The End Is Near!

For some time I've had the feeling that we were living through some sort of transition. Our country seems to be collectively losing it's mind, we have a major war... er... sorry; "Special Military Operation" going on right in the middle of Europe, famine is stalking Africa (again), Russia and China are setting up deals left, right and center that bypass the US dollar and the US-controlled SWIFT payments system. Last but not least: our non-stop economic war against Russia not only is benefiting Russia but looks to leave major chunks of Europe freezing in the dark this winter.

Today I watched the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Not my normal use of time during the daytime, and as an American I'm supposed to not care about Britain's monarchy. I guess colonialism imprinted some sort of loyalty to Queen Elizabeth into my DNA or something. Regardless, the Queen was the only monarch I've ever known. Queen Elizabeth simply was the UK and today I watched as her casket was lowered into the Royal Crypt in Windsor Castle. Now I'm supposed to replace her with some jerk-off named Charles that most likely features prominently in Ghislaine Maxwell's little black book (his brother admitted as much). I can't picture ol' Chuck ever commanding the kind of unquestioned respect and loyalty that his mother did. Today while watching her funeral, I couldn't help but see the entire ceremony as nothing less that a giant exclamation point signalling the end to the arrangements that I have assumed were somehow permanently etched into the Universe.

Now please understand that when I talk about the end of our current way of life, that does not mean that humans are going extinct or any bullshit like that. We will do what we always do when a certain arrangement ends: we make new arrangements. And no, I have no idea what those might be or just how ugly the transition will get. Based on the breaking news, I don't think it will be a pleasant time. But that's just a wild-assed guess.

Speaking of transitions, here's a handy little table that shows that we are not going run modern industrial civilization on windmills and solar panels:

Fossil fuels have allowed human population to far exceed the carrying capacity of the planet. Historically, whenever a population outstrips resources things turn ugly fast. Expect that and prioritize accordingly.