Wednesday, April 20, 2016

The REAL Zombie Apocalypse - Playing Out In Neighborhoods All Around You!

As was predicted in The Limits To Growth (1972) and reaffirmed in the recent paper from a Melbourne University study of Limits To Growth (http://sustainable.unimelb.edu.au/sites/default/files/docs/MSSI-ResearchPaper-4_Turner_2014.pdf), regarding our actively moving toward an imminent societal and civilizational collapse, there is not time to waste in turning the proverbial ship of state i.e. human civilization around… and yet it's not happening. The best that can be said is that the global community is now talking with relatively one voice about the problem.  Even at that the nature of the discussion is so utterly ridiculous as to be grand comedy… damning with feint realism the future of much of the Global South by stating that we should focus on limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C.

This, when 2 degrees C is a farce by any realistic measure of assessment, because the actions and functions already in play from the previous 40 years of egregious climate change denial (that show no sign of slowing any time soon) quite realistically (and conservatively) commit us to 4-6 degrees C rise. Further, this is without considering the as-yet-unquantified, but horrific, potential influence of Arctic methane. In other words, in this grand comedy of our "new" awareness, WE are the butt of the joke. "An hour late and a dollar short" would be an extremely positive statement of the situation.

The absolute and whole root of the problem traces back irrevocably to our human behaviors, specifically excessive and egregious consumption, and all of the extraction, exploitation, commoditization, and waste that accompany excessive consumption. Sure, there are exacerbating factors like global over-population as a result of excess means of sustenance, over-extraction, and over-production as a function of the mad pursuit of wealth. The deliberate development of this excessive consumption as a function of market economy gone mad in the late 1800's and early 1900's, influenced by the "wisdom" of such social engineering capitalists as Edward Bernays (the generally acclaimed father of Public Relations) is another story worthy of review. Suffice it to say that there is no consideration of the fundamental limits of a finite physical system anywhere in the prevailing social or "mainstream" thinking.

As such, the Zombie Apocalypse is already happening all around you, in the form of your neighbors, your fellow citizens, even your friends, certainly most of the population of the developed world - unable to let go of the "security" of the chattel pittance they are begrudgingly allowed, their "retained value" for the lifetime of work expended under the parasitic industrial capitalist system. Mind you they only get THIS concession because, as the old joke goes, "Somebody has to buy retail!" Combine this with the inability to let go of the "provided" comforts of a progressively less benevolent society, run by a progressively more arrogant and greedy oligarchy, and you have a population of very real zombies, waiting to be "activated". When the system upon which they are utterly dependent collapses they will come for you, and whatever little you may have done to prepare.

They are the natural end product of over 150 years of deliberate social engineering and human domestication. Never doubt that they will unhesitatingly come after you, or anyone who is self-sufficient or self-reliant, when the "owners" stop being interested in the industrial domestication of humanity. Why zombies? Because they have no coherent thought beyond the material world upon which they utterly depend. Like locusts, and to some extent pigs, they simply consume, defecate, move, and rest, all the while over-running any available resources. Like all parasites, eventually they die… when they have consumed everything consumable…or been killed.

So… to bend a line from Capt. Barbosa, of "Pirate of the Caribbean" fame, "You better believe in zombie stories, Missy…Because You're In One!" Until we, as a society, can step away from the smorgasbord of egregious consumption and take responsibility, on a personal level, for the generation and use of energy and resources we need for daily survival… we have met the zombies… and they are US!

Thanks for reading, keep the candles lit, and keep your powder dry

The Smokemaster

1 comment:

Greg Jeffers said...

Just entering this space for the first time at the most gracious invite from John...well, it wasn't that gracious, but it was an invite...Anyway, I like the take on "zombie apocalypse"...it is absolutely a propos...I will get back with this soon...