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Ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

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Ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby Ibon » Fri 23 Jun 2017, 20:43:06

Many of you were readers of John Michael Greer's blog The Archdruid Report that was discontinued a few months ago. He has started a new blog with a new theme that focuses on Anthropolatry, a term JMG coined. This happens to be a topic some of us occasionally touch on as well here on this site, in fact it recently came up on the thread The Stark Reality of Baked in Consequences... the-stark-realities-of-baked-in-catastrophes-t72476.html

Anthropolatry is the worship of humanity as a god. For those interested here is the link to the new blog.

http://www.ecosophia.net/
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Re: ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby dohboi » Fri 23 Jun 2017, 21:43:58

I used to like some of his stuff, but since I realized that he's a crypto-denialist, I kinda lost interest.
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Re: ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby Plantagenet » Fri 23 Jun 2017, 22:42:44

Ibon wrote:l
Anthropolatry is the worship of humanity as a god.


Will being gods make us any smarter or any more likely to make the right decisions when it comes to politics or efforts to protect the earth's environment?

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Yipppeeee! We're all gods now!
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Re: ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby AdamB » Sat 24 Jun 2017, 10:37:02

Ibon wrote:Many of you were readers of John Michael Greer's blog The Archdruid Report that was discontinued a few months ago. He has started a new blog with a new theme that focuses on Anthropolatry, a term JMG coined. This happens to be a topic some of us occasionally touch on as well here on this site, in fact it recently came up on the thread The Stark Reality of Baked in Consequences... the-stark-realities-of-baked-in-catastrophes-t72476.html

Anthropolatry is the worship of humanity as a god. For those interested here is the link to the new blog.

http://www.ecosophia.net/


Did he hide or get rid of his old blog, that folks can't examine his past claims in the light of today? A common tactic in peaker-ville...make darn sure folks can't see the past crazy...wondering if he is doing the same thing LATOC did in this regard?
Plant Thu 27 Jul 2023 "Personally I think the IEA is exactly right when they predict peak oil in the 2020s, especially because it matches my own predictions."

Plant Wed 11 Apr 2007 "I think Deffeyes might have nailed it, and we are just past the overall peak in oil production. (Thanksgiving 2005)"
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Re: ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby Ibon » Sat 24 Jun 2017, 11:48:15

AdamB wrote:
Ibon wrote:Many of you were readers of John Michael Greer's blog The Archdruid Report that was discontinued a few months ago. He has started a new blog with a new theme that focuses on Anthropolatry, a term JMG coined. This happens to be a topic some of us occasionally touch on as well here on this site, in fact it recently came up on the thread The Stark Reality of Baked in Consequences... the-stark-realities-of-baked-in-catastrophes-t72476.html

Anthropolatry is the worship of humanity as a god. For those interested here is the link to the new blog.

http://www.ecosophia.net/


Did he hide or get rid of his old blog, that folks can't examine his past claims in the light of today? A common tactic in peaker-ville...make darn sure folks can't see the past crazy...wondering if he is doing the same thing LATOC did in this regard?


On his opening post of his new blog he mentioned that all the posts of The Archdruid Report are consolidated and available, in addition he published several books derived from his years of essays on that blog.

I am not one of his groupies, he does have occasional brilliant posts and the central theme of his new blog I think is a very relevant subject so I will follow it, glean some highlights and might post some highlights here. He was never a fast crash advocate and made many scathing essays about doomers by the way if your interested.
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Re: ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby AdamB » Sat 24 Jun 2017, 12:50:55

pstarr wrote:
Ibon wrote:"I am not one of his groupies, he does have occasional brilliant posts and the central theme of his new blog I think is a very relevant subject so I will follow it, glean some highlights and might post some highlights here. He was never a fast crash advocate and made many scathing essays about doomers by the way if your interested."


You surely miss Adam's point. He does not distinguish between fast crashers and slow crashers. We are all simply doomers.


