Dredd Blog regular Randy's painting to the left (he is a 'lefty' LOL) is called "Three Peaks".Today's post is part of a series concerning three peaks within civilization as we know it.
In sequence, first comes the peak of sanity, then comes the peak of oil production, and finally comes the peak of the oil wars.
The argument supporting this sequence begins with the "discovery
" (after the fact) of one certain social dynamic driving current civilization.It is the dynamic that creates social norms, social education, and social policy.
The particular aspect of that broader dynamic, which we will focus on with this post, is the aspect which has allowed civilization to become a hard core addict to "oil" (all sources of petroleum energy, including "natural" gas).
That happened during the peak of sanity phase of current civilization, which was in substantial part composed of an ideology that allowed civilization to seal its fate with a colossal blunder.
That colossal blunder was failing to ponder the results of the choice to become hard core petroleum addicts.
Since oil, civilization's drug of choice, is a non-renewable, fixed-quantity substance, the arithmetic at once shows that the next phase would of necessity be the peak oil phase.
That phase was composed, in terms of ideology and social policy, primarily of
denial.In the real, measurable world of dwindling sources of supply of the drug, that phase is/was composed of a need to resort to increasingly herculean methods in order to extract the dwindling supply of the drug.
The final phase is the peak of the oil wars, a phase where
civilization fragments into hard core rival gangs who incessantly fight for control of the turf and for control of the drug, oil.Simply put, the delusion of "self survival" reigns supreme in this final phase.
Yes, the amygdala of civilization has, in these three peaks, in these three phases, inspired civilization to destroy itself in order to save itself.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post is here.
Three peaks was done near big bear lake.
ReplyDeleteOil prices peaked at about $120 yesterday for Brent.
The oil cartel, much like the Mexico and Central American cartels, is robotic:
ReplyDelete"One of the biggest oil lobbying organizations now plans to directly back political candidates.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) -- the main U.S. trade association for the oil and gas industry -- recently announced that beginning in the second quarter of this year, it will take a turn towards direct political donations." (In The Wake of Citizens United)
They are doubling down in the march toward destruction.
Washington's Blog has, in addition to some economic factors, a post with a video of Z. Brzezinski explaining how the context of world events is changing in increasingly uncertain ways.
ReplyDeleteIt is becoming unpredictable how the violence of the third phase will play out as a result.
Who will fire the first shots at whom will not be determined by the old-timey context.
Before we're all done, Gaddafi's gonna look like the sane one. I have an unmistakably ominous feeling that the final descent has already begun. In earnest.
ReplyDeleteBut at least there's prince numb-nuts' impending nuptials to take our minds off things. Oh joy! The cult of celebrity soldiers on, blissfully unaware of the fates of us little people.
disaffected,
ReplyDelete"I have an unmistakably ominous feeling that the final descent has already begun ..."
Yes, that was at peak sanity. The rest is just watching the dominoes knock the next one down.
"Next" was Dredd's last word, which I take to mean it is now time to think about the next civilization.
Great link Randy. I had to laugh at the second comment though by 'Scott':
ReplyDeleteSo, at that time the U.S. was not looking too well. But now we Elected a Great president who saved up from that mess. War's expensive and it runs a country dry. He ended the one in Iraq and is bring the other troops home this summer, and he put regulations on banks to we don't have another mess like that.
The dude's obviously inhabiting an alternate universe viewed through rose colored glasses. Man is he gonna be surprised when he finally figures out what the elite have in store for us.
SOD Gates makes an exit phase speech to young cadets, basically saying our recent war making was ill advised, was carried out badly in terms of Iraq and Afghanistan, and should not be repeated in the future.
ReplyDeleteWhen will they say this up front so we can avoid the damage to national security done by such blunders?
Gates Talks