tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post5719222210356009635..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Do You Believe in Progress?Stuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-24295893542721376712014-09-15T12:42:16.134-07:002014-09-15T12:42:16.134-07:00Environmentalists have a Hidden Agenda?
How can t...Environmentalists have a Hidden Agenda?<br /><br />How can that BEEEEE?Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-45517919434164858602014-09-14T18:30:09.960-07:002014-09-14T18:30:09.960-07:00p.s. My grandparents thrived through the depressio...p.s. My grandparents thrived through the depression as farmers in eastern Iowa, while had they been farming further south or west, the dustbowl would have knocked their farm out no matter how prude their financing or farming methods, although I'm sure high debt encourages more short-term thinking in farming as any enterprise, and so debt is the enemy to all conservation efforts.<br /><br />I'm more concerned about systemic failure of human systems, but if I lived in South west US or western Texas these day, natural or human-made drought, it seems like not a good bet these days for the long haul.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-2517031734211873902014-09-14T17:55:54.095-07:002014-09-14T17:55:54.095-07:00Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD, "re:'Plann...Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD, "re:'Planning is needed...' By whom?"<br /><br />Planning is needed by everyone, but most specifically anyone in a leadership position, including: parents, churches, neighborhoood organizations, city governments, state governments, federal government, corporations.<br /><br />Geoffrey West's analysis of cities, showing their immorality as a paradox - the metabolism of a city is such that doubling its size more than doubles its activity, so large cities will always attract people more than smaller ones, but the speeding up of activity means there's a speeding up of problems.<br /><br />I worked for professor in college who studied the ecology of forests, and noted how different species would dominate in different stages of growth, so what works well in one stage fails in others.<br /><br />I see we now live in an era of abundant energy, so I think that is a driver of people into cities, but as we find ourselves unable to "grow" ourselves by expanding our energy usage, other cultural expressions may dominate.<br /><br />My grandparants were farmers through the great depression, and they only had 80 acres, and rented more land when they could, and otherwise avoided the growth model that said borrowing money to expand their farm, with more expensive equipment was the way to success, so they merely stayed frugal through the depression.<br /><br />So perhaps debt-free subsistence farming will someday be an ideal for us, if we pass through a long new depression, and people in cities will just see crime and drugs and despair, and the small towns might repopulate? Who knows?<br /><br />So none of this can be planned for, and that's the problem, but planning can mean seeing multiple contradictory possible futures, and giving your community a chance to survive or thrive in as many permutations of them as they seem credible.<br /><br />The big movement I'd like to see is "divestment", and that the retirement dream on stock investments is a lie that Gen-Xers and younger won't ever see. So putting all your trust in abstract investments seems a bad bet by itself. So I see individuals and collections of people of common interest need to ask what resources they have, and what debt is costing them, and pull their investments closer to home.<br /><br />But I might be wrong, and the finanacialization of the economy might be just getting started, and the next $20 trillion dollar bailout, it might keep things humming for another decade, and then $80 trillion for the decade after that. You never know what's possible when you have virtual wealth to play with.<br /><br /><br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-31436773914420923012014-09-14T16:54:16.368-07:002014-09-14T16:54:16.368-07:00Sam L. @September 14, 2014 at 10:42 AM
Check out ...Sam L. @September 14, 2014 at 10:42 AM<br /><br />Check out Norilsk, Russia. One of the most polluted places on Earth. Bad, bad scene. Brought to you by the Soviets, part of their "worker's paradise" plan. Great gulag death history there, in case you want to visit. You see, when the people own everything, everything gets better. It's part of the "noble experiment" of communism... you know, the noble experiment we've tried lots of times and always ends with the same human and environmental carnage. The filth has accelerated under Putin. More glory for Mother Russia! Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222603717128565302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-85697484670887278632014-09-14T16:42:48.446-07:002014-09-14T16:42:48.446-07:00Ares Olympus @September 14, 2014 at 2:45 PM:
