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href="https://medium.com/@FeunFooPermaKra/the-collapse-of-global-civilization-has-begun-b527c649754c">https://medium.com/@FeunFooPermaKra/the-collapse-of-global-civilization-has-begun-b527c649754c</a><br>
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<h1 id="180f" class="fz ga bi gb b gc gd ge gf gg gh gi gj gk gl gm
gn go gp gq gr cs">The Collapse of Global Civilization Has Begun</h1>
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<div><img alt="David B Lauterwasser" class="r dl gw gx"
src="https://miro.medium.com/fit/c/96/96/0*A9tzly5ou9ZZoBY6."
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<div style="flex:1"><span class="bh b bi bj bk bl r cs q">
<div class="gz n o ha"><span class="bh hb ca bj bu hc
bt hd he hf cs"><span class="cf cg at au av aw ax
ay az ba hg bd cj ck">David B Lauterwasser</span></span></div>
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<div class="gy ai r"><span class="bh b bi bj bk bl r bm bn"><span
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<div><span class="cf cg at au av aw ax ay az ba hg bd cj ck">Nov
14, 2017</span> · 26 min read</div>
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<p id="334a" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">But this doesn’t mean we have to
give up hope.</p>
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<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">A temporary settlement of the
Penan, Borneo 1993 © David Hiser</figcaption></figure>
<p id="4c69" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Only the fewest today think that
global civilization is on the brink of collapse — but it’s
doubtful that the Romans, the Greek, the Mayans or the
Mesopotamians saw their own fall coming either. We hear about
new obstacles on a daily basis; most of the news consist of
disturbing stories on increasingly overwhelming issues that,
plainly spoken, seem impossible to solve. And yet, no one even
recognizes that it is <em class="jt">collapse</em> that
starts to unfold all around us.</p>
<p id="4ba5" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Civilizations are characterized
by the emergence and expansion of cities, as the Latin root of
the word suggests (lat.: “<em class="jt">civis</em>” =
inhabitant of a city), that, in some instances, turn into
states. <mark class="ty tz dw">A city is a permanent
settlement of humans where more humans live than their
immediate environment can support.</mark> Therefore, the
city requires the import of food and other resources from the
surrounding area. The use of the term ‘require’ hereby implies
that if the rural population doesn’t agree on exporting the
product of their work, the city comes and forcefully takes it
(Scott, 2017; Jensen, 2006). The city continuously expands as
its population grows, requiring evermore resources from the
rural surrounding, and therefore depleting an ever-increasing
radius of land. Civilizations can, by definition, not be
sustainable, since every expansion on a finite planet
logically has a limit — and “colonizing other planets” is
obviously nothing but science fiction. Earlier civilizations
reached this limit after a few hundred or thousand years, but
with the advancement of technology we repeatedly found
loopholes that allow us to artificially modify conditions in
our favor. As we slowly reach the limit of technological,
physical and biological possibilities to further expand as a
civilization, it is of utmost importance to understand <em
class="jt">what</em> is happening and <em class="jt">why</em>.</p>
<p id="07fa" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">If we can learn one thing of the
past collapses of major civilizations, it is that all of those
showed some (if not most) of the following symptoms during or
immediately before their imminent collapse: environmental
destruction, depletion of vital resources (such as water,
arable soil and timber), famine, overpopulation, social and
political unrest, inequality, invasion or other forms of
devastating warfare, and disease.</p>
<p id="f614" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Think for a second. I guess you
will be able to come up with a current example for each of the
points listed above in under a minute. If not, here are a few
examples:</p>
<p id="8e10" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">*********************************</p>
<p id="8c74" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION</p>
<p id="ac3c" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Virtually every environmental
crisis ever recognized as such in the last century has since
worsened. All goals set by the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro
(1992), its follow-up Rio+20 (2012), the Kyoto Protocol
(1997), the Copenhagen Agreement COP15 (2009), and the Paris
Agreement (2016) have failed to make a considerable
difference. <br>
At the latter event, politicians agreed that climate breakdown
must be mitigated, and half-hearted promises were made to set
utopian goals for a reduction in CO2 emissions. <br>
No matter what you look at, may it be deforestation,
atmospheric carbon levels, species extinctions, polluted
rivers, every aspect has gotten worse year after year.
