bank. Lincoln fought that with the issuance of the Greenback. He was assassinated.
JFK, with Executive Order 11110, established and printed a US DOLLAR, (not a Federal Reserve NOTE) that was fully backed by silver. The aim was to squeeze out the phony, Fed NOTE backed by nothing and eventual abolition of the Fed, which is no more federal that Federal Express and has no reserves. HE was assassinated.
The last time a central bank was successfully abolished was by Andrew Jackson, a DEMOCRAT and during his administration, the US enjoyed one of its most prosperous periods. He ALSO had an assassination attempt on his life but both pistols the assassin used mis-fired.
This is an animated feature but get past that, it contains the real skinny on why America is collapsing.
Since Kennedy was murdered for fighting the “moneychangers” no politician, with the exception of Dr. Ron Paul has resisted the banksters who are REALLY running things.
pietro
1. Lincoln was a piece of tyrannical shit and was loathed and reviled by both the North and South. That you insinuate he was skragged by the banksters is ludicrous, since we didn’t have a central bank after Andy Jackson until Woodrow Wilson in 1913.
2. Andy Jackson was a Democrat… back when the term “Democrat” wasn’t a pejorative and Republicans and Democrats were polar opposites of what we have today. Being a “Democrat” in Andy Jackson’s time was the equivalent of being a Republican today…
3. JFK was skragged. By whom and why? Yeah, well pick a conspiracy. I will say the least insane conspiracy would be “The banksters did it”… but to try and TENUOUSLY link Jackson, Lincoln and JFK together with the insinuation that a banking cabal had them skragged, or tried to have them skragged, is just… well, it’s fucking retarded.
I too love Kunstler’s writing and can’t wait for this next fiction book of his. That said, it is fiction, and well, his opinion of what the near future could look like. In many respects I agree with him but he’s just one opinion in the post apocalyptic fiction genre. In the 80’s Whitley Streiber penned War Day which was another, in my opinion, more realistic tale of post apocalypse, although the premise was different back then – a larger scale nuclear confrontation.
Kustler adds a little too much quirky supernatural to his stories for me to take him too seriously. Good read for sure but I think it devalues the overall message he’s trying to sell. I also think he’s overly optimistic in some areas and a little too pessimistic in others. I agree that we’re not looking forward to a techno-fantasy future that Hollywood used to portray but the quaint small town life also seems a little too idealistic.
The world he portrays is far from quaint. It is violent, filthy, unfair, and makes the 30 Blocks of Squalor seem quaint.
I like JHK. I also liked Streiber and Kunetka’s WarDay and Nature’s End. Their travelogues were great reading. Now that they’re pissing all over The Last Ship 30 years after it was written, look that book up-awesome story of a ship surviving a nuclear war and looking for a home.
Quaint might not be the right word but you have to admit that the townsfolk do live a relatively peaceful existence all things considered. Almost like life reverted to 19th century living in a vacuum. Sure, there are small glimpses of a more violent outside world and some of it seeps inside but overall Unionville seems like a well functioning town.
Gilbert – The Last Ship is a good read but I take issue with the American’s and Soviets teaming up after a nuclear holocaust. Think 1980’s sentiment here, but I highly doubt either side is going to become friends even if they are the last people on the planet.
I take similar issue with Kunstler’s stories as people do hold grudges even when it makes no sense anymore. Post-collapse people aren’t going to suddenly be friends with their pre-collapse enemy just because everyone lost everything and all is reset. No – they are going to still resent, hold grudges, etc., its human nature.
In a bank right and the power is off .Can not get any money .ATM is not working .People are acting strange .AT least my smart phone is working. Hope I get out of here alive.Pray for me.
Is the electricity cut off across the entire U.S. in this novel? If that happened for real, what about the nuke plants and the meltdowns that would result?
Didn’t know about the Streiber book, War Day. I’ll check that one out. I read his “Communion”.
