A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
Showing posts with label Michael Ruppert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Ruppert. Show all posts
I need to write about fossil fuel use in agriculture, a topic covered by Questions 14-16 for "The End of Suburbia" and Question 28 for "Food, Inc." Stay tuned.
Note that I called one of Kunstler's fellow panelists the late Michael Ruppert. He will be the subject of the next retrospective, along with another popular obituary from the previous posting year.
Yesterday, at least in the time zone where I live, was the first anniversary of the death of Michael Ruppert.* It took me a week to write my obituary, My thoughts on Michael Ruppert posted on April 21, 2014. It ended up being the seventh most read entry of the past blogging year with 535 page views, earning most of its page views through my sharing the link at Kunstler's blog.
While I’m here, Peak Oiler and conspiracy theorist Michael Ruppert committed suicide last week. I left a comment commemorating him at The Archdruid Report, which I recycled at my blog.
Like most of the previous recaps of the blogging year just past, this one fits the pattern of recurring topics from previous years. In this case, it's discussing James Howard Kunstler, which links two entries among last year's top twenty.
Right now, the most on-topic item I have for this week is an entry documenting the conversations Fabius Maximus and I had about Kunstler’s and FM’s shared contention that Americans don’t like what America has become and are less likely to defend it.
Eldorado had the one comment at Kunstler's blog in response to that sentiment.
The idea about people not being willing to defend the place … that may be OK, because by then, who’s going to want it, anyway?
Bukko Boomeranger: Heya Crazy/Neon -- just a generalised comment to give you kudos for the blog and your intelligent observations on Jim Kunstler's website.
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Anyway, what prompted me to write is to thank you for posting that link last week to JHK's TED talk that touched upon the notion of "Is this country worth defending?" I think that has a lot to dow with the disintegration of the Iraqi government's army in the past fortnight. I can also see it happening in the U.S., as polarised people on the Teabagging Right, some on the alienated Left (like me) and the mass of morons who don't have any opinion at all except for "I'll have another beer and some Cheetos" won't give enough of a crap to do whatever work is needed to keep the States United. My (now-ex) wife and I reached that point the night that realPresident Cheney and his little dog Bush got another four years of misrule in November 2004 and decided to bail. For those who can't flee like me, I foresee a Yugoslavian/Ukranian-style future (unfortunately, not Czechoslovakian) as they retreat into their ideological/ethnic enclaves.
Keep up your good work! Those who you teach are fortunate to have someone who will lead them to open their eyes, at least the ones who choose not to keep them glued shut.
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And P.S. -- Larry Niven was my favourite "hard-science" sci-fi guy once I graduated from the 1950s classic writers such as Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein. Him and Joe Haldemann. "Ringworld," yah sure!
Me: That's a great comment for a month devoted to comments. In fact, it's the comment of the month so far.
Thank you for your praise. I'd like to think that I'm an eye-opening inspiration to my students, although sometimes I feel like I'm telling them ghost stories--scary and entertaining, but not very real.
There's more to Bukko Boomeranger's comment, which I alluded to when I mentioned "an Islamophobic thread that spilled over into the comments for this entry on my blog, one that I'll convert into an entry of its own later." The rest of Bukko's comment will appear then. In addition, Kunstler himself posted a follow up to his TED talk at TEDxAlbany. I plan on posting that in a future entry, too. Stay tuned.
Follow over the jump for a discussion of the other top twenty entry discussing Kunstler.
I opened U.S. home ownership rate and me with a warning of sorts: "For those of my readers expecting an entertainment post, stay tuned; I'll get to it eventually." After I wrote that, I went upstairs to clean the living and dining rooms for the real estate agent and turned on the television to entertain me while I straightened up. While I was clicking through the channels, I came across "Prophets of Doom" on H2 (History Channel 2). I read the description and wondered if any of the people I read were among those featured. Sure enough, the first person I see interviewed was James Howard Kunstler. Another was the late Michael Ruppert. That was enough to keep me watching.
The rest of the subjects I didn't know, but David Ing listed them.
In the 94 minute show, investigative journalist Michael Ruppert, economist Dr. Nathan Hagens, author John Cronin, investigative journalist/author James Howard Kun[st]ler, computer scientist Dr. Hugo De Garis, and executive editor Robert Gleason came together to discuss some of the greatest threats to the future of the United States, including economic collapse, water shortages/contamination, peak oil, species dominance by self-aware robots, and nuclear terrorism.
Both Kunstler and Ruppert gave their familiar peak oil perspectives on the future. Of the rest, the one who worried about the farthest off catastrophe was De Garis, whose fear was of The Singularity, the surpassing of human intelligence by artificial intelligence. When he discussed his take on the future, I figured that Kunstler would likely have none of it. Sure enough, he told De Garis that he thought that the resources and finances needed to support the research for artificial intelligence would dry up before the technology reached that point. The result was that Kunstler didn't budge, but De Garis came away convinced that the other issues were fair more pressing than his particular worry. In particular, he became most concerned about water shortages.
All in all, I found watching the documentary time well-spent. If you want to see it, follow over the jump for the embedded video from YouTube.
I've been showing my students "The End of Suburbia," in which Ruppert played an important role, one almost as big as Kunstler, for the past five or six years. That means I've listened to his recorded words and watched his filmed image at least thirty times (twice a semester, three semesters a year). Even though I never met the man either, I have a sense of the man. I can say that knowing that I won't see anything new from the man elicits a sense of loss from me.