Governments doesn’t seem to be able to solve this crisis, and
neither is the public. Recently the <span class="cf di ju jv
jw jx">Global Carbon Project</span> announced that, despite
all the efforts and the fact that overall carbon emissions
from fossil fuels and industry have experienced only “flat
growth” over the last two years (a sign of hope for many), the
carbon emissions will once again <span class="cf di ju jv jw
jx">grow by 2% in 2017</span> — and the trend is expected to
continue next year. <br>
It seems like all our efforts are destined to fail.</p>
<p id="9f9a" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Forests all over the world
continue to be destroyed in the name of economic growth,
progress and development, and we civilized humans set in
motion what some call the Sixth Mass Extinction Event. In the
past 40 years, we <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">lost half
of the world’s wildlife</span>, and species extinctions
proceed at an unprecedented rate — estimated at 10,000 species
per year (<span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">WWF</span>), or
about one species per hour.</p>
<p id="77b3" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Simultaneously, the decrease of
insect populations across Europe by over 70%, already bearing
the label <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">Insectageddon</span>,
is believed to have disastrous impacts on human crops and
ecosystem stability in the coming decade.</p>
<p id="0dd0" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">We logged <span class="cf di ju
jv jw jx">over 75% of all forests</span> in the 10,000-year
history of our culture, and logging continues at breathtaking
speed (currently <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">deforestation</span>
proceeds at a rate of 48 football fields per minute, while we
concomitantly lose <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">30
football fields of topsoil per minute</span>).</p>
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<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">© National Geographic</figcaption></figure>
<p id="4391" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">POLLUTION & EXTREME WEATHER
EVENTS</p>
<p id="2107" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">The CO2 concentration in the
atmosphere has skyrocketed to 400ppm (the highest in over
800,000 years), and the emissions from today will stay there
for another century.</p>
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<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">© National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration</figcaption></figure>
<p id="ee85" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Despite extensive lobbying, it is
now known that the biggest <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">15
ships produce as much pollution</span> as all the cars in
the world. They burn the dirtiest of all fuels, and have to
pay surprisingly low taxes for it. But nothing that we do
pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere faster than <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">air travel</span>, yet new
airports are build and existing ones extended, and the number
of airplanes in the sky on any given day continues to rise.</p>
<p id="f86e" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">The world’s hunger for oil and
the companies’ increasing difficulty to meet the demands by
conventional means have created over one trillion liters (!)
of <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">highly toxic sludge</span>
from tar sand processing in Canada. Those ponds cover an area
of over 220 km2 — as big as 73 Central Park’s. <br>
But those are not the only extremely hazardous black lakes
there are — a giant lake filled with thick, black sludge in
China was recently dubbed “the <span class="cf di ju jv jw
jx">worst place in the world</span>”. It is a result of our
worrying dependency on smartphones: in inner Mongolia, the
‘rare earth’ minerals needed to build them are processed, and
the vast amounts of biohazardous and radioactive waste is
discharged arbitrarily into the landscape right next to the
factories.<br>
Even if the industry would disappear tomorrow, their
carcinogenic waste would stay with us for centuries, polluting
skies, rivers and soil.</p>
<p id="8e67" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Microplastics are found not only
in the oceans, but in alarming quantities in <span class="cf
di ju jv jw jx">most tap water</span> all around the world.
They even made it into the atmosphere, making it literally
impossible to escape the plastic particles small enough to
enter the cells of your body, where their toxicity increases
the chance of cancer and other diseases.</p>
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<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">© Guardian — Tap water
everywhere contains large amounts of plastic fibres</figcaption></figure>
<p id="a53d" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">All those problems will, due to
climate breakdown, only <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">get
worse</span> in the future (Lynas, 2009). Positive feedback
systems now lead to unstoppable changes on the surface of the
planet. Rapidly melting ice caps mixed with increased air
pollution leaves a dark layer of dirt on the surface,
enhancing further warming and melting of the ice. Forest fires
all around the world contribute to an ever-hotter climate,
which in turn leads to even bigger, more devastating forest
fires.</p>
<p id="a443" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Petteri Taalas, secretary general
of the World Meteorological Organization, <span class="cf di
ju jv jw jx">said</span>: “The past three years have all
been in the top three years in terms of temperature records.
This is part of a long term warming trend. We have witnessed
extraordinary weather, including temperatures topping 50C in
Asia, record-breaking hurricanes in rapid succession in the
Caribbean and Atlantic reaching as far as Ireland, devastating
monsoon flooding affecting many millions of people and a
relentless drought in East Africa.”</p>
<p id="1b66" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Sea levels have already risen
considerably, and even the most pessimistic forecasts have
proven to be true. In his 2006 documentary <em class="jt">An
Inconvenient Truth</em>, Al Gore claimed that sea level rise
will flood the 911 memorial — at that time ridiculed — which
actually happened during hurricane Sandy.<br>
Hurricanes increase in intensity every year, leaving behind
post-apocalyptic landscapes like seen in the Dominican
Republic and Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria.</p>
<p id="3cb7" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">RESOURCES</p>
<p id="35b8" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Resources such as <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">oil</span>, <span class="cf di ju
jv jw jx">phosphorus</span>, <span class="cf di ju jv jw
jx">antimony, indium, silver, copper</span>, <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">sand</span>, and others long have
peaked, hence officials do what they can to ensure the public
that everything is alright and no problems are ahead — it
would cost them their jobs and render their occupations
superfluous if they said the truth.</p>
<p id="985a" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">The only <span class="cf di ju
jv jw jx">“official” numbers</span> on how much oil remains
are presented annually by — you guessed it — BP. Not very
convincing. Those numbers are presented in confusing fashion,
