TFian
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2010
- Messages
- 1,226
I want to start this off by stating that the opinions I am about to express come from a large base of facts from ecologists, demographers, anthropologists, and other types of intellectuals.
1. Columbus - When Columbus arrived to the Bahams, mistaking them for India, he immediately noticed how welcoming the indigenous peoples were. He noticed that he could exploit them because they were willing to trade gold for beads and random worthless objects. He then began forcing the indigenous peoples to provide him with gold or as a consequence, he and his men would massacre them. He also began enslaving them, but they were too difficult to keep a slaves so for the most part he obliterated them. This continued throughout the European colonization of the western hemisphere. I could write a book about the history of the indigenous, but I will spare you. If you want to know more about that read something from Howard Zinn or Ward Churchill.
2. Industry - Since the dawn of the industrial age, our technology, our population, and thus our expansion has seen rapid increase unlike any other civilization before it. Because the wealthier countries built their wealth on the backs of slaves and the poor, and because they exploited their resources from weaker poor countries, the negative effects of local ecosystems everywhere were slowly compromised.
The destruction that must take place to build the endless amount of products we have today is devastating. You likely see it as a bunch of tiny contaminated areas over a vast planet. In reality, one failed ecosystem will inevitably cause the fall of another over time. There isn't one process in the industrial process that doesn't devastate local ecosystems. With the current technology, there is no green solution that will change this truth.
3. Globalization - To keep it short and sweet, manufacturing is no longer exclusive to wealthy countries, but is rather a game of imperialism and exploitation for wealthy countries (The same as every civilization before us, only now it is global). Now we have world wide imports and exports for agricultural, manufacturing, and trade purposes.
4. Economy - I will keep this one short too. Our economy is also global. What effects one country is going to effect the next because of globalization. Every country relies on the United States for it's high levels of consumption. People often argue that China could at any moment cash in on the debt we own them... Well, that's not how it works. Our country is owned and run by very wealthy people, and a good portion of them are not American. However, if at any moment any country demanded our debt be paid, if we theoretically agreed, we would be bankrupt, and then, so would they because nobody here could afford to buy their products.
5. Summary - So, reason would say that this process of unsustainable, Keynesian economics where we just continue to print more money will go on and on until a crash comes that can't be repaired. This is a key sign of collapse, which has happened to every large civilization before ours.
Our unrepairable collapse will more than likely come when oil is too expensive to make the use of it worth it. Right now we are mining for Bitumen in Canada in a mining field that is the size of Florida, to create synthetic oil. For every two barrels of oil used to produced this oil, we only get one in return. In the 1970's when we reached our peak in oil consumption, the trade off was I believe 1 to 20 (couldn't find the statistic at the moment so don't quote me).
6. You - People are predictable when speaking of the masses. Those with special interests pay a great deal of money to learn how to manipulate the masses. It is the same old story of oppression, exploitation, and enslavement that we've seen in every civilization before ours, and we are going down in just the same way.
1. Columbus - When Columbus arrived to the Bahams, mistaking them for India, he immediately noticed how welcoming the indigenous peoples were. He noticed that he could exploit them because they were willing to trade gold for beads and random worthless objects. He then began forcing the indigenous peoples to provide him with gold or as a consequence, he and his men would massacre them. He also began enslaving them, but they were too difficult to keep a slaves so for the most part he obliterated them. This continued throughout the European colonization of the western hemisphere. I could write a book about the history of the indigenous, but I will spare you. If you want to know more about that read something from Howard Zinn or Ward Churchill.
2. Industry - Since the dawn of the industrial age, our technology, our population, and thus our expansion has seen rapid increase unlike any other civilization before it. Because the wealthier countries built their wealth on the backs of slaves and the poor, and because they exploited their resources from weaker poor countries, the negative effects of local ecosystems everywhere were slowly compromised.
The destruction that must take place to build the endless amount of products we have today is devastating. You likely see it as a bunch of tiny contaminated areas over a vast planet. In reality, one failed ecosystem will inevitably cause the fall of another over time. There isn't one process in the industrial process that doesn't devastate local ecosystems. With the current technology, there is no green solution that will change this truth.
3. Globalization - To keep it short and sweet, manufacturing is no longer exclusive to wealthy countries, but is rather a game of imperialism and exploitation for wealthy countries (The same as every civilization before us, only now it is global). Now we have world wide imports and exports for agricultural, manufacturing, and trade purposes.
4. Economy - I will keep this one short too. Our economy is also global. What effects one country is going to effect the next because of globalization. Every country relies on the United States for it's high levels of consumption. People often argue that China could at any moment cash in on the debt we own them... Well, that's not how it works. Our country is owned and run by very wealthy people, and a good portion of them are not American. However, if at any moment any country demanded our debt be paid, if we theoretically agreed, we would be bankrupt, and then, so would they because nobody here could afford to buy their products.
5. Summary - So, reason would say that this process of unsustainable, Keynesian economics where we just continue to print more money will go on and on until a crash comes that can't be repaired. This is a key sign of collapse, which has happened to every large civilization before ours.
Our unrepairable collapse will more than likely come when oil is too expensive to make the use of it worth it. Right now we are mining for Bitumen in Canada in a mining field that is the size of Florida, to create synthetic oil. For every two barrels of oil used to produced this oil, we only get one in return. In the 1970's when we reached our peak in oil consumption, the trade off was I believe 1 to 20 (couldn't find the statistic at the moment so don't quote me).
6. You - People are predictable when speaking of the masses. Those with special interests pay a great deal of money to learn how to manipulate the masses. It is the same old story of oppression, exploitation, and enslavement that we've seen in every civilization before ours, and we are going down in just the same way.
, given that "civilization" has been successful for THOUSANDS of years, with few signs it will soon fail?
