Friday, March 16, 2012

high tide


The USA seems already to be taking on the appearance of a post-oil economy with growing poverty, mad politicians, pointless wars and a huge divide between the ignorant rich and the resourceful poor. Many are moving to New Hampshire and elsewhere where they can start living independently. Gold and silver is being hoarded, weapons purchased and new skills acquired. House prices have plumetted and the current government continues to develop George Bush's post-9/11 version of socialism. Collapse is in the air. So the latest story coming from the US is both weird and understandable. It's all about Tide, the detergent!

This from Whiskey and Gunpowder, essential reading for anyone who wants to survive over the coming years!

Money Laundering (by Means of Laundry Detergent)
The story from The Daily swept through the Internet with blazing speed. The report: Criminals around the country are stealing an inordinate number of bottles of Tide laundry detergent. This is not because the criminals plan to go into the laundry business. There is not a "grime wave." It seems that these Tide bottles are functioning as a store of value, even a form of money, within many black markets.
As the story memorably puts it, on the street, Tide is known as 'liquid gold.' Harrison Sprague of the Prince George's County, Maryland, Police Department says that his undercover agents are asking for drugs but being offered Tide instead. They are busting drug rings and finding more blue liquid than white powder.
To be sure, some news outlets are raising some questions about this story, pointing out that Tide theft doesn't seem to be a national problem. For my part, I have no problem with the credibility of the report. In fact, it seems entirely reasonable that new forms of currency are popping up in black markets. This is why stores are starting to add anti-theft devices to the bottles.
The driving force here is a war on the dollar. Carrying around vast amounts of cash raises questions among the authorities. It is increasingly difficult to "wash" the money through the banking system. And in any case, dollars are always losing value. So it makes sense to look for other ways to facilitate exchange. This is hardly unusual. The digital economy is getting ever better at bartering services and software as an alternative to letting dollars change hands.
But if we are to think of Tide as money, that means its use goes beyond the barter stage. People aren't acquiring Tide to wash their clothes, but rather to trade for other things, like drugs. In a limited sense, then, Tide is being used to facilitate indirect exchange. That is to say, it has become a money.
Actually, there are many conditions in which alternative monies can come to exist. You can see this among kids when they trade candy following Halloween night. The kids will gather and first begin to barter, but as the trading term continues, one candy will emerge as the one to get -- not to consume, but to trade for other things. For a brief time, one candy will emerge with monetary properties. As trading comes to an end, that very candy will be demonetized and re-emerge as a consumption good.
Money is frequently reinvented under the right conditions, emerging from a commodity currently in use. Cigarettes become money in prison. War zones become hotbeds of currency competition too, in anything from liquor to matches. Throughout history, money has taken many forms, from shells to salt to animal skins. The usual qualities of a commodity that economists say make for good money: durability, divisibility, high value per unit of weight, uniformity of quality (fungibility), recognizability.
Tide doesn't qualify in every respect. However, it is durable in the sense that it doesn't spoil. It is divisible. The tamper-proof top provides a measure of security against counterfeiting. True, it's not as good as a precious metal, but traders aren't worried about that. They are just looking for some marketable commodity that can take the place of the dollar, which has become extremely risky to use for blatantly illegal purposes.
The government's war on the dollar as a means to fight the drug war wins nothing in this case. So long as there is a market, so long as there is demand and supply, there will be pressure to come up with some means to make indirect exchange possible. Or so Ludwig von Mises explained in his treatise The Theory of Money & Credit, written in 1912, at the dawn of the central banking age.
One major problem is Tide doesn't have a stable supply, so its value as a means of exchange will be subject to inflationary pressures. The more that enters the black market, the more its price falls relative to the goods and services it can buy -- the inflationary tide could rise and rise.
But as you think about it, as bad as Tide might be as a currency, there is a sense in which the dollar is actually worse. It costs less to print on linen than it does to make a bottle of laundry detergent, meaning that the dollar is more likely to be inflated into oblivion. And whatever is wrong with detergent, if the price falls low enough, the producer doesn't have any reason to keep making it. Profit and loss signals govern how much is produced. Its physicality alone imposes some limit -- and this is not the case for the Fed's data entries that it calls money.
The monetization of Tide demonstrates something critically important about the institution of money itself. Its existence in the market owes nothing to the government or some social contract. Its emergence, as Carl Menger argued in the late 19th century, grows out of market exchange. Selecting which commodity is to become money is a matter for entrepreneurs and market forces.
No central planner -- even one within the black market community -- decided that Tide should become money. Also note that Tide is produced entirely privately, which provides an indication of what could be true of all money today. We don't need government to select it and make it. The market can handle this just fine.
There is a final lesson to observe in this case: It is sometimes asserted that only government is smart enough to be able to select, make and manage monetary affairs. Surely, private parties can't handle this job, and the attempt will just lead to chaos. But this is not so. Private markets can do all these things, including juggling many different currencies in competition with each other and managing the price relationships between them. This goes on in the developing world all the time, with even young children learning the math and workings of the currency market.
The biggest problem Tide money now faces is a security issue. When you see the armored car driving up to the local Walgreens, you'll know that they are working on getting the problem solved. The sight can make us all nostalgic for the old days when our official money was something at least as real and useful as laundry detergent.

