The Dark Ages

[Roxanne Appleby]

According to this book I've been reading called The Long Emergency, by James Howard Kunstler, what we're headed for is a dim age: when enough of the world's oil has been used that it becomes scarce and unaffordable. When this happens, the world will contract, living will become intensely parochial, the suburbs will turn into slums or abandoned areas, and the US might become Balkanized, i.e., break up into several autonomous or semi-autonomous states.

It need not be like that. The world population is expected to stabilize and peak in the next century. With relative ease we can get concentrated energy from nukes and possibly geothermal sources, supplemented by a variety of other sources, and convert our economy to an electric one that would allow every person on the planet to have all the comforts and conveniences of industrial civilization that we now enjoy in the developed world.

 

[SlickTony]

It need not be like that. The world population is expected to stabilize and peak in the next century. With relative ease we can get concentrated energy from nukes and possibly geothermal sources, supplemented by a variety of other sources, and convert our economy to an electric one that would allow every person on the planet to have all the comforts and conveniences of industrial civilization that we now enjoy in the developed world.

I'd like to think it would be so, although Kunstler has a bunch of reasons that this probably will not happen. The US will have to get over its fear of nuclear power plants--Three Mile Island, and the accounts of what happened at Chernobyl, kind of put us off them.

Considering how fatally easy it is to have methane form practically anywhere, I'm surprised we can't do more with that.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

On the other hand...

I'm suddenly old enough to remember life before the internet and even the CD. I remember that it was really a big thing to get a letter or package in the mail. You could drop the needle on a record and before the singer even started the first verse, you could tell who the group or artist was. A couple years ago, an ad would come on television announcing the next new thing in music, or some ballad cd. The other night it was an ad for yet the newest, and I really couldn't tell much difference.
Used to be, you could just glance at a car down the road and just the headlights alone told you, "that's a chevy, that's a ford, that's a dodge..." Now I look outside at the cars going up and down the street. All the same, or near enough the same. Just a couple examples.

I recognize this disease!

My boy, put on your boodie shoes and turn on your boombox... You're getting old!

 

[hmmnmm]

I recognize this disease!

My boy, put on your boodie shoes and turn on your boombox... You're getting old!

Or go to the drive-in movie - lawn chairs, the concession stand, those speakers you'd hook in the window, that huge screen.

Or melody in the music. Hell, even Black Sabbath had some melody.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Or go to the drive-in movie - lawn chairs, the concession stand, those speakers you'd hook in the window, that huge screen.

Or melody in the music. Hell, even Black Sabbath had some melody.

Actually, you would know the name of the song and the recording artist even before you carefully set the needle into the groove. You would know by reading the label.

I remember drivein movies, which were usually either family outings or makeout sessions. Lawn chairs are still common enough and almost every event held in a public place, such as a baseball game or a concert, etc. has a concession stand.

I remember local hooligans (such as myself) stealing those speakers, which is probably part of the reason for the demise of such places.

If you want melody in music, you almost have to listen to an oldies station.

 

[cantdog]

Hooligans. What a great word.

Remember all the audiophiles grumbling about digitized music? "You cannot get the sound quality, the nuances, with a digital recording."

Yeah, but the machines would stretch your tapes, eat your tapes, flake the medium off your tapes, and as for that groove on the vinyl? Man, that diamond or sapphire would chew the livin shit out of it. You only heard that fabled "sound quality" the very first time you played the song, if even then. Wow, flutter, harmonic distortion, signal-to-noise distortion, variations in speed of turntables and also of tape deck spindles...

As for the cars, mate, you just have stopped paying attention. I hope you still remember your dinosaurs?

 

[SlickTony]

Actually, you would know the name of the song and the recording artist even before you carefully set the needle into the groove. You would know by reading the label.

I remember drivein movies, which were usually either family outings or makeout sessions. Lawn chairs are still common enough and almost every event held in a public place, such as a baseball game or a concert, etc. has a concession stand.

I remember local hooligans (such as myself) stealing those speakers, which is probably part of the reason for the demise of such places.

If you want melody in music, you almost have to listen to an oldies station.

The major reason for the demise of the drive in is air conditioning. No one wants to spend that much time outdoors without it anymore, especially in the south. At least if they're going to be shut up in a car.

 

[cantdog]

The major reason for the demise of the drive in is air conditioning. No one wants to spend that much time outdoors without it anymore, especially in the south. At least if they're going to be shut up in a car.

