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Finding hope even through all of the pessimism
In such an era of social media, widespread news and efficient technology, it’s easy to find the world to be a violent place. It’s easy to find evidence of bad things happening every day to good people. It’s easy to hear that cancer and other diseases are killing more and more each day, and that even the wonderful era of scientific advancement has not yet led to a world without sickness and without terminal illnesses. It’s easy to walk through the streets of Philadelphia and find poverty and hopelessness. It is easy to hear word of attacks on humanity in underdeveloped countries, and easy to find the horrors constantly present. It is easy to become a pessimist in the world we are currently living in.
However, this world is not one that is steadily declining, nor is it one that is mostly in a bad place. I do not have the popular advantage in this fight, nor do I have a lot of collected research. But, what I do have is something that seems to be harder to find as I grow older.
Even in this world, I am an optimist. I believe that one of humanity’s greatest traits is that we must be able to find hope. This is not so easy.
It is simple to look at the news for just a few minutes and believe that the world is riddled with war and violence. Actually, however, looking at mathematical figures and representations of war and the number of deaths that have occurred in combat or combat-related scenarios, the numbers have been decreasing. This trend holds when examining the entirety of human history, as well as when looking at just one or a few hundred years. While the decline is not smooth, and there are obvious points of sharp increase, the general trend is still present. Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker explained in his research that we are likely to be living in what is considered the most peaceful times in human history.
Similarly, it is simple to watch the news or scroll through social media sites, and become convinced that social injustices and inequalities are higher now than they have ever been before. Between the long fight for gays’ rights and other forms of equality, the movement of Black Lives Matter, the ever-present push for female equality in the workplace and countless other social bandwagons, there is a constant push to show the mass public the general horrors which the minorities of our society face every day. This is real, and I am not denying the importance of these social movements. However, has there not always been repression? Have there not always been class distinctions? Can we not look at slavery, and the abolishment thereof, at least in the United States, and say that we have at least risen above the worst of times? Feminism used to mean the right for women to have a voice in something as basic as a vote; now, the focus is on further complexities of the movement that, while still being large issues in our world, are not as bad of conditions compared to what they once were.
And therein lies the trap of “progress.” Some will say that despite how much progress this country and this world have made, the fact that bad and difficult things are still happening makes all of my arguments to this point moot. What is progress if it is not complete? This is essentially the argument against my rationalizations of the progress we have seen so far. Who cares if there is less violence today per unit of population then there was 2,000 years ago? It is still violence. It is still bad. Who cares if slavery was in fact abolished? Does that even truly matter if the social structures and unfair circumstances into which black Americans are pushed, if not shoved, into still exist? There is no ceasing the progress until there is absolute resolve! This may be the exaggerated, yet present argument of the pessimists.
Here is where I will make my case. Here is where the bravery and the selectivity of the optimist come into play.
I will never deny that this country, this world and all of the people in it, are not perfect, or beyond correction. I will never say that progress has ceased, or that it should. I will always say, however, that this is the beautiful characteristic of humanity. Humans never stop fighting for improvement. I think this is what makes our world a better place each day, despite the difficult and evil things that continue to happen.
I see the world’s population as a bell curve, where there is a large “hump” of the average, and skinny “legs” of the extremes. There are some really, really, terrible people in this world, who want for people to die, to suffer, to be excluded, to be hated, or to be harmed. And, there are some really wonderful people in this world who dedicate their lives to making a difference for others, wherever they can. And then there is the large, looming average; some of these average people tend more one way, and some the other. But in general, the average are just that: average. They do not seek to harm or to help, they seek only to coexist. Sometimes, if there is an injustice or an evil that seems to concern them, they will fight in response. And this is natural. No real population will always follow the rules dictated by probability.
However, there is a phenomenon in probability where an increase in population results in a stricter adherence of the sample to the true average. I interpret this to mean that as our population has grown, so has the amount of average people. But, this fact does not overlook the extremes. If the population is growing, the spread of the data is also, inevitably, growing. More and more people are falling into both extremes. As cliche as it sounds, these extremes are, literally, the good and the bad. The villains and the superheroes.