Friday, March 09, 2012

lessons from the usa




Taken straight from Whiskey and Gunpowder.


Whiskey & Gunpowder


by Brandon Smith


March 9, 2012



How to Become an American Extremist...In Style!






For most of us in America today, childhood was a time of vast and unassailable dreams. What we could become, what the world could become, was limited only by the strength of spirit setting aloft our ideas, and this strength, as all young people instinctively know, is infinite. While the possibilities of the future seemed boundless, few of us, including myself, ever considered “political extremism” as a viable lifestyle decision. Astronaut? Maybe. Filmmaker? Sure. Enemy Belligerent? Not so much...






Frankly, history has proven over and over again that the majority is usually wrong about most things. Groups and collectives do not create, or discover, or advance humanity. Only individuals are capable of this. All great concepts begin as seeds within independent people, and then spread like wildfire as they educate others. A society that strives for artificial normality and collectivist harmonization is a society on the verge of chaos and death. Only free hearts and minds give man hope of survival.






In my view, that which is extreme is NOT that which violates the boundaries of “normal” society, but which violates the boundaries of inherent truth, and conscience. In an honest society, an extremist is someone who denies the universal foundations of existence, and tries to play demigod in a fantasy world of moral relativism and rationalized criminality. A disjointed freak of nature that seeks to impose his twisted will upon others. Unfortunately, “normal” society is not honest. And the honest definition of extremism is not the most popular amongst the frothing elitists that reside over the functions of our political structure today.






Life is a bummer like that...






So instead, why not embrace the label that the establishment is so keen to pigeonhole us with, and make it our own? I have found that the less I care about the critical eye of others, the more free I am to change things for the better. Certainly, by any standard of our current national leadership and by the throngs that support it, I am an extremist. Luckily, this does not concern me. It is not important to be accepted by the mainstream, it is only important to remain objectively correct in one’s position. In the grand scheme of the world, to be a thorn in the side of so-called “proper society” is a sure fire path to a life without regret. America was founded by undesirables, and built by non-conformists. We are a nation whose blood is thick with defiance and outright knock-out revolutionary badass anti-authoritarian hostility. We cut kings down to size.





At least, we used to...







In modern America, it’s not nice or pleasant or practical to approach political problems with the attitude of a radical. That puts people off. And there’s nothing worse than having people not like you, right? Better to play the game and hope that a better world will simply materialize out of the ether. Don’t rock the boat, especially when you’re in it...






