I think we’ve passed the tipping point. Corruption, voter suppression and greed are at an all time high. I work hard, I’m tired, but we have to get off our asses and do something. Nobody is coming to save us.
I share the frustration expressed by others regarding the current state of political discourse. It has become common for outright lies to go unchecked, and the media often enables this behavior rather than challenging it. The concepts of truth in media and politics seem to be disappearing. Rational debate is being overshadowed by slogans and catchphrases designed to exploit people's fears. I'm saddened by what is happening to Canada. We once looked out for each other, but now it's all about left vs. right, socialism vs. capitalism, and so on. Anyway, thank you for what you do, David. It's much appreciated.
Canada is going to suffer its own falling apart once Poilievre and his fascist party are in government and that's just on the horizon. Especially bad since there is no effective opposition and is unlikely to be in the near future. If the USA falls apart - literally - that would be a good thing. A number of nations emerge (2, 3 maybe 4 or 5) all smaller and unable to create empires. The south will be particularly fascist but within a few decades most of it will be ocean bottom so that problem gets solved. The mid-west will probably align with Alberta and Saskatchewan to form their own right-wing hell of a country but they'll be isolated from the sea so that gives us some bargaining power over them, unless we let them have BC. You are right, however, that while empires fall apart it is very bad for the many. The next decade, barring a nuclear armageddon, will be a nasty piece of work. Not sure if China is up to, or interested in, rescuing us.
I read a book, or a novella maybe, a while ago based on much of what you describe. The USA was not united, broken up into four distinct areas. Bible Belt Christofascists, Garden variety fascists, very cool but tense NY (and adjacent) areas, and Left Coast Green Greens.
I wish I could remember the title or the author or even the protagonist who it seems to me was a balcony sitter in his own right.
Each collective of states had their own problems and had little time or inclination to care about the others. Our hero was sneaking over assorted borders for some reason. The Bible Belt was doing a good imitation of Iran, the Left Coasters were by far the most militant, the other two areas were probably equally inward-looking and I don’t think Canada was mentioned once, which is good out here in the real world.
If anyone has stumbled on this story, please let me know. I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to remember when I read it. And why can’t I remember the ending?
Ron, no one can have BC. The Midwest, Alberta, Sask, etc. can go straight up through Yukon if they must make tidewater. Unfortunately, the ice will have melted.
Where did you come from? If you are representative of what this particular site is all about, then let me off. You have disclosed a complete inability to see history, to understand politics except as you look out of the wrong end of the scope. I fear I read too many comments like yours on this site. Time to get off this self-obsessed, self-satisfied train to nowhere.
I too worry about this way too much. I fear that Canadians are not paying attention and that what is happening to the south will/is having a direct impact on us here. The US is in deep trouble - I don't think they are getting out of this (FTR - I am saddened Biden didn't make the decision not to run in the first place and now I feel it is too late. Sadly, that will do lasting damage to his legacy - I wish he could see that). Anyhoooo....doom and gloom here - but there is a lot at stake and a lot to be lost.
If the United States is the balcony, then it is perhaps best that it does collapse. I decided years ago that I would never enter the country for the same reason I would not have entered Germany in the 1930's. The similarities between the two are downright scary.
It's the open, brazen, declaration of war (on democracy) that's different. As Mr. Moscrop says, it's always been flawed. In a way, nothing has changed: a quarter of the American population can elect a third of the Senate, which can immunize a President against the law until he is out of office and under a President that has the political courage to charge a predecessor....as Obama did not, for Bush's illegal Iraq War. (A rather larger crime than any Trump has committed; illegal to break the UN Treaty against use-of-force.)
This was always handled quietly, through those "norms". Obama conceded the "official act" exception 15 years ago, because Bush had the Congress and public support behind him, that made the crime official, a "norm". ("Norm" cuts both ways.)
The US has always been pretty awful, for a minority that's growing larger; tell a beaten-up suspect of colour that he lives in a rights-respecting democracy...
Nobody stopped fighting feudalism when Reagan got in and started undoing the progress of the whole previous generation. I feel like most of my life has been a rearguard battle against reactionary backlash; this is just more of same.
I think what's objectively collapsing is our evolved life sustaining biosphere and a settler colonial ultra-consumer culture/civilization that addicted itself to fossil fuels (amongst other transmuted resources). It's ironic that a colony/empire that divorced itself from an imperial autocracy and became a haven for Euro-Christian misfits demanding separation of church and state, is on the verge of becoming a theocratic backed (Christo-Fascist) dictatorship.
