Reinventing Collapse
Utterpower’s Sunday Morning Book Review
The following is more ‘thinking out loud’. Consider adding your thoughts, simply keep scrolling down to the comment box.
As many of us watch our Government attempt to print it’s way out of a huge mess, we DIYers attempt to gather information on what the product of this activity looked like in the past? We know it has happened a number of times prior, what is the smart thing to do? The book “Re-inventing Collapse” has received some attention by members of our community.
It’s worth the read, but if you have a similar back ground to mine, you’ll see a lot of bias in his opinions, and perhaps you will be wearing slightly different colored glasses when you recall the same events as he does. One of his messages I received loud and clear is we seem to be adopting and practicing the same philosophies that were present in Soviet Union’s Government before their collapse, one is ‘Central Planning’ and a Government involved in every facet of Business. I remember commentary made by a wise man who said “the danger in making the Government loan to Chrysler (remember Iacocca) was in the fact that it may work.” Of course he was worried it would become a habit, and lead to making more loans from the public purse to other companies.
Orlov makes a number of comparisons between the Soviet Union and the USA, some he got wrong in my opinion, but it is more about how elastic the bungee cords are, and the dynamic loads created by supply and demand at any given moment in time that will determine when collapse arrives. Considering that our Sun will one day become a Red Dwarf, Collapse is a certainty, what’s not certain is where you’ll be when it arrives.
One area he did get wrong was energy, we have plenty of it right here on our shores, and these discoveries are massive. The question all along is will we allow our economy to be starved to death, or will we make use of the massive resources we have in Oil, Gas, Coal, Nuke, and all those materials, products we produce from them? Gang Greenies¹ will insist the Oceans will rise 25 feet and kill most of us if we do. Those on the other side suggest the masses will starve without the energy.
About now, you might be thinking the real answer is fewer people. While you’re thinking about that; consider what your Government has been doing, the floodgates seem to be wide open and we are importing a lot more people to feed, and many will be our dependents, as they really have no skills that our present economy requires. Perhaps we’ll use them to replace diesel tractors? Maybe we’ll use 1000 of them roped together to pull a gang of plows in the spring?
Orlov mentions Microsoft indirectly, he suggests that a lot of America’s treasures are software and things like movies that are distributed freely in a lot of countries, and that copies of same are in distribution in many countries before Americans can >buy< them! Orlov has a head shaped by Unix, and I ‘d bet he was running Linux to support his open source word processor when he wrote the book. If you are a member of this Herd, it’s fairly important that you tolerate hate speech of Microsoft, no matter how many of your friends work there. But… this does not negate his argument!
One thing I expect to remain the same, our elected officials are more interested in staying in power than creating wealth for our nation, those who vote for them are often expecting to receive gifts from Government or expecting those they voted for to carry out the suicide mission they unwittingly endorse. There are signs of change at the top. President Obama calling off Lisa Jackson (the Rabid Activist Dog heading the EPA) is a sign, Gang Greenies have been demanding the impossible, the adoption of unrealistic emission standards that will bring an end to any hope of our economy recovering. Of course they (past supporters of the President) still believe in magic, they likely believe they can grow all their food on the south facing window sill above their Kitchen sink. President Obama, your effort to steer the ship away from the rocks will not go unpunished!
Read Orlov’s book, expect that you will not agree with parts of it, but there are many thought provoking observations and hypothesis within. Consider reading book reviews at Amazon for additional insight if you decide to buy canned food, hand tools, or 22 long rifle ammo instead. Perhaps one of the more sought after commodities (for a period of time) will be a bow saw, replacement blades and a file. What’s your guess?
GB
¹ ‘Gang Greenie’ George’s term for a group of people who would watch millions starve to death before they converted any more hydrocarbons into food, or those who would gamble precious resources on investments known to provide poor returns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangrene