God Bless Globalization

Thanks for the kind words man... I'm glad to see someone else actually understands what I'm talking about.

 

I'll put your name down on the application form for the next vacant position in a Nike sweatshop then....

 

It's not going to be the next few years, man, (I don't think so anyway - the oppresions going to come but not the meltdown) but by 2050 at the latest we're going to be oilless, Iraq or not, and as the economy of the world and much of consumerist society is pretty much entirely dependant on oil, there might be a little bit of an upset.

Then again, anything Oil can do Hemp can do better!

 

First, the corporations can try to leave us high and dry, but they forget (or you do in your post) how powerful and irresistable an angry mob can be when the stakes are high (i.e. being fed or starving). Even we, the apathetic, sluggish Americans have our breaking point. We could do without some of our luxuries (cell phones, digital cable, xm radio...don't expect a revolution over those) but at some point, we will say enough is enough. People say it's hopless and we're stuck, but I think that's a chicken shit cop out. It's never that bad. Yeah, they have the military, but remember, the military people have families to be fed too, and they may not want to fight for the opressing force. All it takes is a critical mass of people, and we'll have to wait and see if it actually gets that bad in the coming years. This Peak Oil issue may be the trigger, if it actually occurs (obviously it will occur, but if we can smoothly switch to other fuel, it won't matter).

Second, I think we need to ask ourselves what the true purpose of government is before we go and try to make a new one. It seems that it has to do with defense, economy, and social organization. Defense is obvious, it's the marshalling of resources to defend against foreign enemies. Economy of large groups of people is facilitated by government, via money systems (rather than barter) and public works (irrigation, roads, etc) to facilitate food production and the movement/trade of goods; and social organization to maintain order. We need to decide which of these we want and in what degree, and what specific aspects we like and dislike.

Third, Lostblackdog's posts here have been amazing and everyone had better read them.