Be prepared (The New American Gothic Austerity and getting back to the land)

Badboy Michael C. Ruppert

This is not what you think. Mike is one of the good guys. When the going gets tough, the tough get… tougher!

The going is so tough these days whistles are being blown on a daily basis. Mike and friends at CollapseNet are working hard to keep us up to date with excellent citizen reporting, undercover work, and reports from the field. You could not do better than grabbing a subscription to Mike’s LIFEBOAT site – it’s shock (I mean chock) full of essential skills, strategies, and cheats.

I say cheats because we won’t get fooled again by diversions and “look over here’s”… He and Jenna Orkin serve it up straight, with a host of regional bloggers and guest authors providing plenty of grist for your collapse mill or doomstead.

The collapse of industrial civilization is accelerating at such a pace that over at Life After the Oil Crash, Matt Savinar has shut down the forum – lambasting people who would rather post than prep.

Checklist Toward Zero Carbon (free eBook)

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Emerging Wiser (free eBook)

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Decisions in the New Economy (The Great Recession) – What would I do?

What would I do?

People in America seem to be worried about a possible permanent shift in the economy that occurred in 2008 with a series of cascading events. A perfect storm of easy credit, the housing boom, commodity speculation (mainly oil), and shady banking practices led to some disastrous events -

Events of 2008

1. Crash of investment bank Bear Stearns (13 March).
2. Fall of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (7 September).
3. Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch for $50 billion (14 September).
4. Lehman Brothers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (15 September).
5. American International Group’s liquidity crisis. AIG’s shares lost 95% of their value and the company reported a $13.2 billion loss (16 September).
6. The bailout of the U.S. financial system (The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008). President Bush signed the bill into law within hours of its congressional enactment on 3 October, creating a $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) to purchase failing bank assets.
7. The stock market crash began on 6 October and lasted five trading sessions. During that week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 18.1%.
8. Citibank received the first of their three bailouts (23 November) . Amount: $300 billion.

An Economic Roller Coaster

By September 2008, average U.S. housing prices had declined by over 20% from their mid-2006 peak. No one was buying and many mortgage owners were underwater and either walking away from their homes and/or defaulting.

Oil prices set off a world-wide panic, hitting hit $145.29 a barrel (3 July). George W Bush lifted an almost 20 year-old executive order that banned oil and natural gas drilling in most US coastal waters. The symbolic move was presented as a way of relieving the pressure that high oil prices were placing on US citizens. However, by 21 December oil prices at $33.87 per barrel had became too low for companies to invest in explorations and drilling sites.

Gold prices over the period varied from a low of $712.50 in October 2008  to a high of $1218.25 on 3 December 2009, buoyed by international government purchases.

The unemployment rate in the USA steadily increased from 4.9% in January 2008 to a high of 10.2% in November 2009.

The Economy under Obama (2009)

• A $787 billion dollar economic stimulus package, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan was signed into law on 17 February by President Barrack Obama.
• Automaker Chrysler filed for bankrupcy (30 April).
• Automaker General Motors filed for bankruptcy (1 June).
• President Obama signed into law (24 June), The Car Allowance Rebate System. “Cash for Clunkers” was a $3 billion U.S. federal scrappage program intended to provide economic incentives to U.S. residents to purchase a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle when trading in a less fuel-efficient vehicle. The program lasted from July 1 to August 24 2009.
• President Obama signed the “Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009” into law on 6 November, extending the first-time homebuyer tax credit of up to $8000 if they close on the purchase by midnight June 30, 2010.

Green Shoots

The first usage of this economic mantra was uttered by Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, in mid-March 2009 when he told 60 Minutes that he detected “green shoots” of economic recovery.

It seems that after a long and dark winter of economic woes, the springtime would encourage a sense of return to the consumerism, low unemployment, free lending, and other such nuances of the American dream that we have been taking for granted since World War II post-war prosperity.

But the point is, as Obama seems to imply – that recovery (green shoots) is possible despite persistently high unemployment. In other words, a jobless recovery? Many experts believe this is not possible.

What would I do?

If I knew that hard times are coming for the whole country, which is still in collapse now with state governments starting to going broke / insolvent (such as California and New York), I would think twice about planning for my future.

