Carolyn Baker: Preparing Emotionally for the Coming Chaos

Dandelion Salad

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

peakmoment·Jan 1, 2013

“The external growth of a budding economy is over. The focus on growth now needs to be on the inner world.” Carolyn Baker’s Navigating the Coming Chaos is a toolkit to prepare emotionally and spiritually for the collapse of industrial civilization now underway. First build an “internal bunker,” she suggests, to begin healing the fear, grief and despair that immobilize many people in our “culture of numbness.” From that foundation, she invites us to look at who our allies are ? people, places, possessions. Carolyn observes that many people experience a level of joy by doing this work (Episode 225).

“The Long Descent”: Coming Up Short On Reality? By Carolyn Baker

Dandelion Salad

By Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power
Monday, 10 November 2008

Throughout the Peak Oil and collapse of civilization milieu, much speculation abounds regarding the speed with which collapse might occur. Some theorists insist or imply that the descent will be rapid and dramatic while others argue for a more “slow burn” scenario, less dramatic and more stair-step-like in progression. The tone of proponents of acute collapse reverberates with urgency while the tone of authors who perceive collapse as occurring in a more protracted fashion is notable for its moderation and skepticism of the rapid descent theory.

Such is the perspective of John Michael Greer in The Long Descent: A User’s Guide To The End Of The Industrial Age (New Society, 2008). Greer provides an excellent read and argues astutely for his theory of catabolic collapse which he describes as “the declining arc of industrial civilization’s trajectory through time. Like the vanished civilizations of the past, ours will likely face a gradual decline, punctuated by sudden crises and periods of partial recovery. The fall of a civilization is like tumbling down a slope, not like falling off a cliff.” (32)

While Greer gives the intellect a robust workout, there is much in the Long Descent that must be rigorously questioned because of what is not addressed and because of the dangers I perceive are implicit in Greer’s resolute, and I believe short-sighted, argument.

First, Greer devotes merely a handful of sentences to the climate change phenomenon which starkly omits a conversation about the interplay of Peak Oil and climate chaos. He does mention the climate nightmare inherent in increased coal burning globally, but absent from a defense of the long descent theory is an analysis of the interplay of the two phenomena. In an excellent 2004 article “Global Climate Change and Peak Oil,” geologist and Peak Oil researcher, Dale Allen Pfeiffer explains among other things, “how will Peak Oil and the North American natural gas cliff affect global climate change.”

[…]

via Carolyn Baker – “THE LONG DESCENT”: COMING UP SHORT ON REALITY? By Carolyn Baker

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Industrial capitalism is a given and the natural world is secondary (Interview with Derrick Jensen)

Jared Diamond: Why societies collapse

Planet Eaters: Chain Reactions, Black Holes, Climate Change And Existentialist Philosophy

James Howard Kunstler: The Long Emergency (2005)

Mike Ruppert: Denial stops here (2005)

The End of Suburbia (must-see video; 2006)

Derrick Jensen & Radio Roxanne: Premise One Civilization is not and can never be sustainable

Peak Oil

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse

Pfeiffer-Dale Allen

Stolen Elections And Media Blackouts + Palast on BET + New Poll Tax

Sent to me by Jason Miller from Thomas Paine’s Corner. Thanks, Jason.

Carolyn Baker Interviews Mark Crispin Miller

Simulposted with Speaking Truth to Power

(Burlington, Vermont: October 24, 2008) Shortly before a public lecture presented at Champlain College, I sat down with Mark Crispin Miller, Professor of Media Studies at New York University, to ask him a number of questions regarding stolen elections-a subject Miller has researched and written about extensively. Greg Palast, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Bev Harris, Steve Rosenfeld, Bob Fitrakis, and Lynne Landes, have provided monumental contributions to the subject of election fraud, each with their own unique styles and methods of targeting the issue. Mark Crispin Miller’s 2005 book Fooled Again, impeccably documents the stealing of the 2004 election, and Loser Take All, a 2008 collection of essays on stolen elections incorporates the research of other investigators of election fraud such as Robert Kennedy, Jr; Bob Fitrakis, and Steve Rosenfeld.

Illusions Of Inclusivity In The Culture Of “Whatever”

Dandelion Salad

Sent to me by Jason Miller from Thomas Paine’s Corner. Thanks, Jason.