For those of us in the Liberty Movement, this passive approach just doesn’t satiate our ravenous hunger for the bizarre. And by “bizarre”, I mean honest. Our time here is short, and usually ugly, and filled with people and circumstances and disasters and biases and abhorrences and painful moments and sometimes smells that we would much rather not deal with. The least we can ask for is a little truth. If I have to be confronted with crusted wheezing gas-bloated nightmare figures like John McCain or Joseph Lieberman, men who would label me a terrorist if they could, then I should be allowed the satisfaction of a concrete fact or two before I am shipped of to the nearest Halliburton run military sanctioned prison facility for re-education and naked dog-piling (which these men seem to particularly enjoy).






The truth is the first and greatest sin in the dark pestilent pit of any active tyranny. I recommend it highly. Seek the truth, and ye shall be fined...or jailed. This is the first step towards a glorious career as an American extremist, and living such a lifestyle can be fun and exciting, if one follows these simple guidelines:








1) Make A Ruckus






Identify the imperative issues of the day that most people don’t want to be confronted with........and then talk about them constantly. But don’t just talk about them; talk about them intelligently and with an informative stance. That really drives the willfully ignorant crazy. Make your position and the facts behind it visible in the mainstream, through writing, videos, protest, graffiti, bumper stickers, tatts, whatever...






The establishment’s first line of defense is not necessarily to suppress the truth, but to keep it on the fringe of society, out of sight of the average citizen. Your job is to shove the truth in people’s faces, so that they are forced to at least acknowledge that it exists, even if they don’t want to accept it.






2) Laugh At Petty Authority






Most authority in our modern world is, really, only petty authority. True authority is fostered by a sense of respect that is earned through leadership by example. The greatest authorities are those who teach, not those who command, and political governance is null and void if that governance was attained through subversion and lies.






Of course, this view is a proven fast track to the nearest solitary confinement cell, but hey, living such a rock ‘n roll flavored “extreme” existence is not without risks...






Extremists recognize that a dishonest politician is only a conman in a nice suit, and nothing more. They recognize that a law enforcement official that has no regard for Constitutional liberties, or for human decency, is just a gun toting goon in a badge and costume, and is not due any more respect than a common criminal. They see alphabet agencies as extensions of a system that no longer holds any principles beyond sustaining its own wretched existence, and rightly look down upon those who would sell out to such cancerous bureaucracies for a paycheck and some undeserved prestige. They laugh at such people, because in the grand scheme of things, these “great pillars” of our nation are, in fact, tragically ridiculous.






3) Refuse To Be Pegged With Arbitrary Labels






I once entered into a debate with a long time Democrat over the painfully farcical presidency of Barack Obama. After discovering that I held the same exact views on George W. Bush, he became frustrated and nearly infuriated, because he could not place me into a preconceived political box. He complained that my stance could not be readily categorized, and this interfered with his ability to argue with me.






I replied.... “Good! That’s exactly the way it should be!”






Extremism itself is an arbitrary label, whose definition is shifted by those in power to fit any person or group that happens to get in their way at any particular time. However, to take this label and make it ours, we definitely can’t allow ourselves to be affiliated with hollow and meaningless political parties like the Democrats or the GOP, not to mention all the prefabricated and shallow philosophical platforms they engender. Every problem and situation should be approached as new, and should be dealt with using social and legal methods that WORK, as opposed to those that happen to follow a particular party line. There should be, at bottom, as many political viewpoints as there are individuals, not only two homogenized standards that we are forced to choose from in the hopes that one will be “less destructive” than the other.






4) Prepare For Life Without Window Shopping






A surefire way to become an extremist today is to suggest preparation for any kind of disaster. For the average American, there is no such thing as a tomorrow without Happy Meals and Nikes. To suggest the possibility is akin to dancing naked on the freeway with a Gadsden Flag. Despite the fact that in countries across the planet setting aside goods for survival is as common as mowing the lawn here in the U.S., many in America can’t fathom adopting such habits. This is because many still believe that the system will protect them from harm no matter what happens. The “extremist” thinks differently.