Canada has always remained a colony that orbits anglo empires, so as the USA collapses we will be altered or consumed. If the USA is a balcony, Canada is part of the supporting structure of the balcony. If we remain in tact it won't be because we're overly fixed to that balcony.
I think one of the biggest challenge in domocracies is shared problems and solutions really don't find fertile group through our political institutions. They've all been captured by various groups -- it seems mainly corporate, ideological and especially at the intersection between the two. That's led to a concentration of power (to be more able to deliver to these groups) and the creation of defacto monopolies at key parts of our society -- a few banks, airlines, grocery stores, online services, etc. The average person's concerns or voices don't really have much of an outlet; we're just votes to be discouraged or steered based on whatever the vibe of the day is ("sunny ways" "affordability").
We need to reduce the voice of small, loud groups ad raise the voices of the many individuals to be able to find common groups and solve shared challenges. Until then, important problems will continue to go unsolved and regular people will give up on politics as a channel for their concerns.
Thanks for this. Good analogy. Curiously, everything takes maintenance - everything! People/organizations have always and continue - to avoid maintenance literally and figuratively. Nothing stays the same, everything ages. Ware & tear. Many things get better/stronger with use, practice. When things governance are ignored or relegated to others, because we're busy, including too busy to vote or "whatever - they are all the same", well ... sometimes politics is just a driving desire for power and that's likely not 'all for one and one for all'. Just saying ...
For God's sake, stop running down the United States. I get so tired of Canadians taking a condescending view of what is a truly wonderful and fitfully successful experiment in self-government. Yes Donald Trump is an unfit candidate. But then maybe we should look closer to home: At Doug Ford who summarily slammed shut the Ontario Science Center dispossessing an already dispossessed community of a vital resource; At Justin Trudeau, a truly empty suit who has emptied this country of any meaning. Maybe we should be naval gazing instead of running down a nation that has tired it's best - not always - to bring about something better.
I’ll run down the States whenever I feel it is warranted. And lately, this past decade or so, it has been warranted. I get so tired of Canadians comparing us to the Americans when it is never even close. Ford, either one is similar to Trump? Trudeau has emptied the country of any meaning? You can do better than that I hope.
Let’s talk about book banning in public schools. Or the screaming misogyny of state legislatures or the Supreme Court and Project 2025. Trying their best is what you call it? No, that is not at all what most would call it.
You are ill prepared for such empty rhetoric. Perhaps you haven't seen what the Mississauga School Board, or perhaps it was their library system proposed by way of banning books. And some of the blatant anti-semitism proposed by the Toronto School Board. I am a retired lawyer and I am well aware of what SCOTUS is doing. And if you would get a lawyer without a political agenda, you might see that the standard they have set - and by the way much of the conduct is still to be determined by lower courts as to why is "official conduct" - is common in business practice. Maybe you should know what you're talking about before you mouth off empty opinions devoid of facts. Are you in fact aware of what Governor Gretchen Whitmer did with the Michigan legislature? And I suppose you are ignorant of what Doug Ford tried to do with the Ontario Green Belt. (although I think the outcry was overblown). Justin Trudeau is a shadow of his father. And he has made our country into a third rate nation. Perhaps you should check it how our vaunted health care system compares to the so-called developed country. Is it a surprise that the United States is last on the list? I don't think so. But you might be surprised that in the survey I recently read, Canada was 13th out of 14 nations. I would suggest that instead of just spouting off empty opinions, you back them up with facts. I'm sorry I don't fit your political mold. That seems to be the main source of your complaint.
I think there is ample evidence for a physical cause for every political collapse. When poor people can't afford bread, politician's head come off.
We, as a species, are at an unprecedented point in Earth's history. Dr. William Rees shows that we are using *six planets* of resources. What could go wrong with that?
But how can we actually use more than one planet of resources? It's simple; our planet has managed to store some 200 million years of solar energy beneath its surface. We are quite literally living on ancient sunlight.
We have passed the halfway point in that process. Many can't see the problem, because, well, half the fossil sunlight is left, right?
But we've picked all the "low hanging fruit". At some point, it takes more energy to extract those last remaining barrels of fossil sunlight than one could possibly get from those last few barrels.
