Saturday 1 May 2021
In later years
He would always be one of those egotists who can see no one right but themselves; who, in later years, will slip behind the times and make themselves fools because they do not know that time, weather, habit, philosophy and religion have all changed while they were blustering.
Hugh Walpole - The Bright Pavilions (1940)
A disturbing quote if we think of our civilisation as one of those egotists. It is surely plausible that our western civilisation could turn out to have been a temporary anomaly. One which rose from nowhere and is destined to fade back into a feudal future where most of our technical, scientific, cultural and legal achievements are slowly forgotten.
Perhaps not so odd if sustainable turns out to mean primitive. That would be primitive for the peasants of course - not everyone.
Consider the dominance of woke politics, climate change, gender politics, race politics, the coronavirus debacle, immigration, mainstream media. Now add Joe Biden to the mix.
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9 comments:
Blimey, that last paragraph really cheered me up!
The return to feudalism is quite intriguing. I don't think we will lose the technology; the Chinese will make sure of that. We will probably have little change for the elite who are sponsored by the Chinese and are prepared to do their bidding. But the availability of that technology will evaporate. Sure, we will be able to cultivate our smallholdings if we want to, and healthcare and policing will be even more haphazard than they are now. I imagine it will be like Bulgaria, say, or the Philippines. But bloody cold. There will be a lot more recycling, but it will be in order to make ends meet.
And they are at it again lying in the road in Cambridge stopping traffic and police are just standing around, it is unbelievable : Cambridge News
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/gallery/extinction-rebellion-protest-cambridge-traffic-20509242
Make them live in caves and bsn them from buying anything manufactured and make them hunt and gather their own food ? seems fair enough to me they are entitled little brats.
The USA. Despite a spirited rearguard action by Donald Trump against woke politics, race politics, immigration politics, mainstream media, and partial Big Tech, the Elite still managed to get rid of him (and are possibly continuing to persecute him).
The Woke Cult is now even more entrenched in their ideological fascism to the point that even Democrats are wondering (very quietly) if Big Tech has got too big for itself.
America is even more polarised, now with added 'Joe Biden'. Perhaps a future social upheaval will see the Woke Cult disbanded... their leaders will lose their social status and jobs, their social media control programs destroyed. But ordinary people will continue with their jobs and the *necessary* technology.
A K Haart,
As per Sam Vega that last para is a chilling summation of where we are.
Net question; where are we really going?
I don't think there is any doubt western civilisation is on the skids, unless a shining white knight emerges soon to stop the slide we are finished.
The western leaders almost to a man think the same way and allow the decline and hasten it with open borders, here we talk of a points system, tell that to the latest dinghy arrivals or the endless dependents arriving from the sub continent.
Biden is nothing, just an ageing token, China has already become the real world power and is flexing its muscles in the seas around it, no one can stop them we are bought paid for and bankrupt, to harsh, we shall soon see.
All empires fail at some time, this one with the hindsight of history shouldn't, but it is doing nothing to stop the decline.
Sam - it will be bloody cold and maybe significant numbers will emigrate. Not that this will help much. I'm sure there are other important factors which are more difficult to tease out, but what they are I'm not sure.
MrMC - it isn't easy to understand how people can be so naive. Maybe you are right and a spell living in caves would help.
DJ - part of the problem seems to be a kind of moral cowardice, people no longer defend what they have or try to understand where it comes from.
Mac - I'd love to know where we are going. Maybe it isn't decided yet, but it certainly feels fairly settled sometimes.
Wiggia - although China has problems too, some of which may mature in coming decades.
Private Fraser was right then...
For a long time from about 2000,a company tried to reopen the copper mines at Rio Tinto. The economics were good. Obviously the EU put all kinds of obstacles in the way, even though local politicians were in favour. It eventually went ahead but increased EU environmental protests meant the costs made it unviable. What saved it? A shed load /fuckton of Chinese money. The copper is being mined but the Chinese benefit. The whole product goes to China. The EU has outsourced industry of all kinds while retaining nothing of equal value. But don't let's get depressed
MrMC - I take a small dose of optimism every now and then, but Private Fraser probably was right.
Graeme - yes, the EU just isn't realistic enough when it comes to playing hardball.
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