Newfie wrote:
I tend to think that we are at or have seen peak world order, and that we are now seeing the top of the roller coaster ride, the futre will be a downhill thrill.
I totally agree with you. This is what prompted me to start the thread on human-overshoot-global-forces-of-cohesion-and-isolationism.
There is a social analogy to EROEI. In oil extraction the energy inputs at some point make further extraction economically no longer feasible.
In gobalism, the social costs and displacement at some point start to outweigh the benefits and at that point the maintenance of security starts to overwhelm corporations, governments and military ability to contain this. More costs than benefits shifts the pendulum from cohesion on a global homogenized culture and shifts cohesion to a more local level.
And I mean both the most primitive and enlightened sides of localism. ISIS as an extreme example of violent tribalism and on the other hand maybe, just maybe, social movements that will start to break the corrupt alliance between corporations, governments, banks and the military.
Social agitation and disenfranchisement will start to pop up everywhere, from the recently disenfranchised wealthier self entitled suburbanite all the way to the exploited laborer in far off
China. These social costs will ripple through the fabric of globalism and the security and maintenance apparatus might also slowly understand that the chaos will be too much to contain. And then perhaps policies will shift from prioritizing the interests of banks and corporations to supporting resiliency at more local levels.
On the other hand the powers to be will be sorely tempted to harness hate and distrust and play groups against each other and create civil, national. and even world wars. I think we are at significant risk of huge global conflicts that could spark another world war.
I am going to go further out on a limb with a statement that will certainly raise some tempers.
The stuck status quo of parasitizing the planet is also coming to an end. We are beginning to leave the frozen inertia behind that for decades raped and pillaged our mother earth and we are entering a much more interesting time when human domination on the planet will start to disintegrate with the slow collapse of this global world order.
Nothing has raped this planet as violently as globalism and multi national corporations expanding the consumption paradigm as a monstrous process of homogenizing global citizens as consumers.
The disintegration of this global world order may make for a more violent world, less secure, and many of us may find our quality of lives compromised. But this is good for the planet.
I used to believe that the consequences of human overshoot would eventually shift directions. Pandemics, famine, disease, etc. Now I am beginning to get a clearer picture. It will be social chaos that will weaken globalism and lead the way toward shifting cultural values.
Maybe The Overshoot Predator doesn't have to be awakened. Maybe human agency will change things.
But not the way we would have hoped.
When something is rotten it usually does collapse from within. So perhaps it wont be the external agents like Ebola or climate change or famine that I was counting on.
I am welcoming the times that are now coming. I welcome whatever breaks the resiliency of globalism = parasitism.