“This Ain’t No Foolin’ Around” – Kunstler
I haven’t been sharing Kunstler blog posts recently because he has mostly been involving himself in purely US domestic matters, of little concern to anyone else, but this item is hot on the spot and has made me realise that I too have allowed myself to be overly engrossed in matters that are not entirely in line with what caused me to start blogging in the first place – the grim reality of the human predicament in terms of our so-called civilisation and its continued existence. Which, when viewed through the prism of US internal and external affairs and what is happening in the Middle East over the past years, is not much of a civilisation worthy of our concern, at all, after all.
So, what does Kunstler bring to the table today? Primarily, the fragility of the global civilisational edifice that we have built and on which we stand or fall today. Take a read, and dare to disagree if you will.
I have staked whatever form of reputational online credibility I may have, and that is not particularly widespread I know, on the premise that this civilisation will crash and burn this year. 2020. Or at least, since it is such a huge undertaking, will begin to noticeably do that this year – affecting all of our lives and the way we live them, and ending many of them prematurely as a result.
In making that stand I have relied on the kind of systemic fragilities in the current civilisational structure spoken of by Kunstler and others over recent years, my own conclusions on these matters, and the distinct inability of humanity to organise itself to noticeably change the direction of its endeavours in order to avoid such a calamity. You only have to look at the way we universally think and talk about climate change, as an example, to see that ingrained inability in action – or inaction. We can’t help ourselves.
And even though we are at some level each aware of the situation of the unsustainability of our modern life systems – debt, over-consumption, growth, greed, and all the rest of it – we sit and do nothing about it, expecting that it will somehow miraculously go on forever.
Well, it won’t do that. It categorically will not go on for ever. No matter how much we wish it to or need it to do that.
And, while it may take a long time before all traces of our civilisation and modern way of life to entirely disappear, it will most likely begin with – in fact it couldn’t do anything other than (or we would continue to find ‘patches’ to keep it going a little longer) fall apart dramatically and suddenly.
Kunstler outlines, or mentions, a number of ways that this could begin. The flaws in the system are perfectly obvious. And as Kunstler expresses, once the system is down, or even just on its knees, there is little hope that it can be restarted. A new paradigm will emerge. But a simpler one. One that relies much more on human energy than any other form.
This year of 2020 has so far been disastrous in many ways, but we have seen nothing yet of what is likely to befall us over the coming months.
Are you ready?
Not Something Else 
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