"as societies modernize and become richer, their networks become more complex, interconnected, and faster. they...increase the number of links among the nodes, and they boost the speed at which stuff moves from node to node along the links...the first cost of greater connectivity is that damage or a shock in one part of the system- the failure of a machine, the release of a computer virus, or a local financial crisis can cascade farther and faster to other parts of the system."
"the upside of down: catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization" thomas homer-dixon
"yet disaster researcher benjamin mcluckie hypothesized ( in 1977 ) that 'the higher the societies level of technological development, the more vulnerable it would be.' that is because people in industrialized countries live in major population centers and rely on sophisticated technologies, increasing their vulnerability to a large scale collapse of interlocking systems of transportation, communication, water-supply, and food distribution."
"peak everything: waking up to a century of declines." richard heinberg
http://www.usdebtclock.org/energy.html
so collectively the world is using more energy than energy producers are supplying by hundreds of thousands of btu's...the energy that drives the "sophisticated technologies" and powers the inter-connectivity of "advanced" societies...oil is up to $101 a barrel last time i looked...the iranians are making noise ( and it's probably just noise...they have significant energy contracts with the chinese and that is a relationship they most likely don't want to screw up)...and the stock market has started the new year as schizoid as it ended the last...economists still insist on reducing basic resources ( like energy, food, water, etc.) to terms of dollars so they appear to be interchangeable for purposes of economic rationalizations of greed and exploitation of anything that promises to turn a profit ( always a shot-term activity...profit is about what's going on now ) no matter what future costs that exploitation may incur... since the reality is that dollars are an abstract representation of real things and basic resources are not fungible anything an economist says should be met with a healthy dose of skepticism...like all professionals they are not as knowledgeable as they would care for you to believe...full of human frailties and as readily mistaken in their beliefs as anyone...there are a lot of humans out there and all of them are making decisions on a daily basis...billions of variables and , no doubt, millions of loose cannons, creating a world so vastly complicated that even the most "educated" amongst us can have only the most general idea of what's really going on...since politicians of substantially inferior intellect rely on the "educated" to brief them on issues that they should at all costs avoid discussing in any election cycle the cachet of leadership ability that these bozos are trying so desperately to portray themselves as possessing in quantities that should entitle them to roles of leadership is, in my mind, a matter so deeply shrouded in doubt as to render politics absurd...in the end they and the "educated" that serve as their handlers have a vested interest in portraying a return to "normal" as a viable possibility...that a host of programs have failed ( despite the questionable evidence of statistics cooked as a political expedient ) should be an indication of their inability to wrap their pea brains around the enormity of the dilemma the last two hundred years or so of industrialization have been building towards...i will vote in 2012..i always do because it makes them nervous when larger than usual number of people vote and i can't think of a class of people that deserves to be more uncomfortable than politicians...i would encourage you to do so as well if for no other reason than that...then stop and think a bit about how you might be able to find ways in your locality to help yourselves and your neighbors...when leadership fails ( and they have in manifold ways) you have to lead yourselves.
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