{"id":66197,"date":"2023-11-20T09:58:06","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T14:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=66197"},"modified":"2023-11-20T09:58:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T14:58:06","slug":"todays-contemplation-collapse-cometh-clxv-rackets-keeping-the-curtains-on-reality-drawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=66197","title":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh\u00a0CLXV&#8211;Rackets: Keeping the Curtains on Reality Drawn"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"section section--body\">\n<div class=\"section-divider\">\n<hr class=\"section-divider\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"section-content\">\n<div class=\"section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn\">\n<h3 class=\"graf graf--h3\">Today\u2019s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh\u00a0CLXV<\/h3>\n<figure class=\"graf graf--figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"graf-image\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-images-1.medium.com\/max\/600\/1*lRUm7o1ly0DSltwOFG03fg.jpeg\" data-image-id=\"1*lRUm7o1ly0DSltwOFG03fg.jpeg\" data-width=\"1164\" data-height=\"792\" data-is-featured=\"true\" \/><figcaption class=\"imageCaption\">Monte Alban, Mexcio (1988). Photo by\u00a0author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">Today\u2019s Contemplation is my comment on <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/thehonestsorcerer.substack.com\/p\/financing-the-end-of-modernity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-href=\"https:\/\/thehonestsorcerer.substack.com\/p\/financing-the-end-of-modernity\">The Honest Sorcerer\u2019s latest article<\/a> that looks at the financial nature of our modern world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"section section--body\">\n<div class=\"section-divider\">\n<hr class=\"section-divider\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"section-content\">\n<div class=\"section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn\">\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\"><strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">Rackets: Keeping the Curtains on Reality Drawn<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">Excellent summation of our predicament and how reality is being \u2018hidden\u2019 by the story-telling nature of our species\u200a\u2014\u200aespecially the stories being disseminated by those benefitting most from our current practices and trajectory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">I\u2019ve come to believe almost everything today is a racket of one form or another. And by racket, I defer to what U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler stated about this phenomenon with respect to war: \u201cA racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">And this is where humanity appears to stand at the moment in our history on this planet: rackets are everywhere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">We are surrounded by rackets meant to keep the wealth-extraction\/-generation schemes going and remaining in place in one form or another for at least another quarter or election cycle. And the stories associated with them are not only meant to keep the masses ignorant of the fraudulent nature of our practices and institutions, but to get the masses to support and cheerlead them on while ostracising and shouting down the voices that dare challenge or expose them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">And as our descent down the Seneca Cliff speeds up (due, of course, to the limits you discuss), the rackets are expanding in number and size in order to not only siphon more and more wealth from the masses towards the few at the top of our wealth and power structures, but to compensate for the expanding nature of our decline as the surplus energy needed to pursue growth quickly fades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">A perfect positive feedback loop expediting our descent and ensuring the inevitable \u2018collapse\u2019 is all the more spectacular and all-consuming in nature.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">But, hey, let\u2019s hear another feel-good story about our human ingenuity and technological prowess \u2018solving\u2019 all this and humanity living happily-ever-after, holding hands with each other and Nature\u2026that tale is all lot more fun to listen to and believe in. Even if it is only a fairy tale told to make us feel safe and comfortable as the approaching storm grows in size and intensity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh\u00a0CLXV Monte Alban, Mexcio (1988). Photo by\u00a0author. Today\u2019s Contemplation is my comment on The Honest Sorcerer\u2019s latest article that looks at the financial nature of our modern world. Rackets: Keeping the Curtains on Reality Drawn Excellent summation of our predicament and how reality is being \u2018hidden\u2019 by the story-telling nature of our [&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":[2,3,4,5,6,7],"tags":[150,34014,669,5833,3467,30370,33947],"class_list":["post-66197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-geopolitics","category-liberty","category-survival-2","tag-collapse","tag-rackets","tag-reality","tag-steve-bull","tag-stories","tag-todays-contemplation","tag-todays-contemplation-collapse-cometh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66197","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=66197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66198,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66197\/revisions\/66198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}