By Carolyn Baker
8/27/08

Simulposted with Speaking Truth to Power

Most individuals who recognize that something is terribly wrong with the world and who for all their complaining are consciously struggling to create a more humane existence on planet earth, also empathically perceive that the essence of empire is its merciless, relentless ability to divide and alienate human beings from each other, from themselves, and from the earth community. As a result, awake, compassionate, twenty-first century earthlings understand that human consciousness cannot be transformed until we have learned on every level that there is no separateness-no “us and them”, no division, no “other.” Certainly, all persons whom I perceive as allies in our collapsing world work very hard to move beyond their empire-inculcated “otherness disorder.”

Making Sense Of Collapse: Funeral Procession Or Party Time?

Dandelion Salad

By Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power
Wednesday, 11 June 2008

[Correction: It was actually Pat Meadows, as quoted by Sharon Astyk, who originated the “theory of anyway”.–CB]

In his most recent post, Richard Heinberg asks “How Do You Like Collapse So Far?” and also asks why we should think or talk about collapse if there’s nothing we can do about it? He suggests that in the face of the gargantuan unraveling over which we have very little power, keeping in mind what it is about our species that is worth saving is a salutary emotional and spiritual practice. In fact he says, “…there may in fact be only one occupation worthy of our attention: that of identifying the qualities that make our species worth saving, and then celebrating and exemplifying those qualities. If we concentrate on doing that, perhaps we win no matter what. Outwardly, it will probably look a lot like what many of us are already doing: working to save a species, an ecosystem, a human community; to make a village sustainable, or to halt a new coal power plant.”

What Heinberg states here is exactly what many other collapse watchers have been up to for the past several years. We look at the truth, we feel it, we act. As we take action, we do not do so naively believing that any particular action or several actions taken even by masses of individuals will prevent collapse, but we do it because it’s the right thing to do-that is, acting according to what Sharon Astyk calls “The Theory Of Anyway.”

…continued

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Rapid Unraveling And The Demise Of Adolescent America By Carolyn Baker

Dandelion Salad

By Carolyn Baker
Friday, 23 May 2008

Well here it is folks-the great unraveling so many of us have been forecasting during the past five years as we’ve read the tea leaves and researched the unprecedented convergence of myriad natural, political, economic, and environmental realities. As most of you know, I’m traveling, yes on the road, across this country. I was going to wait until arriving at my final destination before writing about my experience, but with oil rapidly heading for $200 a barrel, it feels important to do so sooner rather than later because our lives have just changed more dramatically than we can imagine, and we will only be able to comprehend to what extent as the repercussions of the end of the age of oil reverberate through what is left of industrial civilization.

In my travels I’ve seen exactly one RV on the road, a few SUV’s and vans, a number of small cars and motorcycles, and lots of eighteen-wheelers going 55 MPH. Motels have a record low number of guests, and few people are eating in restaurants. I thought about writing an article entitled “Ghost Town USA: Echo Across America”, but that was before oil reached a new record of $135 yesterday. The speed of collapse is taking even a seasoned collapse-watcher like me by somewhat of a surprise, and I feel compelled to talk about it as it unfolds in this moment.

…continued

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Recession, Depression, Collapse: What’s Fear Got To Do With It? By Carolyn Baker

Dandelion Salad

By Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power
Friday, 11 April 2008

Interesting, isn’t it, that mainstream economists need a so-called economic guru like Alan Greenspan to confirm that the U.S. economy is in recession? If the maestro says it is so, then it is. If he doesn’t, then the “downturn” has a silver lining. And now we have the Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, stating what the American public has known all too well during the past year: “The economy has taken a sharp downturn.” Gee, Mr. Paulson, you get the understatement of the year award because what Americans have also discovered is that the middle class is now almost extinct after only a few decades of having one-thanks to you and your friends at Goldman Sachs.

No one walking away from a foreclosed home, no one declaring bankruptcy, no uninsured person staring in the face tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills needs a maestro or any other member of the ruling elite to tell them that not only are we in a recession, but we are on a fast-track to a depression that is going to make 1929 look like living in the lap of luxury. It’s called the collapse of Western civilization, and it is well underway.

Oh, you don’t like my use of the word “collapse”? Then please listen up.

…continued

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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US Relief Organization Takes Expedition to the USA (video) + What have we become as a nation?