since BP’s calculations are based on “current consumption
levels”. But guess what, consumption is increasing, and
despite so-called renewable energies having a small share of
the overall energy created, our world still relies heavily on
fossil fuels. This is not going to change anytime soon. <br>
If you do the same calculation with the average growth rate in
oil consumption, you’ll end up at a date somewhat 15 years
earlier (2052). And remember: this is only if all discovered
oil fields can successfully be exploited, whether they are
under the Arctic ice shield or in the <span class="cf di ju
jv jw jx">Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest</span>. Furthermore,
this is supposed to be the day where we arrive at zero barrels
of crude oil, so scarcity will start much sooner.</p>
<p id="b49f" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik
il im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs"
data-selectable-paragraph="">For years they have been pushing
back the date of when exactly the world will run out of oil,
because they constantly seem to find new reserves. Even if
that might be the case, it is worth noting that those newly
discovered oil fields are in the most inaccessible places,
since all the fields that are easily exploited are already
empty. Those new oil reserves require increasingly dangerous,
expensive and destructive technology: offshore drilling,
fracking, and the extraction of oil from tar sands.</p>
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<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">© BP — Will the oil price
really continue to drop? What justifies this sharp
decline, and how does it fit into the context of a world
slowly but surely running out of oil?</figcaption></figure>
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<p id="7e00" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">While
the question of how much oil there is really left leaves room for
<span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">speculation</span>, I recommend
looking at <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">the graphs</span>
yourself.</p>
<p id="afb1" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">War
over resources are supposed to increase, and it is even the most
basic resources that inspire conflict. With the Tibetan glaciers
melting, China, India, and all countries around the Mekong River
can expect serious water shortages in a few years. In China alone,
over <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">28.000 rivers have dried up</span>
already, according to the Ministry of Water Resources. <br>
All in all, an estimated 2 billion (!) people are in danger.<br>
“Many experts say that wars were fought over land before, but
nowadays, wars are fought over energy and soon there will be wars
fought over water,” said Lobsang Sangay, the head of the Tibetan
Administration in Exile.</p>
<p id="eb97" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">FAMINE</p>
<p id="79a2" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">At
a time where even pro-business and pro-development Forbes Magazine
writes that “<span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">Capitalism Will
Starve Humanity Until 2050</span>” (unless it “changes” —
whatever that means — but this big change is yet to come), it
should be clear that we’re very close to the total collapse of
global food supply. In the article, the only problem addressed is
overfishing of the oceans (not even the ongoing acidification or
pollution is included).</p>
<p id="e99f" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">A
sophisticated simulation called ‘<span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">Food
Chain Reaction</span>’ was built by experts of the State
Department, the World Bank, and multinational agrobusiness giant
Cargill, along with other independent researchers and specialists.
It involved the participation of 65 officials from countries all
over the world, as well as key multilateral and intergovernmental
institutions.</p>
<p id="cf25" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">“By
2024, the scenario saw global food prices spike by as much as 395
percent due to prolonged crop failures in key food basket regions,
driven largely by climate change, oil price spikes, and confused
responses from the international community.”</p>
<p id="c289" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
importance of this simulation lays in the fact that it was created
partly by powerful organizations, who would lie to the public but
not to themselves — as it was the case with Big Oil publicly
denying climate breakdown, but internally preparing for its
effects. They might tell the public that we have another 40 years
or so worth of oil in the ground, but they themselves know that
2024 would be a much closer call for either scenario.</p>
<p id="96a5" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Now,
remember, all those factors examined here are interrelated. No oil
means consequently no food in the supermarkets. You can imagine
what would happen.</p>
<p id="2c8e" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">According
to reports by a government contractor, “the US national security
industry already plans for the impact of an unprecedented global
food crisis lasting as long as a decade.”</p>
<p id="e406" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">OVERPOPULATION</p>
<p id="0ba8" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
world is, in contrast what humanists and futurists might say,
vastly overpopulated (Their error is to think the planet is empty
and just waiting to be filled up with humans). That means we have
exceeded the carrying capacity of this planet by several billion
people. There is no way that such number of people could ever live
in a sustainable relationship with their environment.<br>
More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, in
some cases in apartments so small that they are called <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">‘coffin homes’</span>.</p>
<p id="ddad" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
numbers are staggering: “The built world that sustains us is so
vast that, for every pound of an average person’s body, there are
30 tons of infrastructure: roads, houses, sidewalks, utility
grids, intensively farmed soil, and so forth”, <span class="cf di
ju jv jw jx">says</span> Jedediah Purdy, author of <em
class="jt">After Nature: A Politics for the Anthropocene</em>.
Without this enormous construct to sustain our current population
levels, we would fall back somewhere between ten and two hundred
million. If anything would happen to any part of the
infrastructure listed above, the consequences would be severe.</p>
<p id="5abd" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">When
we talk about overpopulation, we also have to include the fact
that domestic animals for human use outweigh wild terrestrial
mammals by a factor of <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">25 to one</span>.
Civilized humans come with a lot of luggage.</p>
<p id="69ff" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">SOCIAL
AND POLITICAL UNREST</p>
<p id="9f6c" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Saying
that society falls apart is no longer an exaggeration. Every day
there are huge protests and clashes with the police all around the
world. The public is divided into ever more fractions that are
unable to come to any compromise. Whether left or right,
conservative or liberal, pro- or anti gun, refugee, abortion,
vaccines, or climate change, the two opposing fractions are doing
nothing but hardening their own hearts against the other side.