That statement might fit for you, and some other zealots who spend their time looking for a rationalization for their gold-buggery or misanthropy, but I was never sure about Greer. He seems to fit a weird mold of random intellectual wanderings, peak oil having been just a stop along the way for him, as compared to some overriding central life theme. He may even have used it as an excuse to do his initial move to Maryland, but much like Pops, after waiting awhile, and it became obvious that peak oil wasn't all it was cracked up to be, sort of moved on.

pstarr wrote:
We who question the forward momentum of our bright-happy electrified wonderland must be demonized. It's bad for the oil business. We are hippies, enviro's, malcontents. We wish to destroy the beautiful dream with our doubts and ugliness. In an uglier time we would have been rounded up and dealt with.


You aren't describing doomers.
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Re: ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby donstewart » Sat 24 Jun 2017, 18:29:19

My meeting with JMG

Having met JMG in the flesh, about a decade ago, I may be the reigning expert on this blog. I have not met him since then, but I did read most of what he wrote in his main blog...didn't pay much attention to his druidry or science fiction efforts.

When I met him, he had just moved from Ashland,OR to Cumberland, MD. He was surprised that I knew anything at all about Cumberland. I used the phrase 'red brick town' to describe Cumberland. He picked up on that phrase and continued to use it for years. (This is my fallible remembrance, so buyer beware.) I explained that the old red brick towns were built on the fall line to harness the power of falling water, and were mostly displaced by fossil fuel powered industry and then decimated by offshoring of manufacturing. So what you had left was what had once been a thriving town producing useful goods, now a town gone to seed with various forms of dysfunction.

The unspoken question was 'Why leave Ashland for Cumberland?' I didn't know how to graciously pose the question, but it was hanging in the air. He explained that the rather precious tone of Ashland wasn't to his liking, that he intended to make his living writing, and a writer needs a cheap place to live. If you check:
https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/C ... rect/5_zm/?
you will see that reasonable places to live can be had for about 120,000 dollars, about 400,000 dollars less than in Ashland.

Cumberland was also on Amtrak, which meant that JMG could do modest traveling without using a car...which was important to him.

I discovered his Druid connection. I did not detect even a hint that he was anything other than very sincere. A number of years later he wrote several articles about druidry, which I will summarize as 'a druid is a wise person who can intuit what might help another person adapt to the reality of the world'.

We chatted for perhaps 15 minutes, then, over my shoulder, he spotted Bill Catton, who wrote Overshoot. Catton was a hero of JMGs, and so he excused himself and went off to have a close conversation with Catton. I think they talked for perhaps 45 minutes.

JMG seemed to have some interest in Peak Oil, but it was just one of many contributors to Overshoot. As I recall, he believed that civilizations had a strength which led to bumpy declines and collapses (such as Rome). I would not call him a fan of Seneca Cliff scenarios. If you read his stories about the Lakeland Republic, you will see that 'collapse' led to a better place to live than the alternatives.

And, of course, he had a world-class beard. I have recently talked about Robert Sapolsky, another guy with a world-class beard. Besides the facial hair, both share a sense of responsibility for helping humans get through the trials and tribulations. JMG turned to Druidry, Sapolsky is a lapsed Jewish Atheist, but one of his heroes is the man who became an Anglican minister and was an important force in eliminating slavery from the British Empire (and who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace). Sapolsky describes his hero as 10 steps forward and 9 steps back...finally stumbling into his calling and accomplishing his great work.

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Re: ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby AdamB » Sat 24 Jun 2017, 18:56:37

pstarr wrote:Always ready to drive hits, huh Adam? Keep the posts coming.


You assume I need encouragement?

pstarr wrote:Adam, you have got to be the biggest most committed peaker in the pond. Thanks for getting the message out there

Cheers :twisted: :)


My interest in peak oil began as professional interest. And as for your last sentence, you will never know how close that hits to home. :)
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Re: ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby onlooker » Sat 24 Jun 2017, 19:15:48

The word doomer itself has a derogatory overtone. And it is a misnomer in so much as is affixing a pessimistic outlook to what is otherwise a keen in depth logical and objective interpretation of what is obviously an unsustainable trajectory for our entire worldwide civilization and the tenability of such a huge number of humans. i have read a few essays from JMG and think that he articulates well, aspects of the realistic message us realists are trying to convey. Oh and Adam you strike me as someone who simply doesn't like to hear bad news
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Re: ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby Ibon » Sat 24 Jun 2017, 23:28:38

Plantagenet wrote:
Ibon wrote:l
Anthropolatry is the worship of humanity as a god.


