Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Jared Diamond on How We Can Avert Collapse

A funny-looking little man delivers a decidedly unfunny little talk.



If you want the short talk, you can skip to 10:35 where Diamond discusses how elites can undermine and collapse their own societies.  He describes what is going on today within our governments and our boardrooms and how little time remains for us to reclaim our future from them.

The type of person Diamond describes seems to match people like Harper and Joe Oliver.   They're convinced they are acting rationally and, from a narrow, short-term perspective, that's arguable.  Yet it also makes them seem so alien to anyone who takes a longer view.

Diamond's conclusion is that we can solve the problems we face because we created them.  Yet, within our societies, we are held back by some very powerful people who perceive it in their interests to perpetuate and grow our problems.

10 comments:

LeDaro said...

Mound, the real problem is a vacuum for good and effective leaders.

Do you think Harper will pay attention to this dilemma? Obama turned out to be a very weak leader. Both domestic and foreign policy are dictated to him by his advisors who very much believe in corporatism. As a matter of fact we are witnessing the side-effects of capitalism.

The Mound of Sound said...

There is a leadership vacuum, LD, and I don't see anyone fielding the sort of candidate who might turn this around. In their own ways, Harper, Trudeau and Mulcair are all Easter Islanders. They're running on cruise control as though the path ahead is one straight highway.

Owen Gray said...

Time bombs with fifty year fuses. We have lots fuses and a very short period of time to put them out.

Don't look to today's leaders to do the job.

The Mound of Sound said...

Fortunately, Owen, geezers like us have tickets on that last chopper out of Saigon.

One thing that I have picked up from Diamond's book and now this TED talk is something he won't say. He will discuss at length this political/economic stratum of society that basically calls the shots and yet operates in conflict of interest to the population at large they're obliged to represent.

Diamond warns this stratum has a history - from the Greenland Norse to the Mayans to the Easter Islanders - of blocking solutions to civilization-collapsing perils strictly in pursuit of narrow, short-term interests.

He never explores how that blocking force should be confronted, overcome, cleared out of the way but he makes plain that, until they are, we're screwed. Was that what doomed the Norse, the Easter Islanders, the Mayans - a failure to revolt? Were other societies spared collapse by toppling their elites?

What do you imagine Wall Street would be like if, every day, they strung up one hedge fund manager from a light post outside the NYSE?

double nickel said...

MoS: it would be an interesting experiment, for sure.

The Mound of Sound said...

Yep, I imagine it would.

the salamander said...

.. so ..

we have the naked Harper policies, threats etc of myopic economy as being next to godliness.. Against this bizzare mantra we struggle to apply common sense and find workable solutions.. to the problem.. Thus we try to salvage or bandage environment and ecosystems in the face of destructive political power dogma intent on trashing them.. and any support structure or legislation, science or biology or advocacy as well. Its about money and power and ego and sociopathy.. Omnipotence. So that is partisan deceit working together for foreign energy profit.. to maintain personal political power and earn payoffs

The alternative scenario to our current Harper reality would be proactive cooperative, concerned intelligent government.. Exemplars enlisting effective advocacy and proven science to turn back or mitigate environmental and biological disaster and the associated strife, famine, extinctions .. So that would be Canadians working together for a common goal.. survival.

If it isn't clear what the respective 'payoffs' are.. and who benefits and who loses.. in these two completely different scenarios .. then we go the way of the dodo bird .. and should remember to thank Stephen Harper, Joe Oliver, Peter Kent, Jim Flaherty, John Baird, Tony Clement, et al for delivering such a flawed and fatal legacy of demonic idiotic 'ekonomic action' disaster.. as well as their obvious deceit, delusion, graft, fraud and cowardice..

Anyong said...

"One thing that I have picked up from Diamond's book and now this TED talk is something he won't say." An interesting answer to your wonderment is Gene Sharp (born January 21, 1928)He is the founder of The Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action, and Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.[3] He is known for his extensive writings on nonviolent struggle, which have influenced numerous anti-government resistance movements around the world. In his book "How to Start a Revolution" he documents case studies where nonviolent action has been applied, and the lessons learned from those applications, and contains information on planning nonviolent struggle to make it more effective. Sharp has been called both the "Machiavelli of nonviolence" and the "Clausewitz of nonviolent warfare."[26] It is claimed by some that Sharp's scholarship has influenced resistance organizations around the world. Most recently, it is claimed that the protest movement that toppled President Mubarak of Egypt drew extensively on his ideas, as well as the youth movement in Tunisia and the earlier ones in the Eastern European color revolutions that had previously been inspired by Sharp's work, although some have claimed Sharp's influence has been exaggerated by Westerners looking for a Lawrence of Arabia figure. Sharp claims and has proven one person can make a difference...this book is a very encouraging read.

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