Guy McPherson's blog

Partial understanding on planet Easter Island

The recent S&P downgrade of U.S. debt is yet another example of a circus sideshow in a nation filled with clowns sleepwalking off a cliff. Ben Bernanke, the master of ceremonies in the most ridiculous show on Earth, has come up with a new scheme to print money, hence plunge a financially bankrupt nation further [...]

Continue reading...

Fear and loathing in the blogosphere: doom, gloom, and controlling the message

I spend quite a bit of time reading the work of other bloggers. Believe it or not, I’ve read a few books, too. This post follows my usual approach of being an equal opportunity offender as I comment on the philosophy of James Howard Kunstler, Dmitry Orlov, and John Michael Greer, along with a few [...]

Continue reading...

Celebration and cognitive dissonance (but not celebrating cognitive dissonance)

A reminder about online comments is given by John Michael Greer in this week's version of his blog. His primary point, that our information age is actually dependent on physical substrate, reminds me of the cognitive dissonance running so deeply among the American populace. Example A is the magical thinking that we'll create new alternatives to oil, despite the absence of any such alternatives so far, even when the price of oil skyrocketed to $147.27. Example B is the magical thinking that we need to keep the cars running at all costs ... which means, of course, at every cost to the planet and even our own species. Example C is the magical thinking that our economy is necessary to our survival, when in fact it is a grave threat to our survival.

Continue reading...