The good guys, as they grow, make an inevitably larger push to be noticed by the mass of the average. Along with the progress in technology and media our world has experienced in tandem with a population increase, this push is easily seen in internet campaigns and petitions, news articles to expose the evil where it is found, and educational videos to show the people of this world what is happening that is really, totally, messed up. This is excellent. If you think about it in this light, it is really the people who are trying to stop the evil from taking over our world that are exposing the average to it the most.
Glass half empty? All of this increased media showing bad things happening means that more bad things are happening now than ever were before, and our world is a terrible place.
Glass half full? People care about all of the bad things happening in the world, and they are trying to reach out and make a difference by attempting to educate the world around them about what shouldn’t be happening, but is.
And the best part about all of this is that despite the increased flow of negative information, and the increased push to publicize and media-tize everything going wrong in this world, the population at large has not given up, lied down, and said “I quit.”
There are pessimists in this world who will see nothing but the products of increased media about the shit that happens every day, but once those pessimists give up and admit that the world is falling apart, is past hope, and is not and never will be improving, it is them who add to the weight of the extreme that we would call bad.
I am an optimist. I believe that one of humanity’s greatest traits is that we must be able to find hope. That is not easy. But it is possible.
I find hope in the fact that the bell curve has not seemed to shift. I find hope in the fact that deaths due to wars are decreasing, that strides in social justice have in fact been made and that social media and mass-media news exist. I find hope in the fact that people have always cared about the bad that happens in this world, and that people are still trying to correct it. It is humankind’s perseverance against the tide of evil that progress has made more accessible and more obvious that makes me believe that this world is not falling apart, and that perhaps it is even coming together.
And what if, in fact, this apparent stasis that progress will never be able to fix, remains? What if, despite all our best efforts, this is as good as it gets? What if you believe that no progress, or no complete progress has ever really been made on earth? What then? I will not stand here with ignorance resembling optimism and say that the current state of the world is “good enough.” I will not stand here and refute that claim by saying that if this is as good as it gets, that I’m ok with that.
I will say that whatever the truth may be, since the truth in this case is in fact the most impossible thing to grasp, I will accept that as long as humanity continues to try to improve, that is the best that we can do. And honestly, isn’t trying all we can ever do in reality?
Martin Luther King Jr. probably didn’t wake up every day steadfast in the knowledge that he could make a difference, but he tried. And, he succeeded to an extent. Did he achieve complete success? No. Will we ever achieve complete success? Who knows. The same tale could be woven for other figureheads in human history, the list countless. Should this unknowing prevent the attempt in the first place? I believe not.
Humanity’s most beautiful trait is that we must be able to find hope. This hope will always manifest itself in trying to do and be better. And that is all we can do.
We can try. And I think that that can be good enough.
59 Comments on "Finding hope even through all of the pessimism"
GregT on Fri, 29th Jan 2016 7:03 pm
Sorry, but hope isn’t going to solve the consequences of human progress. Things like climate change, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, and population overshoot, are all results of human progress and ingenuity. Nature will eventually solve all of those problems herself. Hope and optimism do not trump reality.
Apneaman on Fri, 29th Jan 2016 7:28 pm
The Triangle is the newspaper-of-record at Drexel University.
“The university has a large network of more than 1,600 corporate, governmental, and non-profit partners in 28 states and 25 international locations.[9] The employers include top ranked multinational law firms, banks, corporations, and many Fortune 500 companies, such as Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drexel_University
Brainwashed entitled morons. Fuck your corporate hope and bullshit.
Apneaman on Fri, 29th Jan 2016 7:58 pm
Hope is not an action word. It’s the cousin of self pity and sloth and only a civilization as childish, spoiled, lazy and ungrateful as our could have produced the notion that simply by forcing oneself and others to feel and express more of a particular emotion, HOPE, can somehow make the bad shit go away. To challenge hope is a modern secular blasphemy. Apes never change.
HOPE, n. Desire and expectation rolled into one.
Ambrose Bierce – the devil’s dictionary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdXfkkyI1nQ
makati1 on Fri, 29th Jan 2016 9:05 pm
Hope, prayer, denial. All tools of the weak so they don’t have to face the fact that they, themselves, are their only means of survival. Not some sky god or some mystical fairy tale, or some techie dream. Reality is a bitch and she doesn’t recognize humans as any different from bacteria.
