Reddit reviews The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age
We found 8 Reddit comments about The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
We found 8 Reddit comments about The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I think you're spot on. I recommend John Michael Greer's book The Long Descent, in which he describes the aftermath of peak oil and what he calls "catabolic collapse" into a post-industrial society. He predicts that the collapse will happen over several generations as you mention, and in several waves between which things will seem to be improving again.
If you haven't already, you should definitely read The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age by John Michael Greer.
It doesn't exactly discredit collapse, but it does differ from the "sky will fall tomorrow" crowd, in a very rational way.
I agree with the user comment: "He begins with a clear explanation of our energy predicament, and makes the novel claim that this is not a problem to solve - it is a situation that we must adapt to. The author does an excellent job of disarming two common responses to Peak Oil by bringing their myths to the surface: the myth of progress and the myth of apocalypse. The point is made that allowing one single narrative to rule over your identity is dangerous."
And if you like his book, you should check out his blog too: http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
The Long Descent was JMG's most lucid and best work. But, it like a lot of similar works from the time were predicated on Peak Oil (peak everything, really, which is the title of another book by Heinburg). How these works are going to be viewed historically is hard to say.
After The Long Descent, JMG focused more on Druidry, Geomancy and outright nuttery. He wrote some online short stories that utterly lacked credibility and undermined most of his earlier works by going full Druid.
I'd still recommend reading The Long Descent, and just ignore most of what came after.
I would argue yes, that we have hit our maximum. See Chris Martenson's work, for example, which argues that we are currently seeing the peaking of prosperity alongside the peaking of debt and oil. Also that of John Michael Greer. Based on this work, we'll be entering a long, slow, permanent decline in living standards, with many sharp 2008-esque drops along the way.
The current generation in power has decided to mainly let the base of the pyramid, our infrastructure and middle class, rot away while wealth is captured almost exclusively at the top in one last orgy of opulence. It doesn't have the will to make the types of sacrifices and investment in our future that would be required to make the pyramid more stable as the decline progresses (albeit a smaller one with each passing year). The whole thing should begin to tip over within our lifetimes.
Welcome!
My view of the collapse is somewhere between the views held by John Michael Greer (see a sample of his argument from his blog here)and Mike Ruppert.
To me, it is inevitable. We've waited too long-- to try to implement new infrastructure at this point is a non-starter due to the ongoing collapse of the financial markets and lack of cheap energy inputs.
This may or may help you relax. ;)
First, collapse is already underway. My parents could afford a house and middle-class lifestyle on one salary. I can't afford a house on two salaries. There has been a real and significant decline in the standard of living in Canada and the US (can't speak for anywhere else). We tend not to consider it a collapse because it's happening slowly and instead just seems like change.
Second, after much research, I now live in the Camp of Probabilities:
How to prepare? Make as much money as possible while you can, and put it to good use. Join Transition Initiative.; you're far more likely to do well if part of a like-minded community than solo-cabin-in-the-woods. In TI you will find people creating
>small-scale local responses to the global challenges of climate change, economic hardship and shrinking supplies of cheap energy.
You can take - or give - classes, or join a group in actively creating just about everything from knitting to local currencies.
>I've never heard of it!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Descent-Users-Guide-Industrial/dp/0865716099
Exactly what you need to read, IMO.
In the same vein:
The Wealth of Nature: Economics as if Survival Mattered
The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age
Also, half of the stuff on /r/collapse.
Edit: These books talk explicitly about the "stored sunlight" concept. That's why I posted them as being relevant.