As for the demons that haunted him, I watched some of the opening of "Apocalypse: Man" from Vice. Ruppert was very clear about how little hope he had. He sounded like one of the people who think that humans will go extinct by 2030. I guess he didn't want to be around to see that happen.
Also, Vice described some of his other history, such as his confronting the CIA director over allegations of the agency's involvement in illegal drugs and Ruppert's later dabbling in 9/11 Trutherism. When Ruppert's death was reported on Raw Story, that's the tack that the reporter took, calling Ruppert a conspiracy theorist. That drew dozens, if not hundreds, of Ruppert's fans to defend him.
About that slant on the story, I have two things to say. First, it vastly underplayed Ruppert's involvement in the peak oil community. I don't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, it slighted an important aspect of the man and his message. On the other hand, it didn't tar peak oil with the same brush as the conspiracy theories.
Second, it's a sign of how people on what passes for the American Left engaged in a form of "Evil, Be my Good." When an unnamed Bush Administration official mocked the Administration's critics as "The reality-based community," Bush's opponents almost seemed as one to say, "yes, we are reality-based, and you're not." I consider that to be one of the great rhetorical miscues of the 21st Century. The upshot was for the bulk of the anti-Bush crowd to reject conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists as not reality-based, and that played out in the quotes Raw Story used in their obituary, including one from David Corn.
“'Conspiracy theories may seem more nuisance than problem,' wrote columnist David Corn about Ruppert’s work in 2002. 'But they do compete with reality for attention. There is plenty to be outraged over without becoming obsessed with X Files-like nonsense.'”
Above originally posted as a comment to The End of Employment at The Archdruid Report.
I'll have reaction to Ruppert's death from other bloggers as well as to my comments from other readers of Greer's blog later. Stay tuned. Until then, here's a thought from Escape from Wisconsin's eulogy at The Hipcrime Vocab.
Yes, you get a meal of leftovers tonight, but feeding it to you all clears the way for a fresh linkspam of local news tomorrow, some videos I've been sitting on, and more coverage of stories I've been following, such as the ongoing saga of gas prices and the economy.
As I watch videos pop up on my YouTube subscription list, I save them to my Motie News playlist. Nearly all the videos that I've used on this blog are in it. When I went back to look at the list, it turned out that I had enough for a complete linkspam. Here it is, including some videos on the playlist that I've had in the backlog since May.
General Sustainability
Peak Moment 196: "Petroleum Man is dead. Infinite Growth Man is dead. Post Petroleum Human is alive," announced Michael C. Ruppert on May 22, 2011. Members of this emerging "species" know they must live in balance with the Earth, while remembering the lessons of industrial civilization. The star and subject of the documentary "Collapse", Mike founded CollapseNet.com in 2010 to empower people to connect and relocalize.
Ruppert plays almost as big a role in "The End of Suburbia" as Kunstler. Should my students ask what he's doing these days, seven years after "The End of Suburbia" was filmed, I can show them this clip.
Also, Peak Oil is one of the defining sustainability issues of our time, even more than climate change. Of course, the two are intimately connected, but I'm with Kunstler, Ruppert, and others that Peak Oil and its consequences are more likely to cause collapse than climate change.
Speaking of climate change...
Environment, including science and technology
With rising temperatures, extended fire seasons and foreign plant species threatening some of California's most treasured parks, Jarvis discusses actions underway to respond to the crisis.
As a former national park ranger, and a lifelong fan of national parks, I see the problems of the national parks as a good example of how our natural capital is at risk from climate change.
Kirk Goldsberry, assistant professor in the Department of Geography, talks about creating informational graphics and maps to help convey information.
Pay attention to the maps showing the difference in access to produce in Greater Lansing for people who walk and people who drive. Yes, this is old, but it's worth watching.
Society, including culture and politics
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Ta Da! Today is the day you've been waiting for! The brand new Weather Girls for May. Watch the Sunday eco-friendly angel Kitty bring you the the weather and words of wisdom.
This video from May 1st kicked off a month of green-themed dancing girls, another example of sustainability in unexpected places.
Now, to make up for the above video, I present the following.
It is a movement against the belief that any aspect of a woman's appearance might explain or excuse rape.
Remember, the social component of sustainability is about promoting a just society. So is the movement described above.
Also, this happened in Grand Rapids? I'll have to search to see if this was the first one in Michigan. I'd be surprised if Grand Rapids beat out Ann Arbor.
Economy
The Nation Institute's Chris Hedges and author of his most recent book, The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress says the world as we know it is coming to an end. And what follows won't be pleasant or easy. But that the revolution must start, in America. Hedges joins the show to explain.
I could have posted this video right after the Peak Moment video featuring Ruppert, but there is more of an economic focus in this one. By the way, what Hedges describes is both Kunstler's "Consensus Trance" and Bageant's "The Hologram," both of which are worthy of their own posts.
Speaking of dissident voices on economics from Russia Today, here's Matt Taibbi in a video from about a month ago.
RT's Anastasia Churkina sits down with Matt Taibbi - journalist, author and contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine.
Why is it that our best muckraking reporting on economics and politics is being published in a music magazine? Think about that one, and tie it into what Hedges says above. I'll get back to you on that one.
Chrysler new paint shop
And now, some good local economic news that ties back to investment in technology, completing the circle.