He realizes that there have been too many instances in the past when government was not helpful to those in the midst of catastrophe, and in some cases, was even the cause of greater harm. He seeks to remove his dependence on this system, and procure the insurance necessary to help himself if the need ever arises.






The Federal Government has seen fit to identify the mere act of prepping as a sign of possible extremism, so, let’s get “extreme”, shall we? I would rather be extreme and alive, than a non-threatening and law abiding corpse.






5) Build A Terrifying Gun Collection






If the contents of your house doesn’t scare the living hell out of your yuppie next door neighbor, then you aren’t an extremist yet. Time to pay off the layaway on that 50. Cal!






Firearms ownership is a widespread American pastime, and is growing by the month. However, there seems to be a misconception that this pastime is about our “sportsman’s heritage”, or self defense against local crime. Nope. That’s not why the extremist stockpiles an arsenal (an arsenal is defined as however many guns you happen to have when the ATF shows up at your doorstep). He owns scary guns to defend against rogue governments and the rise of the totalitarian dynamic. Freaky, I know...






Forget all this sportsman nonsense! We own weapons to dissuade oligarchy from getting comfortable on our couches! Our concern is not the wildlife...






6) Question The Accepted Reality Of Everything






You can’t be an extremist if you believe everything you hear from the TV. Actually, you can’t be an extremist if you believe ANYTHING you hear on the TV. An extremist takes absolutely no stock in what the mainstream media says without further investigation, and would rather be caught dead than caught parroting talking points from cable news broadcasts.






Is a certain philosophical or political position suddenly considered “common knowledge”? Be suspicious. Is a particular methodology or debate point appearing in every journalistic outlet at the same exact time with the same exact one sided narrative? Time to pull out the B.S. detector. Is a politician opening his mouth and talking? Have a shovel handy...






The extremist’s job is not necessarily to be contradictory just for the sake of contrariness. It is, though, his job to be critical, discerning, and discriminating against that which doesn’t hold up to the light of candid examination. While there is always room for a certain amount of “interpretation”, ultimately, if a circumstance rings false, it must be exposed. Period.






Even if that exposure is harmful to the state of our country or our culture in the short term, deceit left unchecked in the long term is the single greatest destroyer of entire civilizations, and is absolutely unacceptable, especially to the extremist...






I think it is clear that extremists in an environment of despotism are in most cases people who refuse to abandon that which makes humanity whole. We are, indeed, dangerous, but only to those who would do liberty harm. A life of conformity is a life wasted, and a life of slavery is no life at all. Whatever we may be called today, what we leave behind is ultimately what defines us. Labels are irrelevant.






If I am an “extremist” because I refuse to participate in the delusion that is America in the new millennium, then so be it. I am more than happy to join the long list of insurrectionaries who inhabit this nation today and who have been the legitimate makers of the world for generations. Everything in history revolves not around governments, but rule-breakers. They alone decide whether humanity will live tight in the fist of the authoritarian machine, or live free in the wilds of unbridled independence.
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british boys






There's something special coming out of Bristol right now, the fantastic Marmalade Sky. With their memorable anthemic songs and mod style they blast everyone else off stage at the moment. As Dan ambitiously declared at the start of their Louisiana gig last night 'We are the Future!'

You know I'm good at tipping bands and if you'd taken my advice over the last few years you'd have got to see Plan B, Enter Shikari and Mumm-ra well before they got, respectively, too bland, too big and broken up ...

The Louie is probably my favourite venue. In all my years in bands I've never played anywhere so small. I've been in bigger living rooms! Last night was fun but too many people missed it!

Their next gig is at the Cooler in Park Street on Good Friday. You will really doing yourself a big favour if you get to see them whilst you still can. But be careful, if you're a bit delicate or wimpy keep out of the moshing area!
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

things are getting scarier


We're looking at buying a crossbow. And learning how to use it. But I'd much rather get in a store of guns and ammo. Dangerous times are getting closer.

