This is why I click on cryptogon.com everytime I log on. Always a link or two worth checking out.
Remember what George Carlin once said? Think about how stupid the average person is… and half of them are stupider than that.
Truly staggers the imagination. I couldn’t stop laughing at the absolute ignorance of some of the people, but of course I suppose it is okay to exercise your right to be a complete dumbfuck.
http://cryptogon.com/?p=13323
I posted this as a thread comment over on latoc:
I guess I’ll stroll in here and toss in my 2 cents.
Civilization sucks. It was a nice idea, but look where it got us. Civilization has always been a function of growth, and all through history growth has been achieved by tapping resources. These days, we’re just really fucking good at that game.
But, we all know that the great puddles of dinosaur juice are running down to the point where “economic growth” is a thing of the past. That’s the new kid on the block of humanity’s history. And it’s really a bitch to accept that what has always – always always always been is no longer in operation. It’s imperative that you get there before you can go anywhere else. I believe most of the conflict on this forum stems from not accepting the new reality.
I’m okay with anyone’s choices about what they want to do as the new era comes about. I’m in the grow some turnips crowd, and far be it for me to disparage someone who has his resources invested in becoming a warlord, or even deciding (for some of the older folks) to just hang loose and watch the show since death will probably come within a 20-ish year period of Powerdown. The topic theme is Angry America – and I see that as a symptom of blaming everyone else for a personal failure to see the writing on the wall.
Many of us want to see civilization flat out die ASAP. Some so they can pull out the guns and take out suits and badges, some so that the salmon have a chance at survival. And some have some End Times rapture belief. The bottom line is that the resource base is rapidly shrinking, the Powerdown is real, and 99.99% of humanity is going to suffer horribly if we don’t voluntarily work hard as hell to lessen our footprint on this planet.
Most of us here aren’t stupid – we know exactly what feeds the destruction and our degree of participation. Shall we support each others’ methods of extraction from the machinery of civilization, cheer one’s ability to insulate themselves from the effects of resource depletion, or quibble about society’s #1 boondoggle (whatever tops your list)?
This is Life During the Oil Crash. Why argue the premise?
the comrade
I suppose I’m offering it up here just as some sort of summary on how I look at “things” these days. Maybe I unplugged the fan that was blowing wind in my sails. I’m not adrift… just don’t have any overriding desire to be anywhere but right here right now.
A wise man once said to me “people are who they are”. I’ve come to the conclusion that cultural inertia is the strongest force in human nature and what mystifies me the most is that I’m not following the mold I was raised in.
Must have been the drugs.
Didn’t get stupid this year – too many years in a row of over ordering thinking I will spend a blissful growing season devoted to the garden. Reality says shit will come up and I’ll be fighting weeds as usual. So I got smaller packets and fewer items. Maybe half of the seed will get in the ground…
376RK-Red Kidney Bean (A=2oz) 1 x $1.40= $1.40
559GB-Golden Bantam Yellow Sweet Corn (B=8oz) 1 x $4.00= $4.00
678DO-Dakota Black Popcorn OG (A=2oz) 1 x $2.20= $2.20
692HB-Hopi Blue Flour Corn (B=8oz) 1 x $5.00= $5.00
893SO-Sugarsnap Snap Pea OG (A=2oz) 1 x $2.00= $2.00
943PF-Prescott Fond Blanc Cantaloupe (A=1/16oz) 1 x $1.80= $1.80
963SO-Sugar Baby Watermelon OG (A=1/16oz) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
1226NL-National Pickling Cucumber (B=1/4oz) 1 x $1.40= $1.40
1411BZ-Black Zucchini (A=1/8oz) 1 x $0.80= $0.80
1539CO-Early Summer Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash OG (A=1/8oz) 1 x $1.10= $1.10
