Survival__ Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation - Charles George Smith [19]
Key concepts in this chapter:
Plantation-like structures
debt-serfs
Derealize/derealization
Neoliberal Capitalist Democracy (the dominant ideology)
Profound political disunity
Savior State
When belief in the system fades
The Remnant
Radical self-reliance
Chapter Three: Toward an Integrated Understanding
The first task is replacing the crumbling intellectual framework of the present status quo system with one grounded in reality.
There are five distinct issues to sort out:
1. The elements of human nature which lend themselves to cycles and manipulation
2. The nature of the energy, financial and environmental trends/crises which are heralding the Great Transformation
3. The nature of the negative and positive feedback loops which determine the system's stability and direction
4. The responses which have a high probability of making the Transformation positive
5. The nature of future work and the principles best suited to prospering during the Great Transformation
If we mischaracterize the nature of the crises and fail to grasp the forces powering these trends, then we will select inappropriate responses that will not prepare us to prosper. If we fail to understand how the status quo benefits various Elites, then we will inaccurately frame the "problems" and reach guaranteed-to-fail "solutions."
You may well disagree with much or perhaps most of this book; that's fine, because the primary goal of the book is to spark a reappraisal of our situation and generate practical responses. I don't claim to have "the answer," or even answers; what I hope to present is a way of thinking about the challenges which is more productive than the status quo.
You may also find some of the ideas presented here difficult to accept. None of us like to think of ourselves as debt-serfs (yes, I have a mortgage, too), yet how can we move forward if we cannot be honest about our responsibilities and dilemmas? We are all vulnerable to groupthink, propaganda and marketing at various times; there is no shame in simply being human.
Some of you may find parts of the analysis smacking of warmed-over Marxism, while an equal number may find certain sections "right-wing." This urge to categorize any idea or analysis ideologically is part of the simulacrum of thinking we accept as "obvious"-- the largely unconscious politics of experience. That much of what we accept as "obvious" might be wrong is deeply unsettling.
Context One: Human Nature
The first context we must understand is human nature. Regardless of the era or challenge, humans remain "wired" to respond to crisis in the same basic ways. Unfortunately for us, our responses in "default mode" (our first emotional responses) and the solutions we find highly compelling in default mode (inertia/complacency, fear/panic, casting our lot with a "Big Man"/leader or fatalism/giving up) are often not constructive, and may well be highly destructive.
Even more pernicious, our default mode is extremely short-term. As small groups of hunter-gatherers, we simply walked away when we'd depleted the environment of resources; there were always other lands (or islands) available. In this fashion, ancient humans wandered the entire planet long before the first tilled crop was ever planted.
Our default ability to foresee the consequences of our actions is poor; thus time and again human societies have added population and "overhead costs" during prosperous times of ample rainfall and grain yields, only to collapse in catastrophic