We are past that point. "Drill, baby, drill" stops working when it costs more to get at a resource than you get out of that resource. Especially in our capitalistic system — fracking has not returned money to investors, and the stock market is loathe to spend money on more drilling. Those who are shouting "drill, baby, drill" are not willing to pay for it.
Oil production is stuck between the highest price consumers are able to pay and the lowest price that will return a profit to shareholders.
"But, but, but… wind turbines and solar panels and electric cars and those sorts of things!"
All of those so-called "renewable" resources are soaked in diesel. From mining to manufacturing to installation and maintenance to de-commissioning and recycling — all these processes are driven by diesel, and none of them can currently be done by electricity, which is what renewables supply.
To make a long story just a bit longer, this is the root cause of our current dilemma. Social and political systems will collapse without the support of fossil sunlight.
Humans are good at addressing "problems" with "solutions". This is not a problem; it is a dilemma. There are no solutions, only adaptations and coping strategies.
The sooner we bite the bullet and understand that the golden age is past, the sooner we can begin adapting. But it looks like we're hell-bent on growth, no matter the human cost.
Hopelessness and misanthropy are the only things that are guaranteed to do us in.
Everything else is up in the air and we have much more influence on our world than the people shaping our narratives would like us to think.
Learning to live off the land has always been a good idea (even just being used to being in the trees makes us stronger and more capable of creative thought) but just as important, actually more important, is knowing our neighbors and fostering goodwill wherever possible.
These are the things that keep us afloat, physically, mentally, socially, spiritually and economically.
Hopelessness and misanthropy are the only things that are guaranteed to do us in.
Everything else is up in the air and we have much more influence on our world than the people shaping our narratives would like us to think.
Learning to live off the land has always been a good idea (even just being used to being in the trees makes us stronger and more capable of creative thought) but just as important, actually more important, is knowing our neighbors and fostering goodwill wherever possible.
These are the things that keep us afloat, physically, mentally, socially, spiritually and economically.
I think we’ve passed the tipping point. Corruption, voter suppression and greed are at an all time high. I work hard, I’m tired, but we have to get off our asses and do something. Nobody is coming to save us.
I share the frustration expressed by others regarding the current state of political discourse. It has become common for outright lies to go unchecked, and the media often enables this behavior rather than challenging it. The concepts of truth in media and politics seem to be disappearing. Rational debate is being overshadowed by slogans and catchphrases designed to exploit people's fears. I'm saddened by what is happening to Canada. We once looked out for each other, but now it's all about left vs. right, socialism vs. capitalism, and so on. Anyway, thank you for what you do, David. It's much appreciated.
Canada is going to suffer its own falling apart once Poilievre and his fascist party are in government and that's just on the horizon. Especially bad since there is no effective opposition and is unlikely to be in the near future. If the USA falls apart - literally - that would be a good thing. A number of nations emerge (2, 3 maybe 4 or 5) all smaller and unable to create empires. The south will be particularly fascist but within a few decades most of it will be ocean bottom so that problem gets solved. The mid-west will probably align with Alberta and Saskatchewan to form their own right-wing hell of a country but they'll be isolated from the sea so that gives us some bargaining power over them, unless we let them have BC. You are right, however, that while empires fall apart it is very bad for the many. The next decade, barring a nuclear armageddon, will be a nasty piece of work. Not sure if China is up to, or interested in, rescuing us.
I read a book, or a novella maybe, a while ago based on much of what you describe. The USA was not united, broken up into four distinct areas. Bible Belt Christofascists, Garden variety fascists, very cool but tense NY (and adjacent) areas, and Left Coast Green Greens.
I wish I could remember the title or the author or even the protagonist who it seems to me was a balcony sitter in his own right.
Each collective of states had their own problems and had little time or inclination to care about the others. Our hero was sneaking over assorted borders for some reason. The Bible Belt was doing a good imitation of Iran, the Left Coasters were by far the most militant, the other two areas were probably equally inward-looking and I don’t think Canada was mentioned once, which is good out here in the real world.
If anyone has stumbled on this story, please let me know. I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to remember when I read it. And why can’t I remember the ending?
Ron, no one can have BC. The Midwest, Alberta, Sask, etc. can go straight up through Yukon if they must make tidewater. Unfortunately, the ice will have melted.
PP can...(insert rude words here)!
Where did you come from? If you are representative of what this particular site is all about, then let me off. You have disclosed a complete inability to see history, to understand politics except as you look out of the wrong end of the scope. I fear I read too many comments like yours on this site. Time to get off this self-obsessed, self-satisfied train to nowhere.
