What can we do to change the minds of decision makers and people in general to actually do something about preparing for the forthcoming economic/energy crises (the ones after this one!)?
Potemkin Villager wrote: ↑09 Aug 2024, 09:13
I agree with all the above but none of these issues, and many related, as discussed here ad nauseam, are even the faintest of blips on the political radar. That is the meta problem.
Yes. The metacrisis demands a meta-ideological response to foster a meta-movement that can help to guide humanity towards ecocivilisation. This will require a complete re-evaluation of ethics (which is meta-ethics) as well as a comprehensive rejection of metaphysical materialism.
It is all very meta. However, I remain convinced that those blips will start appearing at some point in the not too distant future. Convinced enough to still be trying to write a book about it. I've got a new format, and currently working so hard I have RSI. Can't sleep for thinking about it.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
UndercoverElephant wrote: ↑09 Aug 2024, 07:22
The Green Party are beyond saving, unfortunately. Anybody who is not an idiot, and makes the mistake of joining, is either destined to turn into one, or leave. They are not interested in realism or actual sustainability. They are interested in virtue signalling, and nothing else.
Politically they are a major part of the problem, and have nothing to do with any real solutions.
Would you agree the same could be said of Reform and indeed all political parties?
Not all of it, no. I don't think Reform are interested in virtue signalling. I think they probably are interested in realism and sustainability, but I don't think there is anything like enough understanding of the core issues. They just aren't sufficiently schooled in ecology or holistic thinking. The Green Party has no such excuse. It actually started out as "The Ecology Party", and their long march downhill into idiocy began with the name change.
Leftist politics, especially the green variety, has been turned into a quasi-religion. They don't just think the right is wrong -- they think it is evil. The right doesn't see politics as religion, and tends to see the left as deluded and irresponsible. Dangerous, but not evil.
Their offerings are all twinkling with magic pixie dust.
So I wonder where that leaves us..... up smelly poo creek without a propelling implement?
That is what the book is about.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
UndercoverElephant wrote: ↑09 Aug 2024, 13:46
....... Convinced enough to still be trying to write a book about it. I've got a new format, and currently working so hard I have RSI. Can't sleep for thinking about it.
Nothing like setting a very ambitious target for yourself.
Please do not be offended. I normally seriously avoid trying to tell folk what to do but I would very seriously advise you ease off a bit as this pace does not sound very good for your health. You currently sound like a prime candidate for burnout at this rate! Maybe a wee holiday, festival or whatever.
I also think you really need to go at the whole thing in a more chatty and less overtly didactic style bringing the reader along with you rather than treating them as an empty vessel. I don't know if you are familiar with it, but I have recently rediscovered "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and would proffer Pirsig's somewhat meandering but persistent "journey of discovery"writing style as at least worth considering.
Good luck and take care.
Overconfidence, not just expert overconfidence but general overconfidence,
is one of the most common illusions we experience. Stan Robinson
UndercoverElephant wrote: ↑09 Aug 2024, 13:46
....... Convinced enough to still be trying to write a book about it. I've got a new format, and currently working so hard I have RSI. Can't sleep for thinking about it.
Nothing like setting a very ambitious target for yourself.
Please do not be offended. I normally seriously avoid trying to tell folk what to do but I would very seriously advise you ease off a bit as this pace does not sound very good for your health. You currently sound like a prime candidate for burnout at this rate! Maybe a wee holiday, festival or whatever.
Doesn't work like that for me. I need to strike while the iron is hot.
I also think you really need to go at the whole thing in a more chatty and less overtly didactic style bringing the reader along with you rather than treating them as an empty vessel. I don't know if you are familiar with it, but I have recently rediscovered "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and would proffer Pirsig's somewhat meandering but persistent "journey of discovery"writing style as at least worth considering.
I know what you mean, but I am very conscious that I am writing for a largely hostile audience who won't be softened up by a chatty style. My voice in the book is not the same as my voice here. What I am NOT doing is setting myself up as a spiritual guide of any sort. The book necessarily includes an account of how the mystical is related to everything else, but it does so from the "meta" level. I am trying to bring mystics and non-mystics - spiritual and science -- together because our ecological situation is so dire that that argument needs to be dealt with by a peace treaty so we can get on with the politics and economics. Not everybody is going to go on that journey of discovery. Some of them will remain forever skeptical of all that, and we need to respect their right to do exactly that.
This is not easy to explain. I am writing a book about a meta-ideology to facilitate the cultural transition to ecocivilisation, via collapse. That meta-ideology has to encompass both mysticism and skepticism. I am trying to write a book which will appeal equally to both -- that's the whole point. And the only thing that can bring them together is an obligation to seek and defend truth. I can't defend that with a journey of discovery book. It's got to be far more fiercely rational than that.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
Interesting about your view on the fate of the Greens and looney Left. I recall that the Iranian revolution was started by the Left and hijacked by the Islamists. Same will happen in the West. A bit like that anti racism rally in Middlesbrough that was attended by Pro Palestinians Pakistanis and quite a few non-Geordie sounding whites. As viewed from where I am on the right, where we are not fooled by these lies, this will be the fate of the green-Left to be hijacked by an actual religion.