The Old Rules Are No Longer Valid

The Old Rules = American Dream (climb until you reach the sky)

The Negative

People I know (and don’t know) are losing their jobs or having their

1. salaries cut
2. hours cut
3. unpaid holidays

People I know who are already out of work

• cannot find a job
• become under-employed (same as over-qualified)
• go back to school for a ‘practical career’

The Positive

People in general are downsizing

• re-using, repairing, recycling
• sharing expenses (housing)
• doing things themselves
• cutting back on non-essentials
• getting back to basics (gardening, sewing, cooking)

This is the new normal. There is no end in sight (and it is likely to get worse)

Danger Zone

I don’t take on new debt:

1. because I may not be able to pay it back
2. I may be a candidate for debtor’s prison
3. The banks aren’t lending anyways
4. The credit card companies are ruthless and heartless
5. The US dollar may crash
6. There may be hyper-inflation (this could work to advantage, though)

I clear off my old debt

• As fast as I can
• Reason (2) above
• Reason (4) above
• Reason (5) above

I don’t buy a house now

• Because the values keep dropping (another 20%?)
• Home ownership is no longer the investment it used to be
• I can’t get credit (welcome to the club)
• I don’t take on new debt

I make myself as self-sufficient as possible

1. I live near to where I work
2. I grow my own food, or get it locally
3. I am active in my community (organizing co-ops for bartering, trading)
4. I help people to help themselves (teach skills, form support groups, share resources)

I prepare for the worse

• Don’t keep all your money in the bank. Have substantial cash on hand for emergency (such as a bank holiday)
• Stock up on a couple months food (canned, dried, beans, rice)
• I am able to survive without electricity (off the grid, if the grid goes down)
• I am able to survive without a car (gas shortage, price increase, rationing)

I re-learn basic skills

• First aid
• Reading (ancient pastime)
• Sewing
• Cooking
• Canning / Preserving
• Repairing household items
• Meeting my neighbors
• Volunteering

There’s nothing wrong with any of these. Back when times were simple and uncomplicated and the family was king, a man knew his neighbor, and let a little imagination fill the time – these value were standard fare.

I unlearn bad habits

• Buying luxuries
• Driving everywhere on a whim
• Watching mindless television
• Believing everything the Media says

I would begin these preparations in earnest, trying to provide some measure of future security for my immediate family and friends. Once the general population stops buying the ‘green shoots’ mentality and looks at the reality of the situation and its global context (no man is an island, because we are supported by other governments in trade and in buying our debt), the measures mentioned above will become much more commonplace.

Barring a new war, possibly coexisting with an energy shortage, or massive inflation caused by loss of the dollar’s value as the de facto world currency, these are the minimum steps to be taken.

Edwin Ollikkala

Singapore

Fooled by Consumer Culture Long Enough

Walking through a large mall yesterday (in Anytown USA), I had a real eye-opening experience. For the first time in fifty years I actually saw through the whole scheme; the façade, as it were, of the much taken for granted ideal of consumerism.

Boy, have we been bought off long enough… told where to shop, lured by false sales, mesmerized by painted smiles and standard clichés.

Emotional Calories

While looking for a no-frills place to fill my hungry stomach, I glanced at the fancy restaurants with their decidedly non-professional staff living job-to-job; going through the motions of trying to make ‘me’ (the consumer) feel ‘special’ by offering pastiche coated and preserved flavorings, mass-produced toppings, and ultimately some realistic looking garnishes with flowers (also fake). Piped in muzac was sponsored by someone-or-other, and the rewards bonus was double this month…

Colourful photos of mouth-watering assembly-line dishes were brightly lit behind the order takers, on display because there was no aroma of home cooked food to compete. I thought to myself, “These people don’t really care about me, they just want my money”. And so it is – the happiest person in the restaurant was the cashier, ringing up sales from burping customers stumbling past to reach the restroom.

We Bid You Entrance

And so it was, strolling through the mall, window after window competing for my eye’s attention. Whether shiny or feigning motion, they failed to lure me through the trap door.

Don’t you hate it when you’re trying to walk in a mall with a destination in mind, only to be bumbling and tripping into the rumps of fellow mall-gawkers who stop to stare?

