Tags
Climate Change, Climate Tipping Points, Collapse of Industrial Civilization, Corporate $tate, Ecological Overshoot, Environmental Collapse, Extinction of Man, Guy McPherson, Inverted Totalitarianism, Mass Die Off, Nature Bats Last, Nine Inch Nails, Peak Oil, Runaway Climate Change, speciesurvivalibrary, The Day the Whole World Went Away
The following thoughts were emailed to me by Adam at speciesurvivalibrary and they appeared as a comment on the message board of Nature Bats Last dated November 28. The readers “found it quite moving”, as did I. Therefore, I compiled a video at the end to go along with Daniel’s articulate and resonating words. The scientific confirmations this year of the havoc industrial civilization has wrought to our one and only home have truly been life-altering for me, forcing me to question and re-evaluate everything. For those who have begun to internalize the cold reality of what lies in the not too distant future for mankind, the proverbial rug has been pulled out from under your world. We have unleashed Pandora’s box and the demons are methodically throwing off balance and unravelling the world we once knew, shattering the illusion of man’s dominion over nature.
Collapse of Industrial Civilization 
Why am I so driven to know these awful truths? No one else in my life is. They avoid hearing about them, or thinking about them. But I know that the facts about our condition are horrible, and I cannot ignore them. I can go along for awhile, even a few days, becoming consumed with daily life, working, thinking about kids, involving myself in interests and tv shows and all the rest, but all the while the knowledge I already have about impending disaster is sitting in my mind, never quite going away.
I’m so glad to have this site, and connections with people whom I’ll never probably meet, so I can realize I’m not insane, that these unimaginable horrors are really sitting out there in the future, even as our empire culture ignores them.
How do I go on? Do I continue to work hard in my life for the kind of future I used to think I would have? As I go through my day at work, how can I get myself to care about all the decisions that have to be made, and the hard daily tasks i do, all of which seem so trifling and useless when framed in the big picture of what really is awaiting us? My kids are just moving into adulthood, and trying to figure out how they will fit into this complex world. They are on an emotional roller coaster already. They know how I feel about our global problems, but figure I couldn’t be all that right when the rest of the world tells them I am wrong. Do I push harder to make them understand, or let them live their lives with some hope, so they can enjoy these few years they have?
It is a lonely and frustrating and confusing place I’m in.
LikeLike
You are not alone
LikeLike
I feel a lot of sadness, knowing what I know. It is debilitating. If someone allowed you to see into the future and reveal your fate, would you do it? I don’t know any more, especially when the rest of the population ignores the clear warnings and inevitable consequences. I feel like I’m locked in a mad house and I must play along with everyone for fear of being singled out as the really crazy one. I see the security and surveillance state as the entity enforcing the rules of the insane asylum, squashing any truth-tellers and whistleblowers and controlling the thoughts and beliefs of patients in the asylum through mass media manipulation. Even most of the ruling elite believe their own propaganda. The system has grown too large, bureaucratic, and myopic for the lone voices to be heard, let alone taken seriously. All we can do is watch as our most frightening insights and nightmares slowly become reality within our lifetime.
LikeLike
Mike
I too “I feel a lot of sadness, knowing what I know.”
What we know now LOTS of others will soon know.
I fear to paraphrase Witsendjn ‘s children they will deliberately choose to enjoy the ride as though there is no cliff ahead. This will result in mayhem panic debauchery like never before.Your future has been cancelled who gives a shit about going to work or paying debt?
LikeLike
Well, perhaps tom Crowley. I didn’t make it clear. My children aren’t even close to indulging in mayhem or panicked debauchery. They are hard-working, dedicated, decent and responsible individuals who work very hard at their chosen avocations. which are to a certain extent altruistic. However, they are doing so more-or-less deliberately refusing to recognize that the sort of civilization we now enjoy cannot last – but that’s a far cry from not “going to work or paying debt”. They all go to work, and they have no debt (other than the debt we all have to future generations but hopefully, they won’t contribute to that).
LikeLike
Apology you missed my point totally. I am referring to the the consequences that this information will have on the world. A trigger has been pulled and you me and all those who read this blog and understand the implications of this just happen to be the unfortunate first few to know.
I am not telling anyone let them find out for themselves.
LikeLike
Once you peer deeply into the abyss, it’s impossible to forget, and it’s soul-crushing, especially for people who love nature and find its destruction unbearable. Unfortunately in the process of enlightenment I shared my concerns with my children and now they don’t want to hear anything else about it, for which I can’t blame them. What’s the point of living life if you’re simply waiting for the train to go off the cliff? So they have deliberately chosen to enjoy the ride as though there is no cliff ahead.
I have one friend of three decades nearby who understands the imminence of the converging catastrophes but otherwise everyone else who surrounds me is utterly clueless. It’s lonely as hell.
On the upside I have made many wonderful doomer friends on the intertubes since I started reading and writing (2009) and have actually met quite a few of them in person, and a group of us from Seattle to Boston correspond frequently every day.
Personally I feel horrible for having brought three people into this world now that I am convinced the likelihood they will die peacefully of old age is virtually nil, but I comfort myself that so far, they have had wonderful opportunities that people a generation ago could only dream of – traveling around the world, and being able to choose their own path in life based on their own desires and ambitions. That’s not even the norm for most people on this planet today so in that sense they are fortunate.
Thanks for this blog XRayMike, I am always impressed by your ability to present a unique and fresh perspective.
LikeLike
While we are a very small minority, there are a few of us out there.
But do remember one thing:
It matters not what is
For what is cannot be discerned.
It matters only what we believe
For what we believe is what we have learned.
Which is to say, truth is unknowable. Each and every one of us has only our humble opinions. And where the evidence is overwhelming, we are compelled to behave as if what we believe is truth. But in the end we must admit that, like all others, perhaps, we are wrong.
This point of view does not make the evidence for teotwawki any less believable but it does help calm the arrogance.
If they would just study the information…
~mike~
LikeLike
Thanks for the mental/emotional support and eloquent words. And that goes for all the other commenters.
LikeLike
it’s like i just read a definitive description of the asteroid that has been confirmed to be on collision course with Earth.
LikeLike
An edit has been made to correct the attributions of the quoted text within this post, with proper links to the author at Guy’s site.
Thanks,
Mike
LikeLike
Global thermonuclear war will put an end to civilization and stop global warming. Then it’s “back to the stone age” for the few—100% of the Swiss—prepared with fallout shelter.
So you can either dig, or be like the Koch Brothers and have your head stuck in the sand about the horrors coming.
LikeLike
Strange how coherent and obvious your conclusions seem. It seems the ‘open secret’ in climate science is also ‘Doomsday’ with writers such as Clive Hamilton…through John Zerzan making ‘bookends’.
Very engaging and many thanks
LikeLike
Pingback: Contemplating Near Term Extinction | OccuWorld