Macrobiotic Life

I am not sure why I am attracted to catastrophic scenarios, but I have to follow my intuition, my inner voice anyway – so be it, I really believe in the disastrous future of our civilization and I am so mad, that I believe it’s not so far, it will be fast and unexpected by majority – the never ending old model of collapse of the big civilizations will play its role again. We have a great opportunity in these days to learn a lot of things about the history, enough to educate us what the ancient civilizations did wrong, so we don’t need to repeat the same mistakes – but you know it better than me, we learn nothing, we go in the same steps of the destruction.

Yes, I have joined the “doom & gloom” group of weird people, that are so attacked by “The Secret” type of groups – but I still believe in optimistic thinking – but for me, the blind optimism is very dangerous – optimism together with rational thinking and proper action is my best choice. I believe in the constrained resources – fossil fuels, water and most important of all – quality soil.

I have written this little summarization of my core beliefs only for the reason to explain my apocalyptic interests at this blog.

Here’s very interesting article describing the 1990 famine in the North Korea, after the fall of the Soviet Union, that was the main food provider for the Korea.

After poor harvests in the mid-1990s, the North Korean government was forced to reduce the food ration that its people relied on. This amounted to 700-900 calories per person per day supplied by the government. This was supplemented by what could be grown in home gardens or purchased elsewhere.

There was a natural progression that saw disease attack the most vulnerable, which were the children under five. Next were the aged; those over 70 followed by the 60-year olds and the 50-somethings. Death then stalked the people in the prime of life. Men, because they had less body fat, went next. The strong and athletic were especially vulnerable because their metabolisms burned more calories.

We need 500 calories per day, on average, to survive. Eating only food foraged in a temperate forest; you could expect to live no more than three months.

Everything changes, but the Principles repeat!
Observe the history and her repeating periods – pinpoint the underlying Principle of each crisis and apply it to the contemporary civilization predicaments.
Historical books from Arnold Toynbee are perfect study material for this job – Kushi learned from them very much.

Here’s a peak oil informative material:

New article at The Archdruid Report

A great many middle-class people in America and other industrial nations are caught in the familiar bind, no longer committed to the ideals of a declining civilization, but not yet willing to sacrifice the very tangible material benefits they get from their positions in the established order; rejecting the system in their hearts while supporting it with their actions. It’s a very awkward place to be; eventually, it will become intolerable; but until this latter point arrives, a great many people will try to have it both ways.

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2010/01/this-presupposition-of-passivity.html

I strongly recommend this blog – covering upcoming civilization problems, economy, finance, spirituality, illusion, peak oil – The Archdruid Report.

John Michael Greer

The Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), John Michael Greer has been active in the alternative spirituality movement for more than 25 years, and is the author of more than twenty books, including “The Druidry Handbook” (Weiser, 2006) and “The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age” (New Society, 2008). He lives in Cumberland, Maryland.

Twilight of Money

The consequence of all this pyramid building is that there are not enough goods and services on Earth to equal, at current prices, more than a small percentage of the face value of stocks, bonds, derivatives, and other fiscal exotica now in circulation.

Over the longer term, on the other hand, it’s safe to assume that the vast majority of paper assets now in circulation, whatever the currency in which they’re denominated, will lose essentially all their value.

How the trajectory will unfold is anyone’s guess, but the possibility that we may soon see sharp declines in the value of the dollar, and of dollar-denominated paper assets, probably should not be ignored, and cashing in abstract representations of wealth for things of more enduring value might well belong high on the list of sensible preparations for the future.

You can find a lot of yin/yang thinking in his writings.

political power begins with raw violence and evolves toward progressively more subtle means of suasion

And this is author’s practical advice what to do to prepare for the coming times:

My advice remains what it’s always been — concentrate on acquiring skills, and the basic tools needed to put them to work. My point is simply that hoarding cash, or other forms of paper wealth, may well become even less useful than hoarding concrete things.

Other interesting reactions from articles’ comments

My guess is that the total amount of energy extracted from fossil fuels in our age is equal to all the muscular energy exerted by human beings in all the ages leading up to ours. Remember that when a planeload of tourists fly from Los Angeles to Egypt to see the Great Pyramid, they use as much energy as it took to build the Great Pyramid in the first place.

I’ve chosen to participate in the abstract money games that structure life in late industrial society, as there are certain things I want to do and certain resources I value that would be out of reach if I was a hermit, or otherwise living outside the money economy. I don’t take those games seriously; I use them because for certain things, they’re the only game in town just now. Their raw absurdity is simply another detail.

It’s not necessary to stop using money to get out from under the spell that makes people think it’s the same thing as wealth; just treat it as a tool, and remember that its only value is the willingness of other people to take it in exchange.

There’s a great passage in one of Schumacher’s books about that moment of insight where one realizes one’s teachers don’t actually know what they’re talking about. That ought to happen much more often in economics classrooms than it does.

It’s a mistake to chalk up to conspiracy what can be explained by stupidity.

When an accountant discovers that the till doesn’t balance, she checks her figures, finds the error, and corrects it. When an economist discovers that the till doesn’t balance, he invents a theory to explain why it shouldn’t balance. There’s no question in my mind which of the two is the useful response.