1608TQ-Table Queen Acorn Winter Squash (A=1/4oz) 1 x $0.80= $0.80
1668SM-Sweet Meat Winter Squash (A=1/4oz) 1 x $0.90= $0.90
1675CR-Candy Roaster Winter Squash ECO (A=1/8oz) 1 x $1.70= $1.70
1720NO-New England Pie Pumpkin OG (A=1/4oz) 1 x $1.30= $1.30
1748CF-Connecticut Field Pumpkin (B=1/2oz) 1 x $1.50= $1.50
1962LU-Luffa Gourd (B=1/4oz) 1 x $1.80= $1.80
1966LB-Large Bottle Gourd (A=1/8oz) 1 x $1.30= $1.30
1990BS-Bushel Gourd (A=1/8oz) 1 x $1.50= $1.50
2073SK-Shin Kuroda 5″ Carrot (A=1/8oz) 1 x $0.80= $0.80
2136CH-Chioggia Beet (B=1/2oz) 1 x $1.70= $1.70
2248FB-French Breakfast Radish (A=1/8oz) 1 x $0.70= $0.70
2253PO-Plum Purple Radish OG (A=1/8oz) 1 x $1.50= $1.50
2300TG-Takinogawa Burdock (A=1/8oz) 1 x $1.20= $1.20
2372WE-White Egg Turnip (B=1/2oz) 1 x $1.20= $1.20
2540LS-Bloomsdale Spinach (A=1/4oz) 1 x $0.70= $0.70
2723SO-Salad Bowl Lettuce OG (B=4g) 1 x $1.50= $1.50
2849WD-Winter Density Bibb/Romaine Lettuce (A=2g) 1 x $0.70= $0.70
3158GI-Gigante dItalia Parsley (B=1/8oz) 1 x $1.20= $1.20
3313FO-Fiesta Broccoli OG (A=0.2g) 1 x $2.20= $2.20
3355EJ-Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage (A=2g) 1 x $0.70= $0.70
3459WO-White Russian Kale OG (B=4g) 1 x $2.60= $2.60
3722PB-Purple Beauty Sweet Pepper (A=0.5g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
3770CY-Long Red Narrow Cayenne Hot Pepper (B=1g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
4038CO-Cosmonaut Volkov Tomato OG (A=0.2g) 1 x $1.20= $1.20
4136RO-Speckled Roman Paste Tomato OG (B=0.4g) 1 x $2.00= $2.00
4414SB-Sweet Basil (A=4g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
4491BO-Borage OG (A=0.5g) 1 x $1.10= $1.10
4509NP-Catnip (A=1g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
4512CO-Chives OG (B=7g) 1 x $2.50= $2.50
4531BO-Bouquet Dill OG (A=2g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
4556ZF-Zefa Fino Fennel (A=0.5g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
4580HH-Horehound (A=0.2g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
4585LV-Lavender (A=0.2g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
4592LV-Lovage (A=0.5g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
4643SN-Stinging Nettle (A=0.2g) 1 x $1.20= $1.20
4657RM-Rosemary (A=0.2g) 1 x $1.30= $1.30
4666WS-White Sage (A=0.05g) 1 x $1.30= $1.30
4679MD-Mad-dog Skullcap (A=0.05g) 1 x $1.20= $1.20-currently on backorder
4684ST-Stevia (A=0.01g) 1 x $2.00= $2.00-currently on backorder
5085PB-Pacific Beauty Calendula Mix (A=2g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
5369RS-Rocket Mix Snapdragon (A=0.025g) 1 x $2.20= $2.20
5499MD-Madder (A=0.25g) 1 x $2.00= $2.00
5930BR-Red Broom Corn (A=4g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
6022BM-Panorama Red Shades Bee Balm (A=0.02g) 1 x $1.30= $1.30
6146SM-Indian Spring Single Mix Hollyhock (A=0.25g) 1 x $0.90= $0.90
6316CT-Creeping Thyme (A=0.1g) 1 x $1.00= $1.00
6427DB-Danish Ballhead Cabbage (A=2g) 1 x $0.60= $0.60
We’ll see how it goes, eh?
Kicked off the new year with goats kidding blah blah see previous post, and have been doing battle with the idiot cold spell that has been slamming us all week. 3 crates of stovewood for the Pioneer Maid cookstove and two wheelbarrow loads a day for the heater stove. Feed ‘em and feed ‘em and feed ‘em. It has been nice to have a teakettle full of hot water available at all times – been chugging down weird herb potions the Good Witch Wife concocts to beat this cold into submission. Nothing like herb teas to loosen up huge gobs of lung chiffon – my 8 year old son is truly impressed with 15 foot distance hocks.
Since it’s cold as hell it’s been a good time to bump the rafter insulation project to the front of the job list. Seems like every batt that goes up raises the house temperature by a half degree. As long as it’s above 50 in the house in the morning I can get it warm in here during the Woodstove Hour before the wife gets up. Getting the Milking Parlor (garage) warmed up is another matter. All we have out there is the Hasty Baker cookstove. 40 degrees is good enough for a goat, ho ho!
