[Politics_CurrentEvents_Group] Why & How Change "world economic system"

Zeus writes as if good activities that he imagines happening could, somehow, happen and mean escape from the collapse that others of us see coming.

Would he somehow attract a capable fairy to inspire change? I do not expect such, but do not hear anything more constructive from our Zeus.

Dave Ketchum

"zeus32117" zeus32117@yahoo.com zeus32117 wrote on Mon Apr 25, 2011 7:14 pm ((PDT))

I am in favor of organic farming. As far as predicting an economic collapse is concerned, this prediction does not make much sense to me. Here is why it doesn't. Fists of all, new ways of earning a good income appear to be discovered on a regular basis. Second, more and more ways of doing the same thing in less and less time and with fewer and fewer resources appear to be discovered on a regular basis as well. Third, it would make a lot of difference if agricultural productivity in most other countries caught up with agricultural productivity in U.S. When this happens enough food for everyone will finally be produced.

--- In Politics_CurrentEvents_Group@yahoogroups.com, Dave Ketchum <davek@...> wrote:

Why? Hopefully Karl will be more successful than many others in
making the point that we CANNOT keep doing what we are doing - thus we
had best work toward a path to more profit and less pain.

How? Karl offers some thought, but more is needed. See his: http://karlnorth.com/
I suggest the following three of his titles there (others are more
into agriculture - fine if that is your interest):

What Every Marxist Needs to Know about Ecology
By Karl North | December 12, 2010
The Population "Bomb" and its Distortions in Capitalist Culture
By Karl North | July 20, 2010
Invisible Ships and Boiling Frogs: The End of Industrial Affluence
By Karl North | June 7, 2010

On Apr 24, 2011, at 11:49 AM, Karl S North wrote:

I place my bets for system change on societies on the periphery of
the world economic system - nations where large populations are so
oppressed that they have nothing to lose, populations who are still
part of a subsistence economy that can survive the disruption of
services that revolution brings. Revolution occurred in Cuba because
its intellectual leaders understood that the peasantry was its most
reliable base.

However, economic collapse in the US provides important
opportunities for change at the local level. Driven by the permanent
end of two centuries of cheap energy and the internal contradictions
of a domestic and world system controlled largely by private
capital, economic collapse will occur despite all attempts at
prevention. It will create social chaos and possibly eventual
breakdown of control at the higher levels of government. Those who
are aware and ready for that eventuality may be able to take back
local economies, land use and other natural resources from the
powerful national and multinational economic interests who currently
control them. But it will depend on the ability of local communities
to shrug off denial and adapt to a lower energy civilization.

As I have posted rarely if ever on this forum, I should introduce
myself as a recently retired organic farmer, now teaching ecological
agriculture at BU, once trained as an ecological anthropologist, and
a long time student of power and class in capitalist society, making
good use, for example, of the endless fount of critical analysis
provided to us locally by my friend Jim Petrus. Some of my writings,
including a vision of the reorganization of agriculture that will
sustain food production and supply in the energy descent, are
available on the website listed below.
--
Karl North - Northland Sheep Dairy, Freetown, New York USAhttp://karlnorth.com/
"Pueblo que canta no morira" - Cuban saying
"They only call it class warfare when we fight back" - Anon.
"My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet-plane.
His son will ride a camel."
—Saudi saying