Will being gods make us any smarter or any more likely to make the right decisions when it comes to politics or efforts to protect the earth's environment?


No Plant, just the opposite. We have several generations now where we move about with this assumption that we are masters of technology, masters of the natural world, masters of our destiny and we have milked this paradigm up and to the point of external feedbacks. This is a paradigm of thought that will be severely challenged. This process of feeling exempt to having to once again be within the fold of natural limits will represent a most profound adjustment for civilization. This I am guessing is the theme of JMG's new blog.

And Don Stewart, great assessment, thanks!
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Greer Closes Archdruid Report

Unread postby asg70 » Fri 22 Sep 2017, 02:43:23

I haven't seen it mentioned yet but Greer has shuttered the Archdruid Report as of June and has moved to a new site that is much more focused on his work as a new-age writer and part-time novelist. Even though his Deep Time post is on the homepage here, it really is not focused on end-is-nigh doomerism but rather more of a new-ager navel-gaze. So make no mistake. This is Greer rebranding himself in hopes of increasing his followers beyond doomer die-hards.

Here is one of his newest efforts, the sort of thing that would, um, not lend one to believe he'd be a credible voice on where humanity is headed.

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Temple-En ... 0738748609

My interpretation of this is that it is the same sort of capitulation that we saw with Matt Savinar when he gave up LATOC and retreated into astrology, or with Chris Martenson when he rebranded his Crash Course as the more upbeat "Peak Prosperity". This is what people do when they hit the snooze bar and get back to the necessity of making a living within a BAU that they've conceded isn't going to disappear anytime soon.

Image

Long descent indeed! Too long to sit by blogging about it, I suppose.

Oh, and about that "making a living" thing. Most bloggers that stop blogging leave the old blog site up as an archive, like at The Oil Drum. Greer didn't do that. He took all the posts offline and intends to waste precious wood pulp printing all his lengthy brain-farts in a multi-volume set. (OK, there will be an e-book version too). I can't imagine many people would see enough value in his writings to spring for it, but I guess he's got nothing to lose.

In summary...Doom isn't selling and Greer's gotta eat cuz his green wizardry ain't cutting the mustard.

Image

BOLD PREDICTIONS
-Billions are on the verge of starvation as the lockdown continues. (yoshua, 5/20/20)

HALL OF SHAME:
-Short welched on a bet and should be shunned.
-Frequent-flyers should not cry crocodile-tears over climate-change.
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Re: Greer Closes Archdruid Report

Unread postby Ibon » Fri 22 Sep 2017, 10:34:12

This was mentioned. His new blog is here

http://www.ecosophia.net/


I followed it off and on but I find him firmly in the category of the obsolete.

We need younger and newer voices.
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Re: Greer Closes Archdruid Report

Unread postby Plantagenet » Fri 22 Sep 2017, 12:43:22

I agree with Ibon.

I was never a big fan of Greer. His doomerism was always set in a quasi-mystical world view (Archdruid indeed) rather than a scientific context.

One "younger voice" I find interesting is Prof. Guy McPherson. While not a scientist himself, McPherson has been a very consistent voice warning about the not insignificant risk of human extinction from unchecked global warming. McPherson spent years writing a blog that summarized all the ongoing scientific research on global warming, and although he recently gave up on trying to keep up with everything going on in the research world, he is still consistently pushing his message warning of human extinction due to climate change. I used to think he was a hysterical ninny, but as the planet continues to warm and the politicians keep pushing phony agreements like the Paris Accords as a way to deal with it, I find myself warming to Prof. McPherson's point of view. More and more, the debate over the risk of climate change is moving in his direction.

guymcpherson.com

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A Field Guide to Thoughtstoppers

