Bob Jensen on the anguish of collapse
We live amidst multiple crises — economic and political, cultural and ecological — that pose a significant threat to human life as we understand it.
There is no way to be awake to the depth of these crises without an emotional reaction. There is no way to be aware of the pain caused by these systemic failures without some experience of dread, depression, distress.
To be fully alive today is to live with anguish, not for one’s own condition in the world but for the condition of the world, for a world that is in collapse.
Though I have felt this for some time I hesitated to talk about it in public, out of fear of being accused of being too negative or dismissed as apocalyptic. But more of us are breaking through that fear, and more than ever it’s essential that we face this aspect of our political lives. To talk openly about this anguish should strengthen, not undermine, our commitment to political engagement — any sensible political program to which we can commit for the long haul has to start with an honest assessment of reality.
Kim Sky:
California on ‘verge of system failure’
Url: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/california-on-verge-of-system-failure/article1609891/
Quote: Think of California as Greece on the Pacific: bankrupt and desperately needing a bailout.
This report includes a map of 52 states, with only two states in the nation with no short-fall. 28 states with more than 20% short-fall.
Global Guerillas: JOURNAL: Hollow US States
Url: http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/06/journal-hollow-us-states.html
Stating: Fiscal insolvency leads to an endless reduction in services. The more you cut, the worse it gets. The worse it gets, the more you cut. Don’t cut fast enough and the financial oligarchy whacks you with higher rates and onerous dictates. In the end, there isn’t much left.
Concluding: With the loss of legitimacy and stability this entails, the US could become an exceptional breeding ground for some of the world’s most aggressive global guerrillas.
HUM. YEP. talking openly is the beginning.
22 June 2010, 6:17 pmrootlesscosmo:
To talk openly about this anguish should strengthen, not undermine, our commitment to political engagement
Why should it? Of course “human life as we know it” is endangered; it always is. As for anguish, I feel much as Jensen does, but how does that get turned into a political program or project? The UN’s Human Development Index insists that, on the whole, human life on all continents has been getting better, slowly and unevenly, since 1975. Yet, like Jensen, I can’t escape the conviction that things are going downhill–look at me, for instance! But that’s kvetching, not a political program–which is why I don’t “do” politics any more.
23 June 2010, 12:16 am