Marketing Insults

Window fare: the latest cleverly marketed consumer items guaranteed to evaporate your disposable income: shoes, swimwear, handbags, golf clubs, jean promotion, public lingerie and sports equipment. What-have-you? What want you? Sorry, I already have.

The next best alternative to window fare is media fare, in the form of poster-like advertisements and/or their 21^st century counterparts, the ubiquitous flat screen high definition video spamming machines. Positioned at strategic pedestrian buffer-zones, the micro-minute repeating bits of attention pulling hyperactivity burst forth without provocation to insult law-abiding citizens. ‘You asked for it!’ simply by virtue of walking in the mall.

The third and latest scheme is the home-chef approach. A part-timer is hired and stationed in the supermarket or department store to whip up quick couture and disseminate a morsel to every passer-by in the hope of generating impulse sales (hey, that item wasn’t on my shopping list!)

Another insulting shenanigan is the super-intrusive sidewalk sales promoter. They rush up to you, frantically waving a clipboard and ask for “three minutes of your time” as you try to deftly side-step yourself out of intrusion’s way. In my opinion this is much more offensive than telemarketing cold calls. At least you can hang up on them.

Quality Time

For my money, nothing beats Quality Midnight Shopping Time. The purpose of nocturnal forays into consumerism is two-fold. To purchase those items on my survival list, as well as taking note of the pitfalls and potholes to be avoid. Extremism and excessiveness (Mega-Mac?) should not be tolerated. Keep it sensible, retailers. Back to basics. Honest value, quality before quantity, and designed for reliability rather than gimmickry.

The Constumer is Always Right

I am a customer. At the same time, I am unfortunately a consumer. I strive to consume as little as possible. Therefore, buy me something that does not need replacement, will last a lifetime, and/or is easily repaired. Let me buy that item using my integrity and knowledge of who I am, what my budget is (no credit, please), and what I need.

By consuming efficiently, we create sustainability and discourage the wasteful and rampant consumerism (along with the credit bubble) that has devastated our planet and our economy.

More tips on how to consume efficiently:

1. Make a list before you go
2. Buy only what you need (survivial items)
3. Select items that will outlast you!
4. Select items that are easy to repair (common parts replacement)
5. Be willing to sacrifice price for quality, because quality costs more.
6. Do not be mislead or tantalized by pushy claims. Take your time and comparison shop.
7. Buy with cash, or barter. (do not accumulate debts)
8. If an item is expensive, consider pooling funds and multi-ownership (sharing!)

Future Trends (when things get really bad)

1. Buy local whenever possible
2. Do-It-Yourself whenever possible
3. Learn the skills you now outsource for (also DIY)
4. Grow your own
5. Get off the grid or have a backup plan when the lights or water fails
6. Stock up on necessities (hoard items that have intrinsic value – can be swapped for food, services later)
7. Work at home (avoid commuter dependence)
8. Enable alternate transportation (bicycle, motorbike)

The Times – They are A’Changing

“8 names you know, R.I.P.” – Popular auto makes, magazine publishers and retailers were among the businesses laid to rest in 2009. Here’s a list of 8 familiar names you won’t see in the future.

1. Circuit City
2. Saturn
3. Pontiac
4. Kodachrome
5. Home Depot Expo
6. Max Factor
7. MSN Encarta
8. Gourmet Magazine

Source: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/news/0912/gallery.brands_we_lost/index.html

The other shoe is about to drop – preparing for uncertain times

Introduction

Imagine this situation: All of the media outlets have gone to commercial-free coverage. They are reporting that the Dow has dropped 2,000 points and trading has been suspended on Wall Street.

The Chinese, along with other countries have transferred their reserves from the US Dollar. Oil futures climb $50 a barrel in hours. A national bank holiday shuts down the financial system on Main Street. Within 24 hours the grocery stores are cleared out of all food stocks. The gas pumps dry up in 12 hours.

Trucks delivering goods are stuck at truck stops waiting on fuel that may not be available in days; 18-wheelers that have enough fuel to get back home are doing so, with the trailer left on the side of the road. Inner city areas are turning into war zones with looting and random acts of violence occurring between rival gangs.

The Interstate System becomes a parking lot with the suburbanites trying to “get out of Dodge” (G.O.O.D.). With no more fuel supplies people become stranded and forced to flee on foot, with panicked people who are usually rational and moral, now acting immorally and irrationally; doing what it takes to get their family to perceived safety.

