RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPiTER

the decline of western civilization part I

Sometimes it’s helpful to imagine humans as you’d imagine any large, biologically driven teeming mass of life. Strike out the idea of the individual and see humans as ants, bees, or bacteria. Look at the macro patterns, the things that drive our populations, the behavior that we can’t break down into actions of singular personalities.

Even from 100 feet, we appear as strange little tumors with spindly protrusions for arms, legs and fingers. From farther out, we multiply like bacteria in an open wound. Cities grow and swell. Every day they hemorrhage trillions of tons of sludge and waste. In the past hundred years, earth lit up like a magnesium fire. A time-lapse view from space would see the planet flaring up as we consume the planet’s buried energy. As our civilizations rise and fall, that light will peak, flicker and diminish.

Or maybe I’m being pessimistic.

For now, look at earth at night. Those lights are made possible by petroleum. The power plants that make them, the people fed by the crops grown by it and the trade networks dependent on it. Looking at this map, ask yourself which countries have the most to lose? Which have the most to gain? Who is the most powerful and who doesn’t have a leg to stand on? A basic familiarity of world politics and a thoughtful study of this map are worth as much as a year of political science classes.

What will happen in the next 100 years? The petroleum fires will go out, but will anything replace them?

The only deserts that are full of light are in the Middle East and the American Southwest. Which one will stay lit or will they both go out? Really think about it. Can the United States really afford to light its deserts? What sacrifices have we made to ensure that we can? What foreign policy decisions? How far overextended are we? Is the war in Iraq motivated by a growing desperation? Are we really that weak? Aside from oil entirely, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Reno, don’t have enough water for the next 100 years. We’re living off of others’ credit. Outside of military power and the hegemony of the dollar, we produce almost nothing. The dollar is falling out of style and our military can be defeated.

I know I’m being pessimistic, but what will this map look like in 100 years?