( – promoted by buhdydharma )
Among the many ironies that characterize our chaotic era is the likelihood that the green dreams of environmental reformers will be realized in the nightmarish context of a class war that separates mankind into two groups: the rich and politically powerful, who will preserve high standards of living; and the poor and politically weak, who will sink into polluted misery as resource depletion, climate change, and social unrest ruin their lives.
Nobody is more eager to go “off the grid” than the predatory elites. Once they have isolated their lily pads of comfort from the decaying infrastructure of the mass societies that they exploit, they will have a far more efficient and profitable model for aggrandizing their wealth. The wealthy fully anticipate a die-off of the world’s excess population, and they have zero interest in any kind of shared sacrifice that might save a few billion people at the expense of cuts in their living standards.
Thus, creating enclaves that are ecologically self-sufficient is a high priority for those who intend to be among the survivors of the coming ecological catastrophes. Where possible, the wealthy will provide their own power, water, food, and security directly, but where they must depend on outside entities, they will work relentlessly to secure preferential access, mainly by insisting that the resources be provided by private corporations. The reason the rich love free markets is that they can always be the high bidders. Markets allow the rich to legally secure scarce resources. This is why there has been a steady drive to privatize the control of vital services worldwide. For example, water supply, which was once almost entirely in the hands of governments, has been steadily privatized all over the world. When clean water is provided by a corporation, all it takes is a single price adjustment to turn it into a luxury available only to the wealthy.
There is no realistic possibility of an ordinary middle-class household going “off the grid” without enduring a sharp drop in living standards. But the wealthy can afford the scale of investment required to replace costly shared infrastructure, or to buy dwindling shared resources at top-bidder prices. Thus the green future envisioned by environmental reformers is likely to be realized by the wealthy and powerful, and not by the mass of humanity, who, having exceeded the carrying capacity of the planet, will die in misery outside the islands of comfort the rich have established in the green strongholds of their neo-medieval society.
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through bio engineering dna manipulation / splicing and drugs like steroids there will actually be two classes of human beings as well. Very soon.
The modified and enhanced, and the old version. Supermen and troglodytes.
Stronger, bigger, smarter, more cancer resistant. Maybe blonder, or whatever the parents / grandparents ordered.
They fully anticipate what you say and back austerity for all of us while they create enclaves and private armies which we will be forced to pay for.
But at some point a certain percentage of the population will not like it anymore and wake up from their cable hallucinations and start using the firearms they’ve acquired. I know some who already are thinking this way.
What happens when they can no longer buy stuff and when all the providers of their profligacy are gone, though?
There are people, like me, who study these things. That is, the technology of community in a decayed 21st century.
The idle rich have one flaw that is operative. Their laziness and stupidity for anything other than gathering wealth in a modern oil driven society.
…under the coming ravages of Climate Change. They may last a bit longer than the proles, but ultimately, I think the elites are pretty much doomed also.
were broad and lush.
They’ll hear only the sounds of silence, sitting next to their huts by their favorite tree, puffing away following the sun into the twilight. They’ll have a hell of a lot of gardening and some good old procreating to do, but shit, they’ll have plenty of time and will be just thrilled to finally rid themselves of the missionaries.
“There is no realistic possibility of an ordinary middle-class household going “off the grid” without enduring a sharp drop in living standards”
Perhaps if by “living standards” you mean “living exactly as we do now with the same degree of convenience,” then yes. But if some are willing to give up that convenience for a more back-to-the-earth lifestyle, then they’ll be happy (probably happier than they are now, if that’s their choice).
Also, unless I’m misreading what you wrote, it seems you’re saying that the only way to make environmental progress is to get people “off the grid.” I disagree with that, as well. We can still live in a very connected and advanced society that is environmentally “friendly.”
“There is no realistic possibility of an ordinary middle-class household going “off the grid” without enduring a sharp drop in living standards”
Perhaps if by “living standards” you mean “living exactly as we do now with the same degree of convenience,” then yes. But if some are willing to give up that convenience for a more back-to-the-earth lifestyle, then they’ll be happy (probably happier than they are now, if that’s their choice).
Also, unless I’m misreading what you wrote, it seems you’re saying that the only way to make environmental progress is to get people “off the grid.” I disagree with that, as well. We can still live in a very connected and advanced society that is environmentally “friendly.”