They are trapped in echo chambers on social media that only
confirm what they already believe to know, and therefore
intensifies their conviction of their own righteousness.</p>
<p id="4367" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">This
year alone, there were over 50,000 (!) recorded incidents of gun
violence in the United States — 307 of which were <em class="jt">mass
shootings.</em></p>
<figure class="ix iy iz ja jb jc fn fo paragraph-image">
<div class="fn fo lb">
<div class="jj r cc fb">
<div class="lc jl r">
<div class="cb jg s t u ds ai bu jh ji"><br>
</div>
<img alt="Image for post" class="eg tt s t u ds ai c"
src="https://miro.medium.com/max/620/1*M7vhfkUaQQqEtX27J53KkA.png"
width="620" height="328"></div>
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">© Gun Violence Achieve</figcaption></figure>
<p id="46fb" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Radical
groups, sometimes militarized, are on the rise all over the
planet. Whether patriot groups in the US, FARC in Colombia,
pirates at the coast of Somalia, ISIS in the Philippines, Boko
Haram in Nigeria, or underground right-wing terror cells in
Europe, everyone seems to prepare for some final war.</p>
<p id="e3d0" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Technology,
once viewed almost exclusively in positive terms, encounters more
and <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">more skepticism</span> as Big
Tech tightens its grip around our personal lives. A large number
of people in the developed world is seriously <span class="cf di
ju jv jw jx">addicted to smartphones</span> — no wonder, since
they are in turn specifically <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">designed
to make us addicted</span>. More studies emerge every week
showing the huge downside of advanced technology, that most of us
so far have simply overlooked. The effects of our highly
technologized society on our <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">children</span>
are spine-chilling — and its <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">consequences</span>
even more.</p>
<p id="38be" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Managers,
CEOs, bankers, politicians and other members of the upper class
systematically avoid paying taxes, therefore robbing the public of
money that is desperately needed in the communities. The leak of
millions of documents, called the <em class="jt">Panama-</em> and
<em class="jt">Paradise Papers</em> shows the sheer scale of this
peerless fraud. A global plutocracy has reached unimaginable
power. Oligopolies control the economy, <span class="cf di ju jv
jw jx">politics</span> and society. Dystopia is here.</p>
<p id="4f35" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">On
an international level, democracy doesn’t seem to work anymore.
With the emergence of more and more authoritarian leaders such as
Trump, Putin, Erdogan, <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">Chan-Ocha</span>,
Duterte, and Órban, the world slowly starts shifting towards an
uncertain future.<br>
Politics has always been a dirty business. But in the digital age
it gets increasingly hard for politicians to hide their
wrongdoings and corruption. Without portable cameras in everyone’s
pocket and all information being stored online it is impossible to
hide things as long as governments used to do back in the days —
until everyone involved was beyond the reach of persecution:
retired or dead.</p>
<p id="2d68" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">How
many times have we witnessed governments change from liberal, to
conservative, and to liberal again, all ruled for by people who
really believed that this election will finally set things
straight. It is unbelievable to me that people still fall for
this.</p>
<p id="c9f5" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Economic
collapse is imminent, not only because of all the bubbles yet to
burst (like the <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">debt bubble</span>,
the <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">student-loan bubble</span>,
the <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">tech bubble</span>, or the
giant real estate bubble that caused China’s double-digit growth
and led to vast <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">half-finished
ghost towns</span> for millions of inhabitants — China used <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">more cement in three years</span> than
the US in the entire 20th century for those projects, which in
turn is one of the reason the world is running out of sand), but
simply because economic growth is reaching its absolute limit.</p>
<figure class="ix iy iz ja jb jc fn fo paragraph-image">
<div class="fn fo ld">
<div class="jj r cc fb">
<div class="le jl r">
<div class="cb jg s t u ds ai bu jh ji"><br>
</div>
<img alt="Image for post" class="eg tt s t u ds ai c"
src="https://miro.medium.com/max/449/1*YbbkwuqfdxPFzzqQqB06rg.jpeg"
width="449" height="357"></div>
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">© Bill Gate’s Gatesblog</figcaption></figure>
<p id="0ed2" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">We
are trapped in a dilemma: we collectively decided that we “need”
economic growth, yet economic growth destroys the planet and
continues to deprive us of the last freedoms and resources. There
is no logical approach to solving this fundamental crisis that
undermines even the most basic assumptions about ourselves and our
place in this world. If our economy is not growing anymore, what
else is there to do? If, after all the cumulative effort, the
contraption we’ve built will collapse in on itself anyway, where’s
the point? Good question.</p>
<figure class="ix iy iz ja jb jc fn fo paragraph-image">
<div class="jd je cc jf ai">
<div class="fn fo lf">
<div class="jj r cc fb">
<div class="lg jl r">
<div class="cb jg s t u ds ai bu jh ji"><br>
</div>
<img alt="Image for post" class="eg tt s t u ds ai c"
src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1190/1*K_Y5RAKxu82SwVjBq7_AoQ.png"
width="807" height="523"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">© The Economist — The world economy
seems to stagger.</figcaption></figure>
<p id="d35c" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">INEQUALITY</p>
<p id="1a26" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Global
inequality is <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">worse than ever</span>
— and probably even <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">worse than
that</span>. Poverty is a trap, and being rich literally pays
off. Banks take money from those in debt (the poorer you are the
more you have to pay), and pay money to bigwigs, who receive more
money the richer they are.</p>
<figure class="ix iy iz ja jb jc fn fo paragraph-image">
<div class="fn fo lh">
<div class="jj r cc fb">
<div class="li jl r">
<div class="cb jg s t u ds ai bu jh ji"><br>
</div>
<img alt="Image for post" class="eg tt s t u ds ai c"
src="https://miro.medium.com/max/700/1*8SO3VbLZRUsIFNmPaJDI9w.jpeg"
width="700" height="619"></div>
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">© World Economic Forum — The
richest 1% now own more wealth than the remaining 99%.</figcaption></figure>
<p id="cc94" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
many other gaps between men and women, black and white, East and
West, developed and developing are nowhere near closed as well.</p>
<p id="d001" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">WARFARE</p>
