From Murph
WHAT AILS US?
I am going to presume that most of you that read this blog get or seek out, on a periodic basis, blurbs and videos advocating the newest breakthrough in energy technology. The latest one I got is from the web site “Forbidden knowledge” concerning the Keshe foundation touting its development on plasma energy technology and of course makes the claim that it is a panacea for all that ails the world.
I am going to assume that most of the folks that read this blog know that I am quite disdainful of claims for a single solution to the problems that face this planet. I take the stance that the problems are much more far reaching than finding a new cheap energy source.
Lets take a look at some of those problems;
1. History shows that as available energy increases, so too does population of humans increase. As human populations increase, so too does the demand of peripheral resources that may or may not depend on cheap energy. Cheap energy also increases the production of waste from consumption and that waste may or may not be convertible, by the increase in cheap available energy, to something usable.
Also, those folks that advocate more and better cheap energy need to study up on Jevons Paradox.
Historically, it appears that the only way to control or decrease human population is by scarcity in its extreme (ie, starvation and disease) or governmental decrees and punishment for producing more humans, (as in China). Neither of which appear particularly desirable to me and so far not very successful.
While the debate and disagreements rage over the population density of this world go on, and various schemes are propagated for decreasing world population, we still are not in agreement over just how much naturally occurring resources are available for what standard of living by how many people regardless of the energy sources.
2. Methods of producing cheap energy all appear to me to be based on availability of resources to produce that energy. So, the availability of resources to produce that energy has to be taken into account, which I have never seen a study that actually looks at this in detail. There have been a few studies on that area for wind and sun energy, which indicate that the energy return is a loser for very large-scale operations. I have seen no data yet for the more esoteric energy conversions like the plasma or electromagnetic devises or the newer ideas on nuclear energy.
3. All of these cheap energy sources as a substitute for hydrocarbons extracted from the planet are touted as being able to maintain a western type of life style of heavy consumption. It seems to be based on the fear that that the western civilization standard of living is in peril due to energy shortage and that is an intolerable situation. Our way of life is non negotiable. Well, universe may have the last word on this point of view.
4. None of these cheap energy schemes take into account the attitudes and agendas of the worlds elites that are currently in control of almost everything. These panacea energy sources take for granted that the governments of the world (including the increasing authority of the UN) and the elites have the world’s population well being foremost in their minds. If you have any doubts about the elites attitudes about this, study up on agenda 21, ICLEI, The Earth Charter, The International Covenant on Environment and Development, the Georgia Guidstones and the new world order (NWO) and all the other related documents you can find. These are extensive documents and will consume much time to understand the total agenda they have in mind. My conclusion from these documents is that there will be a push to eliminate most of the “useless eaters” from the planet. The word “useless” of course pertains to all of those folks that do not contribute to the well being of the elites.
In short, it sure appears to me that a new technology of cheap energy will not solve much of the dire problems that ails’ the world.
All of our modern living in western societies circles around the idea of convenience of which energy is the biggest factor. Most folks simply cannot wrap their minds around the idea that convenience is not the greatest influence on happiness in life, satisfaction with ones life, or whatever we want to include in spiritual development. These values do not depend on how many toys we can purchase with our slave labor, although the propaganda, advertising and new age ideas certainly seem to advocate it. Rockpicker put up a link on the last posting that talks about this; http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/solutions-1/smile-or-die-the-perils-of-positive-thinking-.html
None of this takes into account wide spread world wide calamities, such as; Drastic increase in volcanism, flooding, sea levels rising, more and larger earth quakes, hits from the sun, bombardment of rocks from space, more subtle earth changes or even the big human induced horror, nuclear war. Any of this stuff that goes extreme will completely negate whatever form of energy we are using when it happens. We have evidence from the far past that such extremes have happened before, no reason to assume it won’t happen again.
Charles H. Smith (oftwominds.com) has been talking extensively about economic and social systems and how they are being pushed into more intense fragility. Instead of our leaders (read idiot elites) encouraging more flexibility in our systems, they are deliberately introducing more fragility into our social and financial systems for very self-serving agendas. What this means is that it will take a relatively very small event to totally collapse just about everything in our overly complex systems we depend on because we have no feedback systems left to limit this fragility and complexity. The results of this increase in complexity and fragility is the concentration of resources and wealth into a very small amount of the population, like 10%, and this is at the expense of everyone else.
I happen to agree with Charles on these issues. It appears over historical time that the same forces within civilizations always produce the same results, that is, the complexity and concentration of wealth and resources into fewer hands at the expense of the general population, and finally the collapse of the system itself. Naturally, the elites of the time persevere to try again at a later time in another civilization and through generations of handed down power structures alter their agendas in the hope of finally getting the whole enchilada without the consequences. This time around in the western countries dominated by the predatory capitalistic economic system have altered their strategy again. Instead of grabbing everything by brute force and intimidation, they induce populations to give it all to them voluntarily. We can point to the events and persons that were chiefly instrumental in all of this. But, in the final analysis, it was the populations that gave in to the elite’s demands.
Changing these broad historic cycles to something different will take a general population attitude change. God knows, we have a bunch of folks that are advocating that as an eminent and foregone happening sometime in the future (the New Agers for one). Which means that humans on a vast scale will give up their impulses that are derived from our genes that was necessary for survival in the past. In our historical past, it appears that greed, elite hierarchy, manipulation and exploitation has always been with us, some societies with more of less of those traits. The most common claim is that outside forces will cause the change. Now how likely is that? If you want a mental exercise to work on, picture what a society would look like if none of that existed in human interactions. Idealists from the past up to modern times have written extensively on what it would look like and it never happens. If a god of some sort indeed created us, I assert that he fucked up righteously. The centuries of the idea that we have free will and can do different is an idle and straw man argument in my opinion. Indeed, it appears to me that it will take some kind of outside intervention to change these human traits into something more benign.
Don’t hold your breath.
