Yes, I'm still processing the horror of the election results. Who would have ever thought that the greatest country in the world is being taken over by a narcissistic sociopath? I took in all you said about the Amazon, beef, the turncoats at Cup of Joe, all of it. Brilliant. It's so brilliant that I'm a bit intimidated to respond with more than this. But putting the fear of God into us works. I'm behind you and can't wait for what else you have to say.
Hi Cindy, since writing this article, my father passed, so I have been slow to respond to your comment. Thank you, and don't be intimidated. I'm looking for answers, just like most of us. Often readers and comments lead me to new ideas. These articles are meant to be an exchange, not a lecture.
A minority of U.S. voters, encouraged by the antimedia forces you mention, gave world-ruining power to a person with zero ability to think of others or the earth. Young people who didn't vote or cast a protest vote for trump have lost hope. They can't imagine a world where climate change doesn't bring catastrophe. I'm not young, but I've lost hope, too.
Beef is NOT the problem. If we farmed sustainably and mimicked the carbon-sequestering actions of large herbivores, cattle could be a big part of the solution. See Allan Savory. My sister was able to use his theories to turn her organic dairy farm into a carbon sink (sequestering more carbon than the cows produced) and brought back an abundance of wildlife that hadn't been seen for decades.
Corporate media is unbelievably bad. Spending time with my mother who has CNN on all day, it makes me crazy. This election feels like we lost our last chance, but I will continue to fight.
Everything I've read about beef has been damning from methane emissions to deforestation. I'll try to check out Alan, but right now I have a family emergency on my hands. I may need a reminder!
We have extirpated some 50,000,000 bison from the Great Plains. They used to sequester immense amounts of carbon.
People like Alan Savory and Joel Salatin seek to use quick-rotation grazing to mimic the actions of the missing bison.
I ran a raw, organic, grazed goat micro-dairy for fifteen years. During that time, we rotated them through four paddocks on two acres of a ten acre field, a field that had been intensely hayed for decades without any returned nutrients or local animal involvement.
During that time we doubled the organic matter content (as measured in simple "shake tests") of our paddocks over that of the remaining eight "control" acres. That's farmer-talk for "carbon sequestration".
We operated our small farm as a net carbon sink. But think we could get any backing for that? I tried — all the so-called "carbon credits" that people gather when they use "responsible" airlines goes into suit pockets of the administrators first, then a pittance is paid out to huge, dubious "mega projects".
I've seen the future, and it is powered by current photosynthesis. I'm just not sure I see any humans in that future.
I get it. Our only hope is outside this country and by maneuvering around end-stage capitalism. Imagine how much of a difference Africans could make if these practices were taught to poor family farmers all over the continent. It will take a level of crisis we never want to experience, but we can never solve a problem such as this with the same thinking that created it
It only takes a quick google to find out that Alan Savory’s ‘science’ is complete BS. I’m sorry to say that even the most regenerative grazing practices would have to work in conjunction with a HUGE reduction in red meat intake. HUGE. Like, you’d get to eat hardly any.
I quit beef at least 15 years ago, and everything I know about beef points to it being the biggest agricultural problem from methane emissions and deforestation. I have a special folder for people like Alan. Grasslands do not replace forests.
On this point: “Reality is the Earth and her limits that we have now exceeded to the precipice of human extinction”…sometimes I think that we humans deserve extinction. Our stupidity outpaces our compassion and comprehension. The problem is that in racing towards our own extinction, we are taking the rest of the planet down with us.
Sometimes I think we deserve extinction, too, but that seems too sweeping. Industrial white societies bear most of the blame. The planet will go on, but the species we most admire and should be care taking will succumb with us which is incredibly sad to me.
Thank you Geoffrey! Yes, we need to stand as in Solidarność, arms linked across the land, in defiance of Evil. On the back of a dime, the bundle of sticks: united we stand. Remember the original: "When in the course of human events..." the unwelcome necessity of resistance or if necessary, turning the bucket over... We stand together or lose everything.
This kind of writing was never my original intent. I'm still figuring it out, but there is no hope for humanity without resistance now. Sadly, where resistance could be most effective is corrupt. The worst contributors to this crisis, and the ones who could actually make a profound change, refuse to do so. I know you know this. Confronting it is a serious and probably losing task, but I prefer to be on the right side of a dying cause, and faintly hoping I am proven wrong.
