12-23-2009, 08:32 PM
What a great topic. Just in time for the holidays! Glad to see I'm not the only one having dark visions of modern civilization on the brink of catastrophe. Partly inspired, perhaps, by coming to the end of what's being called the worst decade in 50 years. Once we agree we have those thoughts, then it's just a matter of picking your poison! I agree about electricity. I think it could probably come down to something as basic as the power grid going down, resulting from some local or global disaster, and it having a ripple effect, followed by disease and wars and tribal conflicts and the whole works. Or a volcano. Or asteroid. Or climate shifts. Or a weaponized nuclear terror state.
For me, the signal of the impending Dark Ages was rise of Sarah Palin during the last year's election along with the Cult of Know Nothingism™ that followed her. It was appalling to witness so many people being able to blindly go against scientific proven fact and saying the earth was only 6,000 years old or whatever. And...and...wanting someone in power who believed it as well.
I absolutely agree. I found this rise every bit as disturbing. Another troubling signal of impending doom: the rise of the other candidate, ascending to become a fictional, radiant, all-knowing figure of benevolence and infinite wisdom. The irrational religious cult-like mass hypnosis that followed was equally blind, and now they're feeling the reality finally set in. it was appalling in exactly the same way, for the other half of the population who didn't share the sentiment, and were already feeling the reality.
This sticks out as questionable, not in the same category as planetary rotation.
41% of Americans think the threat from global climate change is exaggerated
Of course the threat of climate change is exaggerated. There are irrational propagandists for and against. Along with the anti-science climate change deniers, it's also a multi-billion dollar business for alarmists and scaremongers. For some, it's not about public policy, or science. For many, it's a belief system, a religion.
I think one way we seem headed for a Dark Ages, is that the elevation of Science and Reason that began during the Enlightenment, and the rise of Western Civilization, has been slowly unravelling, slipping back toward superstition, polarization, religious conflict, ignorance, and it feels (probably because of the events of the last decade) like it's speeding up.
Here's a timely quote:
"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."
Carl Sagan
For me, the signal of the impending Dark Ages was rise of Sarah Palin during the last year's election along with the Cult of Know Nothingism™ that followed her. It was appalling to witness so many people being able to blindly go against scientific proven fact and saying the earth was only 6,000 years old or whatever. And...and...wanting someone in power who believed it as well.
I absolutely agree. I found this rise every bit as disturbing. Another troubling signal of impending doom: the rise of the other candidate, ascending to become a fictional, radiant, all-knowing figure of benevolence and infinite wisdom. The irrational religious cult-like mass hypnosis that followed was equally blind, and now they're feeling the reality finally set in. it was appalling in exactly the same way, for the other half of the population who didn't share the sentiment, and were already feeling the reality.
This sticks out as questionable, not in the same category as planetary rotation.
41% of Americans think the threat from global climate change is exaggerated
Of course the threat of climate change is exaggerated. There are irrational propagandists for and against. Along with the anti-science climate change deniers, it's also a multi-billion dollar business for alarmists and scaremongers. For some, it's not about public policy, or science. For many, it's a belief system, a religion.
I think one way we seem headed for a Dark Ages, is that the elevation of Science and Reason that began during the Enlightenment, and the rise of Western Civilization, has been slowly unravelling, slipping back toward superstition, polarization, religious conflict, ignorance, and it feels (probably because of the events of the last decade) like it's speeding up.
Here's a timely quote:
"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."
Carl Sagan