We need a membership drive, Alex

[Doomsteader]

This place is a pub I can drop into for 15 minutes once or twice a day,

But for those of us who currently spend 15 *hours* a day, here, having like 10 active posters(and 30+ lurkers), it gets boring

(Chartreuse rather than purple because it's pretty much true )

[Commoner80]

Been lurking here and on LATOC and Oil Drum for a good decade and have never posted a god damn thing. But since y'all are talking about ME I might as well pipe up. My justification to myself for not posting is that I felt and still feel I have almost nothing to contribute. And since I personally don't require the illusion of personal connection that most of the net is based on, why bother? I'm just another clueless fucking moron city dweller with more time on my hands than most. At least I used some of my free time to get edumacated about the three E's from the likes of Heinberg, Martenson, Tverberg, KMO, Kunstler, Orlov, Al Bartlett, Matt and on down the list to all the wonderful posters past and active. Until about five years ago, I actually thought I could do some basic preps or maybe even move away to some promised land where I could be safe from mutant zombies. Not to take away from those of you working hard to reduce dependence on Ind Civ, but for a spoiled lazy boomer-doomer, loner the notion is a silly fantasy.


Anyway, you people of SILCO and predecessors saved my sanity and life. Through your reasoned and witty discussion and banter (and juicy links too!), from all corners of the English speaking globe, I have been able to remain positive and keep proper perspective on the approaching shit storm, now moving closer with indeterminate (and greater than previously expected) speed. I have always felt extremely privileged to have been able to keep company with you all here and I thank you. So sad that the millions of curious minds are out there swimming in the brown effluent of trolls and plain ignorance in the comments sections of ZeroHedge, Yahoo, YouTube and useless corp web sites, will never know a discussion board like this except possibly boards for narrow interest topics (hobbies, computers, cars, etc.).



There is much I could say about the converging crisis (aka DOOM), but it would be far from original and not much different from other familiar stories/opinions/analyses, so I am keeping it brief. I would like to give some feedback to the forum though. I have always sat far left of center politically, but some of you who clearly represent more moderate or even so-called libertarian and right wing perspectives on some issues (like economic, gun, geo-political, etc.) have definitely helped me to see some logic in those points of view that are opposite my own. I am grateful for that and I would hate to see this place die, which some weeks it seems, has nearly happened.

And for the curious, my handle was chosen to pay respect to Citizens Party presidential candidate of 1980, Barry Commoner. I always wondered who among you instantly recognized the reference. That election was the first I could vote in. USAholes rejecting Carter (and good old Barry) in favor of Ronnie Raygun (who just a few years earlier was as preposterous a candidate as today's throne sitter) was a cold splash of reality; a shock and a disappointment I've never fully overcome.
from wikipedia

Barry Commoner (May 28, 1917 – September 30, 2012) was an American cellular biologist, college professor, and politician. He was a leading ecologist and among the founders of the modern environmental movement. He was the director of the Critical Genetics Project and the Center for Biology of Natural Systems. [1] He ran as the Citizens Party candidate in the 1980 U.S. presidential election.[2] His work studying the radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing lead to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.[3]

The Closing Circle

In his 1971 bestselling book The Closing Circle, Commoner suggested that the American economy should be restructured to conform to the unbending laws of ecology.[12] For example, he argued that polluting products (like detergents or synthetic textiles) should be replaced with natural products (like soap or cotton and wool).[12] This book was one of the first to bring the idea of sustainability to a mass audience.[12] Commoner suggested a left-wing, eco-socialist response to the limits to growth thesis, postulating that capitalist technologies were chiefly responsible for environmental degradation, as opposed to population pressures. He had a long-running debate with Paul R. Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb and his followers, arguing that they were too focused on overpopulation as the source of environmental problems, and that their proposed solutions were politically unacceptable because of the coercion that they implied, and because the cost would fall disproportionately on the poor. He believed that technological, and above all, social, development would lead to a natural decrease in both population growth and environmental damage.[13]

One of Commoner's lasting legacies is his four laws of ecology, as written in The Closing Circle in 1971.[14] The four laws are:[15]

Everything is connected to everything else. There is one ecosphere for all living organisms and what affects one, affects all.
Everything must go somewhere. There is no "waste" in nature and there is no "away" to which things can be thrown.
Nature knows best. Humankind has fashioned technology to improve upon nature, but such change in a natural system is, says Commoner, "likely to be detrimental to that system"
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Exploitation of nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms.

[woodsy_gardener]

One of Commoner's lasting legacies is his four laws of ecology, as written in The Closing Circle in 1971.[14] The four laws are:[15]

Everything is connected to everything else. There is one ecosphere for all living organisms and what affects one, affects all.
Everything must go somewhere. There is no "waste" in nature and there is no "away" to which things can be thrown.
Nature knows best. Humankind has fashioned technology to improve upon nature, but such change in a natural system is, says Commoner, "likely to be detrimental to that system"
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Exploitation of nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms.[/I]

Thank you Commoner80.

Barry Commoner had, unfortunately, faded back into the archives of my memory. His 4 laws of ecology are vital to understanding the mess we are in now. There is no greater wake up call than the recently discovered poisoning of the oceans with plastics. In my little woodland garden last year I noticed a drop in springtime butterfly numbers and other insects, particularly summer fireflies. This year so far I've seen just 3 butterflies. I hope there's a civilization destroying economic collapse soon.

Thank you again for your thoughtful post and I hope to see more, perhaps a link to your favorite Barry Commoner article.

[Annihilatrix]

Well, where have you been all my doomer life.

Been lurking here and on LATOC and Oil Drum for a good decade and have never posted a god damn thing. But since y'all are talking about ME I might as well pipe up. My justification to myself for not posting is that I felt and still feel I have almost nothing to contribute. And since I personally don't require the illusion of personal connection that most of the net is based on, why bother? I'm just another clueless fucking moron city dweller with more time on my hands than most.