I teeter daily between giving a damn and not giving a damn. Sometimes I wish I could live for a hundred years just to see how it turns out and other days I almost wish it was already over. Many people here and elsewhere talk about no meaningful change coming about until the big crash….reset….SHTF….etc has occurred and run its course. I expect change is coming. BIG change. However, I expect it will be very chaotic and dangerous and not at all what we envision.
The part I have a hard time getting my head around is what comes after. I once read and posted here a very long interview with the founder of Mother Earth News magazine. (now deceased) In it, he told a tale that he had read in a book published in the 40’s or 50’s I think, that credited the end of the Dark Ages to the discovery of the New World. That in turn led to all sorts of western expansion, the founding of the USA, the Industrial Revolution and pretty much everything we take for granted today.
Prior to that, during the Dark Ages, all of the knowledge, power, money, wealth, land and resources were consolidated into the hands of a relative few aristocrats. Times then were not too unlike the times we find ourselves in now I suspect.
The discovery of new frontiers and resources propelled humans out of the stagnant squalor of those times. Those who were willing and able left the Old World behind and sought fame and fortune on two new continents where they discovered and profited from every kind of resource imaginable. They and millions like them built lives, stores, factories, railroads and entirely new industries. It was the greatest expansion of human endeavor in the history of the world. Then, the old aristocrats, oligarchs and a few new PTB followed and gradually bought up all of the important land and resources after the dangerous, difficult and menial work was complete and once again consolidated this vast wealth into a small number of hands.
I tend to believe we are headed for a new Dark Age or The Great Regression as I like to call it. A big change is coming like we all expect but after the dust settles and the smoke clears, the things that have fueled this and every other expansion of human kind will already be owned by the haves and the rest of us, the have nots, will be left to mill around in squalor and misery like the unfortunate souls of the first Dark Age. Trouble is, there are damn few New Frontiers to lift the world out of The Great Regression.
It seems to me that we are witnessing the grand finale of world wide wealth and resource consolidation quaintly referred to as the New World Order where there will be nothing but fat fuck owners and sheep.
Our choices going forward seem rather limited. Become a fat fuck owner (unlikely), secure yourself some knee pads and a position where you essentially blow the owners or become one of their enforcers or, be a sheep. Naturally there are a range of options within each choice. Many of us here talk about securing our future positions in the coming paradigm. NicklethroweR talks of joining the ranks of the “haves”. I’ve mentioned that to be at the top level of sheep, which is where my best hope lies, one should own land. Even that does not mean much. The trouble with being a low level owner or high level sheep is that there is always someone above you scheming to take your shit not to mention the scum below who are looking to take anything they can get. Most talk about just keeping their heads down and surviving which is where I expect I’ll end up until my journey ends.
I don’t see humans as a whole returning to anything that even resembles what we’ve enjoyed for the last 500 odd years……..not by a long shot and certainly not without a new frontier to exploit. I don’t see space as a viable option due to cost of access and the extreme nature of the environment. There are no second chances in space. The seas could be a new frontier but again, not cheap or available to sufficient numbers of sheep. Still, change is inevitable but I fear that the change coming our way is going to be dire and very long lasting.
I don’t want to come off as defeatist but even if the sheep rise up and destroy the fat fuck owners, some other group will just rise to take their place and probably destroy any semblance of order that may have existed in the process. Power and greed and willful stupidity seem to be such dominant traits in humans that I wonder, what exactly should the sheep do? It’s quite the conundrum.
Thankfully, I have no chirrens and I expect my journey to be complete sometime in the next 25 years so for me it’s mostly academic but I do enjoy pondering such things.
@Stucky, I can advise you on your concrete project. I used to be a cement mason in a previous life. It’ll have to wait until later in the week as I’m swamped right now. It would help if you have a picture or two of the problem/condition. You can contact me via admin or we can hijack some lonely thread on Friday.
@Homer, I might regret this and it may not be popular but I’d like to see you post a primer on your reincarnation ideas. I can’t say I believe in it but the idea intrigues me.
I-S
The Babylonian Talmud set down a law/rule that TPTB must give you a clue as to what they are putting into motion. Taking into account the information they have supplied in books, movies, tv mags etc., I believe you are correct in your thinking. Owners, enforcers, sheep in that order, dismal outlook……but what have we had for thousands of years……….owners, enforcers and sheep.
