Things to Know as Collapse Becomes Hip

[marmar]

Things to Know as Collapse Becomes Hip

Saturday, 24 August 2013 01:43
By Jan Lundberg, Truthout | Op-Ed


A consensus seems to be building toward anticipating collapse. So what's your flavor? Financial meltdown with chaos? Petrocollapse? Climate extinction? The contributing crises are seemingly diverse, including Fukushima's mounting radioactive releases into the Pacific, the growing plastic plague and creeping GMO contamination. If none of those are your thing, you can acknowledge accelerating bee colony collapse.

You may feel the days of "innocence" have receded in the rear-view mirror as we drive off the ecological cliff like motorized lemmings. Even so, maybe you see such resilience in the corporate state and its war machine that you anticipate dictatorship à la Children of Men, the ominous film set in 2027.

It appears that things must get worse before they get better. The United States has become especially absurd with its intensifying mess of debt and flailing leadership. If a major event in the Persian Gulf or China can trigger the toppling of the US House of Cards, increased consumer vulnerability must be the order of the day. It is surprising to some that total collapse has not yet happened, but news such as record new car sales in July suggests the entire system can keep on going indefinitely. Such news supplies happy-talk for the embattled corporate agenda.

A more disturbing and shocking statistic than car sales going in the wrong direction for Mother Earth:

"Four out of five US adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream." (Associated Press, July 28, 2013)

Is this a wake-up call or just part of the relentless barrage of disillusion? What about things the four-fifths can do now that they are not doing? Are they - we - helpless victims? We'll need to do more than wait for the next election, write to Congress or demonstrate in the streets against economic hardship and mismanagement. Yet many of the four-fifths still assume that they can rise above any temporary period of struggling and that money will solve their problems. Meanwhile, the holy grail of national Recovery beckons without arriving. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18217-things-to-know-as-collapse-becomes-hip

[xchrom]

1. du rec.

[KG]

2. 1 thing I know: expect no help from the dem party on economic issues.

[grilled onions]

3. Recycle,Re Use,Renew,Redo,Resale

With today's technology and ability to turn just about any trash into something useful our landfills should never be full. So what's the problem? Are far too many people not doing their part to recycle? Are stores dumping old produce instead of turning it into compost(if they can't possibly hand it over to a soup kitchen)? Is big business too concerned with profits that recycling doesn't even come into the picture?
Many apartment complexes never even attempt to have tenants recycle their garbage according to type of trash. If they had bins that would be difficult for others to help themselves to the aluminum cans, for example or bins that could stay dry in rain and snow think how much we could save in raw materials.
But we tend to toss things away once they are not new. A sweater with a hole in it often gets thrown out rather then repaired. Shoes are always tossed out once they are beyond their prime or no longer "hip".
It wasn't always like this. When I grew up(back in the stone age) we had many resale shops. Stores had bargain basements where once an item was hardly moving upstairs they put a fantastic price on items to move and move they did. It was where bargain hunters went before they went into the main store.
We had appliance repair men and they fixed everything from a toaster to a refrigerator. No item was too small to tinker with and it kept many electric coffee makers,toasters and electric fans out of landfills. It helped keep many a radio or phonograph from ending up in the attic.
There was at least one shoe repair business in every town. While many women were good with needle and thread they also had many women who had a business to create new fashions but also repair or make alterations.
It was this kind of thinking that made most everyone think before they tossed. They followed practices of their grandparents who never threw out a bit of string or paper bag. We need to get back to this.
Gardens were a given in every backyard. They did not have regulations preventing such "digging" in home associations. We should have more gardens--not fewer. Even high rise roof tops have proven that veggies can grow 30 stories up. This food would not only benefit the family(perhaps the neighborhood mother lode if it's a great zucchini year) but also local food pantries/soup kitchens could also reap the benefits. It would be more natural food, healthy exercise and little kids could get a learning experience not found in school.
All these ideas are not new but they have proven to be a wise move back then and even more so today.

[knitter4democracy]

5. Sounds like Michigan.

We have repair men, shoe repair shops in every good-sized town, tailors who do alterations, and gardens in most yards. Many of us put up food during the summer and fall, too, and then there are the hunters who hunt for meat, not show. With all of the produce grown in our state, I'm usually busy from the end of May through November with freezing and canning for the year with each season as it comes and goes. Right now, it's peaches with apples coming up.

[Turbineguy]

4. One needs a marketable post-collapse skill.

I know a little bit about crosshead bearings and can keep the guillotine blade sliding smoothly. I advise young people to study mortuary science.

