You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Trips and tips: what can a movie do to you
The inevitable of monetary collapse, or of human failure?
How can we escape ourselves?
The inevitable of monetary collapse, or of human failure?
How can we escape ourselves?
"The inevitable of monetary collapse, or of human failure?"
They are intimately related.
When the Western Roman Empire collapsed and Rome went from a population of over a million to just 15,000 (the population had to disperse out into the countryside because supply lines to the cities were disrupted, the aqueducts could no longer be kept in repair to bring water to the cities, and no form of large scale economic endeavor was conceivable without a working currency), the Eastern Empire, based in Constantinople, went on for another thousand years or so. They had not debased their gold coins. (western)Rome had debased the silver coinage from 100% to virtually 0% at the final collapse. No one would accept the coins any longer.
Fortunately for those able to escape the madness (Mad Max) of the Western Roman cities, people debased and unskilled due to "bread and circuses" (the ancient equivalent of modern "welfare"), found that there had been established in the countryside Christian monasteries, centers of learning and spiritual discipline, where the monks were able to teach the urban refugees the basics of raising crops and animal husbandry. The monastery/church became the centers of new communities.
But all things corrupt over time and the monasteries went from serving the people to forcing the people to serve them. Power tends to corrupt, as we all know. And since there are only two uses of power (ie. to serve others or to force others to serve you), only those who have been disciplined into a life of seeking power over themselves before they are given power over others, or a community, can be expected to resist temptation - even in the short term. In the long term, every civilization has corrupted and been replaced.
The almost universal collapse (not partial, ie. Western half) that is now under way as the fiat currency systems disintegrate is inevitable. But I would hazard the guess that the replacement civilization has been incubating for a very long time.
But where?
Empires thrive and then deteriorate. Like the greek, the mesopotamian, the egyptian. It is an endless circle that keeps repeating. Hopefully people shall start respecting nature in order to continue harnessing the benefits of this planet. Otherwise we will have to move to a monastery in Mars. And the story shall start over again.
I am more inclined to think that the (recent) story began on Mars, conflict destroyed that planet, and a remnant re-established on Earth. :-)
It is very hard to fit recent archaeological findings within the "history" that I was taught in grade school:
Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665/
Imagine. Such a huge site, deliberately buried for some long distant future generation to re-discover (ours) . By whom? And why?
Mars, Venus.. you name the place.
Are we approaching the apocalypse?
Well, many people I know (some I am even related to) call it the "singularity," a la Ray Kurzweil, rather than "apocalypse". But I tend to hold transhumanists, socialists, strict logicians, and atheists all in equal contempt :-)
And being a recovering musician I prefer to conceptualize (if I absolutely have to, for the sake of conversation) what is happening as the start of a new octave.
"Magnets pull and push us 'round,
To cut the cord, a chord must sound"