Tag Archives: collapse

The Race To Collapse

As readers of this blog know, I have long regarded the return of economic crisis as an inevitability (because the core energy and no-growth predicament facing the Western world wasn’t solved in 2008-9 but merely kicked further down the road by … Continue reading

Posted in Coffee House | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 79 Comments

The Power Of Contingency: Why China Didn’t Rule The World

Pomeranz, Kenneth – The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (2001) Category: economy, history, world systems; Rating: 5*/5 Summary: Brad DeLong’s review; The Bactra Review; Are Coal and Colonies Really Crucial? It’s a rare book that not only … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, Sublime Oblivion, The Sino Triumphalist | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 71 Comments

Future Superpowers – The World To 2100

Most current projections of future trends in national power fail to appreciate the importance of three crucial factors: (1) the declining EROEI of energy resources (including, but not limited to, “peak oil”); (2) the importance of human capital to economic … Continue reading

Posted in Sublime Oblivion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 121 Comments

A Short Guide To Lifestyle Design (LSD): The 7 Core Skills Of The Cyberpunk Survivalist

If we want to optimize life, we must first start from our projections of what the world is going to look in the years ahead. Generally speaking, it is coming to resemble something out of a cyberpunk sci-fi setting, i.e. … Continue reading

Posted in Life in General | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

The Collapse Party Fulfills Its Own Name

I founded the Collapse Party one year ago after coming to the hard realization that industrial civilization is unsustainable and that – barring revolutionary socio-political (e.g. “ecotechnic dictatorship“) or technological (e.g. geoengineering) transformation – it’s catastrophic unraveling by the middle … Continue reading

Posted in Arctic Visions, Life in General, Sublime Oblivion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

The End of Western Freedom (and why Russians should ignore their hypocritical lectures)

In a recent post at Streetwise Professor, in reply to a Russophobe commentator, democracy activist* and net-buddy Mark Sleboda compiled a damning indictment of the real state of Western freedom. Newsflash: for the world’s (self-appointed) moral arbitrators, it’s nothing to … Continue reading

Posted in Da Russophile | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Another View of the US Economy: Observations on Exergy, GDP & Median Incomes

The standard view of the American economy is one of exponential growth: even if interrupted by a recession once a decade and a Depression once every two generations (the 1890′s, the 1930′s, the 2010′s?), the engines of industry would always … Continue reading

Posted in Sublime Oblivion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Everyone is Still Underestimating China

There’s been lots of fanfare over China’s GDP overtaking Japan’s in Q2 2010 (coming hard on the heels of a big ruckus over its DF-21 “carrier killing” ballistic missile and rising tensions with the US over North Korea and the … Continue reading

Posted in Sublime Oblivion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments

Interview with Peter Lavelle (Russia Today)

The next installment of our Watching the Russia Watchers series at S/O features an interview with Peter Lavelle, the main political analyst at the Russia Today TV network, host of its CrossTalk debate show and Untimely Thoughts blogger. (He also … Continue reading

Posted in Da Russophile, Watching the Russia Watchers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Russia Burning: not Apocalypse, but its Prelude

This post is a meta-commentary on media coverage of Russia’s drought and wildfires. Now make no mistake, I admire the yeoman work of some journalists in covering Russia burning: no doubt a few will even make their way into the … Continue reading

Posted in Da Russophile, Sublime Oblivion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 59 Comments