Geoff: You have such a command of writing and the English language that censorship or harm to you and your Sane Thoughts for Insane Times substack articles would be very unsettling for us readers! It's frightening to think freedom of expression could be taken away more than it currently is by the control of the wealthy. Thank you for your thoughts.
Thank for the kind words. They’re all built on the work of others. I never forget that fact. Reality is threatened by many forces right now and I doubt that much of the public understands that.
It is my opinion (having taught college for 24 years) that critical thinking cannot be taught.
Can a person who is capable of critical thinking be steered off track and become a willfully ignorant jerk? Absolutely.
But for those (and they are many) who do not have the innate cognitive resources to think in a clear and critical scientific manner, no amount of instruction will produce the desired effect.
Teachers are expected to overcome too much. This society doesn’t inculcate a love for reading and excitement for learning when kids are young. Reading to children is essential. My father was also a college educator. The state of freshmen was often deplorable. Teachers can’t be expected to fix snowballing problems at the root of society.
It’s so completely gratifying to hear you say “out loud” the precise contents of my mind. Now when I’m at pains to share with friends everything that has been weighing me down and filling my brain and heart, I can just have them read this perfectly expressed article!
The bad news is exactly as you say. I am another Normal Joe who writes Substack essays (98 so far), but between the impending financialization of Substack (I don't even try for paid subscribers) and the ease with which even the tiniest of voices can be silenced (imprisoned?), I suspect my efforts will soon be shut down.
The 'good' news is that the people who really could transform the landscape don't even know folks like you and me exist and probably wouldn't understand a word of what we write. But their 'evolutionary instincts' for stability, predictability and connection are reawakening, even if they don't recognize it. But 'soon,' when industrial civilization collapses, a few of them will step up and demonstrate our species' adaptability. Most of these people are among the un/minimally contacted in areas like the Amazon, Pacific Islands, etc. The USAians with a chance are those with basic survival skills.
I share your concern for the dangers of speaking out. Dictators such as Pinochet sometime bring the hammer down on the peasants first to instill fear in the populace and the plug on platforms like this could be pulled. Organizing people locally with diverse skills is essential. You're right, people who live the simplest lives have the best chance of survival in terms of their knowledge, but with increasing heat and more severe weather and agricultural conditions will struggle, too.
As usual, I thoroughly enjoy reading your enlightened thoughts. Speaking of media control, I wonder if the fascists plan to attack the internet with more price controls and censorship.
My good luck to speak here, all of our ability for free and fair expression on the internet is in jeopardy. It always has been and always will be. The advent of the printing press didn't set truth free, and obviously the promise of the internet didn't either. Human behavior is human behavior, a few always learning, but most falling well short of wisdom. It's profoundly disappointing. Thank you for your comment.
Have a look at my articles when you get time. I suggest that you start with the first one, Rebirth of Reason. Renaissance 2.0 is a Global Project Plan, and Rebirth of Reason is the beginning. I looked at your Degrowth article and think it is very relevant. We can make a difference! I am looking forward to your comments.
One addition. I should have written that it’s not just getting us rare thinkers about what to do to think together, but for all those like you, who are convinced of how dire things are, to get exposed to and hopefully helpful with thinking about the best we could do to deal with the mess we are in.
Oh how I hate a little click that publishes what I write before I am finished with it. Yet another of the newfangled frustrations an old geezer like me has with what grade schoolers are better at now than I am. So, where was I? I can’t even see what I wrote before as I write this, which wasn’t totally edited or finished. So, from memory, what I was getting to was the idea of you being as supportive of getting me subscribers as I have been of getting them for you. There could be a cadre, small as it might be, of people who are writing about more than what individuals won’t do in any numbers that could change anything, to help get us thinking together. You know, a la what Ante talked about re that small group of people Margaret Mead mentioned in that famous quote — it must be so famous because there is something to it. Can you help us? Can anyone? Ante, talk to me. I don’t even know if you subscribe to me. In fact, I believe am the only person here, of those who do look ahead, with ideas about how we could might avoid the devastation that would come even if those others with ideas get their longer range ones implemented, and I need a small group of thoughtful people to converse with!!!!
