We Are Fucked.

Christmas gives me a chance to reflect a little bit. This year, I was thinking about the economy, and reading articles about holiday spending being down, and about retailers losing money, and about how bad things are in this country.

It occurred to me that basically, our country's success depends on mass consumption by everyone all the time. Without that, it breaks down. Therefore, if we are to be "successful," and prosper, which we ultimately will, we have to consume more and more, so that the economy grows and grows. That's great, except it will ultimately lead to our demise, as a nation, if not as a species. Thus, our success will beget our failure.

The only way I see this changing is if what we're consuming changes. If we can find ways to get people interested in things other than money and materialism, we might be able to create some jobs that don't contribute to ruining our planet.

Of course, the smartest species is also the stubbornest, and we will ultimately fail in the end, and go extinct. If we can just put it off for a few more generations, I'll be happy.

We are fucked.


Merry Christmas