Moral of the story is simple – given an emergency where you will be cut off from the comfort of the complex supply chain, utility grid, and police protection, could you take care of you and your family? Could you do it for a week, for a month, or even a year?

I know this has more than likely unnerved you. Do not panic! Simple planning can help you get where you can take care of yourself and your family. We are going to try to guide you step-by-step in your path to peace of mind. Look at this plan as purchasing an insurance plan. You pay hundreds per month to insure yourself and your belongings, and investing in preparations may be the best policy you ever purchase. This will be covered in several areas:

* Money
* Food Storage
* Security
* Self-Sustaining Lifestyle

It may be advised to keep your preparations confidential. Use discretion as much as possible when you make your acquisitions. Also note that there will be some sacrifice in making your targets.

The items we are suggesting to buy in this document are costly, but remember what we said earlier about this being an insurance policy for the safety and security of your household. Try to think of others that may join you if they are displaced by a disaster. We will cover this in detail throughout this work.

Read more

An Open Letter To A Dying Planet

An Open Letter To A Dying Planet
By Saleem Rana

It will soon be a new year and we are almost a quarter of the way into the first decade of the new century. Where are we heading now? What will happen to the human race? Will it overcome its shadow side and migrate to the stars, a vision of Star Trek, or will it annihilate itself, the way the Roman empire, the greatest empire on earth, the pride of the ancient world, whose brilliant legislature, political organization, unrivaled military might, grand architecture, innovative engineering and artistic achievements have now been relegated to dusty archives?

The future of humanity depends on awareness of its plight. Without awareness, extinction is highly possible. With awareness, a critical mass for change can happen.

At no time in the last ten thousand years since the Ice Age have we exhibited such astonishing genius or such abominable disregard for sentient life. Somehow we have arrived here in this new century despite the worldwide suffering and traumatic events of the past one.

The greatest peril facing our species may be the overpopulation of our planet. Our very success with science and technology to improve the survival of all human life may be our downfall. The current rate of growth is about 1.9 percent a year. This may not sound like an alarming figure but it means that the population doubles every forty years. Right now it is around 6 billion. By the end of this century it will be around 40 billion. By then, it will be too late to do anything. That is the current lifetime left for humanity unless we become sophisticated enough to migrate to the stars.

Can we do it? Can we survive as a species? In order to answer that question, let us look at the greatest century ever in the history of the human race, the twentieth century. Unless we learn from our mistakes, we will be condemned to repeat them. But this time, we may not have a second chance.

The journey of the exploration of inner space began in the twentieth century. Sigmund Freud explored the unconscious, linked neurosis to the sex drive, and sought to heal the past by examining it in the present. Initially shocked by his ideas, those who read and understood him then spread a new burst of awareness.

In the famous painting, The Scream, Edvard Munch, a Norwegian artist who followed the tradition of French Impressionism, epitomized the anxiety and terror of the human psyche, the grief that arose from recognizing the personal and collective pain in the unconscious mind.

Pablo Picasso’s Cubism and Salvador Dali’s Surrealism created more waves of awareness about the anguish of the individual soul tormented by the traumas of life, and this imagery of suppressed emotional pain spread even faster through the medium of surrealistic films.

But while a small proportion of artists were making public the existential angst of humanity, other great minds were marveling at the mystery of the universe. Albert Einstein declared that energy and matter could be exchanged, x-rays showed the insides of a living human being, and microscopes and telescopes started to reveal the world of the very small and the very large. In addition, amongst numerous other wonders, science developed contraceptives, giving couples the chance to experience intimacy without the need to raise a new family.

Human genius was on the rise everywhere. Startling discoveries were being made in the sciences that were radically transforming the very essence of human understanding and the way society functioned. But the most startling of them all, was the power of the atom. By isolating, smashing and splitting atoms, an enormous power of unimaginable magnitude had been discovered.

After the first atomic bomb was tested in Los Alamos, the chief scientist Robert Oppenheimer quoted a passage in the Bhagavad-Gita, “Now I have become death and the destroyer of worlds.” The scientists were shocked at what they had discovered, but the use to which the power was put changed the entire history of humanity for the worse. The powers of the Western World opted for the short-term benefit of defeating Japan, but did not then realize that it had introduced an unfathomable nightmare of weapons proliferation that could destroy every living creature in the known universe.