I hope the incessant touting I do of you is responsible for many of the new subscribers you get, where if there were just one other Substack I’d want my almost 3000 subscribers to get it would be yours. The first thing needed to deal with anything is to realize it needs dealing with! In reading these comments I note that all of them save one are commiserating with your ain’t it awful — it is. Ante,who has 30 subscribers — I am one — is the only one looking to what we could do, and he has no comments on what he has written here nor in his chat. And yours isn’t the only well thought out and well written ain’t it awful place where comments all are similarly supportive of the desperate situation we are in.
So, now what? Oh, first to note that that’s the title of my Substack. Since things are as they are, aside from boycotts and vegetarianism and other things individual could do that they won’t do in the sot of numbers to make a difference, as long as there are those of us who have ideas about more effective things we might do, how about you supporting some serious thinking the miniscule amount of us her are doing about a way forward? I am much better at coming up with them than I am about navigating Substack or anywhere else to get serious attention paid, and maybe even talk to me about what to do about that
Hi Suzanne, I am on the road as my father has passed, so can't answer thoroughly. I appreciate your support and have picked up many new subscriptions in the last month, little doubt some of them from your recommendation, thank you. My experience of growth has been slow and steady for the first two years; this year it has increased four fold, maybe I'm hitting critical mass. In any case it's still a spit in the wind.
Change will take many voices and joining or organizing at the local level and civil disobedience, actual bodily risk. I do believe boycotting could be a powerful tool for those that can't take the risk. Unfortunately, most don't grasp or recognize the seriousness and immediacy of our situation. That is why I started this project. Mainstream media is not communicating this.
I'm with you Geoffrey, trying my best to devote more time to writing about Reality & Sanity. It's been a lifelong pursuit for me. Here is my latest for those who are inclined to the deeper psychological reasons for our plight. https://iamtsebastian.substack.com/p/americas-collective-shadow-climbs?r=36ewx
Yes, absolute agreement, our psychology is the root of our trouble. Read your article and restacked.
Yes, I'm still processing the horror of the election results. Who would have ever thought that the greatest country in the world is being taken over by a narcissistic sociopath? I took in all you said about the Amazon, beef, the turncoats at Cup of Joe, all of it. Brilliant. It's so brilliant that I'm a bit intimidated to respond with more than this. But putting the fear of God into us works. I'm behind you and can't wait for what else you have to say.
Hi Cindy, since writing this article, my father passed, so I have been slow to respond to your comment. Thank you, and don't be intimidated. I'm looking for answers, just like most of us. Often readers and comments lead me to new ideas. These articles are meant to be an exchange, not a lecture.
Thank you, Ante. December between the death and the holidays looks limited, but after the 1st I should be getting back to normal.
A minority of U.S. voters, encouraged by the antimedia forces you mention, gave world-ruining power to a person with zero ability to think of others or the earth. Young people who didn't vote or cast a protest vote for trump have lost hope. They can't imagine a world where climate change doesn't bring catastrophe. I'm not young, but I've lost hope, too.
Beef is NOT the problem. If we farmed sustainably and mimicked the carbon-sequestering actions of large herbivores, cattle could be a big part of the solution. See Allan Savory. My sister was able to use his theories to turn her organic dairy farm into a carbon sink (sequestering more carbon than the cows produced) and brought back an abundance of wildlife that hadn't been seen for decades.
Corporate media is unbelievably bad. Spending time with my mother who has CNN on all day, it makes me crazy. This election feels like we lost our last chance, but I will continue to fight.
Everything I've read about beef has been damning from methane emissions to deforestation. I'll try to check out Alan, but right now I have a family emergency on my hands. I may need a reminder!
Good luck with your emergency
We have extirpated some 50,000,000 bison from the Great Plains. They used to sequester immense amounts of carbon.
People like Alan Savory and Joel Salatin seek to use quick-rotation grazing to mimic the actions of the missing bison.
I ran a raw, organic, grazed goat micro-dairy for fifteen years. During that time, we rotated them through four paddocks on two acres of a ten acre field, a field that had been intensely hayed for decades without any returned nutrients or local animal involvement.
During that time we doubled the organic matter content (as measured in simple "shake tests") of our paddocks over that of the remaining eight "control" acres. That's farmer-talk for "carbon sequestration".