<p id="1497" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">With
the erratic Donald Trump as president of the United States, and
Putin, who wants to keep up with the United States renewal of
their nuclear arsenal, a nuclear arms race has once again started
that was already called a <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">Cold
War 2.0</span>. <br>
With North Korea shooting missile after missile in Japan’s
direction and sending threat after threat over the pacific for
fear of their own nation’s continued existence, nuclear war has
become a real possibility. <br>
The climate between Pakistan and India (both nuclear powers) is as
tense as ever, with India showing increasing concern about
possible conflict with China in the future, too. China is <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">involved in an ongoing genocide</span>
in Myanmar, for the sake of building a pipeline through the
country to supply China with oil. <br>
Israel still doesn’t let anyone inspect their nuclear weapons
arsenal and their increasingly fascist government is a ticking
timebomb in the Middle East.</p>
<p id="663e" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
infamous ‘Doomsday Clock’ is again at <span class="cf di ju jv jw
jx">two and a half minutes to midnight</span> — the closest
since 1953.</p>
<p id="eaa8" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria might have been defeated on the
ground, but the ideas and the hate will sure stay, inspiring new
jihadi movements to sprout up. In a vicious cycle of violence,
terrorist attacks in the West are answered with bombing campaigns,
which in turn fuel the propaganda of radical Islam.</p>
<p id="1cf2" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Warfare
itself changes, too. There is a tendency towards automation, and
digital warfare is an increasingly <span class="cf di ju jv jw
jx">real threat</span>.<br>
Drones are used on a regular basis against weaker countries, even
though they cause more civilian deaths than regular battles. It is
just very convenient to randomly fire missiles into crowds of
alleged terrorists from eight kilometers above. <br>
Combat robots are developed and tested by armies all around the
world.</p>
<p id="11d9" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Ever
more powerful weapon technologies are being built despite
international agreements on their ban — and used, as seen with the
sarin gas attack in Syria and the ‘Mother of all Bombs’ dropped on
a mountainside in Afghanistan by the Trump administration.</p>
<p id="dc39" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">DISEASE</p>
<p id="415e" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Public
health isn’t increasing either, and pollution might be the number
one reason — pollution now <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">kills
more people</span> than smoking, hunger, natural disasters, war,
murder, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria together. While we continue
to destroy Nature, <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">this very act</span>
unleashes more diseases.<br>
With the advancement of globalization, and despite popular
opinion, global health continues to decline.</p>
<p id="451f" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
nutritional value of our food is at a historic low, vital <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">phytonutrients have virtually
disappeared</span> from our daily meals, industrial sugar in
almost every processed food <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">poisons
generations</span>, and biodiversity declines as a direct result
of conventional agriculture. We, as a society, are “overfed but
undernourished” — for the first time in human history there are
now more over- than underweight people in the world.</p>
<p id="ba74" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
air in New Delhi, a city with a population of 26 million people,
has reach a toxicity equal to smoking 50 cigarettes per day. The
most polluted cities on earth are almost exclusively located in
India, China and Saudi Arabia.<em class="jt"> <br>
</em> This is not because Western countries are cleaner, it is
because they simple export their own pollution.</p>
<p id="6e37" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">There
seems no way out of the <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">opioid
crisis</span> in the US — Big Pharma lobbied doctors and
lawmakers into easily prescribing them, getting millions of people
addicted, and now, as the Trump administration cracks down on
painkillers, those people are forced into use of heroin and
fentanyl.</p>
<p id="ea27" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
<span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">World Health Organization</span>
and numerous <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">other experts</span>
have continuously warned of the disastrous consequences of a
post-antibiotic world, where even the smallest infection might end
deadly and surgery is not an option anymore. Yet no one can think
of a way to reduce antibiotic prescriptions by doctors or the use
of antibiotics in factory farming. Antibiotic-resistant
“superbugs”, who will most likely kill millions in the next
decades, emerge on a worrying scale in China, India, and even in
the Western world.</p>
<p id="b451" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">*********************************</p>
<p id="54c5" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Everyone,
this is how collapse looks like. It may take years or even
decades, but we have already set it in motion. We are at the
beginning of a gradual downwards spiral, that accelerates as it
spins on into the abyss. Watch it slowly unfold over the next few
years, and better make plans for what you will do — because many
members of the upper-class elites who know and understand the
world on a global level are already <span class="cf di ju jv jw
jx">making emergency plans</span> for the coming cataclysm. <br>
You see, I am by far not the only one who thinks like this (there
are <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">Theodore Kaczynski</span>, <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">Paul Kingsnorth</span>, Derrick
Jensen, Edward Abbey, and John Zerzan, just to name a few more
popular advocates), nor the first one to point this out (just
think about Thomas Malthus, who warned of collapse in 1826). <br>
A <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">NASA-funded study</span>
focusing on only two issues concluded that “Two important features
seem to appear across societies that have collapsed. […] The
stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological
carrying capacity and the economic stratification of society into
Elites and Masses.” According to the researchers, “collapse is
difficult to avoid. […] Elites grow and consume too much,
resulting in a famine among Commoners that eventually causes the
collapse of society.”</p>
<p id="95c5" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">From
collapses of past societies we now know that in most cases, there
is not one single factor that we can attribute this collapse to,
but rather a series of interrelated events (Scott, 2017). <br>
Our globalized society shows not only some, but <em class="jt">all</em>
of the factors that led to collapse of past civilizations, and
through the use of advanced technology we have been able to create
conditions worse than any other civilization ever had to endure.
