A very astute article with many thought provoking insights. I must print this one so that I can read it studiously and adapt the important insights to my everyday evaluation of the world I see around me. I can say that on first reading your article validates my recent conclusion that nature is bound my immutable laws that are all together indifferent to whether or not humans (or any other life form) succeeds at living. There is no soul of nature or spark of divine cognition that will set humans apart from the natural laws that produce the end products of life and death. People cannot pray themselves out of our climate predicament or look for divine intervention to place the world under heavenly authority. I find your conclusion that only having many forms of social organization to fall back on during a period of collapse will offer possible pathways to adaptive outcomes that might carry the human experiment further into the unfolding future of life on Earth.
What you describe in your posts is essentially what is very likely to happen in our near future, in our real world. In doing so, you find yourself, of course, in a tiny, tiny minority of people holding these views. Not surprising. There is absolutely nothing in our media, the arts—literary fiction—to give a voice or an image to this impending reality. Without knowing you, I wrote a novel, "Mona" (self-published on Amazon; not one of the 5 big publishers would ever publish such a story), picturing very closely in terms of real life for commoners what you envision: starting from our present political and social reality, a story in a world descending into the tyrannical rule of the elites, religious fanaticism, extreme inequality and poverty, the deadly consequences of global warming, and the dire depletion of resources. The end of capitalism, killed by capitalism itself and replaced by neo-feudalism. There is not a single other fiction book available depicting this same impending reality you write about. This in itself is another sign of our society's total denial. This book I wrote maybe comes too early, and very soon it is too late.
A very astute article with many thought provoking insights. I must print this one so that I can read it studiously and adapt the important insights to my everyday evaluation of the world I see around me. I can say that on first reading your article validates my recent conclusion that nature is bound my immutable laws that are all together indifferent to whether or not humans (or any other life form) succeeds at living. There is no soul of nature or spark of divine cognition that will set humans apart from the natural laws that produce the end products of life and death. People cannot pray themselves out of our climate predicament or look for divine intervention to place the world under heavenly authority. I find your conclusion that only having many forms of social organization to fall back on during a period of collapse will offer possible pathways to adaptive outcomes that might carry the human experiment further into the unfolding future of life on Earth.
Thank you B🙏
I have just begun reading THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.
I think you've given away the plot.
You should have posted a spoiler alert.
Excellent, thoughtful, and thought provoking article.
Thank you.
Dear "B"
What you describe in your posts is essentially what is very likely to happen in our near future, in our real world. In doing so, you find yourself, of course, in a tiny, tiny minority of people holding these views. Not surprising. There is absolutely nothing in our media, the arts—literary fiction—to give a voice or an image to this impending reality. Without knowing you, I wrote a novel, "Mona" (self-published on Amazon; not one of the 5 big publishers would ever publish such a story), picturing very closely in terms of real life for commoners what you envision: starting from our present political and social reality, a story in a world descending into the tyrannical rule of the elites, religious fanaticism, extreme inequality and poverty, the deadly consequences of global warming, and the dire depletion of resources. The end of capitalism, killed by capitalism itself and replaced by neo-feudalism. There is not a single other fiction book available depicting this same impending reality you write about. This in itself is another sign of our society's total denial. This book I wrote maybe comes too early, and very soon it is too late.
Sounds good. I would be glad to give it look. But I can't find it on Amazon...