America's Epidemic of Massacres Is a Sign of a Collapsing Society

[anarch]

34. I'm still not following your argument here that capitalism is necessary or irreplacable

or even that it has been the primary engine of technological advance and relative global prosperity (which of course relies on the exploitation of the working class in general, and the resources of the global south particularly). Yes, it has been the most dynamic and impressive economic system in all of human history as far as we know it, but for much of the 20th century when advances in technology and industry were most dramatic, it was during times of global war and largely accomplished by state entities taking control of the means of production, which is sort, you know, the opposite of capitalism.

Nothing is replacing capitalism as our de facto global system of production and distribution because the capitalists, and particularly the fossil fuel capitalists, run everything and have whole-ass military forces at their disposal to make sure those systems stay in place, and whenever anybody tries anything else they are blockaded, or invaded, or the CIA ratfucks their whole country for the sake of retaining access to their resources and preserving corporate profits.

Of course nothing better is going to automatically replace what we have now if/when the whole house of cards comes tumbling down; we'll probably have several centuries of total chaos and billions of people will die--personally I think it's probably too late to avoid at this point, although there's still plenty we could do to mitigate some of the worst of it, but only if we take drastic action now--which would have to include some downsizing (e.g., things that are anathema to capitalists), and would be extremely unpleasant for a lot of people, but theoretically less so than just allowing society to collapse. I don't see it as "wishful thinking;" and I don't think we're imagining what we're seeing now in the world (including, as was the point of the article, people snapping and going on shooting rampages), I think the ongoing collapse/crisis is very real.

But as to your point that the world needs to continue the energy usage we currently burn through, and that it needs to be sustainable--well, that's exactly the problem, isn't it? What we are doing now is not sustainable, under any economic system, that is absolutely true (as I see it). Of course we have to protect what we have--do you think that if we as a society eventually move on from capitalist modes of production, we would just destroy all the infrastructure we have now because it was made by capitalists? From my perspective, we need to protect what we have and refocus our efforts on using it to improve the material conditions of common people.

Also, yes I think you are right--upcoming water scarcity and desertification is going to make these times of $6.00 per gallon gasoline or what have you seem like halcyon days. We'd better do something, and quickly.