This is a story of what can happen, when a foreign power engages in what is called “nation or state building” today. It deals with US commitment to Vietnam after the First Indochina War. Despite the spending of billions – amounting to more than 100 bn in today’s dollars – the process ended with catastrophic consequences. [Read more...]
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Peak Oil, Climate and the Religion of Progress – Quote of the Day
John Michael Greer (“Archdruid”) explains, why he sees climate change as an accepted subset of our civilization’s narrative, while peak oil continues to be the odd man out. Our energy predicament does not fit at all into the overarching tale of modernity: unstoppable progress. [Read more...]
“Crimestop, protective stupidity”: Quote of the day
“Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.” [Read more...]