Unread postby AdamB » Wed 18 Oct 2017, 23:11:32


It occurred to me a while back that one very simple issue is responsible for much of the crisis of our age. No question, that crisis has plenty of causes, some of them recent, some of them much less so; to get a clear understanding of the way that modern industrial civilization has backed itself into a corner from which the only exit leads straight down, it’s necessary to trace patterns of belief and action that go back to the early days of the industrial revolution, to the rise of mechanistic philosophy at the end of the Renaissance, or all the way back to the rejection of the Pagan gods and goddesses of Nature by newly minted prophetic religions obsessed by the glittering dream of a perfect otherworld on the far side of death. All these are relevant, and indeed important.


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An Introduction to Political Economy

Unread postby AdamB » Fri 22 Dec 2017, 14:42:07


Last month, when I looked across the vast gray wasteland of the calendar page ahead and noted that there were five Wednesdays in November, I asked readers—in keeping with a newly minted but entertaining tradition here on Ecosophia—to suggest a theme for the fifth Wednesday post. This blog being the eccentric phenomenon that it is, it probably shouldn’t have surprised me that the result was a neck-and-neck contest between a post on nature spirits and a post on alternatives to capitalism and socialism, with a focus on democratic syndicalism. Nature spirits won by a nose, but there was enough interest in the other option that I decided to go ahead and write a post on that as well. Nature spirits and democratic syndicalism may not seem to have much in common, but I’ve discovered one unexpected similarity: it’s very difficult to


An Introduction to Political Economy
Plant Thu 27 Jul 2023 "Personally I think the IEA is exactly right when they predict peak oil in the 2020s, especially because it matches my own predictions."

Plant Wed 11 Apr 2007 "I think Deffeyes might have nailed it, and we are just past the overall peak in oil production. (Thanksgiving 2005)"
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John Michael Greer: Systems That Suck Less

Unread postby AdamB » Wed 27 Dec 2017, 21:01:35

Last week’s post on political economy attracted plenty of disagreement. Now of course this came as no surprise, and it was also not exactly surprising that most of the disagreement took the shape of strident claims that I’d used the wrong definition of socialism. That’s actually worth addressing here, because it will help clear the ground for this week’s discussion. The definition I used, for those who weren’t here last week, is that socialism is the system of political economy in which the means of production are owned by the national government. Is that the only possible definition of socialism, or the only definition that’s ever been used? Of course not. The meanings of words are not handed down from on high by God or somebody; the meanings of words are always contested among competing points of view, and when a


John Michael Greer: Systems That Suck Less
Plant Thu 27 Jul 2023 "Personally I think the IEA is exactly right when they predict peak oil in the 2020s, especially because it matches my own predictions."

Plant Wed 11 Apr 2007 "I think Deffeyes might have nailed it, and we are just past the overall peak in oil production. (Thanksgiving 2005)"
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Re: Ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby onlooker » Wed 27 Dec 2017, 21:22:26

and the bureaucracies do so stunningly bad a job of getting people the goods and services they need that it becomes necessary to paper over the gaps with propaganda and police violence. — I agree with most of what JMG stated except this. Capitalism has proven spectacularly successful at giving many people what they need and even want. But that ironically is its greatest failure in hindsight. We unleashed human desires to such an extent ie. witness Chinese in the millions wanting to live like Americans that we created a huge consumer base that has enabled and facilitated both the overpopulation and degrading and depletion of the this planets life support systems and resources
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Re: Ecosophia; John Michael Greer's New Blog

Unread postby asg70 » Thu 28 Dec 2017, 00:52:30

Greer is ignoring that there is a whole section in the Permaculture book about how to structure society itself along the lines of Permaculture. I'm surprised he didn't bring this up if he's gonna dream up some utopia.

BOLD PREDICTIONS
-Billions are on the verge of starvation as the lockdown continues. (yoshua, 5/20/20)

HALL OF SHAME:
-Short welched on a bet and should be shunned.
-Frequent-flyers should not cry crocodile-tears over climate-change.
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