Extinction Acceptance Is A Tough Sell

the following passage in quotation marks i copied and pasted from the most recent post i received from the leader of the nearest EXTINCTION REBELLION group to me:


'A fellow stopped to talk with us last week. He said he was supportive of our message, but what good does it do? I didn’t think of it at the time, but I later realized that without the constant and widespread pressure for climate action, the recent climate legislation (IRA) would never have gotten through congress. It may be too little too late, but it is a first step. In order to take our second and third steps, and to walk a mile into a habitable future, we have to continue and escalate our demands.

Is it a lot of work? Yes.

Is it better than watching as a few rich people insist on ruining the environment so they can be even richer? Yes.'


i wasn't that fellow who stopped by to talk, but i could have been. those are my sentiments exactly, 'what good does it do?'

i'm not active in this chapter, mostly because it's 50 miles away from me and i have no transportation to get to their protests. but even if i lived nearby, i'm not sure i would be a regular participant, mainly because i see no point in it. i have no hope, and i think anyone who does simply doesn't know as much as i do, not just about climate change, but about the widespread and profound stupidity of sheeple when it comes to science, or anything for that matter which requires deep critical thinking. thus i see no hope whatsoever of public enlightenment.

besides his misguided hope, i take issue with the idea that the problem is only about a 'few greedy rich people'. in my experience, virtually everyone i'm acquainted with is seriously a part of the problem. they're all very ignorant and either unconcerned or insufficiently concerned, mostly the former. they're all contributing to the problem by heedless consumption, casual consumption of energy resources. as long as fossil fuels remain ridiculously cheap, they'll continue to heedlessly waste them, to avoid any slight inconvenience.

a couple of posts ago i referenced greta thunberg and posted a link to a 3 part tv program made for pbs in america about her activism titled 'greta thunberg: a year to change the world'  In the second installment of this series at one point greta breaks down into tears as she contemplates all the suffering and death that lie ahead of us from climate change. it's quite heartbreaking to see.

i've often contemplated the same thing but i don't think i've ever shed tears over it. truthfully, i'm more bothered by the social isolation i feel as one who has come to terms with the looming prospect of civilizational collapse and either a massive human die-back or nthe and has no one to share it with (along with having no one to share my full perceptions of living in a crazy dystopian society with). perhaps this shows me to be a rotten sherson, self centered. 

extinction acceptance is a tough sell not only because of widespread ignorance of how serious a threat climate change (and other factors relating to the growth of civilization) pose, but also because it's hard to say what good may come from depriving others of false hope, taking away their motivation to act in ways to try to 'save the world'. it seems a rather selfish thing to convince others of it simply to relieve my own loneliness.

i'm disheartened by the false hope i see manifested in other bloggers whose work i otherwise have the utmost respect for. a good example being caitlin johnstone, whose work i've enthusiastically endorsed, referenced and posted links to in several recent posts.

there remains one 'doomer' blog which is excellent and doesn't promote false hope at all. it's been around for 10 years now and could easily be titled the same as this blog. it's title is instead THE COLLAPSE OF INDUSTRIAL CIVILIZATION. it's posts were very frequent at first and focused mainly on the dystopian aspect of our predicament. in more recent years the posts have focused much more on making the case for impending doom, and have become quite infrequent, probably because it's author has become doom weary and has basically already said just about all there is to say on the subject. i'll post the link to it below. if by chance anyone ever reads this and decides to check it out, i recommend he or she check out the posts there both from the very beginning, and the most recent. i can't say i've read all his many posts, but i have read a good many of them, and every one of them has been of the highest quality (also check out the numerous links listed along the left hand margin of his blog, perhaps the greatest collection of dystopian and doom related material to be found anywhere on the internet):

https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/

Manufacturing Consent

manufacturing consent is a book written by Edward S. Herman and noam chomsky, published a few decades ago. it's quite extensive, exposing with sharp factual analysis the role big lamestream corporate media plays in propagandizing the american public, in order to sway their opinions and manufacture their consent for whatever agenda their corporate masters seek, be it support for military aggression in the guise of promoting 'democracy and freedom', support for capitalism, or whatever. i read a significant portion of it many years ago. it further educated me and strongly reinforced what i'd already begun to learn about this topic.

here's a link to a short (less than 5 minutes) animated video narrated by amy goodman about manufacturing consent and how it's basically done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34LGPIXvU5M

i came across this link thanks to the caitlin johnstone blog, which i've become an avid follower of. it's writing reveals a very impressive base of knowledge, a very radical understanding of the role that western (mainly american) militarism, imperialism, and especially propaganda plays in world affairs, and an ability to put into the most eloquent if blunt and at times vulgar words things i and i suspect many others basically have learned, but have never articulated, in part because we couldn't do so nearly so well or effectively. i don't agree with every opinion expressed there, but i certainly share the overall worldview. link to the relevant article:

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/08/15/china-threatens-the-us-empire-not-the-us-itself-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/

If I Ever Grow Up

if i ever grow up, i want to be like greta thunberg.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=greta+thunberg+a+year+to+change+the+world+watch+online&iflsig=AJiK0e8AAAAAYvXBR26RXwUqsBv6WwGN5iOzvdnVlmat&gbv=2&oq=greta+thunberg+a+year&gs_l=heirloom-hp.1.3.0i512l4j0i30i22l6.20493.27163.0.32823.21.12.0.9.9.0.222.1415.4j7j1.12.0....0...1ac.1.34.heirloom-hp..0.21.1618.O6CKlyUPOwE

CAESAR'S MESSIAH: The Roman Conspiracy To Invent Jesus

going back 30 years i've read free thought literature which examined and questioned the historicity of jesus christ and concluded that no such man ever existed. so i've long embraced the idea. this great documentary featuring joseph atwill and several other maverick historians on this subject comes to an even more provocative conclusion: that jesus and the christian religion his myth is based upon was an invention of a roman emperor working in cahoots with a turncoat jewish historian named josephus, for the purpose of pacifying a jewish rebellion against roman rule. these scholars seem to know their stuff and broadly agree with this thesis, presenting their arguments very cogently and backing them up by comparing josephus' other historical writings with the biblical gospels. i think they make a compelling case.

i thought i'd previously covered this in this blog, but apparently not. probably just mentioned part of another great documentary titled ZEITGEIST which merely makes the case that christianity and the figure of jesus christ were based on older religions which go back to sun worship. links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmEScIUcvz0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzMqlsAGL14

The Case For Doom

the year 2007 was a watershed in terms of productions which made a compelling case for the relatively imminent collapse of industrial civilization and likely near term human extinction (nthe). 3 notable works then all in their own way made a case for doom.

that year there were 2 books published which probably remain among the best regarding anthropogenic climate disruption. SIX DEGREES by mark lynas lays out in excruciating scientifically peer reviewed detail how each degree celsius of global climate warming, up to six, brought about by our consumption of fossil fuels, can be expected to adversely affect agriculture and eco-systems. it didn't really need to go past 6 since at that point nthe will be very much in play, if not sooner. UNDER A GREEN SKY is a more comprehensive look at the relationship between sudden climate change and our planet's chemistry and fitness for life as we know it. it makes clear a link between it and past mass extinction events. both of these books are highly recommended.

a 2007 documentary titled   What A Way To Go: Life at the end of Empire   is exceptionally well produced, 2 hours long, featuring many prominent 'doom' authors like william catton, richard heinberg, derrick jensen, richard manning, and daniel quinn. it's on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2em1x2j9-o

The United States, Cuba, And This Thing Called Democracy

more wit and wisdom from the late great william blum:

https://williamblum.org/essays/read/the-united-states-cuba-and-this-thing-called-democracy

William Blum

i just used this blog's search engine to search for william blum and was surprised to discover i've yet to mention him. i've long been acquainted with blum's great writings exposing the horrid role that american imperialism, militarism, and the cia have had in shaping our modern dystopian world (subverting democracy while claiming to support it, sponsoring countless political assassinations and coups around the world in favor of oligarchy and brutal right wing dictatorships and against progressive populism or socialism), and have certainly written about it previously in other venues, but it's been less than 3 years since i started dystopian and doomed, and apparently this will be my first mention of blum's work here.

anyway, anyone who wants to know the truth about these things should familiarize themselves with blum's books as well as his other writings and speeches. here's a sample:

https://williamblum.org/essays/read/building-a-new-world-conference-speech-radford-university

“Building A New World” conference speech, Radford University “Building A New World” conference speech, Radford University. By William Blum. What follows is the text of a speech delivered at the ”Building A New World” conference, Radford University, Virginia on May 23rd 2008. williamblum.org

note i'm pretty sure blum was being sarcastic and satirical when he offhandedly remarked that he hadn't spoken to (osama) bin laden in months, just as he was when he states further into this speech that 'george' (w. bush) (who was well known for his mangling of many words and phrases) 'almost' speaks english. also keep in mind this is from a 2008 speech, which is why it focuses a lot on the bush 43 administration and events of the first years of the 21st century in its remarks. (pasted below is the paragraph with the bin laden reference):

'A few people who called into the TV and radio programs I was on attacked me as if I and bin Laden were friends and I had asked him for the endorsement. I had to point out that he and I were not really friends; in fact, I hadn’t spoken to him in months.'

i also wish to note that as smart and extremely well informed blum generally was re. american foreign policy and propaganda, he apparently was clueless re. 9/11 truth (that it was an inside job, with the official narrative being a pack of lies, as i've mentioned previously and often in past posts, backed up by references), as evidenced by this sentence copied from the speech:

'The 9-11 hijackers, or alleged hijackers, were not a bunch of poor peasants; they were largely middle and upper class, and educated.'