You have a damn good point....however for a considerable time I was pretty optimistic about all sorts of things, including our ability to rise above our idiocy and sort out the problems we face. I no longer have any optimism. I cannot see any damage limitation mechanisms in the marketplace, and I think if the trends to development continue as they are we're looking at an unsustainable lurch to some tipping point beyond which chaos reigns. As an example: peak oil....softside has posted digests on this stuff for more than two years: he's pretty well-informed. Politics in the US (which are the only politics that really count - this may change when China starts to flex its muscles...but....) Politics in the US is led by party finance (as is Politics everywhere), which in this case means the policies of the marketplace finance both sides of an otherwise one-sided debate. The anger-laced nihilistic reaction comes from impotence. There are few mechanisms for influencing change. I don't, for example, approve of revolution, and I no longer believe that the democratic process is anything other than a cloak for oligarchical money: and I'm of the opinion that the people who achieve power, for however long, are more interested in keeping it, rather than implementing difficult policies, like road pricing. Even if road pricing happens in Blighty, it's never going to happen in the US, so why bother? It's a nasty little malaise; deep and abiding cynicism, but this week, it's all mine (and a few other kindred souls). I don't think that folk are immoral or unenlightened or anything until I can actually say, hopefully without too much of a sneer, I told you so. With all these things I'd rather my opinion is wrong. But even so, nothing short of a ranting passionate nihilism is going to shake folk out of their smug optimism. I don't quite know that our goose is cooked for certain, but I'm willing to give you odds that things are going to get worse, not better. Two normative words, searching for a semantic debate.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 04:50 pm (UTC)I no longer have any optimism. I cannot see any damage limitation mechanisms in the marketplace, and I think if the trends to development continue as they are we're looking at an unsustainable lurch to some tipping point beyond which chaos reigns.
As an example: peak oil....
Politics in the US (which are the only politics that really count - this may change when China starts to flex its muscles...but....)
Politics in the US is led by party finance (as is Politics everywhere), which in this case means the policies of the marketplace finance both sides of an otherwise one-sided debate.
The anger-laced nihilistic reaction comes from impotence. There are few mechanisms for influencing change. I don't, for example, approve of revolution, and I no longer believe that the democratic process is anything other than a cloak for oligarchical money: and I'm of the opinion that the people who achieve power, for however long, are more interested in keeping it, rather than implementing difficult policies, like road pricing. Even if road pricing happens in Blighty, it's never going to happen in the US, so why bother?
It's a nasty little malaise; deep and abiding cynicism, but this week, it's all mine (and a few other kindred souls).
I don't think that folk are immoral or unenlightened or anything until I can actually say, hopefully without too much of a sneer, I told you so. With all these things I'd rather my opinion is wrong. But even so, nothing short of a ranting passionate nihilism is going to shake folk out of their smug optimism. I don't quite know that our goose is cooked for certain, but I'm willing to give you odds that things are going to get worse, not better. Two normative words, searching for a semantic debate.