In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and John Michael Greer discuss:
- Government By Cannibalism
- Good programs are increasingly killed to support bad ones
- 'Shale Miracle' Propaganda PR
- The energy boom story we're being sold is wrong
- How to Cut Your Energy Consumption by 25% for a Few $ Hundred
- A simple trip to the hardware store
- Living with Less
- Easier than you think. More satisfying, too
This week, John Michael Greer ("JMG") joins Chris for the program and the two address the latest developments in the fiscal "cliff" kabuki drama. Despite all the hang-wringing and hyperbole, the "cliff" is actually one of our smaller problems – and the deal agreed to last week doesn't even resolve it.
The increasingly ineffectual steps our government is taking with ever greater frequency is not unique in history. JMG has built his career in part as an academic historian, and reports that such actions are "absolutely typical of an empire in decline'. As resources become constrained by overconsumption and abuse, those responsible for the overconsumption and abuse begin diverting resources from their best use – all in order to keep the overconsumption and abuse by the most powerful players in progress.
Such self-cannibalism continues – often for much longer than one would imagine – until to much has been cut off for too many.
by rje