Before the nuclear shadow fell on humankind, the most horrific cause of anxiety in the collective unconscious, total war had already been invented.

The first world war escalated human territoriality and aggression to an industrial scale. The mechanical energy that had been used to transform humanity from an agrarian and localized population to an industrialized and globally expanding population was now used for wholesale slaughter. Man became the victim of his own machines. Armaments could be manufactured on a large and rapid scale. The lethal invention of the gun now became the even deadlier machine gun; in the few seconds it took to kill one man, now a dozen could be killed.

But this was only the beginning of mass-scale suffering because never in the history of humankind had evil men had the means to exploit and destroy so many people so efficiently.

Joseph Stalin initiated the collective farms of communism. Under his interpretation of the ideology of communism, 22 million people died in the labor camps of his slave empire.

The Japanese invaded China in 1937 and slaughtered 60 million Chinese.

Adolph Hitler promised the German people the restoration of their honor and self-respect after the humiliation of Germany’s earlier defeat and the penalty imposed upon them by their victorious enemies. Nazi Germany slaughtered another 50 million. 27 million of these were Soviet citizens. 6 million of them were Jewish people, who were systematically hunted and captured, stripped of all human dignity and murdered with ruthless efficiency.

Yet the havoc that was unleashed by the machinery of the industrial age was only the beginning of the flagrant abuse of raw power.

The second world war had leveled down many previously flourishing cities through continuous bombing over months like Rotterdam, Dresden, and Tokyo, but when the atomic bomb was dropped by America on Japan, two whole cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were leveled in seconds.

Despite the overwhelming violence of these horrors, human cruelty continued unabated on a scale that had never ever before been witnessed on the face of creation.

Mao-tse Tung promising the Chinese people “a great leap forward,” publicly humiliated landowners, initiated widescale persecution and torture on anyone who disagreed with him and gave the land to the peasants. These peasants overworked the soil, creating a famine of immense proportions and 30 million Chinese starved to death.

In Cambodia, Pol Pot, waged a war on his own people and one out of three Cambodians was murdered.

In Cambodia, Viet Nam, Rwanda, and Kosovo the bloodbath was relentless.

War had become remote, precise, and deadly. Human beings had become the cruelest and most savage creatures ever to have walked upon the earth. Even the Dinosaurs that once roamed the earth in the distant past did not have the same vicious intensity. They killed to survive, but human beings killed because of wounded pride. Intelligence enlisted to satisfy dark human drives created unspeakable suffering.

Yet somehow, remarkably, humanity, despite its new penchant for efficient slaughter, as a whole, still continued to progress.

Around 1950, America’s statue of liberty became a symbol of hope for immigrants from around the world. With their zestful energy they infused renewed life into the country. Some of these immigrants were the greatest scientists in the world, including Albert Einstein; others transformed the New World through backbreaking labor. The result of this influx of brilliance and massive effort transformed the United States into a formidable economic and military power. To the rest of the world, exhausted and depleted by the aftermath of war, everything appeared bigger and better in America. It boasted taller buildings, bigger cars, a vast network of roads and railways, and a love for innovation and technology. America became the new hope, its vision of a promising new humanity dominating the rest of the world.

However a migrational shift existed across the whole world. Those who could not travel abroad moved in large numbers from the country to the city. Calcutta became overwhelmed with a population of 10 million people; Tokyo swelled as millions of country people became urban dwellers; and in the 18,000 square miles of Mexico city, an urban sprawl developed around the fringes of the city and discarded waste materials spread outwards.

All over the world, in rich and poor countries, cities became highly attractive: a place for greater wealth, broader freedom, and more excitement. Running out of room, cities began to grow upwards, becoming vertical, climate-controlled, and neon-lit. Their growth was due to a flight from the poverty experienced in the countryside and the lure of the promise of living in a consumer paradise. Shanty towns became common place around the fringes of many cities in the developing world, and the gap between the rich and the poor widened, with women becoming the poorest of the world’s citizens.