We operated our small farm as a net carbon sink. But think we could get any backing for that? I tried — all the so-called "carbon credits" that people gather when they use "responsible" airlines goes into suit pockets of the administrators first, then a pittance is paid out to huge, dubious "mega projects".
I've seen the future, and it is powered by current photosynthesis. I'm just not sure I see any humans in that future.
1 .
I get it. Our only hope is outside this country and by maneuvering around end-stage capitalism. Imagine how much of a difference Africans could make if these practices were taught to poor family farmers all over the continent. It will take a level of crisis we never want to experience, but we can never solve a problem such as this with the same thinking that created it
It only takes a quick google to find out that Alan Savory’s ‘science’ is complete BS. I’m sorry to say that even the most regenerative grazing practices would have to work in conjunction with a HUGE reduction in red meat intake. HUGE. Like, you’d get to eat hardly any.
I quit beef at least 15 years ago, and everything I know about beef points to it being the biggest agricultural problem from methane emissions and deforestation. I have a special folder for people like Alan. Grasslands do not replace forests.
Awesome article. Thank you! Subscribed!
On this point: “Reality is the Earth and her limits that we have now exceeded to the precipice of human extinction”…sometimes I think that we humans deserve extinction. Our stupidity outpaces our compassion and comprehension. The problem is that in racing towards our own extinction, we are taking the rest of the planet down with us.
Sometimes I think we deserve extinction, too, but that seems too sweeping. Industrial white societies bear most of the blame. The planet will go on, but the species we most admire and should be care taking will succumb with us which is incredibly sad to me.
Thank you Geoffrey! Yes, we need to stand as in Solidarność, arms linked across the land, in defiance of Evil. On the back of a dime, the bundle of sticks: united we stand. Remember the original: "When in the course of human events..." the unwelcome necessity of resistance or if necessary, turning the bucket over... We stand together or lose everything.
This kind of writing was never my original intent. I'm still figuring it out, but there is no hope for humanity without resistance now. Sadly, where resistance could be most effective is corrupt. The worst contributors to this crisis, and the ones who could actually make a profound change, refuse to do so. I know you know this. Confronting it is a serious and probably losing task, but I prefer to be on the right side of a dying cause, and faintly hoping I am proven wrong.
Geoff: You have such a command of writing and the English language that censorship or harm to you and your Sane Thoughts for Insane Times substack articles would be very unsettling for us readers! It's frightening to think freedom of expression could be taken away more than it currently is by the control of the wealthy. Thank you for your thoughts.
.
Thank for the kind words. They’re all built on the work of others. I never forget that fact. Reality is threatened by many forces right now and I doubt that much of the public understands that.
It is my opinion (having taught college for 24 years) that critical thinking cannot be taught.
Can a person who is capable of critical thinking be steered off track and become a willfully ignorant jerk? Absolutely.
But for those (and they are many) who do not have the innate cognitive resources to think in a clear and critical scientific manner, no amount of instruction will produce the desired effect.
Teachers are expected to overcome too much. This society doesn’t inculcate a love for reading and excitement for learning when kids are young. Reading to children is essential. My father was also a college educator. The state of freshmen was often deplorable. Teachers can’t be expected to fix snowballing problems at the root of society.
Geoffrey,
It’s so completely gratifying to hear you say “out loud” the precise contents of my mind. Now when I’m at pains to share with friends everything that has been weighing me down and filling my brain and heart, I can just have them read this perfectly expressed article!
I’m grateful for you.
How wonderful to hear, thank you! That’s exactly one of the things I hope my work does. It’s only as good as it carried forward.
The bad news is exactly as you say. I am another Normal Joe who writes Substack essays (98 so far), but between the impending financialization of Substack (I don't even try for paid subscribers) and the ease with which even the tiniest of voices can be silenced (imprisoned?), I suspect my efforts will soon be shut down.
The 'good' news is that the people who really could transform the landscape don't even know folks like you and me exist and probably wouldn't understand a word of what we write. But their 'evolutionary instincts' for stability, predictability and connection are reawakening, even if they don't recognize it. But 'soon,' when industrial civilization collapses, a few of them will step up and demonstrate our species' adaptability. Most of these people are among the un/minimally contacted in areas like the Amazon, Pacific Islands, etc. The USAians with a chance are those with basic survival skills.
