(24th Century Washington D.C.)
There will be another civilization on the other side of all this. The world 'will' go on without us. Their judgment will not be kind. Our real end began with the Second Hundred Years War+ roughly 1900~2030. An era that ultimately will topple the West, and lead to a new Dark Age.
They will see our rot for what it was.
I can read their judgment now.
A short excerpt "From Renaissance to Darkness" The Rise, and Fall of Post-Medieval Western Civilization 1500~2060. Lhasa University Press, 2348 C.E.
(24th Century Tropical Tibet)
"...the middle of the 20th century onward was a time of unparalleled wealth in the West. In particular within the former United States of America. Still there were beggars everywhere. Education was only for the very wealthy the same with health care, and the seeds were planted for climate catastrophes.
In the later 21st century they dispensed with the charade. Western culture openly disenfranchised the majority of it's populations in favor of a tiny insulated wealthy class. This led to the inevitable results described in chapter six of this volume."
"As to the details of how such powerful republics fell so quickly from immense wealth, and influence to sleeping within poisoned ruins..."
"As to the details of how such powerful republics fell so quickly from immense wealth, and influence to sleeping within poisoned ruins..."
2 comments:
Love the image of future Tibet. Any idea who painted it? Looks like a cross between Roger Dean and Möbius.
I think what we're experiencing now is a return to normal for capitalism - viz., to grossly unequal wealth distribution and systemic economic violence.
The period that we recall so fondly, the third quarter of the twentieth century, was actually an historical anomaly. During that period the abundance of wealth generated by the availability of plentiful cheap energy in the form of fossil fuels overflowed so greatly that even the working class got a significant share of the goodies.
Furthermore, we were the beneficiaries of empire. Western nations generally and the USA in particular extracted wealth from poor countries in the form of ultra-cheap resources and labor, backed by CIA political manipulations and our mighty military machine.
But now that time is winding down. The source of modern wealth, which is energy, has peaked and is now in decline; so also is American empire. So now the ruling class are making sure that they get every scrap of the remaining wealth, through various forms of financial chicanery.
The idea that capitalism creates wealth for everyone is a cruel joke. Sure, at the height of empire capitalist America was doing great; but during that same period, what about capitalist Indonesia, capitalist Nigeria? Their common people were and are enjoying about the same level of prosperity and well-being as poor people in Dickensian England. It is a condition in which we will be joining them as our empire and industrial civilization more generally continue their slow but inexorable collapse in the years to come.
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BTW, I've read that various branches of American occultism anticipate that a new civilization will arise on this continent some time around the 26th century. So we've only half a Millenium to go. I can hardly wait!
My retirement plan is to move to a tropic isle and sell banana bread at an open air café. Hippies always had the right basic values, IMHO.
Z
The art is by Roger Dean for a either a 1970's or 80's "Asia" album cover.
I'd like to open a doll hospital-toy store-book store-chapel of the Holy Boy some place warm, but not 'too' warm, with nice people, and sometimes clouds of butterflies.
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