John Reble
I too worry about this way too much. I fear that Canadians are not paying attention and that what is happening to the south will/is having a direct impact on us here. The US is in deep trouble - I don't think they are getting out of this (FTR - I am saddened Biden didn't make the decision not to run in the first place and now I feel it is too late. Sadly, that will do lasting damage to his legacy - I wish he could see that). Anyhoooo....doom and gloom here - but there is a lot at stake and a lot to be lost.
If the United States is the balcony, then it is perhaps best that it does collapse. I decided years ago that I would never enter the country for the same reason I would not have entered Germany in the 1930's. The similarities between the two are downright scary.
It's the open, brazen, declaration of war (on democracy) that's different. As Mr. Moscrop says, it's always been flawed. In a way, nothing has changed: a quarter of the American population can elect a third of the Senate, which can immunize a President against the law until he is out of office and under a President that has the political courage to charge a predecessor....as Obama did not, for Bush's illegal Iraq War. (A rather larger crime than any Trump has committed; illegal to break the UN Treaty against use-of-force.)
This was always handled quietly, through those "norms". Obama conceded the "official act" exception 15 years ago, because Bush had the Congress and public support behind him, that made the crime official, a "norm". ("Norm" cuts both ways.)
The US has always been pretty awful, for a minority that's growing larger; tell a beaten-up suspect of colour that he lives in a rights-respecting democracy...
Nobody stopped fighting feudalism when Reagan got in and started undoing the progress of the whole previous generation. I feel like most of my life has been a rearguard battle against reactionary backlash; this is just more of same.
I think what's objectively collapsing is our evolved life sustaining biosphere and a settler colonial ultra-consumer culture/civilization that addicted itself to fossil fuels (amongst other transmuted resources). It's ironic that a colony/empire that divorced itself from an imperial autocracy and became a haven for Euro-Christian misfits demanding separation of church and state, is on the verge of becoming a theocratic backed (Christo-Fascist) dictatorship.
Canada has always remained a colony that orbits anglo empires, so as the USA collapses we will be altered or consumed. If the USA is a balcony, Canada is part of the supporting structure of the balcony. If we remain in tact it won't be because we're overly fixed to that balcony.
I think one of the biggest challenge in domocracies is shared problems and solutions really don't find fertile group through our political institutions. They've all been captured by various groups -- it seems mainly corporate, ideological and especially at the intersection between the two. That's led to a concentration of power (to be more able to deliver to these groups) and the creation of defacto monopolies at key parts of our society -- a few banks, airlines, grocery stores, online services, etc. The average person's concerns or voices don't really have much of an outlet; we're just votes to be discouraged or steered based on whatever the vibe of the day is ("sunny ways" "affordability").
We need to reduce the voice of small, loud groups ad raise the voices of the many individuals to be able to find common groups and solve shared challenges. Until then, important problems will continue to go unsolved and regular people will give up on politics as a channel for their concerns.
Thanks for this. Good analogy. Curiously, everything takes maintenance - everything! People/organizations have always and continue - to avoid maintenance literally and figuratively. Nothing stays the same, everything ages. Ware & tear. Many things get better/stronger with use, practice. When things governance are ignored or relegated to others, because we're busy, including too busy to vote or "whatever - they are all the same", well ... sometimes politics is just a driving desire for power and that's likely not 'all for one and one for all'. Just saying ...
Don’t worry about the end of the world today, it’s already tomorrow in Australia
This is the time to come together.
Physically, as a people, as a class. We need a church type thing for the left. We need to be bonding, telling stories, carrying each other.
Things will get better when we make it better.
Thank you.
For God's sake, stop running down the United States. I get so tired of Canadians taking a condescending view of what is a truly wonderful and fitfully successful experiment in self-government. Yes Donald Trump is an unfit candidate. But then maybe we should look closer to home: At Doug Ford who summarily slammed shut the Ontario Science Center dispossessing an already dispossessed community of a vital resource; At Justin Trudeau, a truly empty suit who has emptied this country of any meaning. Maybe we should be naval gazing instead of running down a nation that has tired it's best - not always - to bring about something better.
John Reble, Toronto
I’ll run down the States whenever I feel it is warranted. And lately, this past decade or so, it has been warranted. I get so tired of Canadians comparing us to the Americans when it is never even close. Ford, either one is similar to Trump? Trudeau has emptied the country of any meaning? You can do better than that I hope.
