I have been writing on the climate emergency for over two years now. Only one person in my family subscribes to it. Soon I will be with some of them for Thanksgiving, listening to superficial conversation and subjected to football and the barrage of brainwashing advertising that accompanies it. I will have to use my energy pretending all day to avoid being a downer in their fantasy land. Being around people is often lonelier than being alone. I didn't like Obama from day one. He packed his cabinet with the same people that caused the economic meltdown, and as you point out, Biden's little bit of progress has been nullified by Willow and now LNG exports as we go forward. Those who are in power don't see reality, they're far too cushioned by their wealth. Half of them know nothing of, or have no respect for, science. With a last ditch concerted effort based on energy use reduction and a visionary plan like Degrowth, we could still save enough to have a future. Isn't going to happen. I can't help but think the real plan is a deliberate, radical culling of the human population. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/circumstantial-evidence
I know exactly what you mean when you say being around people is often even lonelier. I always feel like I have to censor myself around certain family members so I'm not being so "negative." I can definitely see why you might think there's a deliberate plant to cull the human population, but I've concluded that the leaders and owners are selfish, shortsighted, or simply don't care because the worst of it will happen after they're gone. The word evil isn't a strong enough word for these people.
There are only two possibilities. Gross incompetence, or sheer malevolence. Billionaires and politicians don't rise from incompetence, even if they may be ignorant and stupid. They just have to be effective manipulators. It would be easier and safer for them if there were fewer of us. I can't prove it, but my article has ugly logic to it. I've read your stuff on Medium when it hasn't been paywalled. We're on the same page. How do we break through to those who don't see what's going on or believe we can affect change? That's always a question when I write.
I love this. Thank you for posting it. I've been through the same process. There are a lot of different points of view in my family, and I can usually get some of them engaged on any topic, but on this one, they were silent.
I have a theory. I think that through the Trump years and pandemic, we've already seen most of the symptoms of collapse that we're going to see. And people have already started figuring out processes to deal with it. During pandemic we all had to figure out unexpected shortages, closures, political unrest, price jumps, and so on. That's a basis for making a plan to survive through the collapse years. Who know, we might even be able to thrive.
My new philosophy is to find other people who understand this, start making plans, and committing to being each others support network.
Govt policy is happening. It is. Massive (!!) effort is happening for energy shift, building codes, agriculture and food distribution. But people are fighting it. Systems move too slowly...until disaster is imminent. Then warp speed. And then change is imposed on us. Like lockdown. Rapid global response.
But writings from the prescient among us (Aldous Huxley, Carl Sagan, Mary Shelley, Stanley Greenberg, etc etc) reflect either inadequate or corrupt system change.
I have been writing on the climate emergency for over two years now. Only one person in my family subscribes to it. Soon I will be with some of them for Thanksgiving, listening to superficial conversation and subjected to football and the barrage of brainwashing advertising that accompanies it. I will have to use my energy pretending all day to avoid being a downer in their fantasy land. Being around people is often lonelier than being alone. I didn't like Obama from day one. He packed his cabinet with the same people that caused the economic meltdown, and as you point out, Biden's little bit of progress has been nullified by Willow and now LNG exports as we go forward. Those who are in power don't see reality, they're far too cushioned by their wealth. Half of them know nothing of, or have no respect for, science. With a last ditch concerted effort based on energy use reduction and a visionary plan like Degrowth, we could still save enough to have a future. Isn't going to happen. I can't help but think the real plan is a deliberate, radical culling of the human population. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/circumstantial-evidence
I know exactly what you mean when you say being around people is often even lonelier. I always feel like I have to censor myself around certain family members so I'm not being so "negative." I can definitely see why you might think there's a deliberate plant to cull the human population, but I've concluded that the leaders and owners are selfish, shortsighted, or simply don't care because the worst of it will happen after they're gone. The word evil isn't a strong enough word for these people.
There are only two possibilities. Gross incompetence, or sheer malevolence. Billionaires and politicians don't rise from incompetence, even if they may be ignorant and stupid. They just have to be effective manipulators. It would be easier and safer for them if there were fewer of us. I can't prove it, but my article has ugly logic to it. I've read your stuff on Medium when it hasn't been paywalled. We're on the same page. How do we break through to those who don't see what's going on or believe we can affect change? That's always a question when I write.
I love this. Thank you for posting it. I've been through the same process. There are a lot of different points of view in my family, and I can usually get some of them engaged on any topic, but on this one, they were silent.
I have a theory. I think that through the Trump years and pandemic, we've already seen most of the symptoms of collapse that we're going to see. And people have already started figuring out processes to deal with it. During pandemic we all had to figure out unexpected shortages, closures, political unrest, price jumps, and so on. That's a basis for making a plan to survive through the collapse years. Who know, we might even be able to thrive.
My new philosophy is to find other people who understand this, start making plans, and committing to being each others support network.
Govt policy is happening. It is. Massive (!!) effort is happening for energy shift, building codes, agriculture and food distribution. But people are fighting it. Systems move too slowly...until disaster is imminent. Then warp speed. And then change is imposed on us. Like lockdown. Rapid global response.
But writings from the prescient among us (Aldous Huxley, Carl Sagan, Mary Shelley, Stanley Greenberg, etc etc) reflect either inadequate or corrupt system change.