In the meantime I do my regular job in the hope that those in charge will recognise their folly and collapse will be averted.

[KG]

6. dumpster diving and 'scrapping'

[BOG PERSON]

17. Man converts NYC dumpster into a home

The Big Apple is known for its small living spaces, but one man just took "small" to a whole new level.

California designer Gregory Kloehn found himself needing a place to stay during his frequent visits to New York — and let's face it, hotels are pricey. So, he bought a dumpster. Yes, the kind you see on construction sites.

Kloehn got to work on the $2,000 metal box and installed a kitchen, bathroom, bed and sun deck. Kloehn strategically added wheels to the bottom of his new home to give it mobility. You know, it ups the property value. The box is located in a nice area of Brooklyn called Red Hook.

The sophistication doesn't end there. Kloehn hooked up a six-gallon water tank for drinking; the tank also funnels water to the toilet and an outdoor shower. There's no need for a port-a-potty. Electricity is in full effect, powering a microwave and small stove.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/man-converts-nyc-dumpster-home-185108416.html

[MelungeonWoman]

8. Tree removal

My suggestion to anyone NOT afraid of heights is to get into tree removal, millions and millions of ash trees will need to be removed in the next several years due to ash borer infestation.

[NickB79]

22. Guillotines aren't "manly" enough for us Mericans!

I've been practicing my axe-swinging skills, myself.

[G_j]

7. Recommended

reading.

[Octafish]

9. Frank ''Carlyle meets Lumumba'' Carlucci is into the Lifeboat for Millionaires line...

From the If You Have to Ask "How much?" You Can't Afford It Department:

The Really Creepy People Behind the Libertarian-Inspired Billionaire Sea Castles

The stinking rich are planning billion-dollar luxury liners that keep the land-based Americans they've plundered at a safe distance.

AlterNet / By Mark Ames
June 1, 2010

What happens when Americans plunder America and leave it broken, destitute and seething mad? Where do these fabulously wealthy Americans go with their loot, if America isn't a safe, secure, or even desirable place to spend their riches? What if they lose faith in their gated communities, because those plush gated communities are surrounded by millions of pissed-off Americans stripped of their entitlements, and who now want in?

The first such floating castle has been christened the " Utopia"--the South Korean firm Samsung has been contracted to build the $1.1 billion ship, due to be launched in 2013. Already orders are coming in to buy one of the Utopia's 200 or so mansions for sale- -which range in price from about $4 million for the smallest condos to over $26 million for 6,600 square-foot "estates." The largest mansion is a whopping 40,000 square feet, and sells for $160 million.

SNIP...

Both Thiel and Milton Friedman's grandson see democracy as the enemy--last year, Thiel wrote "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible" at about the same time that Milton Friedman's grandson proclaimed, "Democracy is not the answer." Both published their anti-democracy proclamations in the same billionaire-Koch-family-funded outlet, Cato Unbound, one of the oldest billionaire-fed libertarian welfare dispensaries. Friedman's answer for Thiel's democracy problem is to build offshore libertarian pod-fortresses where the libertarian way rules. It's probably better for everyone if Milton Friedman's grandson and Peter Thiel leave us forever for their libertarian ocean lair--Thiel believes that America went down the tubes ever since it gave women the right to vote, and he was outed as the sponsor of accused felon James O'Keefe's smear videos that brought ACORN to ruin.

SNIP...

While neither Bush nor the Bin Ladens are principals in the Frontier Group, its founding director, Frank Carlucci, is a name they know well, and you should too. Carlucci ran the Carlyle Group as its chairman from 1989 through 2005, right around the time that the wars started going undeniably bad, and floating castles started to look like a viable plan. But Carlucci's past is much weirder and scarier than most of us care to know: whether it's his strangely timed appearances in some of the ugliest assassinations and coups in modern history, or serving as Carter's number two man in the CIA, and Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, if Frank Carlucci (nicknamed "Creepy Carlucci" and "Spooky Frank&quot is the founding director of a firm that's building floating castles, it's a bad sign for those of us left behind.

I'll get into Carlucci's partners in the Frontier Group in a moment, but first, let's reacquaint ourselves with Frank Carlucci. From an early age, Carlucci learned the importance of getting to know the right people in the right places. He studied at Princeton in the mid-1950s, where as luck should have it, Carlucci roomed with Donald Rumsfeld. Both Carlucci and Rumsfeld shared a passion for Greco-Roman wrestling at Princeton, and both went on to serve in the Navy after Princeton. Their paths would split and merge several times over the next few decades, even as they remained close personal friends throughout their lives. In the late 1950s, Carlucci briefly served as an executive at a lingerie manufacturer, Jantzen (the Victoria's Secret of its day), but quickly left to join the State Department.