Try these:
“Last Light” Alex Scarow (oil scarcity)
“Ridley Walker” Russell Hoban (post nuclear world)
“One Second After” (EMP attack)
“The Road” (cause of apocalypse unknown)
“Book of Eli” (movie)
“The Road” (movie)
“Revolution” (TV series)
“The Trigger Effect” (movie)
Trying to get through “The Windup Girl” now…
The only electricity is generated with hydro-power near the source.
No discussion about nuke plant meltdowns.
That is an excellent point.
The problem with all the nukes melting down…or climate change of real magnitude, is that they are basically extinction events.
JHK knows that, probably better than most people, but it doesn’t make a good book. No happy endings. Not even any equivocal endings. Just death, followed by more death. I doubt I’d read a book that was completely honest about human chances in that kind of collapse. Give me a little hopium to hold on to.
Yeah, that makes sense, Eddie. Amazing to me how few people know of the dangers from Fukushima. That it’s still an ongoing catastrophic event.
Funny, the only real worry I have about what’s coming down the pike is the nuke plants. No paid workers, meltdown. That’s the way it will play out no matter what anyone hopes for.
The things that really make life worth living that can’t be ‘made by hand’ are general anesthesia, modern dentistry, toilet paper, 800 count bed linens, incandescent light bulbs, and the Internet.
Otherwise I’m trying to go full Bullock in my neck of the woods.
Maybe I ought to start a school for back to the real world type experiences.
I do believe I should receive royalties from the book. I have been around longer than his book has.
After kunstler’s piece on israel earlier, I can imagine who he views at the top of the pyramid in feudalism. Hint: It ain’t the quakers.
The problem with all the nukes melting down…or climate change of real magnitude, is that they are basically extinction events. – Eddie
Oh?
Not saying that a nuclear plant melting down wouldn’t be a catastrophe, but remember Chernobyl? They evacuated the whole region. Film crew went back a little ways back… maybe a year or two ago. History channel had something about it on…
Trees grown back, grass grown back, flowers, birds, wildlife apparently flourishing. They made it a point to say that some elk or deer that has been hunted out everywhere else in Europe is doing just dandy in the evacuated zone…
Fact is, we can set off every nuke we have. Let every nuke plant go China Syndrome. Blow the shit out of everything… It might take a couple hundred thousand/million years or two, but life will come back. It won’t look anything like what it does now, but it will come back. And this old mudball will keep on spinning…
Folks who usually mew about “save the world” should at least be honest… they don’t give a crap about “the world”… when they say “save the world”, what they really mean is “Save US”…
Billy, lighten up. PP makes a good point. Just because you don’t see it, or are paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
Good job, pietro, couldn’t have said it better myself, kudos for getting it right!
The nuke plant remark got me thinking… an interesting thought experiment. Well, I thought it was interesting anyways…
Now, I’m no nuclear engineer. Not even close. But the big problem is that if you leave a nuke plant alone long enough, it will run out of cooling water and go into meltdown, yes?
So.. if you hardened a nuke plant against an EMP, it will still generate power for itself.
That means if you had an on-site supply of water – say, a series of deep wells drilled with dedicated pumps that are also protected, then if the plant were left alone, you could program the system to stage down into a holding pattern. Make just enough power to keep the computers and pumps running and prevent meltdown…
I wonder how long a nuke plant could stay that way? I mean, as long as the generators held out and you built redundancy into the system…
Also, why not collect up the coolant water that evaporates off, condense it back to a liquid and put it back into the system to keep the rods cool? Closed system and you wouldn’t need any wells or pumps or anything…
Anyone with any experience with this subject, I’d love to hear from you…
Billy, they already have closed systems, it’s called the nuclear navy.
The problem isn’t the technology, it’s the management of it. TEPCO being a prime example.
Our power grid is vulnerable, and US infrastructure is rotting and decaying. Power companies won’t pay for the frills you’re describing. State governments can’t even agree with what to do with the waste.
Bottom line, it would cost money no one is willing to pay for.
Also, Fukashima could become an extinction event. Start Page is your friend.
old cartoon about a man being hanged, the sheriff says, look at it this way, you won’t have to worry about the cost of living anymore.
Twenty thousand tons of concrete and lead to cap off the Chernobyl reactor. No sure how much that cost, but it wasn’t cheap. The sarcophagus is estimated to last 100 years. The half life of plutonium 239? That’d be 24,000 years. It isn’t done. It won’t ever be done.
I wouldn’t look for that kind of effort to be available anyway to cope with with any meltdown associated with grid power loss..here or elsewhere.
And depending on who you read, the area around Chernobyl won’t be inhabitable by humans for somewhere between 600 and 20,000 years.If they keep it covered up properly. Pick your authority.
With over 100 nuclear reactors operating in 31 states, the results of permanent grid power loss resulting in 100+ meltdowns would be far more catastrophic than Chernobyl. One tiny particle of Cesium 137 will cause a fatal cancer.
The main way radiation affects populations is that it causes thyroid cancer, especially in kids, and also lots of fetuses are defective. Lots of infant mortality.
Will failure of all our nuke plants be an extinction event? Perhaps not right away. But some people do think it has the potential to kill most of the people on the planet, over time.
Wanna do a simulation for a Fukushima in your neighborhood? If you’re on the East coast you can bend way over and kiss your ass goodbye if they all melt down.
http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/fallout/
Non,
Apparently, you misunderstand.
I know jack shit about nuclear power plants, except only the most rudimentary things.
Rods stuck in pile. Pile heats up. Heat makes steam. Steam turns turbine. Turbine makes power. Water keeps pile from overheating and melting.
That’s pretty much it. To me, keeping the nuke plants from doing a 3 Mile Island means:
Keep the power flowing.
Keep the water flowing.
If nobody is there to run things, then the plants should be able to go into a holding pattern on their own indefinitely until someone unfucks themselves enough to fix the problem..
I dunno.. maybe I’m oversimplifying it.
But, like I said, it’s just a thought experiment.
Hey Eddie…
I went to that site and typed in my zip code.
We’re good to go. Really. Had to zoom out three times to even find a fallout zone, and the nearest one was near Nashville…
If you take a look at the map, see how the nuke plants make a big circle? We’re pretty much dead center in that clear zone.
Soooo, GO COAL POWER!!! WAHH-HOOO!
I just finished listening to Gone with the Wind on audiobook. It is really an appropriate book for what’s coming.
When they first came to this country, my family first settled in Saratoga Springs, Jim’s old hometown. Many are still there. It’s a nice main street town, with most importantly, lots of great water. I’d put that town above many others to move to.
Grease the generator Billy, water has been on Earth long before humanity, and its the bearings on the pumps and other equipment that will fail before the water diminishes or the fusionable means fail.
Tell me, how long do rubber seals, or bearings, last when compared to the half-life or uranium?
*of* not or
Fukishima failed because the pumps, electrical failure, could not pump coolant.
Why Fukushima did not not use the power it created to run those circulating pumps is just bizzare.
Anon,
See, that’s the question I’ve been mulling over…
If power and water were not an issue, how long could the plant maintain itself in a holding pattern given the maintenance requirements of the generators? Then, is there a backup generator? How long will that last? Battery power?
