The desperate wish in what is loosely called the West to at least appear morally correct is unfortunately over-matched by the desperation of people fleeing unstable, overpopulated places outside the West, and it is a fiasco beyond even the events of the moment.
The refugee / immigrant crisis around the Mediterranean is a preview of a horror show to which there is no end in sight, and is certain to escalate. So anyone who indulges in fantasies about organizing an orderly, rational distribution of displaced persons for the current wave, is badly missing the point. Wave beyond wave awaits after the this one. And then what will the well-intentioned sentimentalists say? We wanted to do the right thing… we meant well… we cried when we saw the little boy dead on the beach….
Yes, the tragic intrusions of the US military in Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and elsewhere have been reckless and stupid. But that is not the whole story. The desert nations of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have populations abnormally swollen by a century of oil-and-gas-based agriculture, really by the benefits of Modernity in general. Now that the oil age is chugging to an unruly crack-up, and Modernity with it, and the earth’s climate is doing wonky things, and the rich nations to the north have faked their finances to the point of bankruptcy, well, circumstances have changed.
In the years ahead, populations will be fleeing and shifting from many more unfavorable corners of the world. The pressures are mounting all over. Alas, the richer nations in which the fleeing poor aspire to gain a foothold, will also be contending with the disabling effects of a universal economic contraction — the winding down of the techno-industrial system and the global economy with it. That process has the potential to shatter political unions, overthrow established social orders, and provoke wars between the demoralized countries who still possess dangerous military hardware. At the least, it will produce economic conditions in Europe and North America probably worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s.
So, the idea that the nations currently bethinking themselves “rich” can take in, shelter, and employ the masses fleeing MENA (and elsewhere) is absurd. Somehow the people in charge, plus the intellectual classes who shape opinion and consensus, are going to have to arrive at some clear notion of limits and boundaries. It is actually happening in parts of Europe right now, extempore, where the immediate crisis is worst, for the moment in Italy, Greece, and Hungary — which first interned the refugees and then let them loose on the road to Vienna, probably only a way-station to Germany. Soon all nations across Europe will be agonizing, shucking, jiving, or improvising some sort of desperate response.
Among other confusions of policy and intention, the public “debate” so far does not make any distinction between true political refugees fleeing for their lives or economic migrants seeking to improve their prospects elsewhere. It is surely easy to empathize with both categories of persons, but that doesn’t mean you give up the control of your borders just to make yourself feel better. That is pretty much what has happened in the USA, where the Left, for political expediency, has deemed it indecent to call “illegal” immigrants what they are, and the Right has just been pusillanimous and hypocritical about it. Hence the unfiltered persona of Trump who, for all his titanic shortcomings, has at least managed to make his rivals look like the craven midgets they are.
Likewise, the rise of Marine LePen in France, Geert Wilders in Holland, and other parties seeking limits to immigration, perhaps even deportations. Personally, I reject the idea that it’s “racist” to want to preserve one’s national culture and character (especially in language), or to favor bona fide citizens for gainful employment. Europe has the additional obvious problem of an immigrant Islamic population overtly hostile to European culture and tradition. Why is it morally imperative for Europeans to countenance what amounts to low-grade warfare?
The situation that smoldered for decades is now exploding. Don’t expect to see any end to desperation and instability in MENA, but do expect new demographic crises out of other regions: Indonesia, Ukraine, Pakistan, West Africa, and Brazil, with its cratering economy. It’s not inconceivable that China might bust apart politically, with centrifugal consequences. The global economy is contracting. We have indeed attained the limits to growth. Cheap oil is bygone and the capital infrastructure we have won’t run on expensive oil — including the oil industry itself. New technology or further central bank legerdemain is not going to fix that. We’re in population overshoot and a scramble is underway to bail on the places that just can’t support the people who live there. National boundaries will be defended. Sentimentalists will have to step aside. History is not a bedtime story about bunnies and kittens.
Mostly agree with article, BUT:
“Now that the oil age is chugging to an unruly crack-up…”
——–based on what?; Oil is doing just fine – where is your data..
“… and Modernity with it,…”
——–only applicable for those who believe the oil supply is running out.
“..and the earth’s climate is doing wonky things…”
——–that is absolute, unmitigated BS; anyone can make an outrageous statement (like Obama always does) without observable data supporting that claim. All natural weather events have decreased in number and intensity not only for the last decade, but for many decades.
one set of radical islamic attacks anywhere in the EU will change the pathological altruist’s mindset immediately.