Some might think, “Well, if technology has brought us so far, it
will sure bring us further”, and they might even be right — but
only for the next few years. It is obvious that the
techno-industrial system can’t continue to try to fix occurring
issues forever. There are simply not enough resources left. Like
the Roman Empire when it began to decline, we’re in a period of
overshoot, that will inevitably be followed by collapse (Tainter,
1988). <br>
Time is running out.</p>
<p id="540d" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">In
the past, when a civilization was in the process of collapsing,
other surrounding societies could take advantage of their
vulnerability, and sometimes merge the remains with their own
empire. This is not an option anymore in times of global
interdependency on international trade and transportation. If one
goes down, the others follow. The Domino Theory of collapse.</p>
<p id="eb5d" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">It
is also impossible to recreate our civilization, since we already
burned all the fossil fuels needed for the technological
advancements that allow a global civilization to temporary sustain
itself.</p>
<p id="5823" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Fantasies
of “colonizing the universe” are not helping us either — we humans
evolved over millions of years to fit exactly into the conditions
found here on Earth — this atmosphere, this temperature, this
chemical composition of solids, liquids and gasses, this gravity,
this UV intensity — and it is absurd to think that we could create
a functioning ecosystem on an entirely different planet all by
ourselves in a matter of decades. Even the most ambitious plans
for colonizing Mars will fail because of resource depletion and
any given combination of all factors leading to collapse listed
above. If, against all odds, anyone gets to “escape” Earth, it
will not be you, anyway — it will be the one that pays the most.</p>
<p id="2af2" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Free
energy is nowhere around the corner, neither is truly sustainable
energy. <br>
<span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">Solar panels</span> are made from
sand, which is running out. The production of photovoltaic plates
for solar panels requires tremendous amounts of energy, involves
the excessive use of highly toxic chemicals and creates vast
amounts of waste products such as silicon tetrachloride (three to
four tons of which are produced for every ton of the desired
polysilicon), which forms hydrochloric acid upon contact with
water, is often casually dumped somewhere and already <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">devastated landscapes</span> in China.<br>
Constructing dams kills river ecosystems and creates <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">one billion</span> (!) tons of
greenhouse gasses a year. Wind turbines are producing <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">millions of tons</span> of trash and
kill birds, bats and insects. <br>
Furthermore, all of the above technologies depend on the same old,
<span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">dirty</span> system of mining,
transporting, smelting, refining, shipping, assembling,
manufacturing, distributing and constructing.<br>
The only sustainable form of energy on this planet comes in form
of calories.</p>
<p id="e1a5" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">You
might call me a pessimist now, but I don’t think you would find
enough positive news to outweigh the above. This is not pessimism,
this is what actually happens.<br>
Neither is this alarmism. The only alarming thing is that there
are people blind enough to think that everything will work out
just fine, as long as we just recycle, invest more money in solar
companies, drink fair-trade coffee, buy a brand-new Tesla, or
drive a bicycle to work.</p>
<p id="1b98" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Politicians
continue to ensure us that “the best days are yet to come”, yet
most of us feel the opposite — it is the worst days that are yet
to come. And worse those days will be. As with earlier collapses,
the aftermath must be horrifying. But would it be really that bad?</p>
<p id="0208" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">I’ve
heard people calling the announcement of collapse ‘elitist’,
since, according to the logic they apply, you automatically
approve of millions — if not billions — of people dying. They hold
the unquestioned assumption that it will be “the others” who will
suffer the most, which is true — but only as long as civilization
exists and continues to suppress and exploit them. Millions, maybe
billions, will die anyway if this system continues to wreak havoc
on this planet.</p>
<p id="73de" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Actually,
it will be the global elite which will be hit the worst: the urban
populations of the Western world with no knowledge of basic
survival or the ecosystem around their cities. <br>
The global rural poor might actually be better off without the
capitalist system stealing their land or exploiting and enslaving
them. Consider the words of Anuradha Mittal, former co-director of
Food First, who said that former granaries of India now export dog
food and tulips to Europe. Same goes for many of the urban poor,
who live in slums not by choice but because they were forced to
relocate, thanks to the actions of multinational corporations and
banks — they still have the knowledge of how to live a life as
subsistence farmer.</p>
<p id="5b41" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">The
ones hit hardest by global collapse will be those in the highest
ranks of our civilizations’ hierarchy.</p>
<p id="3cd9" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Feeling
hopeless yet? Despite the overwhelming horror all this might
induce at first, there is no need for nihilism and despair.</p>
<p id="efa1" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">********************************</p>
<h1 id="44b2" class="lj lk bi bh et ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu lv
lw lx ly lz ma cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">A New Hope</h1>
<p id="85ca" class="hy hz bi ia b ib mb id ie if mc ih ii ij md il
im in me ip iq ir mf it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">But
not all is lost — as presented by James C. Scott and Joseph
Tainter, the “Dark Ages” following previous collapses were often a
time were personal freedom flourished, and repressive systems were
replaced by community efforts to support each other.</p>
<p id="719e" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Civilized
culture might not have any plans for the event of collapse of
infrastructure, trade, industry and medicinal and food supply.
