War and Empire II: The Solution for Evil Empire? Abrupt Climate Change and the Collapse of Civilization

America's Globalization of Misery. Tom Engelhardt, via naked capitalism. May 15, 2017.

worth reading on its own merit, but in particular to read the comments, in particular the following comment posted at 2:07am on May 15 by Temporarily Sane:

Excellent piece. Americans by and large have no fu****g idea what the wars they support do to people and nations. Lulled into passively accepting these wars by stories of “humanitarian intervention”, “precision bombing” and cartoon villains who “massacre their own people” and a sycophantic press that is more propaganda and distraction service than news media, the American (and European) public are sold a package of obfuscating nonsense that anyone with half a brain should be able to challenge.

But it’s easier to believe comforting BS than to face uncomfortable truths that call into question some very fundamental beliefs about the nature of Western democracies.

Bonus Rant
The concept of “humanitarian war” is as ludicrous as it gets. Can you imagine any empire in history spending blood and treasure to wage long wars because human rights? That’s just insane. Yet a majority of Americans still believe America is “different.” Empires of time past fought wars on economic and tribal grounds (usually to preserve the status of the most powerful group) and to steal land from their neighbors etc. but the good ole U.S. does so because it is hopelessly altruistic and sentimental. That’s lol funny. United States’ foreign policy is simply a continuation of the pre-1945 European colonial project.

But repeat a lie often enough (which is what 75% of the west’s propaganda “technique” amounts to) and it percolates into the “collective unconscious” to become part of conventional wisdom. So why do people who were around for, or learned about, 2003 and Iraq’s vaporware WMD, 1990 and the incubator babies the Iraqi army wasn’t killing in Kuwait, the bailing out of the financial sector in 2008, the many shady intelligence agency/FBI ops we know about, the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” etc. etc. still trust our [sic] government and the powerful interests it represents? The events and revelations of the last few years especially should have made it clear to anyone with two neurons to rub together that the people in power are devious liars who will do anything to keep their power…and gain more of it… up to and including sending the sons and daughters of the people with the fewest options in our society to kill and be killed.

They sacrificed the wellbeing of millions of Americans – and continue to do so – so the 0.1% don’t have to suffer the indignity and hardship of having to make do with a billion or few hundred million dollars rather than the multiple billions they horde today. Hell, a single payer healthcare system is too much to ask for, but yeah the USG goes to war to free foreigners from tyranny because it cares. Haha… and I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale and a choice parcel of land in Florida I know you’re gonna love!

for readers of this blog, for which the topic of war and empire is just bonus coverage distraction from the posts predicting our imminent demise due to climate change, the following comment is particularly relevant:

at 3:44am, MoiAussie said:

IMO, globalization is with us until disrupted by widespread technological and societal collapse. That appears more likely than an uprising of the 99% bringing about a change in course, which itself is more likely than useful change happening within the existing political framework.

to which Pradeor responded at 7:47am:

Ecological collapse, and with it, societal and economic collapse are soon to come due directly to runaway greenhouse warming. Many of us will see this in our lifetimes. The scientists studying climate change are nearly all presenting the more conservative results, NOT the full, actual data that points to a human extinction event within 15-20 yrs. Methane seeps are becoming more prevalent on both coasts of the US, in the Arctic regions of the world, and methane is massively worse than CO2. Already baked in is a 4 degree rise in temperature globally without a near full stop of use of fossil fuels. That isn’t going to happen so we ARE finished. Sadly, this isn’t something that will just eliminate humans. It’s monstrous that we insist on taking out virtually all complex organisms with us – THEY are true innocent victims.

First will come ever more extreme weather events and mega drought wiping out food production in large areas. This will cause famine and massive refugee movement, but the bread basket of the US and Canada are not immune. They too will then start to collapse, and starvation and societal collapse will be upon us. It’s simply unavoidable at this point, and too late to stop it. It’s already baked in.

sadly, as readers of this blog know, I agree; more pointedly, the reason I continue to research this subject is not to punish myself with further despair, but to find some reason for hope, some promising light at the end of the tunnel (that may not be coming from the on-rushing train); no luck, still stuck, said the duck in the muck

I actually don't believe NTHE is likely (Guy McPherson has said, and repeatedly, I believe, that he can't imagine a human being alive on this planet in a decade... I would characterize that as largely a failure of his imagination.. really? you can't even imagine it? you can't even imagine a million surviving souls, out of nearly 8 billion?.. or a thousand, or just a dozen a decade from now??)

Nonetheless, I do believe in the near-term collapse of civilization... near-term meaning within my lifetime... that abrupt climate change will totally disrupt the systems that our civilization requires in order to keep running... and, as a result, billions will die... and that our future will look virtually nothing like our recent past (if we are lucky, it will look something like the world in James Howard Kunstler's fictional World Made by Hand series; if we are not so lucky, we may instead get something more like Cormac McCarthy's The Road. As for finding a wormhole, and going the Interstellar route, not so much.)