{"id":54678,"date":"2020-08-15T07:41:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T12:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=54678"},"modified":"2020-08-15T07:41:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-15T12:41:53","slug":"todays-contemplation-collapse-cometh-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=54678","title":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh II"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h3 id=\"eade\" class=\"gd ge bi gf b gg gh gi gj gk gl gm gn go gp gq gr gs gt gu gv cw\"><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@stevebull_4168\/todays-contemplation-collapse-cometh-ii-13161eb529be\">Today\u2019s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh II<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"hw hx hy hz ia ib fr fs paragraph-image\">\n<div class=\"ic id co ie ai\">\n<div class=\"fr fs hv\">\n<div class=\"ii r co ff\">\n<div class=\"ij ik r\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"eh ox s t u dt ai c\" src=\"https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/max\/1164\/1*ykEQpG5-GhwGXSthWcMUxg.jpeg\" sizes=\"auto, 700px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/max\/276\/1*ykEQpG5-GhwGXSthWcMUxg.jpeg 276w, https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/max\/552\/1*ykEQpG5-GhwGXSthWcMUxg.jpeg 552w, https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/max\/640\/1*ykEQpG5-GhwGXSthWcMUxg.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/max\/700\/1*ykEQpG5-GhwGXSthWcMUxg.jpeg 700w\" alt=\"Image for post\" width=\"1164\" height=\"792\" \/><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">Monte Alban, Mexico (1988) Photo by author.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"io ip ft fr fs iq ir bh hf cm bj bm\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\"><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"4e45\" class=\"is it bi iu b iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp fx cw\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">My response to an ongoing discussion regarding debt-\/credit-based fiat currency and it\u2019s impact on our pursuing the infinite growth chalice.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ad4a\" class=\"is it bi iu b iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp fx cw\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">_____<\/p>\n<p id=\"5220\" class=\"is it bi iu b iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp fx cw\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Yes, credit-\/debt-based fiat is certainly one of the most significant causes of our pursuing the infinite growth chalice. Not the only one, but one of the main ones, certainly. And having \u2018sound\u2019 money that was not created and distributed by private interests may help, but there are no guarantees especially if it were in the hands of the political class who, much as they do now, would very likely use such \u2018power\u2019 to \u2018buy\u2019 votes, \u2018pay off\u2019 supporters, and fund boondoggles. I honestly don\u2019t know if there is any \u2018solution\u2019 to this monetary conundrum. In the words of Men Without Hats in their song \u2018Unsatisfaction\u2019: I\u2019m never satisfied when the answers could be real. I may not know what\u2019s right but I know this can\u2019t be it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"d003\" class=\"is it bi iu b iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp fx cw\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Regardless of what change occurs with our monetary system, I\u2019ve reached the conclusion that if we don\u2019t begin pursuing degrowth strategies as of, like yesterday, we are destined to experience the collapse that always accompanies overshoot. We are well into the diminishing returns fiasco that archaeologist Joseph Tainter outlines in his monograph Collapse of Complex Societies, and sets the stage for sociopolitical (and economic) collapse; and it is likely no amount of \u2018tinkering\u2019 in our business-as-usual trajectory is going to prevent collapse\/decline at this point.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ed5e\" class=\"is it bi iu b iv iw ix iy iz ja jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp fx cw\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">All of our debates are probably quite academic and moot at this point. Making one\u2019s local community\/neighbourhood\/family as self-sufficient\/-reliant as possible may be the only way to ensure some of us make it through the other side of the inevitable transition since our society\u2019s collapse will be unlike every other one in pre\/history as virtually none of us have the skills\/knowledge to survive without modern society\u2019s energy-intensive technology and long-distance supply chains.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh II Monte Alban, Mexico (1988) Photo by author. My response to an ongoing discussion regarding debt-\/credit-based fiat currency and it\u2019s impact on our pursuing the infinite growth chalice. _____ Yes, credit-\/debt-based fiat is certainly one of the most significant causes of our pursuing the infinite growth chalice. Not the only one, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,1],"tags":[150,175,195,309,2328,14273,5833],"class_list":["post-54678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-survival-2","category-uncategorized","tag-collapse","tag-credit","tag-debt","tag-fiat-currency","tag-infinite-growth","tag-medium","tag-steve-bull"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54679,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54678\/revisions\/54679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}