 
Date: 30 Mar 1993 19:39 -0500 (EST)
From: BLUECANARYINNAOUTLET 
Subject: Has the Cat gone the way of the Dodo?
To: +dist+/afs/andrew/usr/js9b/Public/camc.dl@ANDREW.CMU.EDU
Message-Id: <01GWFIV0MDKG000BD5@YANG.EARLHAM.EDU>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT

Hello...?

   I've been away for a couple months, studying in London and seeing a bit
of the world outside of America for the first time-- and I come back, and
what do I find? The Corporation-Ate-My-Cat seems to have fulfilled its
name!!  O tell me it's not true!  Anyone still participating in this list,
or what? Wake up, repost, or at least "ping" if you can hear me, eh?

Bill sez:

>>Boy, aren't mr and mrs joe blow american going to be surprised when it
>>finally dawns on them that they've been pushed into a permanent
>>underclass status. They'll pray and pray for their jesus to save them,
>>but god, as always, looks on in benign disregard, standing behind those
>>with the largest artillery.
>>
>>I know, I'm a hopelessly bitter cynic when it comes to this, but I have
>>looked and looked for signs of hope, and I see nothing. Most people are
>>astronomically, cosmically, almost infinitely _stupid_. They will try to
>>kill you, or hurt you, or disenfranchise you if you try to warn them, or
>>even talk openly about the dangerous future.

   Know what? I may be slightly more cynical than Bill in this regard--
seems to me like no one actually *gives* enough of a shit to silence us
doomsayers in such fashion.  People are so future-shocked, so overwhelmed
with info-anxiety, that they cannot be stirred from their torpor... Aside
from those criticizing government policy in very public ways, such as the
scientist who got censored by his department at the EPA, people who forsee
disaster are generally received with... boredom.

Tom sez:

>I spent the weekend thinking about my apocalyptic predictions based on
>AIDS/overpopulation/ecosystemic degradation, and now feel better. I have
>noticed the following:
>
>       1) it is possible to surround oneself completely with detailed,
>          accurate information about the many ways in which everything
>          is going inexorably to hell.

   Yep.

>       2) it is possible to surround oneself completely with detailed,
>          accurate information about many surprising ways in which
>          things are *working* and good ideas are being put into practice
>          and technology is being used for decentralized self-government
>          etc. etc. and there is more energy and resource material for
>          good in the world than ever before.

   Mm, yeah.  A bit harder than #1, but also possible.

>What to do?

   Call for pizza? :-)

>Insight: the serious information from #1 up there is mostly happening
>in a global scale. The serious information from #2 is mostly happening on
>regional and local levels.
>
>Conclusion: The big picture will crash, but there will be some golden
>regions. We shouldn't rule out the idea of packing ourselves and all our
>peers into, say, Vermont, if it looks like that state is going to make it
>all right. The point I'm making is that while we're planning autonomy,
>we should keep a sharp eye out for larger communities which could use our
>help and can be expected to.

   Seriously, though: I think you mistake yourself when you say that most
of the bad shit is on the global end.  I think of Bosnia, and of the
prospect of a zillion little nuke-armed anti-Semitic nationalist fascists
running around Russia, of the pauperization of cities, of the wave of
victories being won by the American religious right with "stealth
candidates" running for school boards to reinstitute medieval curriculums,
and...
   Well, half of the bad shit, at *least* half, seems to be very much due
to good old-fashioned grassroots, home-grown, *local* tyranny.  True,
they're all fueled by large-scale, global phenomena-- but "little brother"
is watching you just the same.

>Now the down-side of the weekend's counsels: it was pointed out to me that
>my seemingly pessimistic expectation of world population falling by 1/2 was
>silly; when things break in a big enough way everything goes into free-fall.
>The Mayans were brought to my attention: an empire with a basically
>technological foundation (irrigation, terracing) in which things went wrong
>and the population fell 90% in two generations, followed by four hundred
>years of little farming villages.

   Yeah, well, okay.  Sure.  But their technological base was (much as I
hate to use the word) so damn primitive compared to ours, that despite
other similarities... I think it's a mistake to wait around for such a
complete collapse of global civilization.  In fact, one of my worst fears
is that such a collapse may never happen.
   No kidding.  Imagine this future population chart: the world tops 12
million, peaks, drops a bit, and levels off at something around twice what
we got already.  *And stays there.* The rate of birth incredible,
overwhelming, matched by just as stupendous a rate of horrid, miserable
death.  An eternally overcrowded world with a shitty but just barely-livable
environment, inhabited by a huge, plague-ridden global proletariat ruled
by an even tinier elite.  A population plateau kept going by the
supercharged global capitalist technosphere, our *k* value artificially
extended to the point of guaranteed endemic misery.
   That, m'friends, is truly Sartresque.

>HOWEVER we'll have more hope of rebounding, as the general educational level
>(literacy, etc.) will be higher and it will be much easier to save the
>knowledge necessary for advanced civilization. We'll need to rebuild the
>wheels but we won't have to re-invent them.
>
>Of course, this is all just the best-case scenario of the worst-case
>scenario. (!!??)

   Yes-- you, too, are an optimistic pessimist.  Kinda person who looks
at the glass and says, yeah, it's half-empty-- but it could be worse!! :-)

   While I was in Britain, I took a side trip out to Machynlleth, Wales
(on the recommendation of Mike Romano) and was mightily cheered myself by
the sight of a still-functioning, still-expanding Center for Alternative
Technology.  As advertised, these folks have found many clever, often
low-tech solutions to life in a cold, cloudy, windy, rainy environment.
Nevertheless, to my disappointment, they remain stuck in the rut of being
a "demonstration" community, rather than a genuinely self-sustaining
village unit-- they are mostly self-sufficient for power, but still must
occasionally draw from the local grids, and only produce (if I remember
the figure correctly) about 10% of their own food; plus, most of the CAT
people live in the town, not on the site, and some of them are even
depending on the dole!  Moreover, the original idealism of the group has
tapered off somewhat, as people grew older and reconceptualized their
mission (several of the engineers formed corporations to market solar and
wind-power technology commercially, for one).  Still, there are folks
there like Roger MacLennan, who has been there for 14 years, living and
working on-site with his family, patiently pushing for his dream.
Amazing.  I heavily recommend you look them up. :-)

   I must go now, but do write, if only the equivalent of an e-mail
postcard.  See y'all!


   --Jesse.


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