School has been closed all week – somewhere on a back road is a piece of ice and the school district lives in fear of bus crash lawsuits. I’m sure they’re happy to not have to heat the buildings much when it’s like 5 degrees outside either. I read that some school districts close because they don’t have the money to clear parking lots and sidewalks. I guess that’s what happens when counties go broke.
I’m going to call that the opening act of The Year Everything Starts to Not Work Very Well Anymore. I think the best place to look for evidence of collapse isn’t the stock market or employment figures, but in tax revenue dependent services at all levels. Budgets will finally meet a hard reality – one where numbers can’t be moved around to cover a shortfall. The nearby city (big town) of Neosho for all practical purposes went belly up last month, my county is starved for cash and I see lots of potholes springing up this year and road maintenance disappearing on the tertiary roads that are already beat to shit as it is.
So I’m slogging through the farmy stuff, as the rest of the country slogs away trying to keep the cable bill paid. Nice to know some of the bank bail out money is going into full body scanners, eh? What the hell, at 125 million it’s only fifty cents per capita. Guess I can’t have a Coke the next time I go to the feed store… A small price to pay for our nations security. Where’s that sarcasm smiley?
If you haven’t read the December 31st post I suggest you do… this sorta ties in with it.
Clusterfuck from the git-go:
Par for the course, the goats had access to a buck all goddamned year and decided to make whoopee exactly 5 months ago. So they all dropped kids at the worst possible time. Two dropped kids the day before the wife and I went on our annual two day vacation (eat sleep read jacuzzi and some romper room… 48 hours of no chores) and the rest popped off one per day until we now have 9 kids surviving. It’s cold in these parts – I think 3 of the weakest kids didn’t get enough food from mama and succumbed to the weather so we brought them in the house tonight. That sometimes sets up some confusion with the mama/baby pairing function so I’m now possibly looking at milking 6 goats twice a day and feeding the milk back to the kids.
Predictions for ‘10:
I’m halfway through the new metal roof on the house… I predict I’ll be close to done by the end of the year.
I tore out the ceilings in the house and have most of the rafters insulated at the moment. The plan is to nail up car siding so we have a pretty vaulted ceiling and lofts at the gables for plants and sleeping – heat rises y’know. I predict I’ll be seeing some R-13 in spots through the next holiday season.
The Greenhouse gods hate me. Been on that project for two years now, why not put some money on three?
The garden will be weeds through the summer.
The goats will find their way through the fence and make at least one good hit on the fruit trees.
I’ll net less than I planned for ala the townhouse remodeling project, but the wife will get her kitchen. I’ll be short a few thousand on the tractor I have my eye on. Three cheers for zero % 60 month financing at the struggling local Kubota dealership.
Once the townhouse is finished I won’t find a buyer willing to pay what I owe on it – bwahahahaha!!!
So much for the Captain Obvious list; on to the good shit:
As if smacking around brown skinned peoples in Iraq and Afghanistan wasn’t enough, America’s fearless leaders will put the squeeze on the brownskins south of the border. With Cantrell going to shit Mexico’s production available for export seriously shrinks… and U.S. needs take precedent over their domestic requirements. Or else… Won’t be to hard to garner public support once the spics have been tied to the terror network. Hate and gullibility are fairly easy to manipulate.
Every dollar out of the have-not’s pockets into the bank’s coffers covers one more dollar of toxic mortgages fucking up their balance sheets. And that one dollar sucked out of the commoner covers a hundred buck or more of super arsenic credit derivitives and other such exotic financial products. Prediction: If a dollar of fed money keeps a thousand dollar CDO from melting down, they’ll print it.
The “Green” marketing movement will be quietly shelved. I smell some kind of “patriotic” spending meme resurrecting from the Bush graveyard. A couple of years have passed since that play – plenty of time for the Short Attention Span consumer to get excited about again.
Propane will go up, crude will come down. High end SUV’s run on gasoline, parked in three car garages in all electric McMansions. The poor heat their trailers with propane.
Iowa farmers will feed their hogs soybeans, and close to a billion people in countries that don’t matter will seriously suffer malnutrition – half of them will die.
Predictions are soooo easy.
