Reflections on Collapse

'As a species we are unlikely to survive longer than a generation'

By Seemorerocks

When I started this blog I was thinking about Peak Oil and a rapid economic collapse and how to build a Lifeboat to survive the transition to a more sustainable way of life, at least for those that survived.

Several things have changed in that period that make even the gloomy scenario painted in Mike Ruppert’s excellent movie Collapse seem almost rosy.

Some of the change has been the rapid growth of the supranational totalitarian state.  The other has been the ability to kick the can further down the road to postpone the inevitable collapse of human, industrial civilization and to transfer the burden of resource depletion onto poorer countries and onto the poor,and increasingly the middle class of developed countries.

There has been a relatively successful attempt to invert reality and to sow doubts about Peak Oil and the limits to infinite growth that can be easily seen through by those of us who have looked into things a little more deeply. - all we need to do, we are told,  is to frack, extract tar sands and to drill for oil in every last place we can, including the Arctic (made possible by the melting ice sheets).

What has changed for me personally is an increasing realization that we as a species have almost certainly passed the threshold for seriously doing anything about global warming.

We are seeing more and more signs of weather and climate chaos - witnessed by numerous events this northern summer.

So much so that I find myself agreeing with Guy McPherson when he says that we, as a species are unlikely to survive longer than a generation.

For me my own personal situation seems to reflect what is happening around me.

I was affected early on in life by exposure to some pretty nasty pesticides while growing up on a farm. Until recently I have been able to live a reasonably active life but more recent events have triggered a situation where my health is declining markedly.

The situation could be characterized as follows:

Could go on for some time, however this is unlikely, but collapse could come quickly and unexpectedly.

From the conventional medical point of view there is either the diagnosis of a condition with signs that bear little resemblance with what I am experiencing - or a suggestion that I get my cholesterol measured and an implication that it is all in my head.

So where does that leave me? Outside any help from the mainstream and having to face the reality of my own lack of health on my own.

A pretty good definition of collapse I would have thought.

A major influence on my thinking has come from Mike Ruppert who, most would agree was on the extreme pessimist end of the spectrum and fairly outspoken with it.

Well, it seems that following the collapse of human, industrial society with all the lies and corruption that comes with it has been too much for Mike and he has had to withdraw.

While much of his analysis remains very credible to me I have difficulty with the volte face and the insistence that things are so bad that Spirit will not allow humansto destroy this planet and that miracles will happen.

I am right with Mike when he insists that we cannot survive without spirituality and feel very much in tune with the non-physical side of ‘reality’.

I even believe that miracles can happen.

However, perhaps I can illustrate how I think with an analogy. 

 Believing that Spirit will not allow humans to destroy the planet is, to my mind, somewhat similar to an attitude that Jehovah would not allow the Jews of Europe to disappear into death camps and be murdered in their millions.

Even within the Holocaust miracles happened.

Individuals found strength in the face of reality and committed great acts of heroism. Some people who could have disappeared into the gas ovens did not through some quirk of fate.

The vast majority met their death not believing to the end that such a fate could befall them. Others showed more foresight and took measures to avoid persecution - by fleeing Germany or taking up arms.

The idea of optimism in the face of these big events just does not cut the ice for me.

I have a friend who tried to convince me that we have to maintain optimism in the face of reality, essentially by denying it.

When I suggested that there was a third way other than optimism (‘the glass half-full’) or pessimism (‘the glass half empty’) - to acknowledge things the way they are, he immediately became very agitated and aggressive.

I’ve learned for myself that really there is no escape from reality. Either we acknowledge it now, on our terms and find our own strength (individually and collectively), or reality will find us totally unprepared. The result will not be pretty.

Seemorerocks