Making the news today....

[Stere]

Neo feudalism?

 

The Coming of Neo-Feudalism—A Review

QUILLETTE.COM

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Review of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class by Joel Kotkin, Encounter Books (May...

 

[Woodworks]

34 minutes ago, Johnsond said:

BP reports huge profits as energy bills soar

APPLE.NEWS

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The firm reported profits of $8.45bn in the second quarter of the year as oil and gas prices...

 I do wonder where our so called “ democratic society is heading at the minute”. Bearing in mind we are in the middle of summer and come October “ I think” is there not another increase in the energy price cap to £3600 !!. 

Riots in the street I would imagine.

 

Many will literally not be able to afford heating and electric. Seems almost unimaginable in one of the richest countries in the world but as the article Stere shared points out the wealth in western counties  is incredibly unevenly distributed. 

[Retired Climber]

23 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

Riots in the street I would imagine.

 

Many will literally not be able to afford heating and electric. Seems almost unimaginable in one of the richest countries in the world but as the article Stere shared points out the wealth in western counties  is incredibly unevenly distributed. 

Maybe those who have been spending time contemplating rioting and generally feeling sorry for themselves should have done a bit of overtime and bought some BP shares. 

[sime42]

It's a bleak outlook for us all, that's for sure.

As always, Climate Change and destruction of the natural world dwarf all other current concerns.

The thing is, it doesn't matter how much wealth those in the upper echelons, the Oligarchy, possess; it'll be of no use when the world is burning and/or flooding to death around them. They live physically on the same planet as the rest of us lowly beasts. The irony is that the majority of the wealth that they're amassing is derived from human activities that are causing the aforementioned catastrophe. The stupidity of man. 

 

 

[Retired Climber]

13 minutes ago, sime42 said:

It's a bleak outlook for us all, that's for sure.

As always, Climate Change and destruction of the natural world dwarf all other current concerns.

The thing is, it doesn't matter how much wealth those in the upper echelons, the Oligarchy, possess; it'll be of no use when the world is burning and/or flooding to death around them. They live physically on the same planet as the rest of us lowly beasts. The irony is that the majority of the wealth that they're amassing is derived from human activities that are causing the aforementioned catastrophe. The stupidity of man. 

 

 

The psychology behind why we (as humans) do this to ourselves, and the planet on which we live, is both fascinating and depressing, in equal measures. Some of the ideas are seen as fairly complex. However, it can be summed up in a fairly basic manner; Humans are selfish and short sighted, and the planet would be a lot better off if most of us perished. 

[GarethM]

As a farming type, there does need to be a reality check to all the eco doom mongering spouted and regurgitated by Gretta.

 

I'm somewhere in the eco middle, but turning off the lights and shivering in a corner isn't going to save anything, we can't even huddle around and old incandescent bulb for heat anymore!.

 

Build or atleast restart nuclear including Hinkley immediately, in the long term close gas power stations and return to being self sufficient using North sea gas.

 

As a thought we as a country have over 139 tons of plutonium at sellafield, literally gathering dust and we've just closed the fuel recycling facility!.

[Mrblue5000]

There was a major redistribution of wealth only twice in the 20th C, after WW 1 and WW2.  The rest of the time the rich have gotten richer at the expense of everyone else.

[sime42]

30 minutes ago, Retired Climber said:

The psychology behind why we (as humans) do this to ourselves, and the planet on which we live, is both fascinating and depressing, in equal measures. Some of the ideas are seen as fairly complex. However, it can be summed up in a fairly basic manner; Humans are selfish and short sighted, and the planet would be a lot better off if most of us perished. 

Exactly. That's it, we could end this discussion right there with that summation!

 

As an addendum.

We are all, to a greater or lesser extent, complicit in the transfer of wealth to the huge multinational corporate beasts like Amazon, BP, Monsanto, Apple etc, (and their attendant parasites such as law and banking companies). We don't have to drive the mile in our SUV to the supermarket or school, keep our houses warm enough to wear shorts all year round, eat meat every day, buy the latest iPhone every year, have the biggest TV, have that bit of plastic tat delivered from China in 15 minutes.............blah blah blah. The list is endless. All those needless purchases just mean less money for us and more for them.

It all comes down to overconsumption, I think anyway. No point fretting about the state of affairs unless we're willing to change our own habits.

[openspaceman]

2 hours ago, Retired Climber said:

Humans are selfish and short sighted,

Yes and that trait is what meant our ancestors survived but we have never got beyond that economic competitiveness to progress any further than a cell of yeast pickling in its own excrement.

2 hours ago, Retired Climber said:

 

and the planet would be a lot better off if most of us perished. 

 

In fact it only needs us 2 billion wealthiest to perish as  we are behind 90% of the pollution.

 

Even so there would still need to be some intervention to help nature out and rapidly reduce CO2 because all that coal we burned was produced at a time  many organisms that decayed vegetation had not evolved.

[Retired Climber]

6 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

Yes and that trait is what meant our ancestors survived but we have never got beyond that economic competitiveness to progress any further than a cell of yeast pickling in its own excrement.

 

In fact it only needs us 2 billion wealthiest to perish as  we are behind 90% of the pollution.

 

Even so there would still need to be some intervention to help nature out and rapidly reduce CO2 because all that coal we burned was produced at a time  many organisms that decayed vegetation had not evolved.

Thanks to evolution, we are all the decedents of ancestors who leveraged their greed and selfishness to make sure they got to pass on their genetic material. An exceptionally good strategy to build a strong species, but an abysmally bad strategy to sustain one long term. 

 

The problem we have, is that if humans were a lot more intelligent we'd be fine; if we were a lot less intelligent we'd also be fine. We are trapped in the middle ground in which we are too intelligent to live a sustainable life, but not smart enough to know how to live how we want to, whilst remaining viable long term.