Same as it ever was. Thanks for the article, nice.
interesting opinion, I/S , but FWIW, there never were any dark ages.The age you speak of was in fact very bright , prosperous and free due the the fact that government was almost non-existent due and the population was at low ebb thanks to the herd thinning effects of the blessed black plague.
And the age of enlightenment to which you refer was actually the beginnings of central government growth pangs which led directly to the shit storm of corruption , war , total authority, and economic meltdown were are seeing unfold at this juncture in human history.
I’m not trying to correct, just inform..
IS, imagine the world with only half to two-thirds of the people, with borders redrawn and debts erased. There will be big winners, and many of the losers will be dead. There would be plenty of room for a robust wave of growth from a lower base, given no nuclear poisoning or huge extinction-type event(s).
I said before you are ONE of the most depressing knuckleheads on this site but I’ll answer you as best I can.I guess I would be depressed if I had no faith in the biblical account. I believe Jesus Christ is who he said he was.I believe his sacrifice on the cross is my only hope so I tend to look to heaven for the grace and strength to live day by day.That said ,no matter what kind of new world order the owners come up with it will still be man made therefore temporary .It will also( according to the bible ) be Satanic.The government or governments will control us by force and violence .I do agree we are heading for another Dark Age
But there’s nothing you or I can do about it so we might as well enjoy watching God’s Providence.
Theologian E.Michael Jones …… wrote a book a few years ago.The title was Jews and the Revolutionary Spirit. The Jews as a group rejected the true and living Saviour Jesus therefore as a group they will help bring the fake Saviour (antichrist ) to power. He takes you 2000.+ years of Jewish history. A history full of fake gods and anti gods the Jews have chosen always leading to one disaster after another. It’s as if the Jews have been on an eternal quest to find the one true God they rejected. Always turning to fake gods or worthless idols. This is a very good look at the new world order from behind .Very interesting read.Surprisingly many Jews on the university level agreed with the historical account.
I don’t believe in the existence of the supernatural, so by default I don’t have faith in the biblical account. I’m not depressed, though, because I stopped caring what happes to this silly species. If the best we can do with all our knowledge of math and science is to crap in our own nest, it doesn’t matter what happens to us. We’ll either wise up or we wo’t.
PJ ,you’re not a knucklehead but you are pathetic.How did you not become a feminist?
bb the planet has already gone through five major extinction events. What’s one more?
Reincarnation is a doctrine from hell .It just another lie that perpetuates evil .
I’m not depressed over the situation by any means. I’m endlessly fascinated and disappointed by it all. So many of us humans display extraordinary potential on a daily basis and I’d be thrilled to live among a world filled with them. However, a much greater number of humans display nothing but greed, lust for power and willful stupidity 24/7. They currently have the upper hand and are gaining ground. Like a drowning swimmer, they are dragging us down with them.
The coming Dark Age I envision won’t be uniformly dark as flash and Bob point out. Some people and places will prosper greatly. For others it will be a slow regression or stagnation but for the majority it’s gonna be bad. Very bad.
I think many Libertarian minded people will end up getting what they want but they’ll have to do it in an age of diminishing medical care, far less availability of stuff and crumbling/non-existent infrastructure like water, sewer and energy systems and a lot less government.
I’m not saying things will turn out as laid out in my response. The idea that new frontiers and all that comes with it is what fuels mans expansion and growth indicates that for the little guy, or sheep, options are very limited. Population may be reduced, borders redrawn and debts erased but the same small group of owners will still control the vast majority of resources that growth is built on. Most insidious of all is the fucking bankers. They are not going anywhere unless they are actively hunted and exterminated. Leave one alive and that cocksucker will sooner or later be in control again.