I share your concern for the dangers of speaking out. Dictators such as Pinochet sometime bring the hammer down on the peasants first to instill fear in the populace and the plug on platforms like this could be pulled. Organizing people locally with diverse skills is essential. You're right, people who live the simplest lives have the best chance of survival in terms of their knowledge, but with increasing heat and more severe weather and agricultural conditions will struggle, too.
As usual, I thoroughly enjoy reading your enlightened thoughts. Speaking of media control, I wonder if the fascists plan to attack the internet with more price controls and censorship.
My good luck to speak here, all of our ability for free and fair expression on the internet is in jeopardy. It always has been and always will be. The advent of the printing press didn't set truth free, and obviously the promise of the internet didn't either. Human behavior is human behavior, a few always learning, but most falling well short of wisdom. It's profoundly disappointing. Thank you for your comment.
The more MAGA we befriend the more will defect if they have support.
I hope for that. As they feel the pain, some may double down, but some may become more reachable.
Geoffrey,
I am sorry about your loss; my condolences.
Have a look at my articles when you get time. I suggest that you start with the first one, Rebirth of Reason. Renaissance 2.0 is a Global Project Plan, and Rebirth of Reason is the beginning. I looked at your Degrowth article and think it is very relevant. We can make a difference! I am looking forward to your comments.
Thank you. December is looking like a wipe out, but I'll be back strong after the 1st.
One addition. I should have written that it’s not just getting us rare thinkers about what to do to think together, but for all those like you, who are convinced of how dire things are, to get exposed to and hopefully helpful with thinking about the best we could do to deal with the mess we are in.
Oh how I hate a little click that publishes what I write before I am finished with it. Yet another of the newfangled frustrations an old geezer like me has with what grade schoolers are better at now than I am. So, where was I? I can’t even see what I wrote before as I write this, which wasn’t totally edited or finished. So, from memory, what I was getting to was the idea of you being as supportive of getting me subscribers as I have been of getting them for you. There could be a cadre, small as it might be, of people who are writing about more than what individuals won’t do in any numbers that could change anything, to help get us thinking together. You know, a la what Ante talked about re that small group of people Margaret Mead mentioned in that famous quote — it must be so famous because there is something to it. Can you help us? Can anyone? Ante, talk to me. I don’t even know if you subscribe to me. In fact, I believe am the only person here, of those who do look ahead, with ideas about how we could might avoid the devastation that would come even if those others with ideas get their longer range ones implemented, and I need a small group of thoughtful people to converse with!!!!
I hope the incessant touting I do of you is responsible for many of the new subscribers you get, where if there were just one other Substack I’d want my almost 3000 subscribers to get it would be yours. The first thing needed to deal with anything is to realize it needs dealing with! In reading these comments I note that all of them save one are commiserating with your ain’t it awful — it is. Ante,who has 30 subscribers — I am one — is the only one looking to what we could do, and he has no comments on what he has written here nor in his chat. And yours isn’t the only well thought out and well written ain’t it awful place where comments all are similarly supportive of the desperate situation we are in.
So, now what? Oh, first to note that that’s the title of my Substack. Since things are as they are, aside from boycotts and vegetarianism and other things individual could do that they won’t do in the sot of numbers to make a difference, as long as there are those of us who have ideas about more effective things we might do, how about you supporting some serious thinking the miniscule amount of us her are doing about a way forward? I am much better at coming up with them than I am about navigating Substack or anywhere else to get serious attention paid, and maybe even talk to me about what to do about that
Hi Suzanne, I am on the road as my father has passed, so can't answer thoroughly. I appreciate your support and have picked up many new subscriptions in the last month, little doubt some of them from your recommendation, thank you. My experience of growth has been slow and steady for the first two years; this year it has increased four fold, maybe I'm hitting critical mass. In any case it's still a spit in the wind.
Change will take many voices and joining or organizing at the local level and civil disobedience, actual bodily risk. I do believe boycotting could be a powerful tool for those that can't take the risk. Unfortunately, most don't grasp or recognize the seriousness and immediacy of our situation. That is why I started this project. Mainstream media is not communicating this.