Most people imagine some kind of post-apocalyptic ‘Mad Max’
scenario where the ones with the most guns rule and a more
primitive but still civilized lifestyle emerges that brings back
the horrors of our own <em class="jt">civilized</em> past —
famine, plague, slavery, and the “law of the strongest” (sometimes
falsely called “the law of the jungle”). This nightmarish tale was
the inspiration for a number of Hollywood movies that further put
focus on the alleged inevitability of some chaotic, violent future
for humanity (Think about “The Book of Eli”, “World War Z”, “12
Monkeys”, “I Am Legend”, “The Day After Tomorrow”, “The Matrix”,
“Oblivion”, “28 Days Later” and even kids’ movies like “WALL-E”).
As a response to those nightmarish scenarios, some buy ammunition
and canned food in anticipation of the cataclysm — but when the
last bullet is fired and the last can of beans emptied, they are
back at exactly the point where they started.<br>
This vision of the future is indeed terrifying, since after all it
is a very likely scenario — even though most people would prefer
to have some alternative.</p>
<p id="2969" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">What
we lack is an idea of what to do, a short- and long-term plan for
when things go south. We seem to have all the knowledge in the
world, but yet we lack the simple knowledge of <em class="jt">how
to live</em>.</p>
<p id="c285" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">But
you can call of the search and cancel the think tank meetings:
There already <em class="jt">is</em> a truly sustainable
lifestyle, proven successful for three million years and counting
and custom-tailored for us humans by the indisputable power of
evolution: tribalism.</p>
<p id="209b" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Evolution
came up with a social organization for every animal, carefully
selected through trial and error until reaching the optimum. It
organized whales in pods, baboons in troops, wolves in packs,
buffalo in herds, birds in flocks, ants in colonies, bees in
hives, school in fish — and humans in tribes. There is a way for
every single animal that works for this animal within the limits
of its ecological niche (and therefore for all the other animals
inhabiting this niche, too).<br>
Who are we to think that after only a few thousand years we came
up with something better, more successful?! There was no rational
impulse to carefully construct something considering any possible
limits and boundaries, people just started building like fury! The
one big long-term study on whether civilizations are sustainable
enough to successfully replace tribalism will soon come to a final
conclusion: <em class="jt">No</em>.</p>
<p id="ce67" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">We
have to get off our high horse and come in <span class="cf di ju
jv jw jx">contact with the Earth</span> once again. We have to
realize the huge mistake we made, the “<span class="cf di ju jv jw
jx">worst mistake</span> in the history of the human race”, as
anthropologist and best-selling author Jared Diamond called it. We
have to remember the “original <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">affluent
society</span>”, as another anthropologist, Marshall Sahlins,
famously wrote.</p>
<figure class="ix iy iz ja jb jc fn fo paragraph-image">
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<img alt="Image for post" class="eg tt s t u ds ai c"
src="https://miro.medium.com/max/974/1*mazhDIiHD7Di-cq_pWbp6Q.jpeg"
width="778" height="530"></div>
</div>
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</div>
<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">The original affluent society:
Members of the Penan tribe eat in their hut. Borneo, 1993 ©
David Hiser</figcaption></figure>
<p id="05bc" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Most
modern-day anthropologists are already united in the ability to
see through the racial bias of earlier times, and come to
surprisingly positive conclusions about the exact same people that
were considered “savages” whose lives were “nasty, brutish and
short” in times of colonialization. They see people who are
peaceful, content, and happy, who carefully consider their
actions, avoid confrontation, and have no significant impact on
their environment. If you think I am perpetuating the “Noble
Savage Myth”, just watch a documentary about any <span class="cf
di ju jv jw jx">primitive tribe</span>, or read a book by
someone who experienced their life <span class="cf di ju jv jw
jx">first hand</span>.</p>
<p id="6973" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Without
even one exception, all of the problems listed in the first part
of this essay are directly motivated by and justified with the
unquestioned assumption that we humans can do with this world as
we please — we can destroy, improve, relocate, build, dam up,
extract, cut down, construct, dig out, burn, and dump as much as
we want, like gods, shaping the world to fit our desires. This
misbelief, called anthropocentrism, is what caused all those
terrible things in the first place. <br>
The underlying theme of our own culture’s mythology was formulated
by Daniel Quinn as follows: “The world was made for man, and man
was made to conquer and rule it.” We have lived by those words
until now, and it almost killed us. It has shattered this once
beautiful and thriving planet into pieces, dust and trash.<br>
But this is no inherently human belief. It is the belief of only
one single culture. A culture that rose from the first agrarian
settlements to a globalized techno-industrial civilization.</p>
<figure class="ix iy iz ja jb jc kb kc dg kd ke kf kg kh ay dj ki kj
kk kl bq paragraph-image">
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<img alt="Image for post" class="eg tt s t u ds ai c"
src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1600/1*smGgEh9DsEOi3kwHh-jtXQ.jpeg"
width="1327" height="995"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">An <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">intruder</span>
killed for trespassing on the territory of the Tagaeri tribe,
once part of the Huaorani (Ecuador), who crossed the border of
their land. The Tagaeri’s lives are under constant threat by
missionaries and illegal loggers, poachers and gold miners, who
often bring disease and violence.</figcaption></figure>
<p id="7efd" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">As
you may have noticed, I purposely avoided to make general claims
about humanity, and therefore used terms like “<em class="jt">civilized</em>
humans” in my argumentation. I did this to stress the fact that
‘we’ do not represent humanity (Quinn, 1996). There is nothing
wrong with humans as a species. For 99% or our species’ time on
this planet, we have been nomadic hunter-gatherers, and this most
successful of all lifestyles continues to this day, where dozens
