Quote from: RE on Jan 15, 2026, 06:02 PM

Quote from: TDoS on Jan 15, 2026, 04:29 PM

Quote from: RE on Jan 15, 2026, 12:59 PM2026 is living up to its billing as a watershed year in collapse.

Do you happen to have a definition of collapse that encompasses the entirety of not just peak oil 8 years ago now but the more interesting politics so often discussed here, and maybe basic economics of life, etc etc.

The AI definition works pretty well.

The collapse of civilization means a complex society rapidly loses its large-scale institutions, cultural identity, and social complexity, leading to decentralization, violence, scarcity, and a regression to simpler, smaller-scale ways of living, often due to factors like war, famine, environmental disaster, or economic failure. It's characterized by a breakdown in governance, trade, and infrastructure, potentially leaving behind remnants of the past and forcing survivors into new, simpler societal structures or absorption by stronger groups

We haven't yet collapsed completely, but we arre definitely seeing a breakdown of the type described heere ongoing.  More pronounced and further along in 3rd world countries, but picking up speed here aand in Europe now.

RE

Haven't collapsed completely yet? More like....where is it at all?  How many "remnants of the past" have we arrived at yet? Many folks horse and buggying around Anchorage? And "survivors" would sure seem to be needed. Survivors of...what? Because the world population is still growing, so current state of whatever collapse you think is happening hasn't even knocked off population growth....let alone created legions of "survivors" living in more simpler times. Unless they have been there all along, say sub-Saharan Africa.

"We haven't yet collasped completely"? Please. It is so invisible that the only people that can see it consists of "surviving remnants" who...get this...in the case of you? Still get top grade pharmacutical meds and someone from all the other collapse survivors coughing up cash for heat, light, and keeping you fed. That comes from this thing called "surplus", which sure isn't part of the "remnants" of the modern world. And K-Dog? Well in order to be ecologically friendly he spent $20k on a heat pump for his house. Not for his teepee or mud hut of having collapsed mind you but one of those nice pile of bricks with real doors and windows and stuff. He didn't buy land to grow trees to use as firewood, or an extra plot for a bigger garden or some chickens and hogs to slaughter himself to get through the next winter...nope....he bought a gizmo for be better for the environment. In the middle of collapse, seems like a weird priority, and hardly a rush back to simpler times. 

As someone who once lived from season to season, I can assure you that a means of heating the house had NO consideration for its environmental friendliness. And I'm betting the temp he maintains in his house or that for you in the facility isn't what folks dredging out an existence would keep it at....we used a 50F setting on the funrnace before the propane furnance fired up. Kereosene heater in the living room to keep the living room and kitchen in the center of trailer high enough that the thermostat wouldn't kick on the furnance. This obviously didn't help out when it came to no running water because the pipes coming in from on end of the trailer froze and we had to haul water from the creek. But hey, we were all collapsed more than half a century ago living a simple life back then.

Maybe we all did collapse back then and we all cured it by moving to nicer places?

Certainly none of us live where we started out, so we CURED OURSELVES!!!! WOO HOO!