[Loki]

I occasionally see mention of the "Archdruid," and after following a link to his blog I began reading him semi-regularly. My ADD prevents me from reading most of his 100,000 word dissertations, but from what I can glean he's exceedingly intelligent and has a good grasp of the energy issues we face and how they may impact our society.

But what's up with the druid stuff and the robe? I have a fairly low tolerance for religion generally speaking, so maybe I'm just biased, but I find the whole druid thing a bit peculiar.

Just wondering if anyone had insight. I still read him despite the New Age thing. We're all weirdos at the end of the day.

[mos6507]

I kind of feel the same way, but really this goes along with the "take what works, leave the rest" motto. Greer is a little too wordy in his essays, and he likes to tease you with "cliffhangers" at the end. So his blog is addictive because one post leads into the next like it's one huge endless monologue. But along the way, there is a lot of useful information in there. In the recent back and forth about the nature of community, I think Greer added the most new nuggets of information to it, because he is a better student of history than the others. In fact I just ordered his Ecotechnic Future book to see how well he writes in book form (that demands a beginning, middle, and end) rather than the "serial blog" format.

[Ludi]

Maybe he likes to play dress-up, or maybe he really is a neo-pagan. Not all neo-pagans are loopy.

[mcgowanjm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')ohn Michael Greer is the Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America and a widely respected writer and teacher. He has been a student of the occult traditions and nature spirituality for more than twenty-five years. He began following the Druid path in 1993 with initiation into the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, where he has been honored with awards and elected offices. Greer is the author of numerous articles and books, including The Druidry Handbook, and he is co-author of Learning Ritual Magic. Greer lives in Ashland, Oregon, with his wife.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'M')aybe he likes to play dress-up, or maybe he really is a neo-pagan. Not all neo-pagans are loopy.

[mcgowanjm]

^
^
I------- I laugh at remembering how hard I laughed
when I first saw that scene. Thanx for the memory.

And the same group think will also be a contributing factor
as everyone outside of GT is ostracized, uniformity is prized,
and the realization that something is wrong will be sudden,
complete, and overwhelming. With everyone moving to
the lifeboats at the same time.

Greer. The PostOffice and 75 mph effective train service.
Both being allowed to rot on the vine. Cases in point:


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ow it’s relevant to point out that the world adapted very quickly to using email and Google in place of postage stamps and public libraries, and will doubtless adapt just as quickly to using postage stamps and libraries in place of email and Google if that becomes necessary, but this sort of thinking – necessary as it will be in the years to come – finds few takers these days.

[mcgowanjm]

But This GroupThink goes unquestioned, even though the
ONLY way it makes sense is if seen as a Trap:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PerConceptualGuerilla', ' ') U.S. Plans Big Expansion in Effort to Aid Homeowners
By DAVID STREITFELD
Published: March 25, 2010

Many of these loans have been bundled together and sold to investors. Under the new program, the investors would have to swallow losses, but would probably be assured of getting more in the long run than if the borrowers went into foreclosure. The F.H.A. would insure the new loans against the risk of default. The borrower would once again have a reason to make payments instead of walking away from a property.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '
').

[centralstump]

He was interviewed on Radio Ecoshock a few weeks ago. He explains his own wierdness.

http://www.ecoshock.net/eshock10/ES_100 ... w_LoFi.mp3

[Olaf]

His religion strikes me as no weirder than most others. The extent of his religous discussion seems to be mostly academic while including values associated with nature and the environment. Gasp! The horror.

Olaf

[Rod_Cloutier]

I usually can't wait to read Greer's weekly article. I think that he is one of the most literate, honest and contemporary writers alive. His weekly article is published Wednesday evenings at:

http://www.redroom.com/blog/john-michael-greer

Despite being a member of a minority cult religious group, his writings speak to another truth. At times some of the things he has written about hit me like a beam of the light of truth, when I have read them. His analysis the 'Metastatis of money' was amoung the best articles I have read over the last year.

I also read Kunstler's 'Clusterfuck nation' published every Monday morning at:

http://kunstler.com/blog/

Greer's articles are of a far better quality. Kunstler tends to ramble. Greer also replies to his critisms and grows from this input, mentioning these critiques in later articles.

[Rod_Cloutier]

John Michael Greer has not published his weekly Archdruid report article since June 9th!