Europe having exhausted its resources and population in colonization and total war now experienced an influx of the people whom they had subjugated. In the spread of imperialism, ties had been made with the conquered people. For example, Asians from India, Pakistan, East Africa, and Trinidad made England their new home. In Wembley, North London, the local Hindu people imported a magnificent temple, stone by precious stone, from their native country.

In the United States, too, migration continued, not only from overseas and from the country to the city, but also from its borders. Los Angeles has the largest Mexican population outside Mexico city. Preserving their cultural traditions, the growing Hispanic population is slowly changing the European mix of America into a Latino one.

After its victory in the Second World War, the United States became the strongest economy on the earth. Besides the influx of new ideas and labor from immigrants, the emphasis on science and technology created a revolution in telecommunications. Radio, television, Hollywood movies, satellites, and advertising from America influenced the rest of the world. American celebrities became popular everywhere, from the songs of Elvis Presley to the fights of Muhammad Ali. A celebrity in America usually became an international celebrity. Towards the last decade of the century, America initiated the network of computers that we now know as the world wide web.

Communications created the first sense of a global community. Everyone was able to see everyone else and share common human interests and values. 200 million people watched the wedding of Princess Diana and a little over two million watched her funeral. During the final World Cup Soccer match in 1998, 2 billion people watched it on television. With the advent of the mobile telephone, anybody on any street in the world could talk to anyone else anywhere on the planet.

Besides the thrill of watching each other, the human race also had a chance to watch itself. Perhaps the greatest benefit of the lunar expeditions was not pictures of a dead moon but the pictures of a living planet. Humanity began to see itself for the first time as a single species, rather than a collection of warring factions. From space, the planet looked like a big, blue marble floating in inky darkness. People noticed more ocean than land, the absence of any political borders, and the possibility of multinational friendships and the sharing of common experiences. Besides seeing itself, humanity also vicariously experienced the thrill of watching their home planet as a whole. Listening in to the astronauts live broadcast, they shared in their sense of awe.

While the balance of power shifted from Europe to North America, it then slowly began to shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific Rim. American supremacy was being challenged by the countries of the East.

One thousand years ago, Japan was isolated; in the 20th Century it started becoming an economic super-power.

Similarly, other “tiger economies” also erupted around the Pacific, with Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore creating cities that rivaled the cosmopolitan grandeur of North America. In Singapore, for example, the island has become a metropolis whose breathtaking skyline is only rivaled by that of Shanghai.

One thousand years ago, the silk roads to China led to the most refined civilization on earth. China had already invented printing, paper currency, the compass, and gunpowder. In the 21st Century, it is poised to become the new global super-power, because of huge foreign investments, particularly from Chinese living overseas, as well as its population of one billion people.

The greatest dilemma of the future is not our powerlessness, but our power, and not our stupidity, but our immense intelligence.

Initially, we used industrial and nuclear power to create carnage that made the terror of Genghis Khan look mild.

Later, despite whole populations being destroyed, we built up cities, explored space and our own minds and hearts, migrated closer to each other, and shared technology and communication.

In our most glorious century, we have known both the agony of wide scale destruction and the joy of rebirth.

We have seen what we all look like and shared our fondest cultural snapshots with each other.

It seems that in the last century of the last millennium everything changed for humanity.
Sigmund Freud exposed our dark human instincts. Evil men dominated whole nations and slaughtered millions. Conquering people began to coexist with those that they had once subjugated. Economic power shifted from one part of the globe to another. And the rate of knowledge expanded at a bewildering pace. Never before had humankind experienced so much, learned so much, and been exposed to so much raw power that it had learned to harness from nature.

In this new century we find ourselves experiencing an expansion of the cultural and global patterns we created earlier, and our greatest strength, our raw power and unsurpassed intelligence, can also turn out be our greatest weakness.

What will happen to humanity? Will the currently existing outbreaks of war expand to become an Armageddon? Will political, economic, military, industrial, and religious rivalry outweigh any common sense? Will we simply overpopulate and pollute ourselves to death? Will the accelerating economic inequality and exploitation of natural resources create its own brand of chaos? Will prevailing human helplessness at the size of our global problems overshadow us or will we choose to become more aware, educated, cooperative and communicative?

