Title: Mcgowanjm Wire 2012 Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Feb 26, 2012 Author:Various Post Date:2012-02-26 09:15:13 by A K A Stone Keywords:None Views:1370402 Comments:2390
I thought about these things this past week, as the Eurozone continued its downward slide, our own economy showed signs of faltering again and – in a hundred small ways – the Empire continued its slow decay. Yesterday, I read a couple of articles about the state of the Empire as it faces financial and economic failure, environmental degradation, climate change and diminishing energy supplies.
The first article recapped a speech given by Leon Panetta to the Environmental Defense Fund this week. “Climate and environmental change are emerging as national security threats that “weigh heavily” on the Pentagon’s strategies …” the article stated. “… The quest for energy is another area, he said, that continues to shape and reshape the strategic environment …” www.upi.com/Business_News...cerns/UPI-19981336156813/
A case can certainly be made that, with the exception of a tiny privileged elite, the hallmark of "progress" has been enslavement of the majority of humanity, forced into bondage whether it's hauling stones to build pyramids or Aztec temples, fighting off lions in the Coliseum, being sold for sex, chained in the hull of a ship, or sitting for years in a windowless office cubicle all the better to buy more gadgets in the glorious name of endless growth.
"A surprising fact about the Neolithic revolution is that, according to most evidence, agriculture brought about a steep decline in the standard of living. Studies of Kalahari Bushmen and other nomadic groups show that hunter-gatherers, even in the most inhospitable landscapes, typically spend less than twenty hours a week obtaining food. By contrast, farmers toil from sunup to sundown. Because agriculture relies on the mass cultivation of a handful of starchy crops, a community’s whole livelihood can be wiped out overnight by bad weather or pests. Paleontological evidence shows that, compared with hunter-gatherers, early farmers had more anemia and vitamin deficiencies, died younger, had worse teeth, were more prone to spinal deformity, and caught more infectious diseases, as a result of living close to other humans and to livestock."
