Collapse of the shiny pretty things, By Mark Morford

[madokie]

It's happening now. It's already underway, you just don't feel it yet because we're so goddamn wealthy we can cushion the blow with cash credit cards and cheap foreign labor and oh my God this artisanal boutique coffee at $5 a cup is ridiculously overrated. But never mind that now.

What's that you say? You've heard it all before? The end is nigh and civilization as we know it is on track for serious collapse, meltdown, infrastructure implosion unless -- and this might be the biggest unless in modern world history -- unless there's a major and they do mean major overhaul of how culture, greed and entitlement operate? Sure you have. So did the Romans.

And there's your main culprit, by the way: Greed culture. Consumerism run wild. Ravaging and raping the planet's resources faster and faster because the population is still growing like a weed; after all, everyone loves better food, new cars and shiny bleepy sexy iStuff because, well, who wouldn't? It's totally pleasurable, even magical.

Except when it's not. Except when seven billion people are all craving and clawing for the same shiny things, except when stunning gadget-making factories in China employ nearly one million people and still can't hire people fast enough, except when everything we've been told we should love, crave and buy uses copper and nickel, petroleum and a billion gallons of fresh water to manufacture. ...


(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/03/14/notes031412.DTL&nl=fix)

[KG]

1. uh-oh

MM said an unflattering thing about the pres. in this article.

[TheWraith]

2. Yes, we have heard it before. And it's still wrong.

Just like the last ten thousand times people made absurd claims like that as an attempt to get attention by screaming and jumping up and down.

[hifiguy]

4. I suppose mockery IS easier than addressing

the very real issues that Morford discusses in his column. Anyone sensible realizes that things can NOT continue going on as they are. The Earth is a closed system with innate limits.

"it appears we would need, according to recent measures, 1.5 Earths to sustain our current rate of consumption . . ."

That seems like a pretty empirical statement to me.

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. Probably thinks global climate change is a myth, too.

[TheWraith]

9. An absurd and irrational claim doesn't deserve a rebuttal.

Any more than it makes sense to debunk the premise that there's no climate change because God says so. When a position is based on belief and not any kind of fact, there's no way to falsify it. Morford is just engaging in yet another round of the "Woe is us, civilization is about to fall!" crap that we've been subjected to pretty much continuously since there WAS a civilization. The only thing that separates him from the doomsday nuts you find all over the internet is prettier words that the SF Gate apparently feels qualify for publication.

[Zalatix]

10. That's called the Ostrich argument and it's far beneath you.

Please do not resort to it. Denial is not how we deal with this problem. The OP's article is right.

[KG]

3. heh. never fails.

[malaise]

5. It is happening

and it's not the IPad although technology has made us more independent of the establishment point of view.
Occupy is a state of mind - and a new day is dawning.

[longship]

7. He's right, ya know

It's like the Buddhist maxim, Change comes from within. I agree that we're basically on an unsustainable trajectory.

Bill Nye (the science guy) has been talking about this, too. He's very optimistic, though. His solution is to do more with less. So, yes, replace your lightbulbs. They'll save on your light bill and your carbon footprint, too. But we need to do a lot more than that.

It all starts with education, because cultural changes are probably best when they trickle up from our youth. That's what scares the right more than anything which is also why they are so opposed to anything that would improve it.

So we have to soldier on.

[jwirr]

8. You are right about ideas trickling up from the youth. In our community something as simple as

recycling was started when our grandchildren brought the idea home from school. Us old grandmas suddenly were saving cans and papers and a whole raft of other things. Most of this is going to have to come on a local person to person level.

My grandson was just talking about growing food on a local level. In his case he was talking about the tribe starting some programs but I do not see that happening. Tribal leadership is too much like any other type of leadership - afraid to act.

[woo me with science]

11. We will see if the people choose corporate fascism or resistance/occupation,

Last edited Wed Mar 14, 2012, 11:45 AM - Edit history (1)

because it is becoming increasingly clear that these will be the two options.

[raouldukelives]

12. K&R

I also agree that the "Great Shift" won't come from the government. The majority of politicians in this country will always side with Wall St.