The Next 20 Years Will Look Nothing Like the Last 20 Years

The Three E's is the catchy centerpiece for Chris Martenson's eloquent discussion of three important issues facing the world at this point in time, and specifically, the United States. They are Economy, Energy, and the Environment.

By the economy he is simply referring to our current system, capitalism, and its underlying basis for success which is in very simple terms, exponential growth.

By energy he means, peak oil, or the fact that oil is a non-renewable resource that will reach a peak of "cheap" production sometime very soon (and based on some recent articles may already have happened). The problem arises with peak oil because the demand for it is exponential and there will come a point when the Energy Returned on Energy Invested (EROEI)becomes very marginal thus driving the price sky high. If you don't already know about peak oil, here is a great primer that explains it much better than I have. There are also a slew of resources out there on peak oil such as Energy Bulletin, ASPO, and the Oil Drum, just to name a few. There are also several documentaries out there talking about the issue for those of you who prefer to watch things. Here is one, which is available to watch for free, called Blind Spot (and in my opinion it is one of the best documentaries on the topic out there).

By environment, Chris Martenson means, not global warming, but rather resource depletion. This works on the same concept as peak oil, as peak oil is but one form of resource depletion. Take a look around for facts on how fisheries are being depleted at record rates, drinkable water is being depleted at record rates, the copper content of mines is now somewhere around .0023%, in fact one report estimates that by the year 2030, we will need the equivalent of 2 earths worth of resources to sustain the planet at our current rate of population growth (another exponential growth problem).

Mr. Martenson's presentation wholly avoids the issue of climate change, but this I would suggest is also another very real and serious issue that needs to be tackled. Immediately. However, as the upcoming conference in Cancun will no doubt show, the leaders of the world will do nothing concrete about it.

I urge you to please spend the approximately 3 1/2 hours it requires to get through Mr. Martenson's presentation, as I firmly believe as he says, that the nature of these issues demands the highest level of our attention.

Before you get started though, Dr. Albert Bartlett explains the driving force behind all of this with the simple mathematical explanation of the exponential function which you can watch here. There are 8 parts to this presentation, and it is necessary I feel to watch them all, in order to truly understand how serious these issues are. As he says "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is its inability to understand the exponential function."

Mr. Martenson's "Crash Course" Chapter is embedded below.




If you're not going to watch the whole presentation, here is a truncated version of his Crash Course:

Institutional Corruption

So how does corporatism exist and propagate itself? Via institutional corruption, as Lessig calls it, an economy of influence. Here in this presentation below Mr. Lessig, a Constitutional Law Professor who has taught at Stanford University and who currently works at Harvard University, explains how this economy of influence has served to capture our government for the interests of only the most wealthy.

One great example of how this economy of influence works is the recent Healthcare bill which was lobbied to death, so that rather than fix our healthcare system, the lobbyists have ensured that the bill is only a boon to private health insurance companies and for big pharma. Or take the recent financial reform bill which did little to actually change the big banks practices which got us into this economic mess back in 2008 due to the efforts of the financial industry which has 5 lobbyists for every 1 member of Congress. Also, with the financial reform bill you will recall how little actual debate there was on the floor of Congress for Congress would rather make its deals with lobbyists and each other in the back rooms, away from the nation's eyes.

Mr. Lessig does have some proposed solutions to this such as calling a constitutional convention and passing a publicly-funded election bill. Please take a look at his youtube channel here and his website Fix Congress First here. Regarding the proposed Constitutional convention, you can find out more information here.

I would also myself add to this list requiring term limits and enacting robust anti-revolving door legislation in order to prevent the incestuous relationship between big business and congress and lobbying firms and regulatory agencies, which I believe is one of the largest contributing factors to the trouble we now find ourselves in.

Speaking of Corporatism - A Tour de Force from Bill Moyers

In a quick follow up to my recent post, here is an amazing speech by Bill Moyers recently given at Boston University. He dissects the current state of our nation. Mr. Moyers has been a great defender of democracy in his long and illustrious career as a journalist. He speaks about plutocracy, but I think when you look at it he is really getting into what Sheldon Wolin calls inverted totalitarianism. You can watch video of the speech here or read the text of it here.

A humble beginning

Since I am not much of a writer I will try to generally allow other forms of media to communicate the points or information for me.

My first post here will appropriately be about what I think is the source of many of the issues I hope to highlight in this blog. This, in essence, is the meta-reason driving many of the most crucial issues of our time.

Without further ado, here is Mr. Nader on Corporatism. Something we should all be deeply concerned about and something that is never talked about in the nightly news, but should be.

If you are interested in this topic more, there is an illuminating book out by the historian Sheldon Wolin called Democracy, Inc., wherein he posits that this notion of corporatism is actually a new form of totalitarianism which he calls inverted totalitarianism. You can purchase the book here.

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