dagblog - Comments for "The Sky is Falling"

I think what gets me the most

cmaukonen — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 19:55:00 +0000

I think what gets me the most is that in Washington, (and London and Berlin and Paris....) they really do believe that we can go back to The Good Old Days of sustained growth and soaring stocks etc. when it was The Good Old Days that got us into this mess to begin with. Like some stupid college frat whop thinks he can still Party all night and not wind up with his head in the john and a major hang over.

Dmitri Orlov is wonderfully

David Seaton — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:12:25 +0000

In reply to The Sky is Falling

Dmitri Orlov is wonderfully provocative... I love the guy. The idea of his that America is much more vulnerable in face of collapse than the USSR was is very stimulating and very well argued.

I just got one-third of the

acanuck — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 04:58:33 +0000

In reply to The Sky is Falling

I just got one-third of the way into Matt Taibbi's Griftopia -- specifically, his chapter on Alan Greenspan, titled The Biggest Asshole in the Universe. Taibbi's breezy writing makes it almost fun to follow the wilful obtuseness with which one narcissist destroyed the U.S. economy.

Now Orlov reminds us that global financial collapse is just a minor part of the deteriorating situation. And that "die-off" will necessarily cut the world's population to one-eighth its current size. Orlov takes the notion well, but I find it just a bit depressing.

Hey gimme break. That was

cmaukonen — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 22:42:01 +0000

In reply to I don't think that movie

Hey gimme break. That was 1973, before NOW and other things.

I don't think that movie

EmmaZahn — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 22:16:00 +0000

In reply to Only the best from the past.

I don't think that movie qualifies.

You do know the target audience for that movie is adolescent males, right? You know, all those Tim the Tool Man Taylors who love them some power tools.

Only the best from the past.

cmaukonen — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 21:59:24 +0000

In reply to Good video. Thanks for

Only the best from the past.

Good video. Thanks for

EmmaZahn — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 21:19:05 +0000

In reply to The Sky is Falling

Good video. Thanks for sharing.

The imminent and total collpase Orlov predicts is what many, many people sense coming. What a shame he sounds so hopeless about it. Not sure whether to attribute that to his Russian soul or good KGB tactics*.

Personally, I choose to look at the coming tribulations as a great opportunity brilliantly disguised as an impossible situation. In other words, I would rather spend my time thinking of ways to preserve the best of what we've learned about being human post collapse. Human beings have proven themselves capable of surviving adversity, even die offs but do not seem to have yet learned how to survive prosperity. We need to work on that.

*What do you expect? I grew up during the Cold War. Indoctrination and/or too many spy novels and movies.

Excellent video, Donal!Death

Beetlejuice — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 19:05:33 +0000

In reply to The Sky is Falling

Excellent video, Donal!

Death by a thousand cuts rather than a single stab to the heart. It's when all those little things start falling like dominoes that people will realize it's too late. Little things no one is prepared to meet head on, but will drive a stake thru the heart and kill the beast. And the rest of the world will sit back and watch as the US disintegrates back to tribal warfare.

Donal...this guy is paying

cmaukonen — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 18:59:58 +0000

In reply to The Sky is Falling

Donal...this guy is paying attention. What he says is spot on. But not all that new in some respects. From a book I like.

Dan drank the second half of his bourbon and water. “I have had such a day as I didn’t think it was possible to have. Seven cardiacs are dead and a couple more will go before morning. Three miscarriages and one of the women died. I don’t know what killed her. I’d put down `fright’ on the death certificate if I had time to make out death certificates. Three suicides-one of them was Edgar Quisenberry.”
Randy said, “Edgar-why?”
Dan frowned. “Hard to say. He still had as much as anybody else, or more. He wasn’t organically ill. I’ll refer to Toynbee again. Inability to cope with a sudden change in the environment. He swam in a sea of money, and when money was transmuted back into paper he was left gasping and confused, and he died. You’ve read the history of the ‘twenty-nine crash, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Dozens of people killed themselves for the same reason. They created and lived in an environment of paper profits, and when paper returned to paper they had to kill themselves, not realizing that their environment was unnatural and artificial.

And this was written in the late 1950s. It will be the well of who would be dangerous for they do not have any idea how to survive without money. They do not know how to clothe, feed and house themselves with out a strip mall or Amazon.

I do believe that we are on the brink of collapse and that the policies that have been coming out of Washington are simply an attempt to to delay the inevitable.

Thanks for this.