There is an ecological class. They know who they are: people into permaculture, homesteading, bushcraft, DIY everything, appropriate tech, co-housing, farmers' markets, natural building, local currencies, the commons, coops, intentional communities, off-grid living, regenerative agriculture, and alternative medicine, all of which forms a cohesive world view and praxis. These are the ones who will be there for the survivors of collapse, in the process of creating a more nurturing, wiser, wholistic culture capable of long term survival.
I think if there is an undercurrent, a through line of some kind, that it is energy-derived complexity. But that complexity persists and manifests as cultural variation, changes in systems, stacked dependencies that beget more problems, and weird layered mythos of what should be. Particularly as we go over the top of the energy roller coaster and have a hard time feeding the fires of our existing thing, let alone continuing its expansion for "profit".
I liked that you pointed out the heresy of the collapse-culture folk - and I wonder again, kind of to beat a dead horse, whether that heresy is energy derived. That the unspeakable thing from the political leaders is that there's not more where this came from - and the downstream struggle to keep a lid on things will be a brutal form of technocratic feudalism to apportion resources. (Unless birthrates fall fast enough? idk man)
The kind of framework that the colonizers/empire builders had to have to find existing stable societies and declare them "primitive" is really fascinating to me in the context of the industrial age, and I wonder if it has any parallels to how we killed off every large mammal on every new continent we migrated to as a species. Like, we've wrapped our short-term biological drive to survive in some hefty social complexity, strapped a jet engine onto the crank, and are completely unprepared for the consequences of what's fundamentally a survival impulse.
Another thread in this essay that I liked was the "new" thought, or at least urgency, of trying to decouple meaning-making from a (socially-fake) guarantee of a stable, or at least a better future. The collapse-culture crowd is kind of pointing out that that was never a thing to really pursue, even as it was mass marketed in the last couple hundred years.
Where are the roots of this thing? it it short-term gain plus unsupervised access to way too much fossil energy? I know we probably can't get off the ride, but do you see ways of harm reduction? In the vein of capitalism eating anything, how much of a market for collapse merch is there? I have way more reading to do and I'm looking forward to more. Thanks.
'Welcome to the age of collapse culture' NOT, because collapse culture has been around as long as there have been deep thinkers around to watch the march of technology into the modern age. But it has not and WILL NOT become a mainstream movement for deep psychological reasons. Collapse culture is also actively suppressed. Try and find KDog and the Doomstead Diner on a search engine. Chances are we won't come up. You could try chasingthesquirrel in the search, that might do it. Search engines are very good at who gets sent to the Siberian Dark Web and who does not. But given exact matches they can relent.
I first studied collapse after visiting civilization ruins in Southeast Asia and Central America in the 1980's. In the 70's I saw my mum crying whilst reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, I've been contemplating ecosystem collapse for half a century. I'm surprised its staggered along so well.
Professor Guy McPherson and I interviewed many collapseniks on our radio show Nature Bats Last, they can be found at the NBL archive at PRN.FM
I'll drop a couple of links I've written on the unfolding collapse below to stimulate the debate.
There is an ecological class. They know who they are: people into permaculture, homesteading, bushcraft, DIY everything, appropriate tech, co-housing, farmers' markets, natural building, local currencies, the commons, coops, intentional communities, off-grid living, regenerative agriculture, and alternative medicine, all of which forms a cohesive world view and praxis. These are the ones who will be there for the survivors of collapse, in the process of creating a more nurturing, wiser, wholistic culture capable of long term survival.
warning: disorganized reaction:
I think if there is an undercurrent, a through line of some kind, that it is energy-derived complexity. But that complexity persists and manifests as cultural variation, changes in systems, stacked dependencies that beget more problems, and weird layered mythos of what should be. Particularly as we go over the top of the energy roller coaster and have a hard time feeding the fires of our existing thing, let alone continuing its expansion for "profit".
I liked that you pointed out the heresy of the collapse-culture folk - and I wonder again, kind of to beat a dead horse, whether that heresy is energy derived. That the unspeakable thing from the political leaders is that there's not more where this came from - and the downstream struggle to keep a lid on things will be a brutal form of technocratic feudalism to apportion resources. (Unless birthrates fall fast enough? idk man)
The kind of framework that the colonizers/empire builders had to have to find existing stable societies and declare them "primitive" is really fascinating to me in the context of the industrial age, and I wonder if it has any parallels to how we killed off every large mammal on every new continent we migrated to as a species. Like, we've wrapped our short-term biological drive to survive in some hefty social complexity, strapped a jet engine onto the crank, and are completely unprepared for the consequences of what's fundamentally a survival impulse.
Another thread in this essay that I liked was the "new" thought, or at least urgency, of trying to decouple meaning-making from a (socially-fake) guarantee of a stable, or at least a better future. The collapse-culture crowd is kind of pointing out that that was never a thing to really pursue, even as it was mass marketed in the last couple hundred years.
Where are the roots of this thing? it it short-term gain plus unsupervised access to way too much fossil energy? I know we probably can't get off the ride, but do you see ways of harm reduction? In the vein of capitalism eating anything, how much of a market for collapse merch is there? I have way more reading to do and I'm looking forward to more. Thanks.
'Welcome to the age of collapse culture' NOT, because collapse culture has been around as long as there have been deep thinkers around to watch the march of technology into the modern age. But it has not and WILL NOT become a mainstream movement for deep psychological reasons. Collapse culture is also actively suppressed. Try and find KDog and the Doomstead Diner on a search engine. Chances are we won't come up. You could try chasingthesquirrel in the search, that might do it. Search engines are very good at who gets sent to the Siberian Dark Web and who does not. But given exact matches they can relent.
Great synopsis, well done.
I first studied collapse after visiting civilization ruins in Southeast Asia and Central America in the 1980's. In the 70's I saw my mum crying whilst reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, I've been contemplating ecosystem collapse for half a century. I'm surprised its staggered along so well.
Professor Guy McPherson and I interviewed many collapseniks on our radio show Nature Bats Last, they can be found at the NBL archive at PRN.FM
I'll drop a couple of links I've written on the unfolding collapse below to stimulate the debate.
https://kevinhester.live/2019/09/05/collapse-the-only-realistic-scenario/
https://kevinhester.live/2017/08/08/the-myth-of-human-progress-and-the-collapse-of-complex-societies-chris-hedges/
https://kevinhester.live/2023/03/14/financial-system-supply-chain-cross-contagion-a-study-in-global-systemic-collapse/
This is fine.
Navigating collapse sure is a quagmire but at least we're having the discussion.
https://kevinhester.live/2019/09/05/collapse-the-only-realistic-scenario/
Fascinating to read, Richard. I took notes for the upcoming Collapsology class and am looking forward to reading more of your posts.