[Quinny]

We face a predicament not a problem! Predicaments aren't generally solvable.

[dinopello]

If Ibon et al. actually bothered to read/listen to his stuff, they'd know Kunstler has offered plenty of "solutions" (i.e., adaptations to our predicament), from structural changes like new urbanism to more personal approaches like suggesting young adults go into organic farming. That's not his focus, but it's there if you care to read it. .

It may not be the focus in most of his writings, but it does seem to be how he has decided to live out his elder years. He's posted and podcasted about his spread he bought 5 or so years ago on the outskirts of the small, run down town of Greenwich, NY and built a garden. Not to be confused with Greenwich, Conn., where all the billionaires live.

[ennui2]

I'm having a real hard time squaring this post with your thousands of other posts droning on and on and on about the "overshoot predator."

Yes. Ibon writes in a way that would be better suited for a book. By not doing that, he repeats himself and it gets a little boilerplate. Once you've coined a catch-phrase and a dogma like this I'd say you've got a book concept in the making. I mean, Heinberg has made a career out of catchy book-titles (Blackout, etc...).

[Pops]

Kunstler sees himself as a modern day H.L. Mencken.

That's interesting, Mencken was quite the elitist. He believed there were a few superior men (he of course being one) and the rest useless eaters. Kind of a early Rush.

Honor is simply the morality of superior men.

Like many dystopian novels this book has a moral. Like in many, the moral is the old world was corrupt and it kept the Superior Men down.

In most the long suffering protagonist was a near saint in the "old world": 'Hank would never think of cursing or taking the Lord's name in vain...' Turns out, in the anti-world, he is forced into a bloody rampage (always to protect a female) to rid the earth of the scum the bleeding hearts had previously coddled.
Clearly the "Superior Man" left to his own devices.

There are obviously exceptions, On The Beach had a couple of honorable men but they didn't have to wipe out any MZBs. The Road cast the Honorable Man in a little more realistic light, just a plain guy doing what needs to be done, definitely not a later day Rambo. Of course Atlas Shrugged being the ultimate example; the Superior Man causes Elective Armageddon in that one, LOL.

[Loki]

Kunstler sees himself as a modern day H.L. Mencken.

That's interesting, Mencken was quite the elitist. He believed there were a few superior men (he of course being one) and the rest useless eaters. Kind of a early Rush.

Master of the literary quip, political gadfly Mencken, not loudmouth Nietzschean Mencken. Kunstler's hardly a Nietzschean, though he can be a loudmouth sometimes.

Kunstler's only mentioned him once as far as I know, saying Mencken helped inspire him to become a writer when he was a very young man, or something along those lines. I believe it was in a podcast. Not too hard to see why, Mencken may be second only to Twain when it comes to quipping.

Speaking of Mencken, this quote is relevant to this thread: "there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong."

This one, too: "Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas."

Totally irrelevant, but I like this one, too: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule."

ETA: Here's the podcast talking about Mencken, not that the haters will listen to it LOL

[Ibon]

To endlessly dissect all the many facets of the dysfunction is immature. Not only that, it is also becoming a tired cliche. What was perhaps cutting edge 10 years ago is becoming rather worn and boring and scripted and predictable as a theme.

Time to move on?

I'm having a real hard time squaring this post with your thousands of other posts droning on and on and on about the "overshoot predator."

All across the political spectrum we hear the droning on and on of things going in the wrong direction, dysfunction, incompetence, decline. etc. Lot's and lots of dissection. Yes, even Ibon droning on about the Overshoot Predator. A one time interesting metaphor, but really, how far can you take concepts when there is an organic world out there worth living in. I am burned out on cerebral head space analysis.

I just don't have a lot of energy anymore to dissect the dysfunction. I have trails to maintain, cloud forest gardening to master, road work, passive solar to finally install, birds to identify, moths to pin, clouds to watch drift up the valley lead by Swallow Tailed Kites circling in thermals and dipping and diving for prey just a few feet above the canopy.

I really like Pops comments about everyone complaining about the Baker with mouths full of cake.

[KaiserJeep]

After all of the above wide-ranging and diverse conversation, we are about 650 million barrels closer to running out of oil, and no better prepared for it. I read the whole thread, and that is all I wanted to say.

[Lore]

I just don't have a lot of energy anymore to dissect the dysfunction. I have trails to maintain, cloud forest gardening to master, road work, passive solar to finally install, birds to identify, moths to pin, clouds to watch drift up the valley lead by Swallow Tailed Kites circling in thermals and dipping and diving for prey just a few feet above the canopy.

Right-on Ibon, enjoy it while you can!

[ennui2]

There is an initial reward to being a doomer. You feel superior that you're a red piller and others aren't. And you can kind of wallow in a persistent state of outrage over the status quo, and (at least try) to use it as a form of bonding (as nothing helps people bond more like a common enemy, even when the enemy is really ourselves). Despite doomer anxiety, there's comfort in the predictability that humanity will always keep moving itself over the cliff. A daily cup of coffee and some Desdemona Despair blog posts in the morning. If it doesn't ultimately drive you to suicide or becoming an eco-terrorist, it just gets dull and tiring. You work your way beyond the point where you think you have any agency over the future and tend to your own garden, so to speak.

[Lore]

Being a Cassandra is never real popular. People don't want to think about things they don't think about. Especially those things that they feel powerless to control.