Food, Fuel, & Fascism: Their Election Or Your Life? By Carolyn Baker

Orlov & The Wonderful, Terrible, Radical Simplification

Carolyn Baker Reviews Dmitry Orlov’s “Re-Inventing Collapse”

World Made By Hand: Not Just Another Book Review By Carolyn Baker

Dandelion Salad

By Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power
Wednesday, 26 March 2008

A review of the 2008 novel by James Howard Kunstler (Atlantic Monthly Press)

“The world has become such a wicked place,” she said quietly, just a statement of fact.

“There’s goodness here too.”

“Where is it?”

“In all the abiding virtues. Love, bravery, patience, honesty, justice, generosity, kindness. Beauty too. Mostly love.”

“I’m afraid sometimes that we drove those things out of existence.”

“No, we carry them in our hearts. They’re always with us.”

“I don’t know what’s in my heart anymore. It’s too dark to see.”

“Light follows darkness.”

This dialog between the main character of World Made By Hand, Robert, and his housemate-become-lover, Britney, offers a glimpse into the anguish of those few survivors of collapse living in the small village of Union Grove, New York in a post-petroleum world.

As I sit down to write this review, I’ve just finished lunch-a generous bowl of organic broccoli slaw mixed with garbanzo beans, tomatoes, diced turkey breast, and Caesar dressing. For dessert, a bit of Hagen Dazs coconut sorbet chased with my twice-daily regimen of vitamins and supplements. In a “world made by hand” I would have none of this unless I were able to grow or raise it myself or trade something for these items, assuming that they were even available. I would be forced to rely on my friends and neighbors in close proximity, and they on me, for life’s fundamental necessities.

I was riveted to this stunning novel by James Howard Kunstler even as my heart was laden with sorrow while turning every compelling page. Like nothing I’ve ever read or imagined, the book takes the reader into the smells, tastes, textures, sounds, and emotions of a post-petroleum world devoid of electricity, media, sophisticated technology, and a plethora of conveniences and distractions that are ubiquitous in twenty-first century Western civilization.

…continued

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Food, Fuel, & Fascism: Their Election Or Your Life? By Carolyn Baker

Dandelion Salad

By Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power
Thursday, 13 March 2008

After two years of managing the Truth To Power website and subsequent to many more years of researching domestic and geopolitical events and trends, it is chilling to witness so much of what “prophets” like Mike Ruppert, Matt Savinar, Catherine Austin Fitts, Richard Heinberg, Matt Simmons, Dmitry Orlov, myself, and many others have been forecasting for nearly a decade or longer. We are no longer prophets but truly historians, and yet I take no pleasure in the accuracy of these forecasts or in the fact that our dire predictions are unfolding before our eyes. When I use the word “chilling”, I mean just that, while at the same time, I feel sorrow that so many are yet still so comatose to the reality of the cataclysm that is manifesting around them. While I feel fear and sadness for them, I have no energy now to expend on them. As most readers of this site know, my life is all about preparation and building community in order to navigate the inevitable.

These are the last hours on the deck of the Titanic, and the chamber orchestra is now playing “Nearer My God To Thee” as the ship continues to take on barrels of water per second, and all but one or two lifeboats have been filled to capacity and launched into the open seas of escape from the capsizing horror-and with no guarantees that they will survive. Throngs of the doomed are drowning in the steerage compartments below-those indigent, third-class, “racially impure” masses of humanity that the “first-class”, who helped design the “unsinkable” vessel, kept locked away below the decks of obscene privilege and conspicuous consumption. Some say that economic depressions don’t affect the poor because they are already poor, but I’m certain that a black mother in the projects who can now give her kids only two meals a day will become acutely aware, as will her children, when she can only give them one.

…continued

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Celebrating Un-President’s Day: Why I Will Not Vote For A President In 2008 By Carolyn Baker

Uncounted – The New Math of American Elections (video)

Hacking Democracy (must see videos; 2006)

Naomi Wolf Celebrated Author of “The End of America” (must-see video)

Who cares if Eliot Spitzer hires prostitutes? + The Spitzer Sex Sting: A Few More Questions

Homegrown Revolution: Radical Change Taking Root

Genetically Modified Food – Panacea or poison (must-see video)

Carolyn Baker Reviews Dmitry Orlov’s “Re-Inventing Collapse”

Dandelion Salad

by Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power (no longer available)
Wednesday, 27 February 2008

The old normal is that life will go on just like before. The new normal is that nothing will ever be the same Rather than attempting to undertake the Herculean task of mitigating the unmitigatable – attempting to stop the world and point it in a different direction-it seems far better to turn inward and work to transform yourself into someone who might stand a chance, given the world’s assumed trajectory. Much of this transformation is psychological and involves letting go of many notions that we have been conditioned to accept unquestioningly. Some if it involves acquiring new skills and a different set of habits. Some of it is even physiological, changing one’s body to prepare it for a life that has far fewer creature comforts and conveniences, while requiring far more physical labor.