His articles were a favorite weekly read for me every Thursday morning. I would look forward to his articles with baited breath. Is he dead? Is he taking a sabattical? Are the druid's punishing him in secret somewhere because he is a professed Atheist while at the same time the acting head of their religious order??? Is he sick- if so where can I sent a get well card to?

I bought his new book 'The Ecotecnic society', because I missed his writing so much. Since I've finished that, I've gone futher into withdrawl. I'm now thinking that I'll have to purchase his other book 'The long decent', just to sastisfy my desire for a good read.

Any idea what happened to him----Anybody???

[Pops]

He's still there, kind of going off the wizard deep end - too much magic dust maybe, but there, check your url:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/

[Rod_Cloutier]

Thanks Pops, I had a link to the redroom.com which had not been updated since June 9th. He must have had a falling out with the red room group. Thanks for the new link!

(p.s. I was wondering if you've forgiven me for posting the links on to how to make homemake nuclear weapons on the internet censorship thread? I was only trying to point out that if they don't censor that type of dangerous information they would not censor peakoil.com. That was the last item I wrote MOS6507 about before he left, I hope I wasn't the cause of him leaving?).

[americandream]

Censoring the interent is a wasted effort when most folks are out to American Idol and Survivor off the net and dating and porn sites on the net. Who is there to censor apart from a few who don't matter

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Repent', 'T')hanks Pops, I had a link to the redroom.com which had not been updated since June 9th. He must have had a falling out with the red room group. Thanks for the new link!

(p.s. I was wondering if you've forgiven me for posting the links on to how to make homemake nuclear weapons on the internet censorship thread? I was only trying to point out that if they don't censor that type of dangerous information they would not censor peakoil.com. That was the last item I wrote MOS6507 about before he left, I hope I wasn't the cause of him leaving?).

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Repent', '(')p.s. I was wondering if you've forgiven me ?).

[mos6507]

If I were to characterize the dominant theme of this board in the last couple of years, it's been the blame-game, with fingers firmly pointed upward towards "TPTB". While there are certainly bad actors, of which I'd say the Koch brothers are at the top of the pyramid, I think the tendency we have to externalize distracts us from the larger issues of the cultural landscape that spawns the Koch brothers, idiots like GWB serving two terms, or the Tea Party wave.

Yet since I'm largely the only person trying to crash the feel-good party of perpetual back-seat-driving and heckling the Obama administration, I get tarred and feathered as some sort of outlier who isn't fit to wear the doomer banner. You just can't be a doomer unless your rhetoric dishes out a steady dose of cliche' phrases about how the two parties are identical and the system is rigged. Greer himself fails to see some distinctions between the parties in this post, since he seems to be a little soft on environmental concerns where there is the most difference, but overall his essay is essential reading.

Here are the key phrases that Greer uses which are exactly what I've been trying to say all this time:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')...nearly all the people who accept the notions I have in mind are convinced that they’re rebelling against conformity by conforming to a belief system shared by nearly everybody else in the country.

The credo in question? It’s the belief that all the decisions that really matter in the United States today are made by a small elite, insulated from the democratic process, who are pursuing policies that would be rejected by the American people if the latter had the chance to make up their own minds.

[Rod_Cloutier]

Mos you're not alone. I'm currently reading Greer's book 'The long descent'. Written in 2007, pretty much every prediction he hesitated to make about the next 5 years has come to pass.

Greer is an engaging read, and he even has me convinced on the 'Green wizards' conservation approach, which at first reading, I thought was just plain wierd. Greer is perhaps the greatest living mind writting books and articles in this age of decline. Somehow though, it makes him hard to read, knowing that he is right and he is vastly smarter than I am.

I would say I'm one of those 'Fusion advocates' that he dreads and dismisses. Fusion power would solve many of the world's enviromental and energy problems, without the nasty radioactive waste of fission reactors. I would also argue about the limitless resources available in space. He still does not have me convinced that perpetual decline is inevitable. Zero point energy, if it is achievable at some future age might also render a solution to the slow decline and collapse of civilization, that he forsees otherswise.

Clearly however, our society is not going down that 'Journey to the stars' path, and it will likely resemble the conditions depicted in the movie 'Soylent Green' in about 40 years. Sad but true.