This from the superb Whiskey and Gunpowder with a rather more robust US view on our seemingly inevitable future.

The Other Things
The Boy Scout motto -- Be Prepared -- is probably considered evidence of terrorist (or at least extremist) inclinations in the USSA Today. I won't even get into the parts about hiking in the woods, carrying knives and practicing "survival" strategies. In my day, we even had a merit badge for marksmanship with a gun.
But, weekend camping expeditions aside, how to be prepared in situ? In your home? For when the SHTF?
Guns (and ammo) are obviously good things to have. And every person who wants to be prepared for a possible fecal-flinging scenario ought to have them. So also food supplies and medicine. Check.
Then I got to thinking about related stuff that is arguably just as essential which some "be prepared" people may not have taken into consideration -- but really ought to.
A heat source, for example.
Not just for cooking, either. What if the SHTF in winter? If the utilities go down, and stay down, how will you keep from freezing? How will you keep the pipes in your house from bursting? Imagine three or four months, potentially, of freezing winter weather on your own. Some people heat with natural gas, propane or oil -- the latter two of which, not being dependent upon a grid pipeline, can supply you for a few months if need be. I however prefer old school.
I prefer wood.
For one, it is free (provided you have some land -- which you ought to, if you took steps to Be Prepared) and doesn't require you to leave your place to obtain it -- or even to deal with the outside world at all. For two, it is simple and (if you get a good wood stove/insert) extremely efficient. You might even look into something that's very popular in my neck of the woods: An outdoor wood stove. It heats your home and your water, too. The other advantage to these puppies is you only have to feed them wood twice a day. They'll slow-burn all night. And they run on other fuels, too -- such as pellets. (See here for an example.)
Provided you planned ahead and bought a least one top-drawer chain saw (I recommend Stihl) stored up a few spare chains and a sharpening tool for it, plus plenty of chain lube and treated gas (two five gallon jugs will last along time) you're covered -- and won't freeze or have to eat cold food. Since we bugged out to the Deep Country, I have made it policy to cut and split wood at least one year in advance. So right now, I am working on wood for the winter of 2013-2014. I already have the winter of 2012/2013 covered.
You should, too.
Next, illumination. Lighting that's independent of the grid.
Ordinary candles are ok (and cozy) for a normal, short-lived blackout. But what about a more severe scenario? Regular candles don't last very long -- or those that do (like those nice-smelling Yankee candles your wife probably likes) cost a fortune. Propane/gas lights (i.e., camping lights) are not a good idea indoors. I bought a case of 100 hour (four days' continuous use each) liquid paraffin, smokeless and ordorless emergency candles. Used prudently to provide a few hours of necessary light at night, a case of these should keep you out of the dark for six months or more. If you shop around, you shoud be able to find them for about $5 each -- which is a deal compared with something like those $25 a piece Yankee candles. (See here for some more details about this.)
Next item, dihydrogen monoxide. You know... water. If the poo flies, you will need a steady source of safe water. In suburbia, where people are dependent on the grid, the water could be turned off -- or worse, contaminated. This worry was among the many reasons why we fled to the country, where our water is in fact our water -- literally ours. It comes from underneath our land, from our private well. So long as we have power to operate the pump (for which we have a generator, which with a manageable amount of stored, treated fuel -- say 20 gallons or so -- will run the pump as necessary for six months or longer) we will have reliable -- and known safe -- water. Storing a few gallons for Just in Case is fine, short term but if you haven't got the ability to provide you and your family with safe drinking (and cooking; freeze dried food is not much good without it) water for several months, you ought to be thinking about how to do that.
Sooner rather than later.
Finally, cheap preps. It's fine to talk about buying large cans of freeze-dried food or cases of MREs -- if you can afford to spend a couple grand on that. Not everyone can. But quick oats are cheap; pasta, too. You can buy large quantities for almost nothing (example, I just added another "two pack" of Quaker Oats -- 4.5 pounds each, 9 pounds total -- enough to keep your belly full for 10 days or more -- for less than $10).
For a protein supply, think about chickens. Live ones. A small flock of 15 or so birds will give you 6-10 fresh eggs a day on average. Do not eat the birds themselves until they are no longer productive (about two years). If you have land enough for them to forage, they are nearly self-sustaining. (You'll need to buy feed for winter, or at least, feed them something). But they are very inexpensive and easy to keep and will keep you supplied almost perpetually with high-quality protein to supplement your stocks.
All this is surely far from perfect or all-inclusive. But it's a good start -- and that's what being prepared is all about, ultimately.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