Apneaman on Fri, 29th Jan 2016 10:00 pm
Wherever the ape has gone, extinction and destruction follows. Now we global.
No evidence climate change is to blame for Australian megafauna extinctions
http://conservationbytes.com/2016/01/29/climate-change-not-to-blame-for-australian-megafauna-extinctions/
Climate change not to blame for late Quaternary megafauna extinctions in Australia
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160129/ncomms10511/full/ncomms10511.html
Apneaman on Fri, 29th Jan 2016 10:57 pm
Record permafrost erosion in Alaska bodes ill for Arctic infrastructure
http://blogs.dw.com/ice/?p=16859
Apneaman on Fri, 29th Jan 2016 11:30 pm
I bet they have nice clean lead free water and a fully functional sewage system at elite Drexel University. No major gas storage facilities spewing methane into the dorm rooms either I imagine. It’s a healthy hopey place to learn for privileged millennials.
Public asked to avoid Meramec River between Fenton and the Mississippi
“Due to damage done by the historic flooding this winter, the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District(MSD) is asking the public is asked to avoid the Meramec River between the Mississippi River and Fenton, Mo.
The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District has been diverting untreated wastewater into the Meramec River since flooding damaged the Fenton Wastewater Treatment Plant during the flooding in late December.”
“Signs are being placed in areas where people might come into contact with the section of the river. If you do come into contact with this section of the river, they are advising you immediately wash thoroughly with soap and water.
MSD has been working for weeks to get the Fenton Plant back online, but they say the plant is still far from operational.”
http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local/2016/01/29/public-asked-avoid-meramec-river-between-fenton-and-mississippi/79532498/
Michigan insisted Flint water safe — but gave own workers bottled water
The state administration did not officially acknowledge the city supply was contaminated until nine months after its own office staff raised concerns and bottled water was brought in.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/01/29/michigan-insisted-flint-water-safe-but-gave-own-workers-bottled-water.html
Apneaman on Fri, 29th Jan 2016 11:58 pm
Human-Made Fires Pollute Air with Ozone Half a World Away
““What’s unique with our study is that we’re in the tropical western Pacific, almost as remote as you can get in the Northern Hemisphere, and we’re still seeing large effects from fires in Africa,” said lead author Daniel Anderson, a graduate student in atmospheric and ocean sciences at the University of Maryland in College Park.
Whenever fires burn once-living organic material, such as wood or fossil fuels, they emit ozone into the atmosphere. Globally, fires contribute up to 10% of the ozone in the lower atmosphere, Anderson said. In the tropics, fire’s effect is magnified, he added, because weather patterns make it difficult for smoke created in the tropics to escape its roughly 15°N and 15°S latitude bounds.”
https://eos.org/articles/human-made-fires-pollute-air-with-ozone-half-a-world-away
makati1 on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 12:47 am
Ap, Drexel is on the fringe of Philadelphia in an area called University City. That is an area about a mile square housing three universities. It is sandwiched between Philly proper and West Philly, some of the worse slums in the city. I would bet that there are lead pipes in the area as it is old.
I used to drive thru there several times a week when I lived nearby and occasionally bid on a construction job in the area when I was an estimator for a general contractor. Just across the Schuylkill River bordering it is the red light district. And the Schuylkill Expressway (nicknamed the “Sure Kill”) runs between it and the river. NOT a very good place to live or study.
Apneaman on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 1:04 am
Mak, the description says they have three campuses in Philadelphia and one in Sacramento.
Looks just like the hood. Poor things.
http://drexel.edu/virtualtour/
Jerry McManus on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 1:13 pm
At the risk of missing the mote in my own eye, I can easily see the gigantic blind spot in the author’s POV.
In a word: it’s all relative.
Everyone has a different view of what is good or bad.
Oh, sure, there are a few things that we can all agree on. Life is good. Death is bad. That sort of thing.
But when it comes to really big hairy wicked problems like global climate chaos, overpopulation, pollution, resource depletion…, you know, the stuff that can crash industrial civilization and send the entire planet and everyone on it straight to hell, that’s when things start to get slippery.
