From: Charles J. Reid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>I think Jay is basing his analysis on an antiquated view of society where
>individual and families reigned supreme and were the fundamental
>productive and social units in the community.
>
>Today, corporations have this role. In terms if information, spin not
>truth rules. There is not nurturing of the democratic mentality (in a
>militaristic hierarchy model). There is little accountability for actions
>orther than those associated with the bottom line. Profit is virtue, and
>virtue is profit. And the welfare of the community is defined in terms of
>what's best for corporations.
My analysis is based on personal experience of four years ago. It doesn't
make any difference whether a $2000 donation comes from Mitsubishi or from a
mom and pop grocery store, the result is the same: one-dollar, one-vote.
That's just the nature of our money-based, corrupt political system.
Public financing of elections would help more than anything else, but
"economic growth" is still the only kind of future people can imagine. No
one will willingly forego "economic growth" even though universal physical
laws tell us that "economic growth" can only end in "crash".
------------------------------------------
In the past, I have noted that Tainter's histowork suggests that when we
become too complex for our energy base our civilization will collapse.
Prigogine reached the same conclusion coming from an entirely different
perspective: non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
"According to Prigogine, systems contain subsystems that continuously
fluctuate. At times a single fluctuation or a combination of them may become
so magnified by possible FEEDBACK, that it shatters the preexisting
ORGANIZATION. At such revolutionary moments or 'bifurcation points', it is
impossible to determine in advance whether the system will disintegrate into
'chaos' or leap to a new, more differentiated, higher level of 'order'. The
latter case defines dissipative structures so termed because they need more
energy to sustain them than the simpler structures they replace and are
limited in growth by the amount of heat they are able to disperse. "
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/DISSIP_STRUC.html ]
Our "economicalpolitical" system is a positive-feedback system: corruption
begats corruption, and power begats power until the system "bifurcates". At
that point, our "economicalpolitical" system MUST either leap to a higher
level of order (increasing complexity) OR it will disintegrate into chaos.
In other words, to survive these bifurcations our civilization must utilize
ever-increasing amounts of energy.
Again, I have noted that global oil production is expected to "peak" in less
than ten years. We face a long period of ever-decreasing amounts of energy.
Thus, it seems that the coming "peak" in oil will serve two functions. (1)
The economic shocks will initiate "bifurcations" in industrial societies
around the world. (2) The lack of energy will insure that these societys
will disintegrate into chaos.