Celebrating Un-President’s Day: Why I Will Not Vote For A President In 2008 By Carolyn Baker

Dandelion Salad

By Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power
Thursday, 14 February 2008

Four years ago, I wrote “Why I Will Not Vote In 2004” for which a number of readers thanked me profusely while another segment of readers sent scathing emails questioning how I could be so cynical and unpatriotic.

My intent in writing that article was not cynicism but honest questioning and exposure of what the voting process in this nation has become in recent years. It was authentic and sprang from genuine issues I had at the time regarding the wisdom of voting in a federal election. Since then, my skepticism of the integrity of the electronic voting machine process has deepened exponentially. And since then, Bev Harris of Black Box Voting produced an HBO documentary “Hacking Democracy” which exposes the jaw-dropping abuses of the electronic voting system and calls into question the veracity of any outcomes produced by it.

In fact, as recently as the New Hampshire primary, 2008, Black Box Voting and others have illumined spurious results in electronic voting in that state. Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis painstakingly researched the 2004 election and concluded in 2005 that, “The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the Government Accountability Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage.” In 2007, Wasserman shared his irrefutable confirmation of a stolen 2004 election in an exclusive interview on Democracy Now.

As I’ve frequently stated, I will never again vote in an election where I cannot use a paper ballot. For me to do otherwise, I believe, is to engage in a shell game of smoke and mirrors to which I will not sacrifice the preciousness of my right to vote in a so-called democratic republic.

As for my 2004 article, the world is remarkably different than it was then, and so am I. A larger, bleaker picture has emerged since then-one which for me calls into question the very process of selecting and electing candidates in the context of empire-in a culture of fascism, genocide, greed, corruption, and ecoside. It is that larger scenario that this article addresses.

…continued

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

$700 bribe buys access to voting machines (video)

Hacking Democracy (must see videos; 2006)

Seriously, it’s time to not vote in the presidential election by Lo

America Freedom to Fascism Authorized version (video)

The Mother of All Rip-offs “Get Ready For A Real Hosing” By Mike Whitney (+ Daily Show vid)

Carolyn Baker Reviews “The Final Empire” By William Kotke

Carolyn Baker Reviews “The Final Empire” Part 2 By William Kotke

The Bilderberg Group: Rulers of the World (must listen audio link; Daniel Estulin)

Who Runs The World And Why You Need To Know Immediately By Carolyn Baker (updated)

Carolyn Baker Reviews “The Final Empire” Part 2 By William Kotke

Dandelion Salad

by Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power
Thursday, 07 February 2008

As part of my commitment to holding the tension of current reality alongside my vision, I will continue to spotlight those who are in Kotke’s words “gathering seeds of Natural cultures and the truly beneficial things created by civilization” and carrying them through the apocalypse.

Carolyn Baker Reviews “The Final Empire” Part 1 By William Kotke

Dandelion Salad

by Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power
Friday, 01 February 2008

My intention in reviewing this stunning book is to share how it has illumined my understanding that collapse and vision are not separate, but that in fact, they travel together and need each other. That is to say that collapse makes vision possible, and vision makes collapse the most desirable option of all as we confront the earth community’s current dilemma.

Seriously, it’s time to not vote in the presidential election by Lo

Dandelion Salad

Here is a collection of various posts questioning our “free” elections and the choice of not voting in the presidential election. I would still encourage you to support local candidates and put your energy and funds towards electing them.

A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression By Carolyn Baker

Dandelion Salad

By Carolyn Baker
11/29/07 “ICH”

Vulture restructuring is a purging cure for a malignant debt cancer. The reckoning of systemic debt presents regulators with a choice of facing the cancer frontally and honestly by excising the invasive malignancy immediately or let it metastasize through the entire financial system over the painful course of several quarters or even years and decades by feeding it with more dilapidating debt. Henry Liu, “The Pathology Of Debt“

Carolyn Baker Reviews Danny Schechter’s e-book SQUEEZED (Click on link to Download)