I’m far from depressed though. I feel like a tourist in a foreign land with minimal understanding of my surroundings. Watching this regression unfold is something I look forward to in a sick way like Pirate Jo alludes to. There are a million ways I’d like to step in and point out a better way but it’s no use. The chronically stupid are in charge at nearly every level and we’re just along for the ride. Still, for more reasons than I could count the best time to be alive on this planet has been the past 100 years or so. Compared to all previous generations, the last three or four had it all for the most part. If I could have picked my own birth date I’d have picked something like 1930-1940 rather than the mid sixties. Either by dumb luck or deliberate effort I’ve led what might be called a charmed life. Fantastic even! Despite all the bullshit going on in the world, things within my own personal sphere of influence continue to get better. The best may still be coming.
T4C says:
“I support that reincarnation is an option in the Game of Hell. The operative word being “option”.
Choose that option and one remains a player in The Game. Reincarnation is a trap.”
Reminds me of a line from O Brother, Where Art Thou my wife and I use as an inside joke.
“Do…..Not…..Seek…..The…..Treasure…………It’s a trap!”
Don’t get depressed T4C. Life is too short for that shit. The possible futures are virtually endless. For all I know we’re about to pop into a land where unicorns shit skittles or maybe enough sheep will wake up and peacefully take back our country. The trick, I think, is to keep your boat headed into the current but in the slack water on the periphery. You’ll get pulled into the rapids now and then but that just keeps shit interesting and makes you appreciate the saner moments of life. Although, I could use a lot less “interesting” right about now.
IS ,you are depressed .Now let that sink in. Reincarnation sucks. What if you come back as a muskrat! What then?
T4C, I expect the scenario I depicted to play out over many decades. The majority of people alive today won’t experience the worst of it which is probably it doesn’t depress me. 🙂 Barring a nuclear war or some intentional man-made pandemic I expect the regression will be slow.
I don’t know dick about reincarnation which is why I encouraged Homer to post an article. It might be cool to come back as an ice worm or a long lived tree or a gnat. Better that than a banker or a bb.
“I don’t know dick about reincarnation ….” ———– I_S
You nailed it.
I have studied reincarnation extensively. One doe not always come back as a complete human being. Sometimes you come back as a part. For example … a dick ….. just look at Homer.
IS trying to ignore me is only hurting you .Knucklehead.
Nobody knows anything about reincarnation. They just make shit up , including reincarnation.
I_S (The Winking Dog) and T4C, I agree with both of you.
I tend to favor human beings somewhat, simply because I am one. But objectively, we’re just going to suffer the same fate as every other species that overpopulated itself. The universe simply does not care what happens to us. It’s purely up to us whether we wise up or not, and I am not optimistic about that happening. As I_S says, it’s just never going to happen when the vast majority of people are so stupid.
It’s not defeatist to accept that there is only so much you as an individual have control over. All you can do is your own small part to not contribute to the problem, and beyond that you will enjoy your life more if you simply stop caring. Fretting over things you can’t control is completely useless.
About reincarnation, I wouldn’t say I believe it in the traditional sense. I think it’s more like we are recycled. When I die, I want to be cremated and have my ashes buried beneath a newly-planted tree along with those of my sweet little old pug lady, the late High Priestess of the Great Pug Buddha. I have a new pug now, and her ashes can go there too, and I suppose those of several other sweet little old pug ladies I will have in my lifetime. Then, me and the whole snorting herd can all be part of the same living thing. Would you all call that reincarnation?
PJ, I believe that the Universe is composed of energy and everything that happens in the Universe is simply a conversion of one energy form into another. Life is energy as well and when we die that energy gets converted into something else. I can’t say it’s an endless cycle but it is a cycle.
I think Stucky’s tongue in cheek comment above might be more true than he realizes. I could easily see a deceased creatures energy ending up as part of a multitude of things, some alive, some not.
Every element in our bodies was created in the nuclear furnace of stars. Stars and all other celestial bodies are created from vast clouds of gas and dust that coalesce and condense into new stars and celestial bodies. The same carbon that becomes diamonds under one set of conditions also forms the basis of all known life under another set of conditions. The same atoms of iron in your blood that distribute oxygen also stains vast areas of the Earth a ruddy reddish brown color.
All the elements that comprise Earth and life itself will eventually be recycled when our Sun dies a few billion years from now. The resulting gas and dust will float freely in space until it meets up with other gas and dust to coalesce into something else. That’s pretty damn cool if you ask me.
What does it cost to give a damn? What will it cost you if you don’t?