End of the Binge - Globalism About to Die

[Bushwick Bill]

I know it's AMCON, but Kunstler is a registered dem. and he absolutely nails our predicament, so he should get a pass for publishing there.

End of the Binge

The exhaustion of our energy supply may end affluence as we know it.

by James Howard Kunstler

Among the strange delusions and hallucinations gripping the body politic these days is the idea that the so-called global economy is a permanent fixture of the human condition. The seemingly unanimous embrace of this idea in the power circles of America is a marvelous illustration of the madness of crowds, for nothing could be farther from the truth.

The global economy is, in fact, nothing more than a transient set of trade and financial relations based on a particular set of transient, special sociopolitical conditions, namely a few decades of relative world peace between the great powers along with substantial, reliable supplies of predictably cheap fossil fuels. The result, as far as America is concerned, has been an extended fiesta based on suburban comfort, easy motoring, fried food in abundance, universal air conditioning, and bargain-priced imported merchandise acquired on promises to pay later—a way of life described by Vice President Cheney as “non-negotiable.”

Of particular concern ought to be the 12,000-mile-long merchandise supply lines from Asia that American retailers such as Wal-Mart depend on and from which American “consumers” (as opposed to citizens, i.e., people with duties, obligations, and responsibilities) get most of their household goods these days. Wal-Mart now gets 70 percent of its products from China.

This fragile calculus plays out against a background of rapidly escalating and increasingly desperate strategic maneuvering around the global oil-production peak and its implications. Peak oil, for short, would unseat the relative peace and cheap-energy basis of our current global arrangements. It is already beginning to happen. Yet most of the discussion about the boon of globalism, especially the virtual cheerleading of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, is occurring in complete disregard of the gathering peak-oil crisis. The Left and Right are both equally guilty of epic cluelessness.
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http://www.amconmag.com/2005/2005_09_12/cover.html

[Maple]

1. Wishful thinking

on the part of protectionists.

This will actually boost globalization in a massive way.

[despairing optimist]

2. What? No Windows update? No new hardware? No HDTV?

No plastic, except the human character kind?

The key words are "affluence as we know it." It's no secret that the middle class has been shrinking, so the perks will accrue to the well-to-do--the phrase belongs in lyrics to a Broadway musical. Just as 80 years ago telephones and radios and automobiles were luxuries that only the rich could afford, well, you know the rest. It's Henry Ford mass-deproduction, the reversal of the consumer society.

The good news is that all those stupid ads to buy things won't pertain to most people and they won't see them anyway unless they know how to read or own TVs. There will be a renewed focus on the metaphysical, spiritual aspect of life, so if you like the life-style of a barefooted, simply clothed philosopher, you're in luck. Monasteries and other communal living arrangements may enjoy a surge of interest as self-denial comes back in vogue, and the jams and brandies aren't so bad either.

More good news: things probably won't get as bad as predicted because all we can do is predict the future based on the present, and that never turns out exactly the way we expect it to. So the truth will likely be somewhere between the worst-case scenario and something worse than what we have now.

For those who want to pig out on bad news, I encourage a visit to Michael Ruppert's website www.fromthewilderness.com After reading a few of the articles and commenaries there, if you don't say "Just shoot me," you're better than I am.

[Child_Of_Isis]

3. If this is what is coming, I am all for it.

"if you like the life-style of a barefooted, simply clothed philosopher, you're in luck."

[Maple]

5. Sorry, no return to the middle ages

and why anyone would want such a goofy thing, I don't know.

[wli]

4. Agricultural impact is getting glossed over. n/t