Monthly Archives: January 2024

The Weather Under the Weather

This is #26 in a series of month-end reflections on the state of the world, and other things that come to mind, as I walk, hike, and explore in my local community. “Under the Umbrella”, by Midjourney AI; not my prompt “My … Continue reading

Posted in Month-End Reflections, Our Culture / Ourselves | 9 Comments

Coping With Trauma

… in which Dave reveals some unhappy and mostly politically unacceptable truths about our having no free will, and about aspects of Christian moralistic evangelism that permeate our western ways of thinking about ‘good and evil’, ‘healing’, and trauma. In … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 2 Comments

On the Dangers of Labels

image by Midjourney AI; my own prompt Fascist. Terrorist. Racist. Any other —ist. Addict. TERF. Anti-Semite. These are labels — nouns — we apply to others, that essentially equate their (often merely alleged or assumed) beliefs, situations, and behaviours with … Continue reading

Posted in How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 10 Comments

Links of the Month: January 2024

cartoon by the extraordinary Will McPhail I love Will McPhail’s work. The mole in this cartoon could represent any of the ‘sides’ or actors in any of the current wars. Of course there are atrocities, and it’s tempting to take … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 3 Comments

No Wonder

There is no thriving during a time of collapse but there is lots of joy. You can find it in the faces of babies, the wagging tails of dogs on walks and the flocks of crows noisily massing for their … Continue reading

Posted in Creative Works | 1 Comment

A Succession of Failures

Trump as Canute, ordering back the waves; my own prompt* Aurélien has written a series of articles recently on the subject of competence, or, more specifically, its absence in our globalized civilization culture. As many of our political, economic, social, … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 5 Comments

The Humanity-as-Cancer Metaphor

source: note that OWID has been accused of misrepresenting some data to support the optimistic “the world is getting better and better” ideologies of their colleagues such as Bill Gates and Steven Pinker Since I started this blog I’ve often … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 6 Comments

Interview with Dave on the Reskillience Podcast

I don’t believe we have free will, nor do I believe that our civilization’s accelerating collapse can be prevented or even mitigated. So I no longer provide advice on what people “should do” in the face of collapse. Instead, I … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 1 Comment

Civilization’s Cycle of Trauma

Lately I’ve been trying to integrate Gabor Maté’s ideas about attachment and authenticity, with my thinking about what I’ve called Civilization Disease — the mental illness that seems, to a lesser or greater extent, to have afflicted all of us … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 6 Comments

Fear of Collapse: Things Falling Apart, Left and Right

“Riding Into the Unknown”: as depicted by Midjourney AI; not my prompt  Much has been written of late about the “collapse of the left” and the global rise of right-wing populism. In many cases this is (somewhat understandably) blamed on … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 7 Comments