> From: Jed Rothwell > > This book has been causing a buzz in the press lately: > > The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes > of the Twenty-First Century. James Howard Kunstler. x + 307 pp. > Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005. $23. > > I have not read the book, but I have read several reviews, > such as this one: > > http://www.americanscientist.org/template/BookReviewTypeDetail/assetid/45924;jsessionid=aaaaXjAFg_nw8t
... Jed, It seems to me that Kunstler is simply being a realist. For example, as you point out, in the interview the following comment is made: Nor is he sanguine about such far-out schemes as a process for deriving zero-point energy from the dark matter of the universe; he reminds us that "A useful maxim in engineering states that when something sounds too good to be true, it generally is not true." There is honor in being a realist. OTOH, what Kunstler doesn't possess is an imagination. To allow himself to be "imaginative" would (I suspect) offend his need to remain in the place he feels most safe: That of a realist. There is much irony is this. IMHO, Kunstler's predictions are likely turn out to be reasonably accurate - except for the fact that there are others who don't feel all that safe maintaining the perception of a realist. They are willing to put more of their faith in their own imagination, in exploring the possibilities of what CAN be, rather than trying to maintain a very realistic perception of the dire situations that are about to unfold. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com
