Hell Hath No Limits

[The2ndWheel]

http://allchannels.blogspot.com/2008/06/hell-hath-no-limits.html

The general reaction to the apparent end of the era of cheap fossil fuel, as to other readily foreseeable curtailments, has been to delay any sort of reckoning. The strategies of delay, so far, have been a sort of willed oblivion, or visions of large profits to the manufacturers of such :"biofuels" as ethanol from corn or switchgrass, or the familiar unscientific faith that "science will find an answer." The dominant response, in short, is a dogged belief that what we call the American Way of Life will prove somehow indestructible. We will keep on consuming, spending, wasting, and driving, as before, at any cost to anything and everybody but ourselves.

This belief was always indefensible -- the real names of global warming are Waste and Greed --- and by now it is manifestly foolish. But foolishness on this scale looks disturbingly like a sort of national insanity. We seem to have come to a collective delusion of grandeur, insisting that all of us are "free" to be as conspicuously greedy and wasteful as the most corrupt of kings and queens. (Perhaps by devoting more and more of our already abused cropland to fuel production we will at last cure ourselves of obesity and become fashionably skeletal, hungry , but -- thank God! -- still driving.)

The problem with us is not only prodigal extravagance but also an assumed limitlessness. We have obscured the issue by refusing to see that limitlessness is a godly trait. We have insistently, and with relief, defined ourselves a animals or as " higher animals." but to define ourselves as animals, given our specifically human powers and desires, is to define ourselves a limitless animals -- which of course is a contradiction in terms. Any definition is a limit, which is why the God of Exodus refuses to define Himself : "I am that I am."

[Dead_Parrot]

1. "Autistic industrialism"

Not sure if I should laugh or cry... Thanks NMM.

[sam sarrha]

3. please explain what you mean by thst stupid comment.. i expect an answer.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. The answer is...

Read the article, then post comments.

You're doing it the wrong way around.

[sam sarrha]

6. so your answer is that you only repeated a stupid inappropriate, derogatory statement..?

the article was agonizing cacophony of ostentatious self indulgence .. just F'n spit it out..

you missed the point.. Autism is a horrific affliction of unimaginable life long suffering for an inordinate number of children, their parents

to use the term and associate autism with the subject is worse than using the N word.. totally insensitive and inappropriate

[Dead_Parrot]

7. Inappropriate?

Our "civilisation" has over three billion people living on less than 2 dollars a day. One billion of them are children. 800 milion people will go hungry today, and at least 30,000 will die because they can't afford basic food and water.

Oh, and we're driving a species to extinction every 15 minutes or so.

But here in the west, most of us are sitting around bitching about the price of gasoline or how bad the TV reporting has got.

Princeton defines autism as "an abnormal absorption with the self; marked by communication disorders and short attention span and inability to treat others as people".
Thinkquest is blunter - "pathological self-absorption".

Sorry, but that fits us to a tee.

Fair enough if you don't see anything funny about modern civilisation being the result of a learning disorder - my sense of humour has gone rather manic over the last few years, and to be honest you're better off without it - but "Autistic industrialism" sums up what we're doing perfectly.

As you say, a horrific affliction of unimaginable life long suffering for an inordinate number of children, and their parents.



All 3,000,000,000 of them.

[sam sarrha]

8. you use the term like autism is a choice.. it isn't . you are using it as a derogatory word

this is totally inappropriate. and insensitive to others suffering ..your incorrect defination may fit you to a T, but not autistic people, YOUR DEFINATION IS WRONG

you are wrong, i am autistic, it is offensive an derogatory your definition is not medically correct

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

use the term "pathological self absorption" if you want, but not in association with autism,

autistic people are NOT PATHOLOGICAL, NOT ABSORBED.. OUR NERVOUS SYSTEMS CAN GET OVERLOADED WITH INPUT, that isn't self absorption.

Your information is as fucked up as your attitude, this is autism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

not what you used to flaunt your arrogance and ignorance

[Dead_Parrot]

9. Certainly, no offence is intended to you

As to whether we have have "chosen" to have western civilisation behave in this manner, that is the whole point: we have had - on paper, at least- lots of chances to stop what we're doing and go off in a different direction, but time and time again we have "chosen" to carry on down the path of destruction: the possibility that there is something fundamentally wrong with us collectively seems well worth considering - Although how the hell we'd treat it is beyond me.

[sam sarrha]

11. wrong...You have chosen to be insensitive to the most innocent and vulnerable of children.. you are

pathetic.

[Nihil]

12. And by your own actions on this thread ...

... you have shown the worst side of autism (ironically that which precisely
echoes the original use of the phrase you objected to in the OP article)
and have done yourself (and your cause) no favours whatsoever.

Funny old world isn't it?

:shrug:

[sam sarrha]

2. MIDDLE EAST WILL CUT OFF THEIR OIL TO US IF WE ATTACK IRAN

[madokie]

4. if not a total cutoff

at the least a real reduction

[Terry in Austin]

10. You say that like it's a bad thing

Come to think of it, maybe we can work something out with them to where they'll cut off the oil and we don't have to attack Iran.

One way or another, we're going to have to kick this oil habit. Cold turkey might work pretty well.