the end of the occupation









Seven views of Bristol's magnificent College Green.

This was the loaction for the disgraceful 'Occupy' camp which was finally evicted a few weeks ago. This was a vile Third World shanty town full of rich kids, drug addicts, the mentally ill and violent perverts. It was presented as some sort of 'protest' camp, which is hilarious considering the reality. The scum that were 'living' here promised they'd pay to make good the site, but of course vanished back to their posh homes before their names and money could be taken. So the bill falls on the ratepayers of Bristol, but I reckon it'll be worth every penny.

After clearing all the used needles, broken glass and filth around the site, the land is now being prepared (giving a worm feast to the seagulls, it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good!) and turves will be laid soon. The site will be available to the REAL people of Bristol again in April,  just as Spring kicks in.

So what was this visitation that descended on our fair city just a few short months ago? A bunch of reactionary students pitched tents, immediately churning up the grass, followed shortly by all the dregs of Bristol, the homeless, the mentally ill, the drug takers and the sex offenders. My own stepdaughter was pestered by one of these bastards.

We were then subjected to being banned from using OUR own green space in the city by these outsiders and dregs. This lasted almost three months. Our weak council and even weaker church just let them get on with it, whilst 99% of Bristolians seethed! We had our very own No-Go area in the middle of OUR city. Interestingly when the long overdue eviction order was issued all these cowardly scum vanished, no doubt before they were asked to pay for the damage their decadent indulgence had done.

And what were they 'protesting' about? Everything and nothing it seems. They supported a strong state, jobs for all and pensions for all - but also supported the destruction of the system that provides all this! They supported extreme left wing communism whilst also supporting 'freedom' for everyone - as long as you were prepared to live in a future where a strong state decided where you worked and lived, who you'd marry and how you'd fill your spare time.

They seemed to have no idea of Climate Change or Peak Oil or the real issues that face all of us. They knew NOTHING of economics or human nature. They were the ultimate outsiders, upper middle-class bureaucratic socialists who just want to be coddled from the cradle to the grave, whilst at the same time removing the very system that provides the excess wealth to alllow this to happen.

They also did two things that would disgust any right thinking person. They claimed to represent the majority, indeed the '99%', reducing all of us individuals to a percentage, robomen perhaps? In reality do any of us really know anyone who is actually like this? Perhaps in the 1960s, not now. In reality the 99% are hard working anti-Occupy types who are desperate to keep their families fed and well and would fight to the death to preserve capitalism. The '1%' are these freeloading, unthinking, unwashed retard scum.

And secondly they tried to paint revolutions around the world, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, as part of the Occupy 'movement'. Greece, oh that was Occupy. Libya, that was Occupy losing their lives on the streets of Tripoli, Syria, Occupy again, even the English riots of 2011 - Occupy of course! They even stretched back into the pre-Occupy past and tried to claim those events as Occupy inspired!

In reality this was a nasty, small minded attempt to wind people up. There was no philosophy behind it, no interface with reality, no substance. A few people who should know better stupidly tried to jump on the bandwagon, ranging from brain-dead linguistic upper middle-class retard Noah Chomsky to Martian refugee Ed Milliband. All with their own agenda, taking advantage of the chaos Occupy were trying to spread.