I know it’s not going to be the half life of whatever radioactive isotope they’re using to generate heat. That didn’t even enter into my thoughts. I asked if the plant could maintain itself long enough for someone to fix the problem…
If you design a generator correctly (this could be applied to anything, really) – for durability and longevity rather than maximum output with high maintenance requirements – it could last a very long time. Battery bank that the system can use, only using the generator to charge up the battery bank. That would extend it’s life considerably…
As an example, think of a well-designed diesel engine. I know guys with old trucks that have hundreds of thousands of miles on them – one over 1/2 million miles – and the same engine is chugging along, happy as a clam. Now, I know he’s maintained that engine from time to time. Made repairs, etc. But the point is, if you design something to last and work no matter what, and not for high performance, then that something tends to last a very, very long time. Like the old Land Rover 4 cylinder diesel engines. The HP output is downright puny. But they keep on going and going, despite every effort to kill them.. Or that guy in Russia (this just reminded me of him). He runs a train. An old steamer. German built before the war and pressed into service, then captured by the Russians. Despite the fact that it was made in the 1930’s, and a complete lack of spare parts, this train is still working, still running and doing it’s job. It’s probably a Kriegslok 2-10-0, but there’s also one small steamer, a 0-10-0, that was purchased in the early 1930’s for electrification… it’s still there, still running…
Sorry.. got to rambling… thoughts?
Sure, why don’t you build one? Again, the problem isn’t capability, it’s management. Too many human factors play in. If it isn’t cost, it’s quality, and time. No one could afford the energy you would produce from your plant.
I used to work in a nuclear power plant as an armed security officer. It was a fascinating job and I learned a lot about the plant. They’re constructed with multiple redundancies to ensure they don’t fail, Fukushima and Chernobyl aside. They are supposed to be able to shut down automatically in case of accident or the unexpected. They’re also built to last forever. The reactor auxillary building, so I was told, was engineered to withstand an impact from an airliner (they were thinking ahead!). If the juice runs out, they can not function for very long on their own. My plant had 2 massive emergency diesel generators to support operations-they need outside power coming in to run some functions. If they had no off-site power and they ran out of diesel fuel, the reactor would not be able to run.
I found it exciting to be a part of the place and to go where the public doesn’t get to go, but it was a scary place for me because as far as I’m concerned, radiation is like “concentrated evil, don’t touch it!”
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For instance, my electronic dosimeter once malfunctioned in a space deep inside the reactor auxillary building and started beeping and flashing. The reading on the screen started jumping from 0.01mrem up to 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25… I almost wet my pants, but it turned out it was just a malfunction. I kind of intended to not to get cancer or grow a second head on my shoulders, so events like this tended to freak me out.
Like the time I had a hot particle stuck to my boot. I got into the whole body scanner, it alarmed on my right boot, I grabbed the hand-held scanner and the particle pegged the meter to the right, so I called for health physics. The guy who came was so relaxed, he hardly bat an eye when I told him what was going on and showed him the scanner. I had visions of my boot ending up in a toxic waste plant for 10,000 years and my foot turning green and falling off… He told me I must have picked up a hot particle in the plant, but not to worry. All he did was to squirt some “nuclear windex” spray on my boot, dab it with some paper towels, stick some ducktape on it, throw the trash in a contaminated waste can, and re-scan the boot. It was clean. I couldn’t believe it was that simple to deal with. I always took care to keep away from the hot shit, but some of my coworkers weren’t as careful.
One time, I was stuck in the contaminated area for a few hours guarding the airlock into the reactor containment. I was guarding the entrance into the hot work area, while my coworker, a redneck girl from Pennsyltucky, was at the airlock. She was fairly lazy, so she spent most of her shift sitting in a metal folding chair she found right in front of a 55 gallon drum spraypainted purple. Purple is the color for contaminated stuff. The barrel was full of hot tools from the reactor and she absorbed a nice dose.
Another time, I heard about a guy who was too lazy to outprocess through the scanners to take a leak, so he just opened up a random hatch on a plastic barrel and pissed in it. What he didn’t know was he had just pissed into a barrel of contaminated borax solution, which turned his junk smokin’ hot, earning himself a very embarrassing, very invasive visit with the health physics people and a visit to the showers. I also heard about a girl with a rather large rack who somehow managed to get it contaminated in the plant. I’m not sure what she was doing to get her chest rubbed into hot stuff, but they ended up having to take her to the showers, too.