Depending on who you ask (and sometimes depending on when you ask), anyone trying to “fix” those problems could be seen as either a villain or a superhero.
In other words, ask ten different people and you will get twelve different bell curves.
Apneaman on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 2:30 pm
The Next Flint
The communities most susceptible to calamitous infrastructure failures are marginalized places inhabited by marginalized people. And many of them are suburbs.
“It’s also what could happen to older communities with aging infrastructure and declining tax revenues. No community can avoid the fact that America’s water infrastructure could require an investment of $1 trillion or more over the next 25 years.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2016/01/the_next_flint_michigan_could_be_a_suburb.html
Apneaman on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 5:02 pm
Hope for the cancer to continue its fatal infection.
MEGACANCER ~ Exploring the pathology of industrial civilization.
Mousetrap Fission
“In studying the brain I continuously hear how wonderful and complex an organ it truly is, but the complexity does not lie with the human brain, but with the information to which it makes small changes. The human brain is little more than a rewards seeking organ, just like most of the other brains on the planet. Its uniqueness is in its evolved ability to make small changes in information in the design of tools. Most of the “awesome” complexity doesn’t reside in the human brain. The complexity builds within the information. For instance, there isn’t a person alive that could specify all of the components and materials of a personal computer, it just doesn’t exist in a human brain. But a human brain can make small changes at the margin using specialized knowledge. Human brains are vastly overrated and are not the most complex things in the universe.”
http://megacancer.com/2016/01/30/mousetrap-fission/
Apneaman on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 6:01 pm
David Korowicz Part 1: Lock-in, Irreversibility, Tipping Points & Collapse
https://soundcloud.com/doomstead-diner/david-korowicz-part-1-lock-in
Apneaman on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 8:07 pm
Tasmania fires: First images of World Heritage Area devastation emerge, show signs of ‘system collapse’
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-30/fire-ravages-world-heritage-area-tasmania-central-plateau/7127300
Apneaman on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 8:11 pm
Aestivating fish face extinction due to climate change
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-aestivating-fish-extinction-due-climate.html
Apneaman on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 8:57 pm
Drug shortages in American ERs — mostly of lifesaving medicines to treat infectious diseases or poisonings — have increased more than 400 percent
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/01/22/drug-shortages-in-american-ers-mostly-of-lifesaving-medicines-to-treat-infectious-diseases-or-poisonings-have-increased-more-than-400-percent/
Apneaman on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 9:04 pm
America’s lead poisoning problem isn’t just in Flint. It’s everywhere.
http://www.vox.com/2016/1/21/10811004/lead-poisoning-cities-us/in/10563335
makati1 on Sat, 30th Jan 2016 10:32 pm
Ap, the negatives in America far outweigh any positives, if there are any. I cannot think of even one positive. Can you?
Go Speed Racer on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 2:10 am
There are some positives… like this. How about if you are an American Billionaire, you get more & more & more money, even while the middle class gets poorer.
This is a fantastic arrangement and a great country, if you are that billionaire. You get to have more money than you can ever imagine spending, while everybody else starves and can’t afford to start up a lemonade stand.
GregT on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 2:34 am
Go Speed,
All of the billions of FRNs in the world are completely useless, if the masses are starving and there aren’t any lemonade stands left.
makati1 on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 2:45 am
Paper ‘wealth’ is just that, paper. Good for starting fires and maybe wiping your butt.
Or zeros and Ones in a machine that will shut down when the end comes. A single solar flare will wipe out all of that and their ‘wealth’ with it. What good is a factory or mine if it never reopens? A yacht with no fuel?
The billionaires are less prepared for the future than you and I. What good is a multi-million dollar hideaway if you cannot leave it? Jail by another name. And there will be a lot of the 99% that would love to catch a 1%er out in the open… lol
onlooker on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 2:53 am
good point Mak. When collapse really sets in paper wealth will be as empty as space itself. Better to have skills and some dwelling that allows you the basic necessities. Of course location is a key.