Humanity’s future has become extreme: it faces either an apocalypse or evolution to a species that will live in space-stations and travel in star-ships. Everything hangs in the balance based on what we do this century. We have survived the past, but if the same naive patterns continue into the future, we will not make it.

Ultimately, even if we can overcome our individual and collective shadows, even if human decency can outweigh primitive aggression, even if human collaboration is finally possible and human genius is allowed full self-expression, we have one last hurdle to overcome, otherwise the past millennium will have been the last one for our species. Each decade, the stakes are rising. The warning of futurists has fallen on deaf ears. The probability of perishing in the coming millenium is no longer science fiction, it is becoming observable fact to even the most indifferent and ill-informed people.

A time will come when we will need a new home. No force on earth can stop over-population other than widespread devastation due to belligerence or the depletion of limited resources. Our only possible hope is to become star travelers.

Will we be ready to make the new leap to the stars or will the light of human genius, hindered by territorial animal disputes, fail to rise to a level that will save our race from oblivion?

Instant communication and rapid travel has shrunk the world. Can we now use our global brain, the Internet, to communicate in a meaningful way to create a collective change in the consciousness of humanity? We owe this not to ourselves but to generations yet to come. Positive action has to happen this century, a critical mass of awareness has to be reached, otherwise the resulting chaos will be beyond control.

In the past, according to the literature of various traditions, avatars would show up to guide us to wisdom, but we persecuted them. As witnessed by the atrocities of the past century, our shallow intentions and brute instincts are still with us. The only hope for humanity is a collective renaissance of awareness, because only the birth of a widespread intelligence will prevent catastrophe. An expansion of mind and heart has to happen at a critical mass.

Like you, I am no-one, but with you, we can be everyone. Please pass this message on. Throw this message in the bottle back into the ocean. A thousand years from now, one of our descendants will read it and be grateful for the life that they are now living; and it will probably not be on earth anymore. If you had the perseverance to read to this line, don’t click “delete”, click “forward.” Here is why: The future can no longer be a revalidation of the past. There is too much at stake. Intelligence has evolved us from the apes, but the lack of it’s positive application may also be our nemesis. Alone as individuals, we will not have much of a chance of saving our planet, but collectively, there is no limit to human genius. Can we evolve to a species that colonizes space or will we perish before we get there?

We are living on a dying planet, and you and I can sound the alarm bell. The Internet can make this possible. With each passing decade, the price of human ignorance will be extracting a heavier toll.

The antidote to apathy and withdrawal is awareness, which is the reason for this essay. Paraphrasing the words of Mahatma Gandhi, we can be the change we wish to see in the world. It begins with the click of a mouse button.

Unless sleeping humanity begins to wake up, it’s emerging power of numbers, economic expansion, scientific exploration, and technological advances will be used for extinction not evolution. As you can see, we have already grossly abused the power that we possess; there is no guarantee that we will become wiser in the new year and in the new decade which will soon be upon us. Our power in all areas is expanding as our knowledge expands. Military toys are becoming deadlier; viruses are adapting to our most potent antibiotics and becoming unstoppably virulent; and ideological fanaticism is reaching a point where nuclear proliferation is not possible to contain. Awareness right now is our only hope. Unless, through awareness, humanity as a whole is willing to give up its conscious and unconscious hostilities, disaster is inevitable.

We can use the Internet to spread these ideas to every home and corporation and government in the world. Only 6 degrees of separation lie between us and anyone else in the world.

Without awareness, positive change is not possible. We owe it to generations yet unborn to spread awareness. This is the meme that will save our species. Awareness can blossom into knowledge and knowledge into positive action; but without awareness; through mere blind, reflexive living, chaos will erupt as surely as night follows day, or one century follows the next.

Please send this article to one or more people or post it somewhere. You can click “delete” or “forward.” In a strange way, the fate of the world may have something to do with us. You and I will probably never meet, but we share a common bond. Despite all our differences, we are all connected. It is our greatest value. Let us act, each in our own small way, on an impulse, no matter how faint, to help the greater good.

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas with you. Hunting everywhere for a life worth living? Discover the life of your dreams. His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. http://www.theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html

Copyright 2004 Saleem Rana. Please feel free to pass this
article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or
newsletter. It’s a shareware article.