CONTINUED...

http://www.alternet.org/story/147058/the_really_creepy_people_behind_the_libertarian-inspired_billionaire_sea_castles

Even while the proles kill one another for a morsel of bread, rest assured that America's best people won't have to settle for anything less.

[Turbineguy]

12. There's a fatal flaw inherent in this concept.

They are more physically more vulnerable than they are on land. They have to be supplied with goods which means they are still dependent on a functioning economy somewhere. In return for those goods they only provide fiat money, they do not contribute in any way. In fact they need a more well developed infra-structure than on land.

The fact is that those at the top of the heap are more dependent on a functioning society than many of us down the pyramid. It's in a parasite's best interest to keep the host alive.

Of course to those who believe in Reaganomics, this is a great idea. To those who live in the real world, go ahead, sail away! Good riddance!

One torpedo or a C130 with a MOAB can do wonders.

[Jerry442]

18. They'd probably hire American armed forces to protect them like the Saudis do now. NT

[Hydra]

26. They just need a slave nation to provide for them

But as you say, they're pretty vulnerable out there. I'm totally in favor of them going Galt though- as long as they don't leave an army in charge on land, we can do much better without them.

[malthaussen]

15. One torpedo. Just one.

Just sayin'

-- Mal

[lonestarnot]

21. They can't get a cruise boat to float. How do they think they can float something with earth on it.

It'll be a floating richie fermented fuck-up fail like the rest of their greed. Nutjobs.

[MisterP]

27. there was also a similar one outside legal waters off the Bay Area, full of H1 visa workers

OH GOD THEY'RE GOING TO EAT THEM

[upi402]

10. Over-arching rule: Don't f*ck with mother nature

Gore had NAFTA and the TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT all wrong, but made amends with this one.

[malthaussen]

13. Tell ya a secret: we collapsed long ago.

But I'm far from hip.

-- Mal

[Egalitarian Thug]

30. One long war since the 19th century. The class war came to notice as The Enlightenment

slipped through the fingers of the ruling class, and the American revolution kicked off the idea that the subjects can rid themselves of rulers.

[tritsofme]

14. The collapse will commence in 24 business hours.

[L0oniX]

16. "write to Congress" ...you might as well write to Goldman Sachs too.

[drokhole]

19. That's probably where the letters get forwarded...

...and filed promptly in the shredder.

[bhikkhu]

20. "a consensus seems to be building"...there' must be a term for sentiments like that

which most likely derive from selective reading, so that all the information one takes in tends to be in agreement, and the information one doesn't take in is hardly noticed. It was very evident in Fox viewers before the election, who couldn't comprehend that their candidate didn't have overwhelming support. You even see it here, in shock that Obama still has popular support.

In any case, we've been on the brink of collapse for 200 years at least. That's what it is to live in a highly complex developed society. There have been lots of little collapses, but the day after collapse people just get on with things and start propping it all back up again. There is no end point, there's always going to be "the day after".

Obsession with collapse tends to distract from ongoing change, which is what you would look at if you wanted understanding.

[mick063]

23. If nearly half of the population would support Romney as a candidate

Last edited Sun Aug 25, 2013, 02:43 PM - Edit history (1)

I am not at all shocked by President Obama's support.

So you believe we are on a road to prosperity and well being?

[bhikkhu]

25. I believe the economy is growing at 1-2%

since the recession, and the basic structure for it to continue to do so is sound for the next few years. The foundation of that is energy and resource production, which is good, and then manufacturing dependent on resources and energy, which is also good. Beyond a few years, climate change injects some uncertainty, and oil depletion might change the overall picture if alternatives are not in place.

1-2% is not the road to prosperity, of course, but one shouldn't look to economic growth for one's well being.

[mick063]

28. Championing mediocrity is not politically viable.

The media talking point in election years is "It's the economy".

No candidate in his right mind would campaign on "one shouldn't look to economic growth for one's well being."

Do you believe that our President's currently declared top priority, "fast tracking" the TPP will help economic growth? Or do you believe that we should not look to economic growth for personal well being and disregard the TPP as inconsequential?

[BOG PERSON]

29. when full employment is no longer a priority

all that remains is to shore up the monopolies

"one shouldn't look to economic growth for one's well being" = you're on your own buddy! gotv!

[Chuuku Davis]

24. I think I could make it

Two to three months without a paycheck
Maybe not??
Then me and mine are SOL

[marions ghost]

31. K&R

Network & develop friends of like minds.