We didn’t have the market cornered on idiots. I heard about another plant down in Wilmington, NC where the guards got in trouble for passing bullfrogs through their baggage X-ray scanner, then got the bright idea to X-ray themselves
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It was a fascinating place to be, but I was happy to move on to less hazardous places.
In the unfortunate instance of an EMP event, it’s quite likely that the generators would never even switch on, because their switches will be fried. But assuming they do turn on, and they have plenty of fuel, the NRC specs call for systems that will run for about a month without humans doing anything much, from what I gather.
On a longer horizon, a good generator might run 1500 hours before it needed to be shut down for a major maintenance. If routine maintenance is kept up, then you have a useful life of maybe 50,000 hours max, Nuke plants have a battery back-up to back up the generators. They’re good for maybe 24 hours. Once again, in an EMP event they would be toast if not shielded. My guess is that they use lead-acid batteries. Life of maybe ten years max, whether you use them or not.
Obviously, the way things were designed, some good engineers and maintenance mechanics have to be on site all the time. If the paychecks stop, that isn’t likely to be the case forever.
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Oh, another cool thing-I used to go into the fuel rod storage area. They had these massive pools full of borax and water for storing the fuel rod assemblies. They looked like swimming pools, aside from all the equipment and cranes and whatnot. One of the rods was fresh out of the reactor. It glowed purple, filling the pool with a nice, festive glow. That was really wild to see.
Good thing Kennedy signed that executive order that lets the govt take you and force you to work during a crisis wherever they need you…
I wonder what effect an EMP would have, considering much of the equipment is old analog gear and many of the vital systems are sitting behind massive poured concrete and rebar structures?
Kunstler is an excellent writer, for sure. I actually enjoy a lot of his stuff.
But, I don’t like him (quick! Hit that down vote button!!!) so it’s highly unlikely I’ll read his book.
I find it difficult to respect a guy who voted for Obama, twice. In 2010 he wrote — “If the Republicans keep going this way, they’ll end up with something worse than Naziism: a party that hates everything but believes in absolutely nothing.” First, “hating everything” sounds exactly like himself! Second, he’s a two-party believer; “well the Republicans suck ass, so I’ll vote Democrat”. I have little use for such a person.
Yes, he can take a phrase, or even a single word, and turn it into a work of art … and funny, as well. He’s like John The Baptist crying in the wilderness, “REPENT! Jeebus is coming!!”. Nice. Interesting. Lots of warnings ….. few solutions. Is he even interested in solutions?
I doubt it. He’s a provocateur . A Showman …. as is the barker in a Ringley Brother’s Circus, only his “stage” is the whole world. For all his articles about truth-telling, even he knows that’s not what butters his bread. He wrote — “an audience doesn’t hunger for the truth so much as authenticity. They know the truth can be slippery.”
So, he tells entertaining stories to titillate. He wrote this in “Home from Nowhere”;
“I feel an obligation to paint the landscape of my time, so I often paint the highways with cars on them and even roadside monstrosities like McDonald’s and Kmart. I especially like the contrast between the artificial light of the electric signs and the natural twilight in the background. The result on canvas is oddly beautiful, but of course what’s left out is the roaring traffic and smell of exhaust fumes. A few years ago, I was painting a McDonald’s with my easel set in the bark mulch bed of a Burger King parking lot across the highway. I was well underway when the manager bustled out and barked, “that ain’t allowed here!” I dared him to call the police. I would have loved nothing better than to be arrested for painting.”
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It has earned him millions of dollars. He’s a rich man. And you know what rich people like to do? Tell you how to live YOUR life, even if it contradicts their own lifestyle. And Kunstler is very, very good at that.
A- I get your point, but if you remember the book’s setup, there were no safe places left in the US or USSR, the sub was damaged, and they had no place to go and no one left to report to. It wasn’t unreasonable for them to give up on an unwinnable war. The Russians I met all thought WE were the monsters threatening them, not the other way around. Who knows what might happen?
I thought the part where the ship’s crew land in Africa and see all the dying animals was pretty good.
Anyone read the 299 Days series?
How about the New Madrid Run?
The Rift
The Postman
Eternity Road
After Age
Alas Babylon
One Second After was awesome!
Have you read The Long Emergency? I felt like he stated the problem quite well. You can’t really solve the problem, but he did offer responses and ways to mitigate the disaster while trying to deal with the problem long-term.
I don’t agree with his politics and some of his sarcastic comments. I’ve never understood what he meant by “cornpone nazis,” but he doesn’t seem stupid, which is a big plus.
I can overlook his politics if he still identifies the correct problem and offers a reasonable idea of how to deal with it.
On the other charge… well, it’s a living. I wish people thought my musings were worth millions!
That type of question isn’t easily answered. The typical shielding recommended to prevent damage to electronics is to put them inside a Faraday cage. Metal buildings supposedly offer some protection. Any conventional transmission lines, of which there are millions of miles, would experience the induced current and fry,of that I’m fairly certain. Solar panels would be toast, I’m afraid.
Generators are often housed outdoors. Wasn’t that the case at Fukushima?
Another reason I won’t read the book is because I am reaching Maximum Doom Fatigue.
I read my first doom book in 1969. I recall the date because it was required reading for my 11th grade English class. The book was “Fail Safe” …. a true classic … and still to this day, one of my all time favorites.
And decades & dozens of books later I wonder if it’s even possible to cover new territory. I mean they all mostly follow the same general format;
—– 1) huge disaster is a coming
—– 2) we’re all going to die
—– 3) Oh, shit!!
—– 4) phew! a few survived after all (Ya GOTTA have a happy ending. Otherwise, no one will buy the book.)
“It’s a brutish existence for some, but others thrive in the new environment.”, says Admin. Some thrive?? That’s way to fuckin’ optimistic. “Seven billion must die!” I might read that book.
That being said, I recently saw a very good Doom Porn movie — The Road. No much of a happy ending there. I watched it on Netflix streaming. It’s also a book (haven’t read it).
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I did read One Second After. I liked it, even if Newt did write the preface.
The only other post -apocalypse novel I’ve read in recent years other then JHK’s stuff….The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.
Mostly I read about gardening and alternative power these days.
The Road Great movie! I was glad to finally see a Hollywood flick that didn’t have a happy ending. But damn… you just want to suckstart a .45 after that one. The book wasn’t much happier. I was mixing cyanide koolade for me and the family when I happened to pick up a hilarious comedy off my history bookshelf. I forget what the title was, but it was about the Black Death…
Gil & Stucky..
No shit about “The Road”… last couple scenes in the movie, well… I’ve seen some truly horrifying shit in my life and am largely indifferent to the suffering of others – some suffering I actually root for – “schadenfreude”, you know… busload of people I don’t like goes off a cliff, I’m the guy wondering if the bus was okay..
But those last couple scenes… damn. That shit was hard to watch. Whoever wrote and directed those last couple scenes was a master at pouring battery acid all over your emotions…
One Second was a good read. The Wife is reading it now… she usually calls it quits and turns in at 9PM. Last night she was up till 11PM reading… if a book can hold her attention like that, then it’s a good book.
And thanks Gil, for giving some useful information (unlike the snarky dickheads)…
@ Stucky,
I really detest the Doomer novels that have the “Strong Man vs The World” memes… guy just happens to be an ex-Navy Seal Ninja Chemical Engineer, MD, PhD, with a background in Wildly Rare Infectious Diseases that happens to work for a secret black budget wing of the CDC and has access to all sorts of exotic toys the rest of us poor proles and mundanes have to do without… always has some dumbass name like “Rock Calahan” or some shit like that…
Lucifer’s Hammer is good. I’ve read Matthew Bracken and Archer Garrett.
The preparedness bible is James Rawles’ Patriots. A little dated but it’s best practice.
That’s enough for reading. The rest is beans, bullets, and band-aids. Not to mention, first aid, God.