reading tainter ( as opposed to jared diamond )

"specific evolutionary 'progress' is inversely related to general evolutionary 'potential.'" "...success at adaptation breeds conservatism; dominant polities are less able to accommodate change. successful complex societies become locked into their adaptations..." "since change is rarely in the best interests of the ruling group, and there is a lack of cohesion and common interest between groups, no mechanism exists for gradual adjustment to changing circumstances. pressures lead to collapse rather than to structural change." "...all societies, complex or otherwise, run the risk of adapting so well to existing circumstances that change becomes impossible." joseph a. tainter, from "the collapse of complex societies."______________________________________________________________ so...the "developed economies" are nearing the end of a three hundred year ( or so ) run of a bonanza of cheap, high quality energy, laid down during the carboniferous era and the social and infrastructures are deeply embedded in adaptations to that extraordinary windfall...( don't believe me? how do you feel when the power fails? what in your home functions without electricity?i have a lot of books personally, but when the power goes out for any extended length of time my neighborhood empties as people flee to relatives, or bars, or resturants, or starbucks...anywhaere they can find oases of the technology that has failed at home...television, wi-fi, whatever [and no, i haven't missed the irony that i am saying thison the internet...i am part of the consumerist culture as well...like it or not..i'm just looking for escape routes] or when gasoline prices spike...you're trapped bucko...get a grip )...i can think of at least five service stations within a mile of my house and i could drive from here to detroit on back roads and city streets, much less highways...what are all those streets and gas stations for? adaptations to cheap energy... all that sunk cost in infrastructure and all the profits left to wring out of petrochemicals mean that resource will be dominant until it becomes absolutely unsustainable...then what? ( and the first one of you to say "resource substitution" gets rapped on the knuckles...that is the valium of economists...hired guns of greed...trying to lull us into complacency )...the worldview emanating out of the media and the excuses and explanations those criminal whores in whoretown are propagating won't make the collapse any easier to deal with...they are tools of hegemonic culture and change is not "in the best interest of the ruling group"...even they won't come through this unscathed...less poor is still the new rich.