1. Name an issue
2. Use common sense to see the best option
3. Predict whatever is ass backwards and collect your winnings at the cage.
Bottle fed the kids. Going to bed. Pretty sure the sun will rise long after I get up to do it again in the morning. Happy New Year? I’m thinking 1932 is being recycled.
Lessee… grew about 85% of everything we ate, 50% of which was derived from Big Ag grain products to power our meat machines. Used 200 gallons of propane, ran through at least 1000 gallons of gasoline, and averaged 750 kW of electricity a month.
You might say we trashed our landbase from selectively cutting a couple dozen truckloads of trees off our 50 acres but I cleared all the junk out of the head of the ravine above where the spring begins to flow that former inhabitants used as a dump. Used no pesticides or industrial chemicals and composted everything that could be put to better use than tossed in the trash truck that comes by my mom’s house on Tuesdays. I flushed very few toilets this year.
I refrained from being a good citizen by blowing off the local voting rituals offered up to us. Bat down a tax raising issue one yer and it just keeps coming back until it passes. What’s the point? When it comes to politics I just buy more ammo and avoid discussions with the true believers, left or right. The last shred of huzzah for this pathetic excuse of a democracy evaporated… about the time the turnip crop matured.
During the last half of the year I was a one man economic stimulus package… 18,000 dollars of manufactured materials and compensation to the slaves I had working for me went into the rental house that caught fire in May. Another 14 to go and then the rest of the insurance check goes to the wife’s new kitchen and a tractor for me. Gonna get a diesel one… just so I have the option of going fuckin’ green with biofuel in some far distant future when the resource wars have used up all the resources and we’re back to using digging sticks to plant soybeans… to run the tractor and FEMA, DHS and military vehicles.
Stopped using credit cards for anything that could be bought without them. Fuck online bank billpay – I’d rather wait in line at the cable office listening to some fat crackhead trying to convince the clerk she paid the bill a week ago. Shopping for Chinese slave labor products without giving the CC companies their 3% per transaction.
Bottom line – slightly subnormal consumer class behavior ruled the year. The farm increased its fertility, and I think one person built a rocket mass heater due to my demo at the Farmer’s Market. I believe he’s heating one of his commercial greenhouses with it.
Better luck next year, eh?
*Snark*
Kunstler made a statement today:
Reality doesn’t care if we are on-board with its mandates or not. The human race has to get with whatever program reality is serving up at a particular time.
which has helped me understand that tricky philosophy bit about everyones’ reality being their own. Because my reality is waaaay different than 99.9999% of folks I know, know of or can imagine. And I can’t imagine anyone dropping in to my reality tunnel and digging it like I do – that much has been proven by three different doomers who have come and gone. Thing is, that’s getting to be okay with me. If my livelihood was dependent upon my ability to show up at 8am, punch in and put Tab A into Slot B for 8 hours, punch out and repeat five days a week, 50 weeks a year I’d be a dead man. I imagine that a factory drone would starve out here if he had to do what I piddle around with on the ol homestead. A guy who blogs as old horseman once said most people would starve if you handed them a hog in a crate and a sharp knife. My reality tunnel incorporates the ability to head out with a K-bar, entrenching tool and a 5 dollar tarp and make out fairly well, but saying yassah to some fat balding mid level manager is right out.
Some days I dream of getting all Wild Man of Borneo but that’s usually on a day when I gotta crawl around under the house and drill new holes through the floor to re-route the cable line ‘cuz we moved the tv to a new location in our great game of Musical House. When walls go, things change, y’know. Not that I mind getting rid of pesky shit like ratshit laden insulation and ceiling tiles, but when joists and roof bracing goes engineering collar ties becomes sorta critical. I truly would rather eat grubs and roadkill skunk than staple insulation batts to rafters, but winter sorta snuck up on me. It’s not like the three years it took to go from dirt out the back door to picking grapes from a chair on the patio/ grape arbor… Eventually, what we’ll see when we look up will be tongue and groove pine on a vaulted ceiling with lofts on both ends of the living area instead of a low, nasty, and beat up acoustic tile ceiling. Some people walk over and turn the thermostat up a notch – I re-engineer the damn house. Reality tunnels.