&quo...Ares Olympus @September 14, 2014 at 2:45 PM:<br /><br />"Planning is needed..."<br /><br />By whom? Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222603717128565302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-51600164606056480182014-09-14T14:45:21.422-07:002014-09-14T14:45:21.422-07:00I see the need for identifying the "middle na...I see the need for identifying the "middle narrative" between undue optimistism and undue pessimism, or at least somewhere in there is probably the truth among the million possibilties.<br /><br />I accept the idea that we had a long "religious faith" in progress and technology, and faith means confidence, and you know when things go bad, the worst thing you can do is overreact, so instead you don't look at things that confirm your fear, and instead look at things that validate your biases of what the future holds. At least I can see that's a sane path, and that gloom and doomers are the outcasts, hoping if they harp long enough, someone will convince them they're wrong, and they can regain their faith.<br /><br />But where is the middle narrative? Like right now we're worried about some 20 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. who are so desparate for opportunity, that they'll risk an underground existence, outside of the protection of law and justice, for a chance at something. That's astounding.<br /><br />I wondered what would happen, if we extended the NATFA to allow "freedom of employment", so citizens of Canada, US, and Mexico (and maybe Central America too), could get a work Visa in any country just by applying for it. Why not?<br /><br />Freedom to travel is a strong liberal ideal, and if you believe in progress, you'll accept it as a natural progression as we move towards a global community, where everyone is interconnected in deep ways towards everyone else, and so war becomes offensive, and we have to care about crime and injustice everywhere, since we know people are free to move away from violence towards better places, only limited by their ability to work, and follow the rules.<br /><br />But the problem is that poor people also will seek opportunity in places that are much too expensive to live, so the Progressive future, where everyone is free to live where they want, is something only slightly unexpected. Many people would rather live in slums close to opportunity, than in rural subsistence living.<br /><br />So talks like these show one sense of progress which we don't see yet, but it would seem to be the future.<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B67LTsGENPQ Stewart Brand: Why squatter cities are a good thing<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Js_g7M60M Robert Neuwirth: The "shadow cities" of the future<br /><br />It is the ultimate libertarian view, of self determination, of opportunity, a chance to compete in a pure Meritocracy, and the best rise, and the failures become drug addicts and die early.<br /><br />But its not a liberal view of progress, and it suggests something of the liberal lie, that says civilization can be a safe orderly activity, that we can protect everyone against all the bad guys.<br /><br />So its pictures like this that challenge me, in my suburban quiet safety. But what if this is our future, especially after the current financialization ere collapses under its own debt, and the false vision that money is the source of all safety is exposed.<br /><br />So maybe "progress" is like "evolution", not moving towards ever greater perfection but towards every possible direction at the same time, and most directions will fail in the long run.<br /><br />Geoffrey West's analysis of systems, organisms, corporations, and cities, adds to the puzzle. <br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyCY6mjWOPc Geoffrey West: The surprising math of cities and corporations<br /><br />Thinking at systems level allows some objective decisions to be made that are messy, but better than trying to control all outcomes for unknown future needs. Planning is needed, but always limited when things change, when old ways of doing things fail new demands.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-48843706408744868142014-09-14T10:42:03.082-07:002014-09-14T10:42:03.082-07:00Remember, the greatest environmental problems were...Remember, the greatest environmental problems were in Communist countries where it's All Government, All The Time. SAY! How about that air in Beiping (insert your choice of spelling here)?<br /><br />Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, yes. Can you say Chernobyl, boys and girls? Yes, I knew you could.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-79705557612664807212014-09-14T08:05:28.704-07:002014-09-14T08:05:28.704-07:00The sage clerisy's core maxim: "If you...The sage clerisy's core maxim: "If you're happy, you're a fool."<br /><br />The clerisy's activist followers: "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."<br /><br />The ignorant masses' response to all these inputs: "We're all going to die!"<br /><br />All suggested action is never enough. It's just more, more, more! There's nothing about improvement and commitment, it's a focus on what's wrong. That's an easy game. There's always something wrong. Always.<br /><br />The intelligentsia always looks down on religion, but believes deeply in human sin. The great heresy at play here, the core of the chic Leftist "narrative," is that humanity is the source of global misery and destruction. All of it. They seek to "litigate us back to the Stone Age" because that's when things were pure, and there were only 10,000 human parasites on the planet. We've gone viral since the Industrial Revolution. Anthropomorphic global climate change has given us the fiction of anthropomorphic Earth that feels pain, complete with inert gases like carbon dioxide becoming vicious pollutants that will roast polar bears on a fast-vanishing Arctic ice no one will tell you is actually expanding.<br /><br />Environmentalism and carbon dioxide are just useful characters in this sordid story. It would be hilarious if so many didn't actually believe it. Human freedom could provide a way out, but that would probably lead to... more stupid, parasitic human beings. Horrors.<br /><br />The key to Leftist narrative is self-loathing, one of the oldest, most dismal storylines ever created. Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222603717128565302noreply@blogger.com