I have struggled to find something worth talking about for the past few days.
The fate of our civilisation is cast in concrete – it’s going to crash, and is already in the process of doing so. So there is not much to talk about there until some major event occurs – probably next year.
Humanity is on an unstoppable path to decimation as a result of changing climate impacts set to deeply effect our ability to maintain life. Not much to report there, again until the crises become more apparent.
Never ending war has become a norm for 21st century life and, while no single conflict matches those of the 20th century, the lives of more people are disrupted now as a direct result of the greed and manipulations of a dying Western empire now than back then. We have become desensitized to these effects and, while the injustices still need to be broadcast, the task of doing so and the indifference shown by populations who have daily life-concerns of their own to fully occupy their attention, becomes tiresome and frustrating.
There is no shortage of corruption and crime to report, as also with the short-sighted, debilitating and self-binding pre-occupations of general society, hell-bent on racking up debt and the dulling of their senses through maximised consumerism and entertainment – a crime against ‘self’ and the slavery of others less fortunate, if nothing else.
But the hopelessness of the task of cutting through all that to reach some point of awareness in folks who do not want to be told that what they (and those who represent them) are doing is detrimental to their own well-being and mental health, becomes a thankless one and possibly something not beneficial to the welfare of those who undertake it – other than as a salve to their conscience that they at least tried to prompt change.
And so we enter that time of the year (as Kunstler suggests in his latest blog post – The Storms of December) known as ‘the holidays’ or the ‘festive season’. But the storm clouds are gathering, and the forecast looks anything but ‘merry and bright’.
I have chosen not to celebrate or in any way take part in these end-of-year merry-makings for some years now, but don’t let that impinge on your own plans. Just be aware that this may be the very last consumerist festive season ever. Hopefully we may then revert to the more logical choice of the celebrating of ‘seasonal’ changes made by the pagans of old – returning with new meaning and relevance. I could be persuaded to join in with that.
Not Something Else 
Yes, I could too, except that the seasons are not what they were, so pagan dates are meaningless. I’m feeling a bit fed up with it all myself….reading climate blogs and extinction rebellions, energy decline and the like. I’ve taken to online Suduko and jigsaw puzzles to relieve the boredom. I suppose you’re traveling the universe in your Sky game. Probably beats being here on earth.
Thanks Bev. I was going to mention the seasons variance but it would have been possibly complex and not on topic, so I didn’t.
Yes I’m still touring the universe as relaxation. Though recognising that it is, on a base level, simply a wealth building exercise. Well, it can be what you want it to be, but you can’t get anywhere much without collecting galactic currency – of which, since restarting, I have accumulated over half a billion credits. I was on my way to 5 billion in an earlier life until it all became a bit unchallenging any more. I still enjoy the simple pleasure of boarding my Star Ship, taking off from my Capital Ship, seeking a suitable planet to discover and just flying slowly around not too far above ground level to watch the seemingly endless terrain unfold beneath me, secure in the knowledge that I have dispatched my fleet of up to 30 Frigate Ships on various missions to generate wealth for me without lifting a finger, apart from occasionally doing a planetary landing to obtain a supply of something that I can’t obtain by other means, or to simply take a stroll, swim, or build something for the pure pleasure of doing so. (You see, underneath it all, there is still a greedy capitalist and pleasure seeker lurking in all of us.)
Goodness knows how we (people in general, I guess) will occupy ourselves for mental stimulation when the internet disappears. I still have a peg solitaire game and set of draughts (checkers). I don’t have the mind or temperament for chess, nor the attributes for physical sporting activities, except perhaps darts. I also have sets of soldiers, tanks and guns that I built and painted 40 to 50 years ago and for which I devised sets of rules for table-top war-gaming of the Waterloo and WW2 eras. That was before the computer age of course. But I still hold onto them, I know not why. Investment of effort, perhaps. We tend to cling on to the things we put something of ourselves into.