The moral preening of liberal elites is something to behold. San Francisco proclaims itself a ‘Sanctuary City’ but when even a small condo costs close on to a million dollars you don’t have to share your neighborhood with the dregs of the Third World. Those kind of people can go live in a decaying garden apartment complex in Hayward and let lower class blacks and whites deal with the consequences. The liberal elite just gets cheap docile domestic help.
Europe doesn’t even get that. They get a surly, arrogant Muslim people who feel they have every right to impose their inferior and atavistic culture on the indigenous population. Keep their women in burqas because their ‘faith’ requires women to be modest while the men groom and rape local adolescent girls. More British born Muslims join ISIS than the British armed forces so that ought to tell Her Majesties government that these people are not loyal subjects but two faced parasites eager to accept welfare if poor or flaunt the wealth they stole from their own people and live debauched, decadent lives while feigning to be pious if rich.
The Muslim is nothing but trouble. Their religion is more a primitive violent cult than anything spiritual. Their concept of ‘heaven’ is a whore house full of sex slaves and even on earth women are nothing but the property of a man. They create no wealth even in Western nations merely living off the fat of the land with ghetto liquor stores, Subway franchises and gas stations.
Credit says: “one set of radical islamic attacks anywhere in the EU will change the pathological altruist’s mindset immediately.”
Credit, this article backs up your post, even before there is another Islamic attack.
“FRENCH CITY WITH 40% MUSLIM POPULATION IS THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY IN EUROPE”
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/214086/french-city-40-muslim-population-most-dangerous-daniel-greenfield
I will NEVER forget the chilling words my uncle said to my mom the last time he visited us. Mom said she was looking forward to going back to Salzburg in a year or so. He said to her, “It’s not like it was. You won’t recognize it. It’s terrible.”
He was referring to the mooslims … Turks, actually. And that was over 20 years ago.
Unit472…atavistic…had to look that word up. Good description, a throw back culture. Your comments are right on, especially about the ‘loyal subjects’.
Kokoda, I’m not an acolyte of Global Warming. If it happens I tend to think it will be a net benefit to mankind simply because a large part of the earth’s land mass are in such northern latitudes they are useless save for mineral extraction. The Greenland ice sheet covers an area larger than western Europe and much of Canada and Russia is permafrost.
That said, Kunstler has a point that the carrying capacity of our existing land is totally dependent on some man made fixes and the population of the MENA is way above the carrying capacity of their land and they don’t and can’t manufacture the technology necessary to keep it at its current level. Only the revenue from oil exports makes place like Qatar or Dubai habitable for more than a few thousand people. Saudi Arabia before oil was only able to support a tiny population of nomads. 30 million people live there now and Yemen has 25 million. Iran had 15 million people in 1950. 80 million today and its water resources have been exhausted. Makes their claim to only want atomic power plants can of suspicious given the amount of cooling water such power plants require.
The point is that, even if you don’t accept Kuntsler’s thesis that advanced industrial civilization is nearing collapse, it is likely that certain regions will not be able to cope with even a normal climate
events. The United States is big enough so that if California has a prolonged drought its likely another region will enjoy better than average conditions. In Sub Saharan Africa or the middle east there is no margin left and their population growth rates out of control.
Unit 472….excellent response.
100% agree that population growth is the critical ‘tipping point’ for planet earth (not mentioned by Kunstler, but alluded to by you). Earth’s resources are only capable of supporting a specified population (whatever that is). Many of the political issues put to the proles by the governing elites are simply a ‘false flag’ cover for the population/resource concern – AGW is the primary example.
Water: just as a side note, Gaddafi, while searching for oil, found a huge freshwater aquifer under the sands; enuf to last so many thousands of years (if managed responsibly). He was also bringing together 25 African Nations to use a Gold Dinar as currency – no wonder the U.S. brought him down; the small nations are decimated by the U.S. military power if they do anything that will usurp U.S. status.
To his credit, Jimbo has always been against the muzzie invasion despite his liberal beliefs. But I wonder what he thought of the “Live Aid” phenomenon of the mid 80’s? Remember that liberal tear-jerking dog and pony show? Every major rock star was falling over each other to prove to the world that they were even more compassionate then the other.
