fascinating. people's view of the future is contracting in real time. I think right now nobody can even think past the election. it's like metaphysically, there is no after. it's an event horizon.
what people don't realize is that the real struggle will really get underway in the month before and the election isn't capable of resolving it. in reality, the future as a thing that can be planned for stopped making sense with covid. today we can coherently talk about next month, but that's about it. after October, anything past next week will be iffy.
and in the worst days of the fall of empire, "tomorrow" will be unfathomable.
To elaborate on that, everyone knows it's happening and we're all just going about our routines as though it's not. It's like we're just sleepwalking toward collapse. That event horizon has been passed and there's really only two outcomes at this point: Revolution or total fascist takeover.
I think that's implied in either scenario my point is that something will arise out of that chaos and what emerges is entirely dependent on whether we can fight off the fascists.
no, they mean a collapse of Rome situation where nothing significant emerges for hundreds of years. given climate change, it's not a small possibility, and it's probably the most likely if we fail to secure some form of socialism in the years after the initial collapse of the state and reaction takes hold.
The decline of the Roman empire was so slow, I think it would have been almost unnoticable to anyone living through it in real time. People living through revolutions, though, they probably felt and feel similarly about a completely uncertain future.
Better comparison would be the Bronze Age collapse. Basically every empire in the east Mediterranean was wiped out in the span of 10-30 years (save for Egypt, which never recovered). Much more rapid and similar to a modern empire falling apart.
fascinating. people's view of the future is contracting in real time. I think right now nobody can even think past the election. it's like metaphysically, there is no after. it's an event horizon.
what people don't realize is that the real struggle will really get underway in the month before and the election isn't capable of resolving it. in reality, the future as a thing that can be planned for stopped making sense with covid. today we can coherently talk about next month, but that's about it. after October, anything past next week will be iffy.
and in the worst days of the fall of empire, "tomorrow" will be unfathomable.
legend response.
To elaborate on that, everyone knows it's happening and we're all just going about our routines as though it's not. It's like we're just sleepwalking toward collapse. That event horizon has been passed and there's really only two outcomes at this point: Revolution or total fascist takeover.
There’s also a third outcome of just total chaos
I think that's implied in either scenario my point is that something will arise out of that chaos and what emerges is entirely dependent on whether we can fight off the fascists.
no, they mean a collapse of Rome situation where nothing significant emerges for hundreds of years. given climate change, it's not a small possibility, and it's probably the most likely if we fail to secure some form of socialism in the years after the initial collapse of the state and reaction takes hold.
That's pretty much what I was saying.
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The decline of the Roman empire was so slow, I think it would have been almost unnoticable to anyone living through it in real time. People living through revolutions, though, they probably felt and feel similarly about a completely uncertain future.
Better comparison would be the Bronze Age collapse. Basically every empire in the east Mediterranean was wiped out in the span of 10-30 years (save for Egypt, which never recovered). Much more rapid and similar to a modern empire falling apart.