of uncontacted tribes <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">make it
clear</span> that they are not interested in the development our
civilization has to offer in exchange for their home, the forest.</p>
<p id="8e56" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Those
primitive people, as long as they are left alone by the people of
our culture and live in “voluntary isolation”, are living proof
that the lifestyle does still work — so good in fact that it is
worth defending with their very lives. And there is more:
primitive life doesn’t only work for humans (who enjoy a varied
organic <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">diet</span> and therefore
<span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">superior</span> <span class="cf
di ju jv jw jx">health</span>, ample leisure time and low levels
of stress because of a lifestyle characterized by <span class="cf
di ju jv jw jx">play</span>), it works for other animals, as
well as plants, rivers, and mountains.<br>
Some may now claim that I “romanticize the past”, but this
accusation is usually made by people who think it is more ‘grown
up’ to romanticize the future.</p>
<p id="b146" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Don’t
get me wrong! I am not proposing to “go back to the Stone Age”
(which of course is physically impossible), nor do I want everyone
to become a hunter-gatherer. But there is a lot we can learn from
those (ab)original people, because they have the most important
knowledge of all, the knowledge that we lack: they know how to
live, without devastating their environment on which we depend for
our very survival.</p>
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</div>
<img alt="Image for post" class="eg tt s t u ds ai c"
src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1920/1*R5YJMamKLa_QTCYjQraP4A.jpeg"
width="830" height="498"></div>
</div>
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<figcaption class="jp jq fp fn fo jr js bh hb ca bj bm"
data-selectable-paragraph="">Araweté woman playing with
butterflies. From: ‘<span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">The River is
Life</span>’ © Alice Kohler</figcaption></figure>
<p id="035d" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">I
do advocate self-sufficiency, autonomy, independence,
simplification, localization and rewilding. Knowing the plants
around you, the movement of the mammals and the language of birds.
Reading Nature’s signs, predicting the weather and listening to
the wind in the leaves. Doing things yourself and not relying on
people you don’t know. Feeding yourself, planting trees, building
your own house, creating and nurturing a community and caring
about the people you love. Carving a flute and mastering it.
Reading and educating yourself and others. Playing games and
laughing. Drinking tea when it’s cold and taking a bath when it’s
hot.<br>
I advocate trying to do everything yourself, from materials that
you yourself collected and processed. I advocate quitting your
job, going back to the countryside, breathing the fresh air,
feeling the sun on your skin, and letting go. Breaking out of the
cage. Being as free as you can.</p>
<p id="edea" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">I
cannot provide you with a final solution to all of our problems,
but I can tell you were to look for answers to those problems. I
say we make the best of our situation, we embrace collapse, and
use the opportunity to create something better — something that
works. The possibilities are endless.</p>
<p id="f8da" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">I
have looked for answers, and I found many of them answered by
simplifying every possible aspect of my life, spending plenty of
time in the garden inspecting and observing plants and animals,
and looking to the indigenous people in whose area I now live if I
have any further questions. Not to imitate them, but to understand
them and learn from them. <br>
And it works! Since I quit my civilized life four years ago, I
became stronger and healthier than ever before, have more freedom
and free time, eat better, use much less money, worry less, and am
generally more happy and content.</p>
<p id="f69f" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Sometimes
you have to take a step back to move forward.</p>
<h1 id="edb8" class="lj lk bi bh et ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu lv
lw lx ly lz ma cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Works cited:</h1>
<p id="2d34" class="hy hz bi ia b ib mb id ie if mc ih ii ij md il
im in me ip iq ir mf it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Daniel
Quinn: <em class="jt">The Story of B</em> (Bantam, 1996)</p>
<p id="8d01" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Derrick
Jensen: <em class="jt">Endgame, Vol. 1</em> (Seven Stories Press,
2006)</p>
<p id="ec88" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">James
C. Scott: <em class="jt">Against the Grain — A Deep History of
the Earliest States</em> (Yale University Press, 2017)</p>
<p id="e9af" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Joseph
Tainter: <em class="jt">The Collapse of Complex Societies</em>
(Cambridge University Press, 1990)</p>
<p id="47ce" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Mark
Lynas: <em class="jt">Six Degrees — Our Future on a Hotter Planet</em>
(Fourth Estate, 2009)</p>
<p id="bdfb" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Michael
Williams: <em class="jt">Deforesting the Earth — From Prehistory
to Global Crisis</em> (University of Chicago Press, 2003)</p>
<p id="dae3" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Ronald
Wright: <em class="jt">A Short History of Progres</em>s (House of
Anansi Press, 2004)</p>
<p id="a0eb" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">This
article was first published on <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">feunfoo.org</span>.</p>
<p id="11be" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">About
the author:</p>
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kk kl bq paragraph-image">
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src="https://miro.medium.com/max/200/1*Y50HyCL_MT7IT-bw8_LezA.jpeg"
width="200" height="220"></div>
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</figure>
<p id="1f0e" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Dave
is recovering from civilization on a permaculture farm in the
tropics. Here he waits for the collapse and experiments with a
lifestyle that makes him and every other creature in his garden
happy.</p>
<p id="436a" class="hy hz bi ia b ib ic id ie if ig ih ii ij ik il
im in io ip iq ir is it iu iv ft cs" data-selectable-paragraph="">Follow
David on <span class="cf di ju jv jw jx">Instagram</span> and <span
class="cf di ju jv jw jx">Facebook</span>!</p>
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