So Occupy is now dead, not just in Bristol but everywhere. Of course. Without substance they have just withered away. I'd recommend they get drug-free, start businesses, learn some post Peak Oil skills, get married, start families and start becoming part of the community, rather than parasites on it. We shall not see their likes again, the last decadent, reactionary fling of the Oil Rich Age.
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Saturday, February 11, 2012

turning back the socialist tide



I had the misfortune to glimpse the screaming headlines of socialist rag the Daily Mail today. Something about attacks on christianity. Good!! About fucking time ...

.... except that it turns out it's nothing of the sort. It seems that councils have been illegally including 'prayers' in their agendas even though it is banned! Yet if you read the Daily Mail it seems that 'christians' are being prevented from worshipping their invisible friends.

For fuck's sake!! No one is preventing retards from their wishful thinking nonsense. What has happened is that this drivel will no longer be forced on normal people.

Remember that 'christianity' is a foreign religion, imposed on Britain through the use of fear and violence., It has no part to play in a modern country and hopefully it will retreat to the barbaric Middle East which spawned it and where it belongs - if it belongs anywhere at all. Let the christian mullahs in Saudi Arabia continue to teach kids that the sun revolves around the earth. Who cares?

Britain has its own religion, which goes back tens of thousands of years, in fact before the earth was even 'created' according to the christians. But we don't expect non-Pagans (or Pagans) to have to take part in some sort of ritual before discussing council matters!

The Green Party used to do a thing called 'attunement' before meetings. My first act as party leader in West Sussex was to ban this ridiculous hippy practice which was clearly preventing many people from joining the party. This is the same sort of thing.

And remember, christianity is one of the five pillars of socialism, along with envy, violence, ignorance and middle-class guilt. It has no part in the modern world.

Good riddance!
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Saturday, January 28, 2012

one step beyond



You know things are reaching a crisis point when your local subpostmaster starts talking about the end of growth and the importance of building local suppliers so you can keep going when the wholesale food market breaks down!

It is happening out there, there are signs everywhere. Fluctuating oil prices, revolutions, pay freezes, historically low interest rates, long established names vanishing from the high street, sacred cows being slaughtered.

There is, at least amongst thinking people (which excludes by definition politicians), a concensus that growth has finished, probably for good, and the more enlightened among us realise this is due to the end of cheap energy, followed by the reduction in energy of all sorts.

Even Transition cling on to the idea that the future will be different, slower, more community-based but also familiar. We all try to cling on to the idea that most of the things we have now - with the exception of cars and meat - will still exist, but in a  different form - in the future.

But will it? Will we create a network of sustainable electric railways, or will many of them revert to (wood burning) steam? That's quite a change. Will we really generate our own electricity in our homes, or will we learn to live without electricity? Will we still have a network of shops - not supermarkets obviously - or will we all just grow our own food and make our own stuff?

Will the future lay at some point between these two points?

Who knows?

The point I'm trying to make is that the future may be even more different than we imagine, and we need to psych ourselves up for that possibility. It may not be quite as smooth a transitional ride as we hope.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

blonde elephant


I don't get Boris Johnson. I get the buffoon bit, and the amiable upper class dodderer, that's easy.

But why on earth is he trying to push this new London airport lunacy?? Why isn't he spending his time
promoting a city wide tram system for London? New bike routes? New railways?

What is it with toffs and nostalgia?

The reality of air travel is that it has, at most, two decades left. There are no alternatives to kerosene produced from oil to fuel the things. Oh, they might make a few prototype solar or electric gimmicky machines, that will end up in museums and are totally unscaleable, but the days when you and I can just jump on a plane and travel just about anywhere for next to nothing are soon coming to an end.

The conclusion? We need to start planning the scaling down of air travel and the associated infrastructure. We need to be thinking about how airports will be used in twenty or thirty years' time when the planes have stopped running. The idea of a new airport is absolutely hilarious. It will never be needed. It's such a waste of time and money to even think about such things.

So let's get real and start putting in real infrastructure that is sustainable and useful, in other words railways and tramways. Forget the rest, that's the past.