Boat on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 5:37 am
A question for you preppers. Do you really think land will be any more valuable than paper after the crash?
makati1 on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 6:04 am
Boat, only a few animals can eat paper. Rats, termites and humans. I prefer stuff grown in land/soil like veggies and fruits. I guess you cannot understand what the end of the world economy/globalization will mean for the country that uses 1/4 of the world’s resources but will soon be using only what they can produce locally. The fall will be bone crushing.
I can give you an example of paper’s worth. The Philippines has changed the design of paper money they use for purchases. As of January 1 this year, only banks will accept the old bills in exchange for new ones. January 1 next year, the old bills will be worthless pieces of paper.
You probably don’t remember the US Silver Certificates that were the US paper currency when I was young. Or the ones backed with gold before my time. Now they are basically worthless except for some historical value for collectors, if you have any.
onlooker on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 6:52 am
First of all Boat, it would be good if you would specify economic crash or ecological crash or both. Second I am pretty sure you do not have a true realization what the crash entails or else you could not be asking that question of worth. Land itself is useless without the knowledge to grow food and without general knowledge of survival skills. You may have your answer if the crash is purely economical as then let us see what paper money is worth then if you even have any considering the high unemployment. Think Great Depression of the 30’s. Basically the net worth of most people will be close to zero as assets depreciate, unemployment reigns, inflation sets in as investment and lending/savings dry up and money floods the system and is left only to chase precious commodities of course spurring rapid inflation.
Boatm on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 7:03 am
onlooker, mak,
I am talking the big crash. Death in the streets. No work, no stores, no fuel. Nuke plants melting down because there is no funding mechanism. Dams breaking for the same reason. You really think that paper that says that land belongs to you is worth anything? Your playing games with your mind.
onlooker on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 7:15 am
Well congrats Boat now we are talking doomer stuff haha. Seriously, I get your point that such havoc will reign from natural and human sources that almost no area or community will be unscathed. But I can assure you I would rather be part of a community with land than not come the big crash.
Boatm on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 7:33 am
onlooker,
When millions of city folks descend on the little prepper farms looking for a meal I am sure your paper saying that land and what it produces are yours is the first thing they will want to look at. Lol
Davy on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 7:58 am
“When millions of city folks descend on the little prepper farms looking for a meal I am sure your paper saying that land and what it produces are yours is the first thing they will want to look at. Lol”. What a typical ignorant statement of someone who has little understanding of collapse.
Collapse is a process with embedded events. It is not a 2 hour Hollywood movie like so many preach. It can and may be a quick process that could be the final event but I doubt it at least for many years. It will likely be a final event for many poorly placed locals. We know those areas most exposed.
We are likely going to see a gradual process of decaying economic activity that at some point will “event” to a lower level once a threshold global system operating level is breached. The likely outcome therefor is a longish economic emergency with a collapse at some point of the most complex and intensive aspects of the global system. This intensive aspect means all those global industries that rely on just-in-time support from money to resources.
This will likely be a very dangerous time for many countries overly exposed from population and consumption overshoot. In others it will be a time of crisis with a widespread martial law situation likely. Very large countries will likely have a combination of all of the above with collapsed locals and surviving locals. Discretionary activities will be limited with the authorities taking over vital services especially food distribution.
It is anyone’s guess how this will turn out in degree and duration. We could chug on for a few years in an economic emergency with a minimum global activity continuing because of concerted effort by the “powers that are”. It is unclear what a break will be like and where the worst will hit. There are too many speculative conditions to accurately predict.
I will say this in regards to the ignorance of the above cited comment, those who have prepared will have more options in a crisis period. No one has any guarantee of security but some are more secure than others. I would rather be in central Missouri on a goat farm than the suburbs of Houston Texas that for sure.
onlooker on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 7:59 am
Boat I do not expect them to make it there. They will either perish in the cities or they will be forcefully warehoused there by the authorities as the elites will be looking for slave labor. Some may even believe that the cities offer the best hope for their survival. . Of course further down the road who knows, I do know my community will be prepared to fend off or integrate whatever stragglers we notice arriving.
