Posted by CGI Room Agent 'Antrochemist'.
The Five Stages of Collapse
by Dmitry Orlov
1-Financial Collapse
2-Commercial Collapse
3-Political Collapse
4-Social Collapse
5-Cultural Collapse
**SNIP**
So here are the five stages as I defined them almost a year ago. The little check-mark next to "financial collapse" is there to remind us that we are not here to quibble or equivocate, because Stage 1 is pretty far along. Stages 2 and 3 - commercial and political collapse, are driven by financial collapse, and will overlap each other. Right now, it is unclear which one is farther along. On the one hand, there are signs that global shipping is grinding to a halt, and that big box retailers are in for a very bad time, with many stores likely to close following a disastrous Christmas season. On the other hand, states are already experiencing massive budget shortfalls, laying off state workers, cutting back on programs, and are starting to beg the federal government for bail-out money.
Even though the various stages of collapse drive each other in a variety of ways, I think that it makes sense to keep them apart conceptually. This is because their effects on our daily life are quite different. Whatever constructive ways we may find of dodging these effects are also going to be different. Lastly, some stages of collapse seem unavoidable, while others may be avoided if we put up enough of a fight.
Financial collapse seems to be particularly painful if you happen to have a lot of money. On the other hand, I run across people all the time, who feel that "Nothing's happened yet." These are mostly younger, relatively successful people, who have little or no savings, and still have good paying jobs, or unemployment insurance that hasn't run out yet. Their daily lives aren't much affected by the turmoil on the financial markets, and they don't believe that anything different is happening beyond the usual economic ups and downs.
Commercial collapse is much more obvious, and observing it doesn't entail opening envelopes and examining columns of figures. It is painful to most people, and life-threatening to some. When store shelves are stripped bare of necessities and remain that way for weeks at a time, panic sets in. In most places, this requires some sort of emergency response, to make sure that people are not deprived of food, shelter, medicine, and that some measure of security and public order is maintained. People who know what's coming can prepare to sit out the worst of it.
Political collapse is more painful yet, because it is directly life-threatening to many people. The breakdown of public order would be particularly dangerous in the US, because of the large number of social problems that have been swept under the carpet over the years. Americans, more than most other people, need to be defended from each other at all times. I think that I would prefer martial law over complete and utter mayhem and lawlessness, though I admit that both are very poor choices.
Social and cultural collapse seem to have already occurred in many parts of the country to a large extent. What social activity remains seems to be anchored to transitory activities like work, shopping, and sports. Religion is perhaps the largest exception, and many communities are organized around churches. But in places where society and culture remain intact, I believe that social and cultural collapse is avoidable, and that this is where we must really dig in our heels. Also, I think it is very important that we learn to see our surroundings for what they have become. In many places, it feels as if there just isn't that much left that's worth trying to save. If all the culture we see is commercial culture, and all the society we see is consumer society, then the best we can do is walk away from it, and look for other people who are ready to do the same.
Link:
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47157
This is very long but packed with information. He really puts alot of the pieces together, its not pretty. Here is his summary about his essay.
It requires a concerted effort to comprehend the enormity of what cabal capitalists are currently perpetrating: outrages so monstrous--yet hidden and somewhat gradual--that most people aren't able to discern them.
In this essay we'll investigate how the cabal is using its economic terrorist attacks as a means of destroying American society utterly and on its ashes attempting to create a new political-economic world order, quickening America's and the world's descent into a new Holocaust. We'll also explore how we can survive this Cataclysm and overcome the demonic forces perpetrating it.
Current financial crises are cabal-planned-and-executed terrorist "false-flag" attacks 3 on American workers: an operation in which a nation attacks itself but makes it appear that an enemy has committed the attack, provoking peace-loving people into fighting against the demonized “enemy.”
In the present situation, the "enemy" is said to be "happenstance," as though current economic crises are merely accidental in nature--when, in fact, they are deliberately caused by the capitalist cabal. These are not crises for wealthy cabal members, because they looted their own personal billions from taxpayer money when they began the crises.
The chart below helps us get a graphic sense of the stupendous amount of tax-payer dollars the predatory capitalists have STOLEN (through November 2008) from American workers (dollar amounts adjusted to November 2008 inflated terms).
In all of U.S. history, adding up all the nation's large expenditures--never before has this much money been looted from American taxpayers--in a single year! All these huge past projects put together equal only about one-third of what the predatory capitalists have stolen from American workers and given to incompetent, demonic capitalist predators--in the form of multi-million dollar salaries, bonuses, and bailouts.
http://www.hermes-press.com/societal_apocalypse.htm
