Requiem for a great mind: David M. Delaney

[GliderGuider]

2. It has always been extremely unpleasant somewhere.

One of the things that perversely contributes to the global predicament is our belief that it "should" not be like that. We "naturally" want to ease the suffering of less fortunate others (and our own empathic suffering on their behalf) by convincing ourselves that we can make our relative lack of immiseration in this place and time a permanent, universal state - no matter what demands we make of nature in the process. Add a healthy helping of self-interest and greed, and the stage is set for this act of the Play.

Our beliefs and behaviour are driven by a deeply unrealistic and stubbornly persistent utopian streak in our cultural narrative. Because of that the present efflorescence of civilization can be seen as a universalized expression of the sub-prime housing bubble (or indeed bubbles of any sort) with precisely the same drivers and denial mechanisms writ large.

If we drop the mental filters that protect our self-interest for just a moment, we all know what happens to bubbles.