Pertinent to some of the last few comments was John Michael Greer’s insistence in the discussion that “we are already in decline.” If you haven’t heard it yet I think it is worth hearing some of the most aware minds around us discussing, “why are we in this handbasket and where are we going?”
To grasp how this plays out I imagine an amateur a Cappella choir. Each successive section of a piece is sung a little flatter than the one before. The harmony remains but each singer gets lower in their range. Then those who can’t sing any lower start dropping out. The beauty diminishes as the pitch drops until by the end it is not a nice thing to hear.
We can look around at our society, at our neighbours and family. Is their economic ‘pitch’ declining? Around me the answer is a clear yes! Yet everyone tries to keep on living in harmony. Some have had to drop out.
The tipping point is when more have dropped out than are singing. Depending on what source you access you get different reports. " Over 51% of American workers earn less than $2500/month. " “Eleven US states have more riding in the wagon than pulling it.” The specifics vary depending on what and how the measurements are made, but the message I keep hearing is ‘decline is all around me’. I’m glad to still be singing, but as an entrepreneur I know that the whole choir is dropping in pitch as we go. The whole bucket tipping over is soon to follow.
Chris the most impressive on the webinar INMO.
In fact I’ve learned lots from watching most speakers in the webinar, but maybe most from Chris.
If it doesn’t sound too adulatory I’m impressed by how much he cares and how fast he’s prepared to grow. I’m sure it’s catching for lots of us which is just as well considering the hockey stick curves we need to get past!
Chris (and anyone else interested),
In response to your story in the Lancaster seminar about people at NASA suggesting bumblebee drones as a fix, you may find the last episode (Season 3, Ep 6–“Hated In the Nation”) of Black Mirror on Netflix worthwhile.