Let’s talk about book banning in public schools. Or the screaming misogyny of state legislatures or the Supreme Court and Project 2025. Trying their best is what you call it? No, that is not at all what most would call it.
You are ill prepared for such empty rhetoric. Perhaps you haven't seen what the Mississauga School Board, or perhaps it was their library system proposed by way of banning books. And some of the blatant anti-semitism proposed by the Toronto School Board. I am a retired lawyer and I am well aware of what SCOTUS is doing. And if you would get a lawyer without a political agenda, you might see that the standard they have set - and by the way much of the conduct is still to be determined by lower courts as to why is "official conduct" - is common in business practice. Maybe you should know what you're talking about before you mouth off empty opinions devoid of facts. Are you in fact aware of what Governor Gretchen Whitmer did with the Michigan legislature? And I suppose you are ignorant of what Doug Ford tried to do with the Ontario Green Belt. (although I think the outcry was overblown). Justin Trudeau is a shadow of his father. And he has made our country into a third rate nation. Perhaps you should check it how our vaunted health care system compares to the so-called developed country. Is it a surprise that the United States is last on the list? I don't think so. But you might be surprised that in the survey I recently read, Canada was 13th out of 14 nations. I would suggest that instead of just spouting off empty opinions, you back them up with facts. I'm sorry I don't fit your political mold. That seems to be the main source of your complaint.
John R.
Bless your heart John but you said it yourself, “...fitfully successful experiment in self-government.”
Of course, you are a lawyer. I’d expect nothing less. And such a long rambling response to two short paragraphs.
I’m guessing dinner is entirely out of the question.
I will continue to run down or wax enthusiastic about various American topics as I please.
I think there is ample evidence for a physical cause for every political collapse. When poor people can't afford bread, politician's head come off.
We, as a species, are at an unprecedented point in Earth's history. Dr. William Rees shows that we are using *six planets* of resources. What could go wrong with that?
But how can we actually use more than one planet of resources? It's simple; our planet has managed to store some 200 million years of solar energy beneath its surface. We are quite literally living on ancient sunlight.
We have passed the halfway point in that process. Many can't see the problem, because, well, half the fossil sunlight is left, right?
But we've picked all the "low hanging fruit". At some point, it takes more energy to extract those last remaining barrels of fossil sunlight than one could possibly get from those last few barrels.
We are past that point. "Drill, baby, drill" stops working when it costs more to get at a resource than you get out of that resource. Especially in our capitalistic system — fracking has not returned money to investors, and the stock market is loathe to spend money on more drilling. Those who are shouting "drill, baby, drill" are not willing to pay for it.
Oil production is stuck between the highest price consumers are able to pay and the lowest price that will return a profit to shareholders.
"But, but, but… wind turbines and solar panels and electric cars and those sorts of things!"
All of those so-called "renewable" resources are soaked in diesel. From mining to manufacturing to installation and maintenance to de-commissioning and recycling — all these processes are driven by diesel, and none of them can currently be done by electricity, which is what renewables supply.
To make a long story just a bit longer, this is the root cause of our current dilemma. Social and political systems will collapse without the support of fossil sunlight.
Humans are good at addressing "problems" with "solutions". This is not a problem; it is a dilemma. There are no solutions, only adaptations and coping strategies.
The sooner we bite the bullet and understand that the golden age is past, the sooner we can begin adapting. But it looks like we're hell-bent on growth, no matter the human cost.
Hopelessness and misanthropy are the only things that are guaranteed to do us in.
Everything else is up in the air and we have much more influence on our world than the people shaping our narratives would like us to think.
Learning to live off the land has always been a good idea (even just being used to being in the trees makes us stronger and more capable of creative thought) but just as important, actually more important, is knowing our neighbors and fostering goodwill wherever possible.
These are the things that keep us afloat, physically, mentally, socially, spiritually and economically.
Hopelessness and misanthropy are the only things that are guaranteed to do us in.
Everything else is up in the air and we have much more influence on our world than the people shaping our narratives would like us to think.
Learning to live off the land has always been a good idea (even just being used to being in the trees makes us stronger and more capable of creative thought) but just as important, actually more important, is knowing our neighbors and fostering goodwill wherever possible.
These are the things that keep us afloat, physically, mentally, socially, spiritually and economically.