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No Economy left to Recover

Can The Economy Recover?

By Paul Craig Roberts

July 15, 2009 “Information Clearing House” — -There is no economy left to recover. The US manufacturing economy was lost to offshoring and free trade ideology. It was replaced by a mythical “New Economy.”

The “New Economy” was based on services. Its artificial life was fed by the Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates, which produced a real estate bubble, and by “free market” financial deregulation, which unleashed financial gangsters to new heights of debt leverage and fraudulent financial products.

The real economy was traded away for a make-believe economy. When the make-believe economy collapsed, Americans’ wealth in their real estate, pensions, and savings collapsed dramatically while their jobs disappeared.

The debt economy caused Americans to leverage their assets. They refinanced their homes and spent the equity. They maxed out numerous credit cards. They worked as many jobs as they could find. Debt expansion and multiple family incomes kept the economy going.

And now suddenly Americans can’t borrow in order to spend. They are over their heads in debt. Jobs are disappearing. America’s consumer economy, approximately 70% of GDP, is dead. Those Americans who still have jobs are saving against the prospect of job loss. Millions are homeless. Some have moved in with family and friends; others are living in tent cities.

Meanwhile the US government’s budget deficit has jumped from $455 billion in 2008 to $2,000 billion this year, with another $2,000 billion on the books for
2010. And President Obama has intensified America’s expensive war of aggression in Afghanistan and initiated a new war in Pakistan.

There is no way for these deficits to be financed except by printing money or by further collapse in stock markets that would drive people out of equity into bonds.

The US government’s budget is 50% in the red. That means half of every dollar the federal government spends must be borrowed or printed. Because of the worldwide debacle caused by Wall Street’s financial gangsterism, the world needs its own money and hasn’t $2 trillion annually to lend to Washington.

As dollars are printed, the growing supply adds to the pressure on the dollar’s role as reserve currency. Already America’s largest creditor, China, is admonishing Washington to protect China’s investment in US debt and lobbying for a new reserve currency to replace the dollar before it collapses. According to various reports, China is spending down its holdings of US dollars by acquiring gold and stocks of raw materials and energy.

The price of one ounce gold coins is $1,000 despite efforts of the US government to hold down the gold price. How high will this price jump when the rest of the world decides that the bankruptcy of “the world’s only superpower” is at hand?

And what will happen to America’s ability to import not only oil, but also the manufactured goods on which it is import-dependent?

When the over-supplied US dollar loses the reserve currency role, the US will no longer be able to pay for its massive imports of real goods and services with pieces of paper. Overnight, shortages will appear and Americans will be poorer.

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Commercial alarm: Mall, office building owners defaulting as loan rates double

By ALAN ZIBEL

The Associated Press

Sunday, July 12, 2009

WASHINGTON — Owners of shopping malls, hotels and offices are defaulting on their loans at an alarming rate, and the commercial real estate market is not expected to hit bottom for three more years, industry experts warned Thursday.

“The commercial real estate time bomb is ticking,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who heads the congressional Joint Economic Committee.

Delinquency rates on commercial loans have doubled in the past year to 7 percent as more companies downsize and retailers close their doors, according to the Federal Reserve. Small and regional banks face the greatest risk of severe losses from commercial real estate loans.

The commercial real estate market’s fortunes are tied closely to the economy, especially unemployment, which hit 9.5 percent in June. As people lose their jobs, or have their hours reduced, they cut back on spending, which hurts retailers, and take fewer trips, which hits hotels.

Funding for commercial loans virtually shut down last year as the financial system unraveled. Industry executives say financing is still extremely difficult to obtain, even for financially healthy properties.

While that may seem like an abstract problem, it has real-world consequences. New construction projects have come to a virtual standstill. That means reduced tax revenue for local governments and fewer construction jobs, said Jeffrey DeBoer, chief executive of the Real Estate Roundtable, an industry group.

The commercial property industry is “not going to turn around until consumers and businesses start spending money again,” he said.

Total losses in securities backed by commercial property loans could be as high as $90 billion in the coming years, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Richard Parkus. He says even more losses – up to $140 billion – are expected from construction loans made by regional and local banks, rather than those sold as securities held by investors.

“We believe the bottom is several years away,” Parkus told lawmakers.

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