Boat on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 8:11 am
onlooker,
In a world with little trade how can you assume there will be fuel for farms, medicine for the ill and food for anybody. For a doomer you certainly think with optimism. Massive weather catastrophe will be the norm wiping out much of any human endeavor.
onlooker on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 8:30 am
Again Boat, that is further down the road at least in this country. In the meantime, we still have one of the top resources per capita ratio of any country. Not saying it will be paradise but here in the US we can hang on. Poor overpopulated countries with little military or economic leverage with a poor resource per capita ratio are doomed sooner. I know Mak will disagree. I think what is critical is for the populace of the US to start preparing in a tangible way. Again, the picture is not pretty anywhere and gets less pretty over time until population is a fraction of what it is now.
Boat on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 9:48 am
onlooker,
Just as doomers like to lump cornucopians together it is easy to lump doomers together. Especially as the doomers seem to dominate this sight. BC is a popular poster here, quite elegant in his writing with tons of links to support his view. There has been little outrage or questioning of his views or posts. But according to him the crash already happened and we should have mayham in the streets by now.
I respond to the general doomer/prepper for timelines so this site has some accountability.
I have long opposed immigration because of sustainability reasons. Most developed countries would drop population if it were not for immigration. Our tax system in the US is geared to rewarding population. This could be easily changed. There are over 40 billion foreign born immigrants alone in the US. All population increase comes from them. Yet some of the doomers attacked those ideas because they think it’s wrong to take away chances for a better life for immigrants in spite of lack of water and climate change implications. Imagine that.
twocats on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 10:20 am
I respond to the general doomer/prepper for timelines so this site has some accountability. [boat]
it is good to have like resident “devil’s advocate” and its possible you would be a good candidate Boat. I think you think the doomers are rude and have emotional issues, but too often your comments (which seem pretty sincere) are fairly ignorant and misinformed. Apparently in your heart of hearts you consider yourself on the doomer spectrum, but your comments often suggest otherwise. If you are wondering why people are unabashedly rude to you its because your the guy at the book club whose only comments are “I don’t like to read” or criticisms (even if somewhat thoughtful) of the book in question. The site is called “peak oil” and this site is devoted to that concept and its implications for society and all that entails. If you want to be town Devil’s Advocate I think you’re going to have a tough time convincing the majority of people of that.
Kenz300 on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 10:22 am
The transition to safer, cleaner and cheaper alternative energy sources continues to grow around the world.
China to Increase Wind, Solar Power Capacity by 21 Percent in 2016 –
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/01/china-to-increase-wind-solar-power-capacity-by-21-percent-in-2016.html
6 Charts that Will Make You Optimistic About America’s Clean Energy Future
http://energy.gov/articles/6-charts-will-make-you-optimistic-about-america-s-clean-energy-future
Renewables to Overtake Coal as World’s Largest Power Source, Says IEA
https://ecowatch.com/2015/11/10/renewables-to-overtake-coal/
GregT on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 12:22 pm
“BC is a popular poster here, quite elegant in his writing with tons of links to support his view. There has been little outrage or questioning of his views or posts.”
Why would there be outrage over the points of view expressed by somebody who is both ‘quite elegant’ and who provides evidence to support his views? If you have evidence that contradicts BC’s points of view, then by all means provide that evidence. Otherwise you are nothing more than a meaningless source of hot air.
“But according to him the crash already happened and we should have mayham in the streets by now.”
There is plenty of mayhem in the streets of the world already Boat, just because it hasn’t come to your street yet, does not mean that it isn’t already occurring.
Collapse is a process, not a moment in time. It means different things to different people, depending on their circumstances and their individual locales. BC predicted a downturn in the markets heading into 2016. He was correct. Trillions of dollars in wealth evaporated into thin air in the first couple of weeks of this year. Economic growth continues to stagnate, and industry leaders, governments, and central banks continue to search for ways to stop the carnage. We are in uncharted territory.
“I respond to the general doomer/prepper for timelines so this site has some accountability.”
Nobody has a crystal ball Boat, so I would suggest that it is rather difficult to come up with a timeline. It is also difficult to ignore what is occurring all around us on a global scale, something that you seem amazingly able to do. Accountability has nothing to do with future predictions, but rather accepting responsibility for ones own actions. Predictions are nothing more than educated guesses about the future, they are not something to be held accountable to.
“There are over 40 billion foreign born immigrants alone in the US. All population increase comes from them. ”
Stop, and think. Do you really believe what you have written above? If so, you are much further removed from reality than even I thought.
