The End of the First Part of the Storm?
Doubt is a civilised thing, and sometimes facts change.
I think that we are at, or near peak oil, but may be very wrong. I think that we are in the middle of an historic shift of trade and the economy back to a multipolar world. I think that the futures and derivatives markets have slipped well over the edge of the mountain and are falling downhill, shutting off global investment, punishing those who 'invested'.
I think that huge government debts and deficits in Europe and America are unsustainable. I think that, in any event, an oil price of over $100 has changed the game of global power. I think that the world is dangerously poised on top of highly unstable zones of warfare which are accompanied by demographic pressures that may explode.
Yet our capacity to fix things, as a species, defined by reason and adaptability, is limited only by the level of interference of governments and the strength and intelligence of regulators, the former of which should be low and the latter of which should be high.
It may be, on this lovely summer morning, that we have come through to a calmer place than has been around us for over two years, superficially. We are all, in the west, still in big trouble, and the UK much more than most because of the systematic destruction of social institutions outside of the state and corruption and decline within it.
Yet the crisis we are in will take years to work itself out and will present itself in different forms but still conform to the processes I identified above--and the mechanisms by which we are told things in this society won't be able to grasp the scale or pattern of change. Many in blogland seem to. I think that it is ineluctable, but I make no pretence to being completely right or a hundred per cent sure of myself. As far as I can tell, the descent pattern is locked. Calm is not safety.
Be alive to the facts, though, whatever the media tell you. The oil price is historically high, and may be at or past peak flow. Climate is changing, but it always has been, nobody knows how or even to what extent, and people who are certain about green matters are doing so, would they but know it, as a form of social control. Wars are bad things, and not easy solutions to anything.
Reason will get you anywhere if you have something worthwhile to do with it. And, to misquote Indiana Jones Snr, if someone tells you something is true, ask for facts and remember that the best of the west is encapsulated in the phrase 'credo ut intelligam'; believe, if you want to, but only so that you might understand.
For no good reason, I feel quite happy this morning.
Doubt is a civilised thing, and sometimes facts change.
I think that we are at, or near peak oil, but may be very wrong. I think that we are in the middle of an historic shift of trade and the economy back to a multipolar world. I think that the futures and derivatives markets have slipped well over the edge of the mountain and are falling downhill, shutting off global investment, punishing those who 'invested'.
I think that huge government debts and deficits in Europe and America are unsustainable. I think that, in any event, an oil price of over $100 has changed the game of global power. I think that the world is dangerously poised on top of highly unstable zones of warfare which are accompanied by demographic pressures that may explode.
Yet our capacity to fix things, as a species, defined by reason and adaptability, is limited only by the level of interference of governments and the strength and intelligence of regulators, the former of which should be low and the latter of which should be high.
It may be, on this lovely summer morning, that we have come through to a calmer place than has been around us for over two years, superficially. We are all, in the west, still in big trouble, and the UK much more than most because of the systematic destruction of social institutions outside of the state and corruption and decline within it.
Yet the crisis we are in will take years to work itself out and will present itself in different forms but still conform to the processes I identified above--and the mechanisms by which we are told things in this society won't be able to grasp the scale or pattern of change. Many in blogland seem to. I think that it is ineluctable, but I make no pretence to being completely right or a hundred per cent sure of myself. As far as I can tell, the descent pattern is locked. Calm is not safety.
Be alive to the facts, though, whatever the media tell you. The oil price is historically high, and may be at or past peak flow. Climate is changing, but it always has been, nobody knows how or even to what extent, and people who are certain about green matters are doing so, would they but know it, as a form of social control. Wars are bad things, and not easy solutions to anything.
Reason will get you anywhere if you have something worthwhile to do with it. And, to misquote Indiana Jones Snr, if someone tells you something is true, ask for facts and remember that the best of the west is encapsulated in the phrase 'credo ut intelligam'; believe, if you want to, but only so that you might understand.
For no good reason, I feel quite happy this morning.
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