Clarifications on Collapse

[kmo]

This stems from a comment thread on Doug Lain's Facebook page:

The bold items are Doug's first attempt to summarize my position on collapse.

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One: Social Collapse is very likely because of our reliance on fossil fuels.

I think society can and probably will survive the decline of industrial

Comments

[kingofeagles]

Thanks for the response, Doug!
My "definition" of politics is an intuitive one rather than a literal one. But I think it holds true in a general way. One time I was listening to a conservative friend of mine go off on some Limbaugh-esque rant about poor people leaching off of the system. And while he was talking it occurred to me that he had no idea what these people are going through. That he was really clueless about the lives the other half lives. As quickly as that thought dawned on me, the idea scaled back and back to show a macro view of the same idea. Essentially, everyone's political view is based very shallow information at best, and is really an extrapolation of our own psychology upon the world. If my friend, who is a funny, kindhearted, generous person despite being a conservative knucklehead was face-to-face with someone receiving government aid, he wouldn't have been so blustery. That's why I, in a nutshell, say that "politics is the art of dealing with people you don't know."

"If you know somebody then issues about power will naturally work themselves out." Issues about power will work themselves out if the parties involved want to work them out. The more resistance there is to the conversation, the more likely the issues won't be worked out. But if the parties involved know each other, the process is lubricated somewhat.