Imagine that.
GregT on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 12:39 pm
Also Boat,
“Yet some of the doomers attacked those ideas because they think it’s wrong to take away chances for a better life for immigrants in spite of lack of water and climate change implications.”
Climate change and water insecurity are global issues. There is no imaginary force field along the lines drawn in the sand that you believe will somehow save you. Most of the predictions that I have read from the scientific community, are for mass migrations of Americans moving northwards into Canada. If that were the case, do you believe that you shouldn’t be allowed to move yourself. Or should those imaginary lines drawn in the sand be a good enough reason to keep you from surviving?
onlooker on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 12:45 pm
Cornies love to scold doomers for not giving time predictions or if they do for being wrong. None of this of course negates the trends and trajectory occurring. Oh and yes the boundaries are artificial and be careful those who wish to enforce them as you may find yourself on the wrong side of the fence. As they say careful what you wish it may come true.
marmico on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 1:07 pm
BC is a popular poster here, quite elegant in his writing with tons of links to support his view.
BC should change his handle to ANNS, All Noise No Signal.
Apneaman on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 1:38 pm
Hope retard style!
Jeb Bush pins hopes on ‘someone in a garage’ to tackle climate change
As rising sea levels threaten their state of Florida, fellow Republican candidate Marco Rubio also warns that action on climate would ‘destroy’ the economy
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/29/jeb-bush-marco-rubio-climate-change-garage
Boat on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 1:39 pm
GregT
In 2013, approximately 41.3 million immigrants lived in the United States, an all-time high for a nation historically built on immigration. The United States remains a popular destination attracting about 20 percent of the world’s international migrants
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states?gclid=CPT0gJnl1MoCFQanaQodBmUIZA
As far as BC goes the proof is quite evident. There has been no collapse of the worlds financial institutions and the downward spiral into chaos. He was wrong.
You have an amazing filter when it comes to reading. You just cant seem to pick out the obvious message. Like you can’t read a chart that goes against your narrative.
Boat on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 1:43 pm
Greg
‘Most of the predictions that I have read from the scientific community, are for mass migrations of Americans moving northwards into Canada. If that were the case, do you believe that you shouldn’t be allowed to move yourself’.
Of course not. No immigration from any country to another should be the standard. Overpopulation needs to be solved, not passed on to others.
Apneaman on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 1:45 pm
Tomgram: Ann Jones, Social Democracy for Dummies
“How did it come to this? An America dotted with feral cities left to decay into ruin? Man-made catastrophes spawned by harebrained austerity schemes? A country of crumbling roads, unsafe bridges, failing schools, a woefully neglected mental health system whose ample slack has been taken up by a disastrous criminal justice system? Take your pick when it comes to rotten institutions and rotting infrastructure, since the list goes on and on. Presidential candidates are vowing to “make America great again” or talking about “reigniting” its “promise,” but perhaps a counterfeit, sepia-tinged trip to the beginning of the road that got us here isn’t really the solution to twenty-first-century America’s problems.”
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176096/tomgram%3A_ann_jones%2C_social_democracy_for_dummies/#more
GregT on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 1:54 pm
“Overpopulation needs to be solved, not passed on to others.”
Overpopulation is a global issue Boat, and a human predicament. Unless you live on a different planet than the rest of us, it is not an issue that can be “passed on to others”.
GregT on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 1:56 pm
“There has been no collapse of the worlds financial institutions and the downward spiral into chaos. ”
The downward spiral has already begun Boat. It precedes collapse. It does not follow it.
Apneaman on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 2:00 pm
Das Boat, I’m still waiting for the actual quote with the dates from BC, because I’m not remembering what he said the same way and I certainly don’t trust your fucked up PVC memory. Want to talk proof? then show it or shut the fuck up.
Boat on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 2:00 pm
GregT,
We will both be here as time goes by. We will see what transpires.
Davy on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 2:19 pm
Boat, it is transpiring now. You are blinded by all those neon lights of a make-believe world.
Boat on Sun, 31st Jan 2016 2:31 pm
Davy,
Like I told the apeman, I will be here for years. We will see over time.