What is collapse?

[RE]

For academics who are generally impotent for making any real change, doing "studies" and writing books makes them feel like they are doing something and making a contribution.  You can't solve a problem if you haven't identified it of course.

Issue is as we have pointed out here, the problem was already identified 20 years ago, so they're not contributing anything new.  We even know not only the problem but what needs to be done.  Problem is, except for a few survivalist types who go off grid, about nobody does the necessary powering down to be doing what needs to be done.  It's pointless anyhow, since at the same time billionaires are doubling down and powering UP.

So, we get studies, not change.

RE

[Surly1]

"We need dramatic social and technological changes."

Which is exactly what I have been saying for twenty years.

And like most cerebral idiots he has to examine 361 studies, and 73 books to come to this earthshaking conclusion.

And the point is change, not study.  But that is too hard.

You know what the kicker is? He can back his theory with all those 361 studies and despite all the evidence available people would rather take some video off TikTok which says you can fit 8 billion people in the state of Texas so therefore there is no population problem. This isn't a problem about information but of peoples' (and societies) inability to grasp the truth despite evidence to the contrary. But I suppose he will need another 361 studies to reach that point...

I read this article and would not be so quick to disparage Brozovich. I, for one, am impressed that there are actually 361 studies and 73 books on societal collapse. While like most here (I assume) I have read and am otherwise familiar with many of them, I had no idea there were so many. And while we could disparage the academic as another Johnny-come-lately, I recall a lesson learned during my years as a TV producer: "About the time you are getting sick of hearing it, other people are hearing it for the first time."

Yes, study is far easier than change. Human nature being what it is, most of us are change-averse. In my dotage I've become a real rut-person. We'll keep putting one foot in front of another until the road disappears.

And in terms of "we need dramatic social and technological changes," money says not gonna happen. Idealism is dead: sold and stripped for parts. Money rules, and Mammon is hungry.

[K-Dog]

there are actually 361 studies and 73 books on societal collapse.

I was surprised too.

And in terms of "we need dramatic social and technological changes," money says not gonna happen. Idealism is dead: sold and stripped for parts. Money rules, and Mammon is hungry.

Not exactly, for as you say:

About the time you are getting sick of hearing it, other people are hearing it for the first time.

I am a critic of the academic crowd.  It takes two years to get a book written or something like that.  Academics are never up to date with real world events.  Academics abstract reality.  Abstraction is the greatest strength of humanity, and the greatest weakness.

Considering:

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.  <-- Uncle Karl

My criticism is well founded.

[Surly1]

I tend to be more tolerant of academia as a reaction to the hard-right war on expertise, and by extension, war on objective reality. Yet Mammon's greed reaches within those halls as well. You might enjoy this about Elsevier, a major publisher and thus academic gatekeeper:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/07/too-greedy-mass-walkout-at-global-science-journal-over-unethical-fees

'Too greedy': mass walkout at global science journal over 'unethical' fees
This article is more than 1 year old
Entire board resigns over actions of academic publisher whose profit margins outstrip even Google and Amazon



Some lowlights:
-From 2014 to 2017, Elsevier put some articles behind a paywall that should have been open access.

-Elsevier rejected a paper for publication because it didn't cite enough of the journal's previously published papers.

-More than 40 leading scientists resigned from the editorial board of the journal Neuroimage in protest at what they described as Elsevier's "greed".

-Elsevier published six publications between 2000 and 2005 that were sponsored by pharmaceutical companies but did not disclose sponsorship.

-Elsevier has campaigned against openness to protect its paywall-based business.

-Universities have canceled their Elsevier subscriptions, citing costs and lack of open access.

Another symptom of late-stage metastatic capitalism.