I bet they saved a lot of people. People who normally would have died because they were 70 IQ level morons who only knew how to do one thing and that is breed. Let’s do some math, shall we? The Live Aid event was in 1985, 30 years ago. Those parents alive then survived to breed more useless pieces of shit, and they in turn were thus able to breed more useless POS.
How many of them are invading Europe right now? BTW, I fully realize that most of any aid going to Africa ends up in the pockets of their corrupt politicians. But it isn’t just some “Let’s help Ethiopia’s starving poor” media circle jerk that happened. It was countless Billions in Western country’s food aid and medicine and doctors, nurses, guards, the UN people and everything else that helped keep alive the scum overrunning Europe right now.
All to “save the poor”, or especially; “save the children”, which is the libtards favorite slogan. Now those children are all grown up and knocking on Western Civilization’s door, with a beggar’s bowl in one hand and their dick in the other.
What utter madness.
Lysander….you got me laughing; it was the combination of your expression of reality combined with your unique style of prose. Thanx
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/09/06/heres-the-contract-the-islamic-state-group-is-forcing-christians-to-sign-in-syria/
Why don’t the environmentalist consider them an unnatural invasive species and eradicate them?
I agree,Europe is screwed. The Muslims will take over in their own way. It must suck to be a German right now and see what is coming. In AZ we have the invasion by Mexicans and the sick people who welcome these illegal aliens.
The muslim migration is an act of love. Hillary will fix it.
The dupes that support the invaders… I mean “refugees” are the same who never learned how to deal with bullies in grade school. If we give them just a few more handouts, subsidies, some compassion, they will finally appreciate us and be our friends.
Except they will never be satisfied. Why stop when you keep getting more and more freebies with no consequences for your unrelenting bitching and moaning? At least we will have poetic justice when the liberal beta males lose their homes, wives, jobs, and properties to the invaders. I mean refugees.
No more cheap oil? WTF? He’s checked the price lately right???
I believe he was referring to the price of oil prior to OPEC’s pricing in 1973. Up until that time the price was under $2 a barrel.
It’s all men too. Even the UN admits 75% men… What a disaster. Why are western societies hell bent on their own suicide? It’s appalling, just appalling.
http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/regional.html
Muslims from North Africa have been invading Europe for years. Prior to the wars in the Middle East, Europe has been on a fast track to Muslin majorities for years. What’s the end game you ask? Western European countries will change their Governments, but it will be after the next World War!
I watched a news video of a riot by African invaders in an Italian town.
The rioters simply walked down the street in broad daylight breaking things, tearing down street signs and signposts, throwing rocks at (what looked like) Italian citizens watching from upper floors of buildings.
All I could think was, two guys with AR15’s or any other modern sporting rifles with scopes on them could drop five or ten and send the rest running, or simply start emptying magazines and pile the corpses by the truckload.
Maybe Europe has too long basted in Fabian Utopian delusions. Maybe there are no men left in their cities with enough testosterone in their shriveled testicles to defend their wives and children, and accept the stain on their souls that will be necessary to turn back the tsunami of extinction that is washing over their lands.
I do not think, however, that the land between Canada and Mexico is so bereft of testosterone.
If you think this is horrifying to imagine, just wait until there’s deemed no choice left.
Either we approach a time when the Authorities round up anyone who even vaguely looks alien, puts them on a commandeered cruise ship and drops them off either 1) at a port south of the US border or 2) into the sea two miles outside that port, or else within 50 years it will become apparent that our grandchildren will experience a civilizational catastrophe no less epochal than the fall of the Roman Empire.
If the USA is fully turned into a basket case like Argentina (and that’s the trend, right now), then the standard of living to which we have become accustomed will not be equaled again for 30 generations or more.
Is that what you want for your children, grandchildren, and so on?
Neither do I.
1) The welfare state has to be ended. No more freebies, and if you riot over the lack thereof, you’re shot in the act of rioting.
2) Relatively peaceful, orderly Western countries will have to make life far more unpleasant for invaders than the conditions they are attempting to flee.
Both of these things will eventually happen. The only questions of importance now are:
A) When?
B) How many will suffer and die because these requirements were delayed?
C) How far will the standard of living be set back?
Culture matters. You can’t have dysfunctional culture coexist while enabling a population explosion. Truly Malthusian results are insured, and the question now is simply how much of Planet Earth will be engulfed in it?
China has its own problems, but I’m quite sure that if the Chinese deem it necessary, they could easily invade Africa and almost completely depopulate it while replacing everyone. Easterners have never impressed me with a whole lot of empathy for those they deem inferior (which includes everyone but them.)
