by
JHK
James Howard Kunstler
by
JHK
Executive Summary
- The prevailing trends of the next several decades: contraction, down-scaling & re-localization
- How these trends will manifest in commerce, politics, employment & infrastructure
- Those who adapt now will be positioned to thrive
- Act now – ask forgiveness, not permission
If you have not yet read Part I: We've Dug a Pretty Damn Big Hole for Ourselves, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
We may never again restore trust in giant institutions ranging from the U.S. government to Harvard University to The New York Times. They have probably squandered their credibility and their legitimacy.
Anyway, the trends now moving human affairs are taking us away from both gigantism and the growth imperative that these things represent. The trends of the present moment in history are contraction, down-scaling, and re-localization.
Managing contraction is the only safe reality-based political response to the situation, and there is no constituency for it – though contraction is emphatically underway whether we like it or not, and it would be advantageous if we could manage our way through it rather than let it become a disorderly rout in which people starve and the rule of law disintegrates altogether.
As for re-localization and downscaling, there is a highly visible, easily identifiable constituency…
Fixing the Mess We’ve Made
PREVIEW by JHKExecutive Summary
- The prevailing trends of the next several decades: contraction, down-scaling & re-localization
- How these trends will manifest in commerce, politics, employment & infrastructure
- Those who adapt now will be positioned to thrive
- Act now – ask forgiveness, not permission
If you have not yet read Part I: We've Dug a Pretty Damn Big Hole for Ourselves, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
We may never again restore trust in giant institutions ranging from the U.S. government to Harvard University to The New York Times. They have probably squandered their credibility and their legitimacy.
Anyway, the trends now moving human affairs are taking us away from both gigantism and the growth imperative that these things represent. The trends of the present moment in history are contraction, down-scaling, and re-localization.
Managing contraction is the only safe reality-based political response to the situation, and there is no constituency for it – though contraction is emphatically underway whether we like it or not, and it would be advantageous if we could manage our way through it rather than let it become a disorderly rout in which people starve and the rule of law disintegrates altogether.
As for re-localization and downscaling, there is a highly visible, easily identifiable constituency…
by
JHK
by
JHK
Executive Summary
- Downscaling complexity and increasing local sourcing through efficient net-energy means will be the hallmarks of the future
- Suburbia has three likely destinies, none mutually exclusive: slums, salvage, and ruins
- What elements to look for in sustainable town/city designs
- Why "managing contraction" will be society's main focus for a long time to come
If you have not yet read Part I: Why Our Current Way of Living Has No Future, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
Smaller, Closer, Simpler
First, circumstances imply that we have to downscale just about everything that supports civilized life – the size of enterprise (both private and public), the length of supply chains and distribution webs, the amount of capital expenditure, the complexity of organization. We’ll have to grow our food differently as industrial agri-business flounders on non-cheap oil. We’ll have to rethink transportation as commercial aviation withers and Happy Motoring enters its twilight. We’ll have to do commerce differently as the Wal-Mart model unravels. We’ll have to inhabit the terrain differently.
Second, as a consequence of the foregoing, we’ll see economies become much more local and regional again, as the current episode of globalism unwinds in the face of rancorous competition for increasingly scarce vital resources. Contrary to Tom Friedman of the New York Times, globalism is not a permanent fixture of the human condition; it was an episode of history. The world is getting less flat and more wide again.
Another is that…
The Essential Elements of a Sustainable Future
PREVIEW by JHKExecutive Summary
- Downscaling complexity and increasing local sourcing through efficient net-energy means will be the hallmarks of the future
- Suburbia has three likely destinies, none mutually exclusive: slums, salvage, and ruins
- What elements to look for in sustainable town/city designs
- Why "managing contraction" will be society's main focus for a long time to come
If you have not yet read Part I: Why Our Current Way of Living Has No Future, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.
Smaller, Closer, Simpler
First, circumstances imply that we have to downscale just about everything that supports civilized life – the size of enterprise (both private and public), the length of supply chains and distribution webs, the amount of capital expenditure, the complexity of organization. We’ll have to grow our food differently as industrial agri-business flounders on non-cheap oil. We’ll have to rethink transportation as commercial aviation withers and Happy Motoring enters its twilight. We’ll have to do commerce differently as the Wal-Mart model unravels. We’ll have to inhabit the terrain differently.
Second, as a consequence of the foregoing, we’ll see economies become much more local and regional again, as the current episode of globalism unwinds in the face of rancorous competition for increasingly scarce vital resources. Contrary to Tom Friedman of the New York Times, globalism is not a permanent fixture of the human condition; it was an episode of history. The world is getting less flat and more wide again.
Another is that…
by
JHK
by
Chris Martenson
It’s characteristic of the time that we’re living in that there simply is no sense of consequence. And that’s exactly what you get when you have a Federal Reserve that’s out of control and a public that is filled with technological narcissistic visions of Santa Claus delivering rescue remedies on demand. And so there’s no general sense that when you do things, bad things can happen.
James Howard Kunstler is concerned. Sure, he still has the same issues with the West's highly energy-consuming suburban lifestyle that he famously brought to light in his books, The Long Emergency, the World Made by Hand series, and Too Much Magic. But beyond our decaying fundamentals, he's distressed by society's unwillingness to be honest with itself about the issue's it's facing.
James Howard Kunstler: The Dangers of the Age of Delusion
by Chris MartensonIt’s characteristic of the time that we’re living in that there simply is no sense of consequence. And that’s exactly what you get when you have a Federal Reserve that’s out of control and a public that is filled with technological narcissistic visions of Santa Claus delivering rescue remedies on demand. And so there’s no general sense that when you do things, bad things can happen.
James Howard Kunstler is concerned. Sure, he still has the same issues with the West's highly energy-consuming suburban lifestyle that he famously brought to light in his books, The Long Emergency, the World Made by Hand series, and Too Much Magic. But beyond our decaying fundamentals, he's distressed by society's unwillingness to be honest with itself about the issue's it's facing.
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