I’m out of touch with today’s – this day’s – reality. I can make a phone call and cut a check to Al’s Gas and get 500 gallons of propane delivered, reinstall the central heat unit that I purposefully removed two years ago in a Foxfire wood burning state of mind, and spend the days surfing and watching tv while working in some of that domestic type stuff. But my “today’s” reality is interlocked with my tunnel’s view of tomorrow… one where the power is out and no amount of propane will run the unit’s electric fan and the toes get cold. That makes me technically insane, right? Maybe we’re all insane by that standard… putting money into an IRA for a comfy retirement is pretty much the same thing – assuming the state of affairs further down the timeline?
Robert Anton Wilson said you might as well create the funnest. coolest reality tunnel you can for every moment. I’m heading back underneath the house now – I’m On The List and working my way through my escape tunnel fleeing from the FEMA/dot gov goons…
Short term borrowing on long term debt and the annual interest payment is 2,333 bucks a year per capita. Not too bad if your family of four is bringing in 250,000 a year, but the other 95% ain’t going to find that very easy to pony up . When the tax bill starts looking like the vig from a payday loan joint or a credit card company’s interest rate the jig is up for the Treasury. And you just can’t goon on 100 million debtors. Look at how banks are simply putting off foreclosures to get an idea of what institutional “fuck it” looks like.
Just like more and more people are figuring out that a closet full of toilet paper is better than having money in a bank the rest of the world is coming to grips that US currency is truly worthless and is beginning to shop elsewhere. Where I have been looking at the whole thing wrongly is focusing on that silly bit about the US consuming a 1/4 of the worlds energy, resources etc and that the world depends upon us buying shit to stay afloat. Like if we stopped buying Chinese stuff China would fall harder than we would. So ponder the ramifications of the rest of the world saying “no more stuff for dollars”.
Guess what? The US gets no oil, resources, manufactured goods, baubles or trinkets. The Saudis say we’ll trade this boatload of oil for a boatload of Chinese or Indian steel. A container ship full of Japanese made electronics for a backhaul of Canadian lumber. See, the US doesn’t have any oil or steel, Ipods or natural resources… just dollars, so if you throw dollars out of the world economic equation the oil steel and etc keeps its value and trade can continue. We just get left out of the loop, that’s all.
It’s currency collapse that’s going to be the wrecking ball on our economy, setting up a huge migration of people going back “home” if they have one, another block of folks hunkering down as best they can, the usual suspects (with swelled numbers) going ape shit Viking, and whatever’s left over lumbering towards the relief camps. Some big city riots to keep the media and the sheeple viewers entertained. Just in time for the ‘12 presidential election circus to make something other than food in the pie hole seem important. Answers the question of why the Republicans keep Sarah “Moose Knuckle” Palin on the back burner – nothing like a total political party power shift to make the formerly middle class masses think they have a shot in getting it all back again.
Yep. Groked it. It’s all too clear now.
Which brings me to me once again, which is all I’m really concerned about. Yeah, I’ll demonstrate some token concern for my fellow man via yammering on about Thunder BucketsTM and Rocket Stoves, a smattering of organic grower’s wisdom etc, but me and mine rate a hell of a lot higher than them and theirs. (notice I left “you” out of course, my loyal readers, bwahahaha). I am home. Hunkering down has been a way of life for some time now. The Mad Max’ers are in far distant cities, proximity decreasing as dinosaur juice gets harder to come by in direct correlation to the depth of collapse. In other words, when it’s time to go marauding gas for the Monster Truck of Death will be the hardest thing to come up with and no self respecting MZB will be caught dead in a Chevy Volt. The grid is probably down anyway. I should plant an extra half acre of turnips and kale so’s the folks dragging their way to the FEMA camp at Fort Crowder can be given a meal.
Looking bad and looking good all at the same time. Decreasing options can be a blessing in disguise. Get your ass home now or dig up the yard. The other two options aren’t much to write home about.
That’s an old classic set during the Depression era Mississippi Delta. The two schools of thought in Doom are the docile sheeple accepting without fuss whatever is being handed out at the FEMA camp or the Mutant Zombie Bikers (MZBs) and marauding hordes fanning out into the countryside after playing Eric the Viking in cities and towns. Tobacco Road suggests that the down and out will take any sort of beating without revolt.