BritDownUnder wrote: ↑10 Aug 2024, 02:24
Interesting about your view on the fate of the Greens and looney Left. I recall that the Iranian revolution was started by the Left and hijacked by the Islamists. Same will happen in the West.
The probability of Islamists actually taking control of any Western country is nil.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
BritDownUnder wrote: ↑10 Aug 2024, 02:24
Interesting about your view on the fate of the Greens and looney Left. I recall that the Iranian revolution was started by the Left and hijacked by the Islamists. Same will happen in the West.
The probability of Islamists actually taking control of any Western country is nil.
Demographics begs to differ. I will guess that Belgium will be the first. Muslims and their white lefty useful idiots marching together in many of the cities in the West this year bring it all closer.
I guess there is still a bit of lefty still in you.
UndercoverElephant wrote: ↑09 Aug 2024, 13:46
....... Convinced enough to still be trying to write a book about it. I've got a new format, and currently working so hard I have RSI. Can't sleep for thinking about it.
Nothing like setting a very ambitious target for yourself.
Please do not be offended. I normally seriously avoid trying to tell folk what to do but I would very seriously advise you ease off a bit as this pace does not sound very good for your health. You currently sound like a prime candidate for burnout at this rate! Maybe a wee holiday, festival or whatever.
Doesn't work like that for me. I need to strike while the iron is hot.
I also think you really need to go at the whole thing in a more chatty and less overtly didactic style bringing the reader along with you rather than treating them as an empty vessel. I don't know if you are familiar with it, but I have recently rediscovered "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and would proffer Pirsig's somewhat meandering but persistent "journey of discovery"writing style as at least worth considering.
I know what you mean, but I am very conscious that I am writing for a largely hostile audience who won't be softened up by a chatty style. My voice in the book is not the same as my voice here. What I am NOT doing is setting myself up as a spiritual guide of any sort. The book necessarily includes an account of how the mystical is related to everything else, but it does so from the "meta" level. I am trying to bring mystics and non-mystics - spiritual and science -- together because our ecological situation is so dire that that argument needs to be dealt with by a peace treaty so we can get on with the politics and economics. Not everybody is going to go on that journey of discovery. Some of them will remain forever skeptical of all that, and we need to respect their right to do exactly that.
This is not easy to explain. I am writing a book about a meta-ideology to facilitate the cultural transition to ecocivilisation, via collapse. That meta-ideology has to encompass both mysticism and skepticism. I am trying to write a book which will appeal equally to both -- that's the whole point. And the only thing that can bring them together is an obligation to seek and defend truth. I can't defend that with a journey of discovery book. It's got to be far more fiercely rational than that.
Take your time with it. Much like asking a woman out, you can only make the move once and it has to sound right or you crash and burn.
Persistence of habitat, is the fundamental basis of persistence of a species.
A great article in the FT about loads of private jets leaving the UK. I'm planning to do the same. I'm not rich but feel the need to leave. Rachel Reeves is a joke. Politics of envy....
Forever_Winter wrote: ↑12 Aug 2024, 20:24
A great article in the FT about loads of private jets leaving the UK. I'm planning to do the same. I'm not rich but feel the need to leave. Rachel Reeves is a joke. Politics of envy....
I left because I felt the North Sea Oil surplus had ended and after that was trouble - economically speaking. Living in London for a few years gave me a glimpse of the future - socially and ethnically speaking.
First poll since the election shows collapse in Labour support (compared to the polls before the election, not the actual result). Completely predictable and I expect it to stay that way. The only was down, baby....
Forever_Winter wrote: ↑12 Aug 2024, 20:24
A great article in the FT about loads of private jets leaving the UK. I'm planning to do the same. I'm not rich but feel the need to leave. Rachel Reeves is a joke. Politics of envy....
I wonder where you are thinking of moving that you feel might be a significant improvement on the UK?
Overconfidence, not just expert overconfidence but general overconfidence,
is one of the most common illusions we experience. Stan Robinson
A new poll out this morning from We Think Polling shows Reform UK surging up a whopping five points in the past month, and overtaking the Tories for the first time since the election.
the people responsible for these surges don't have the balls to actually vote the way they feel.
Persistence of habitat, is the fundamental basis of persistence of a species.
A new poll out this morning from We Think Polling shows Reform UK surging up a whopping five points in the past month, and overtaking the Tories for the first time since the election.
the people responsible for these surges don't have the balls to actually vote the way they feel.
Maybe. Voting tactically doesn't indicate a lack of balls though.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
First labour MP resigns the whip over the winter fuel payments and Starmérs freebies. Labour is talking of backing off from tighter control of non Dom tax status.
This is the fastest known resignation from any governing party after it's election victory.