Yeah and they put them next to a damn swamp, every time, and the mosquitoes were murder, since you couldn't actually shut yer window.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I'm working on a couple of stories set in such a future.

I chose a different catalyst, but the premise of several of my stories are based on the theme of a Balkanized world...not just the USA, either. All of the major world governments collapse. It's due to an EMP strike triggered by a Russian anarchist and his comrades. The date that it happens in my timeline is February 14, 2010 (or was it 2011) and the anarchist is named Valentin Kazarov, so the event is called Valentin's Day or the Great Pulse.

At the risk of plugging my stuff, that is the premise, so I can buy the idea, as tragic as it would be. It's amazing how many different directions a single country's autonomous regions could go in just a series or parallel universe.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I'm so transparent, aren't I?

My favourite writer compares them to the Bolsheviks. There aren't a lot of them and they're driven by a simple, economically deterministic philosophy.

Their first step was to hijack the language. This made it difficult to discuss anything, but especially economics on any terms other than the ones they set. You can't argue with them because they've won before you even start.

Their second step was to gain power by hiding their revolutionary intent by hiding behind a 'conservative' front. Once they got that power, they took the gloves off.

None of what's happened over the last few years has surprised me. History rhymes.

Well, the militant right is definitely revolutionary in its own way....they want a "covenant" society where Christian rule ushers in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ. Seriously. That's the goal of Gary North and several of that clique. Though not precisely all in quite that way....but that's the thrust.

 

[hmmnmm]

-------

 

[hmmnmm]

Happy Ending

-------

 

[cantdog]

Well, the militant right is definitely revolutionary in its own way....they want a "covenant" society where Christian rule ushers in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ. Seriously. That's the goal of Gary North and several of that clique. Though not precisely all in quite that way....but that's the thrust.

Fascists. Not really Christian at all. You are completely correct, although whenever I refer to it I sound paranoid. But it is literally true.

 

[starrkers]

Perhaps we're all just fiddling while Rome burns...

 

[mikey2much]

I think we are doing it backwards this time

If I have my history correct the crusades was what snapped Europe out of the dark ages.

Will this crusade that our fearless leader got us into now bring about a new dark age?

The thing that made the dark ages dark was the church. It contained all the knowledge that it could while at the same time tried to stifle any new knowledge by discouraging people from questioning their world. When you see the church getting stronger you can bet that things are getting worst.

I once read a bumper sticker that said, “Atheist are the reason, there’s reason”

I think that is a true statement.
mikey

 

[hmmnmm]

[--------

 

[rgraham666]

My favourite author observes that to all intents and purposes we are living in feudal times.

Our day to day lives are ruled by the system we've misnamed 'capitalism'. In actuality we live in a vast, complex, abstract structure unrelated to people, place or time, as feudalism was. This structure's primary purpose is its continued existence and everyone and everything in it is just a game piece to be manipulated to further that purpose.

It's why we're treated so badly by our employers. We're serfs, most of us, and of very little value.

 

[hmmnmm]

--------

 

[rgraham666]

Where's that fiddle?

Right here (Starts sawing out Saint-Saens Danse Macabre on it)

 

[hmmnmm]

-------

 

[Boxlicker101]

My favourite author observes that to all intents and purposes we are living in feudal times.

Our day to day lives are ruled by the system we've misnamed 'capitalism'. In actuality we live in a vast, complex, abstract structure unrelated to people, place or time, as feudalism was. This structure's primary purpose is its continued existence and everyone and everything in it is just a game piece to be manipulated to further that purpose.

It's why we're treated so badly by our employers. We're serfs, most of us, and of very little value.

That's an extreme exaggeration. We are not born serfs, to work on the farm or other place owned by "the master" from the day we are born to the day we die, usually in our thirties. In the US, at least, we have mobility, upward (or downward) and laterally. I was raised in one state, for instance, but now live in another, 2,000 miles away. Bill Gates and Bill Clinton were both born into middle class families, but went on to gain wealth and fame and power, and there are millions more like that.

Most of us have to work, of course, but we have a great deal of choice in for whom and doing what. Our employers or heads of government no longer have the power of life or death, or the right of "primo nocto" they had during feudal times.

The Church is still influential, but nothing like it was a thousand years ago. Literate and thinking people question its tenets and no longer accept everything that is said. Most people, at least. The Church, as always, would love to increase their influence, but they will never be able to reach the level they used to be.