The flaw here is that a person born in absolute economic and moral poverty in an isolated backwater is vastly different by orders of magnitude than today’s populace. A sack of turnips is a WTF? event – hand somebody a shit sandwich and you’ll at least get a laugh. But I’m pondering the question of how much of our wealth can be taken away before striking out at whatever we believe to be a cause of our demise. Sure, loosing the cell phone may suck and there’s a certain relief when the second car (and the payment that went with it) goes back to the bank but that’s just “stuff”. Staring at a mostly empty pantry at dinnertime is a different sort of bummer, so we bite the bullet and go apply for food stamps. Next we’re moving in with Mom and Dad, the car is broke beyond affordable repair, no job, no assets, and everything that could be sold at a garage sale is long gone. Ma & pa’s portfolio went into the toilet and now the whole household is looking at that food stamp card like the Lester’s were eying that sack of turnips…
Time for the 64,000 dollar question – what do you do now? There are 15 million folks living at this level of poverty today and most of them have always lived this way. I believe they will continue to do exactly what they have done their whole lives… perpetuate their status quo. I can’t seem to think that the newly inflicted, used to gadgets, disposable income and a taste for restaurants will just sort of hunker down and spend their days flicking gravel on the driveway watching the weeds grow tall in a scraggly lawn.
I don’t have a real answer, only a guess as to what the bulk of new members of the poverty class do. I think they’ll take a whole boatload of hardship and behave as long as the food stamps or other relief is abundant. There’s no mystery as to how the petty criminal element will act – there’s just going to be more of them.
I can’t find and end to this post. I find something wrong with writing something without an idea to sum it all up. That’s why I hate “Batman”… always had to tune in next week at the same bat time on the same bat channel to find out what happens.
Both my wife and I have been feeling rather skitish lately – her reasons are hers and some dovetail with mine, which are freaky enough to stand alone as a testament of fact being stranger than fiction…
Credit is disappearing. That’s the bottom line in all this banking hullaballoo. Lost your job? No loan for you to get a car that runs to find a job that doesn’t exist. Walked away (if you were smart) or got foreclosed on? Welcome to the poor renter class. A shitload of people are thanking ol’ God for food stamps since it’s gotten hard to get out of a grocery store for less than thirty bucks per bag… the mall is empty and the second hand clothes sores are packed.
Where I feel discomfort is seeing all this dismantling of ease and comfort without seeing anything that can change its continuation. Every couple of job losses set up the loss of the job dependent on them. Big whoop – a Hardee’s closes down and the teens formerly manning the counter and fryer can’t upgrade to the latest cell phone. But say Hardee’s stock drops, somebody’s portfolio looses value and an Orange County housewife has to choose between the nail salon and yoga class. Pimply faced high school graduate doesn’t move into an apartment with a couple of friends… Mom and Dad continue to foot the bills for his upkeep.
Lots chatter/speculation on doom boards as to what happens when business as usual “BAU” comes to an end, but I think that “future” happened about three years ago. Here we are banging up against “two oh ten” and if you go back to oh seven and look at the general state of affairs then and now you’d see we’ve come a long way, baby. Hiccups in 07, some bad gas in 08, pure nausea in 09 and I got a bad feeling we’re on our way to a prolapsed asshole this coming year. Economic dysentery. Comes from drinking the Kool Aid.
It’s just disintegrating out there. I sit here in relative ease and comfort with a freezer fulla pork, a basement fulla home canned food, a billion pounds of doomer beans, fifty acres of woods for the cookstove, the wife has a “last to be cut” job teaching college and no mortgage to a bank. You know the feeling you get when you watch a Nat Geo show about refugee camps – all the poor miserable people? I feel much the same thing when I drive through town and engage in “economic activity”. There’s some real sadness in people’s eyes at the checkout counters. But what’s really nagging at me is that though people seem to be adapting, however resignedly, to the new reality that the glass is 1/4 full room for adaptation is rapidly shrinking. When those walls close in I have my doubts that a “can do” spirit will rise to the forefront; I think a collective “this is all fucked up” will be in vogue and individual acts of mayhem will be overlooked by peers and our societal glue will disappear.
It’s going to get more dangerous. Think about getting carjacked so a couple of broke and nothing to loose guys can strip it down for a hundred bucks of scrap metal. Watch out at the ATM for a person willing to strong arm for a couple of twenties. Maybe even having a sackfull of groceries lifted form your cart in the parking lot in a snatch and grab hit. I wouldn’t go on vacation without nosy neighbors watching the house or a trusted house sitter. It won’t take a whole lot of this to make us look at our “fellow man” as a potential threat… and that’s when the gloves come off.
Right about the time cities can’t make police payroll…