I agree dc sunsets. This is one of the reasons I’m glad I never had children. The middle class in the USA has been in decline since the 1970s, and since I was born in 1970 I’ve been seeing it happen my entire life. I see NOTHING to indicate this trend will ever reverse itself – in fact, it has begun to accelerate during the last decade. I love my hypothetical children enough not to force them into existence in the first place, to endure the kind of descent into second world conditions I may even see during my own lifetime. I know the future is for those who show up for it, but look who’s doing the showing up and the kind of future that is going to create. Who would want it?
I grasp your view, Pirate Jo, but (most of the time) reach a different conclusion.
Life’s a big adventure. No one gets out of it alive, though. One way to look at this is to see it as a guaranteed tragedy (at the end, everyone dies.) The other way is to accept that, and see it as a contest to see who can tackle the adventure with the greatest….what? Fortitude? Gusto? Sense of humor? Sense of honor?
Everyone’s answer to this may be different.
But for me, having kids was a way to prove to myself that I was up to the challenges. I was. I am. I remain so.
You could be tempted to suggest that in this vein I’m using my kids as pawns in my own self-validation scheme. This is a reasonable interpretation, but I’m reminded that (as an adoptee, an “unwanted pregnancy”) I could have been aborted.
This is a VERY big metaphysical question, isn’t it?
For all its warts, I’m glad I’m alive and able to experience the adventure that is life. Maybe I’d feel differently if I had struggled in misery all my time, and I’ve surely been the beneficiary of living at a great time. I lead a modest life and am quite comfortable with relatively less “stuff,” however, so I’m not sure this applies.
Do I have hopes for my sons and their families? Of course.
Do I worry incessantly? What loving parent does not?
But I’m pleased they have the opportunity to pursue their own adventures, and see if they measure up in their own eyes (which is the only arbiter who really matters.)
My kids are smart. I mean, REALLY smart (but not dysfunctional geniuses.) They have been taught well, in the sense of learning how to think, how to discern fact from fiction, and how to enjoy life in an honest way, honest to themselves. If anyone can rise to the challenges, it is they.
If the future path passes, as I think it will, through a valley of great difficulty, then it’s simply the environment through which they must pass, or fail. It’s up to them, and to luck or fortune to some extent. My adventure is (hopefully) far from complete, too.
I would no sooner end my own life than I would have cheated my (metaphysically potential) children from assaying theirs. It’s like launching a boat into which you invested so much of yourself. The joy of the product, and the hope that it sails seas of plenty while being strong enough to ride out the inevitable storms, knowing that you won’t be there to steer (or to bail.)
I’m not sorry we had kids. And I’m sincerely hopeful that I’ll always feel that way, as will my sons.
Where there’s life, there’s hope. And life is dynamic. Only death is static. The limber tree bends when the winds howl.
Pick your aphorism. (grin)
“…or else within 50 years it will become apparent that our grandchildren will experience a civilizational catastrophe no less epochal than the fall of the Roman Empire.”
This will most likely be the case, regardless of what is done by any “Authorities” anywhere and on a shorter timeline than 50 years. The rest of your posts are spot-on an very insightful as usual.
“…anyone can make an outrageous statement (like Obama always does) without observable data supporting that claim. All natural weather events have decreased in number and intensity not only for the last decade, but for many decades.”
Regardless of what is true this is perhaps the most hypocritical statement ever made. An affront to logic on all levels.
And, again. I know people become obsessed with the “price” of things. “Oil is cheap” The oil industry is sound” “there are HUGE reserves of oil” etc., ect.
The “price” of oil is meaningless since it is perhaps the most market most driven by speculation…the apparent state of the “Oil industry” is meaningless since it is reported by the PR people of the Oil Industry (CUI BONO? Always the first and best question to ask)…also, the total amount of oil in meaningless, because a hige percentage of it will NEVER reach the surface.
The ONLY important figure in Oil is EROIE. Period. Finances can be (and always are) manipulated….lies can be told and believed by all…BUT there are no tricks that can be played on the Laws of Thermodynamics. I do not profess to know the state of EROIE across the entire Industry (I doubt anyone has a very clear picture) but it is obvious that EROIE continuously falls over time (the low hanging fruit principle). Falling EROIE of oil is the one truly important and inescapable dilemma of our empire.