In fact, I doubt that you can name even one major area where the current times are much like feudal times.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'll tell you one thing. it seems like entertainment is the only growth industry in America today. Between the 2000 channels on my TV and the movies on my cell phone and in my car and the music on my computer and coming out of my toaster, I'm suprised there's any content left at all anymore. Is there anyone is America who's NOT an actor/musician/writer/videographer/singer/entertainer of one sort of another? As I see it, pretty soon we're going to have to import illegal aliens to work as audience members

We've got so much media that we're just sucking us dry. What little originality and talent there is is so diluted that we're reduced to watching normal, talentless people doing normal, talentless, people-type things and telling ourselves it's entertainment. That's our problem and that's why entertainment stinks. Someone willing to make a fool of themselves in front of a camera is a major theatrical event, and a crazy person walking around killing people with a small-caiber handgun is prime-time dynamite.

Even sports is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Okay, I suppose LaCrosse is a legitimate sport and it's rough enough to satisfy our lust for blood, but a pro darts tour? And poker on TV? Do we really wanat to sit and watch people play cards? Can checkers be far behind? There's talk of a Miniature Golf Tour too. From there it won't be long till we're seeing the Master's Monopoly Pro-Am Invitational, Chutes & Ladders, Candyland, Operation, Mousetrap...

 

[cloudy]

but a pro darts tour? And poker on TV? Do we really wanat to sit and watch people play cards? Can checkers be far behind? There's talk of a Miniature Golf Tour too. From there it won't be long till we're seeing the Master's Monopoly Pro-Am Invitational, Chutes & Ladders, Candyland, Operation, Mousetrap...

I agree.

I used to think that watching golf was, as George Carlin puts it, "like watching flies fuck," but poker is just as damn bad.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I'll tell you one thing. it seems like entertainment is the only growth industry in America today. Between the 2000 channels on my TV and the movies on my cell phone and in my car and the music on my computer and coming out of my toaster, I'm suprised there's any content left at all anymore. Is there anyone is America who's NOT an actor/musician/writer/videographer/singer/entertainer of one sort of another? As I see it, pretty soon we're going to have to import illegal aliens to work as audience members

We've got so much media that we're just sucking us dry. What little originality and talent there is is so diluted that we're reduced to watching normal, talentless people doing normal, talentless, people-type things and telling ourselves it's entertainment. That's our problem and that's why entertainment stinks. Someone willing to make a fool of themselves in front of a camera is a major theatrical event, and a crazy person walking around killing people with a small-caiber handgun is prime-time dynamite.

Even sports is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Okay, I suppose LaCrosse is a legitimate sport and it's rough enough to satisfy our lust for blood, but a pro darts tour? And poker on TV? Do we really wanat to sit and watch people play cards? Can checkers be far behind? There's talk of a Miniature Golf Tour too. From there it won't be long till we're seeing the Master's Monopoly Pro-Am Invitational, Chutes & Ladders, Candyland, Operation, Mousetrap...

Well, computers and pharmaceuticals are certainly growth industries also, and so is transportation, but maybe to a lesser degree.

I have never seen a game of LaCrosse, but I suppose it could be exciting. Bowling is, or was a staple on TV. I have no interest in watching people play cards, but bridge tournaments are big news. A few years back, Bobby Fisher won the world chess championship, and the newspapers followed it in the sports pages. I don't think it was televised, though.

 

[hmmnmm]

I'll tell you one thing. it seems like entertainment is the only growth industry in America today. Between the 2000 channels on my TV and the movies on my cell phone and in my car and the music on my computer and coming out of my toaster, I'm suprised there's any content left at all anymore. Is there anyone is America who's NOT an actor/musician/writer/videographer/singer/entertainer of one sort of another? As I see it, pretty soon we're going to have to import illegal aliens to work as audience members

We've got so much media that we're just sucking us dry. What little originality and talent there is is so diluted that we're reduced to watching normal, talentless people doing normal, talentless, people-type things and telling ourselves it's entertainment. That's our problem and that's why entertainment stinks. Someone willing to make a fool of themselves in front of a camera is a major theatrical event, and a crazy person walking around killing people with a small-caiber handgun is prime-time dynamite.

Even sports is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Okay, I suppose LaCrosse is a legitimate sport and it's rough enough to satisfy our lust for blood, but a pro darts tour? And poker on TV? Do we really wanat to sit and watch people play cards? Can checkers be far behind? There's talk of a Miniature Golf Tour too. From there it won't be long till we're seeing the Master's Monopoly Pro-Am Invitational, Chutes & Ladders, Candyland, Operation, Mousetrap...

As usual you translate with crystal clarity what I was getting at all along.