Hey all.
This overload of news about the financial crisis got me thinking! Is this the start of the end of the world, albeit a slow one? We'll either kill each other for natural resources or be destroyed by the lack of them!
The financial crisis has revealed that we are not only consuming everything we make, but we’ve created an artificial system – debt – that has allowed us to consume way more than we earn. This is creating a huge carbon footprint and will require many planet earths to support our consumption. And we'll start fighting over the scarce resources soon - particularly fresh water - we're running out!
At the same time, we're destroying anything that can help reverse the effects - rain forests like Amazon and Borneo, etc. And now even more - there's a fight, though mild at this stage, for the last unexplored/unexploited regions on earth - antarctic and deep oceans. So we'll destroy those as well pretty soon!
If this financial crisis results in debt and globalisation being discredited, it will be a positive outcome. Then maybe the earth will survive for a bit longer! And we'll be able to travel to places without macdonalds and coke...
PS. I'm not one of those "the end of the world is nigh" sandwich board-carrying hippies! lol.
Nah! Not the end of the world. The world has been around billions of years; humans a few thousand. If anything it'll be the end of us the world will continue on.
just because the economy hit a downturn and when it resurfaces the west may not be on top is not a reason to believe it's the end of the world. economics is all theoretical crap; hidden behind the fancy equations, the truth is that consumer confidence and the whims of noted economists and investors is all there is. the world does not want to be poor, and it won't be, even if the money isn't real.
as china's population continues to increase its minimum education level, future generations will not want to work in factories or on farms, just how it is in the west. then the manufacturing industry moves on to 'greener' pastures and china's economic stranglehold on the world will loosen, economies will stabilize, africa will be exploited. but this is all well after the current economic 'crisis' has been handled.
i guess through all of my ranting the actual point is that we need not go stand on our roof looking skyward based on the current economic situation. if anything, the beginning of the end began quite a bit before this. forget about the money issues of the world, pin up your mayan calendar, and enjoy yourself.
Well, guys, I do not believe this is the end of the world. This is the first tangible sign of the end of the Western supremacy over the world and the proof of a deep crisis of an economic paradigm based on free market and growth. The world won't end, not now. It's just the end of the egemonic position of the Western part of the world on the rest. It's gonna be hard to swallow, but I do not see any alternative.
I agree with the Moderator that this is the sign of the end of the world.
(12-02-2008 01:07 PM)Litchfield Wrote: [ -> ]Nah! Not the end of the world. The world has been around billions of years; humans a few thousand. If anything it'll be the end of us the world will continue on.
Yah
This is true. Human life may end but world will not end.
Hi 474,
Well,MEXICO CITY – Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.
Or is it?
Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff."
It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.
At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared.
"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."
Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.
Thanks
I would say the end of the world as we know is it is pretty much at hand. The US's debt has almost tripled from 9 Trillion to 24 Trillion since Obama became president. It is impossible for people to get jobs in cities nowadays. Unexplained phenomena such as crop circles are becoming more and more prevalent. Drugs are well on their way to becoming decriminalized.
Hopefully we will witness the super accelerated evolution of consciousness that will save us all within the next 5 years.
What? The US government's debt is only 14 trillion, and when the dollar collapses that won't even be hardly any money at all! Shit, if we could just get 1,000,000% inflation in this country our debt problems would be resolved instantly! You know, I love how people criticize obama after putting up with bush for 8 years. stupid bastards. Drugs aren't gonna be legalized any time soon, either. Too much money at risk for the cartels that run half of the world's governments...
Oh shit you are right about the debt. Fuck I swear Alex Jones was going on about a 23 trillion dollar debt a couple months ago. i knew that fat bastard was not to be trusted.
"You know, I love how people criticize obama after putting up with bush for 8 years. stupid bastards"
so what exactly has changed for the better since obama became president? ok now there's someone in office that can put together a coherent sentence but still, debt's going up, unemployment's going up, there is still a senseless war going on with a death toll of over a million according to some stats. and you have a problem with me criticizing obama just because the president before him was borderline retarded? how about analyzing his actual policies and basing your judgment on that? not that the president makes any of the big decisions anyways..
"Drugs aren't gonna be legalized any time soon, either"
the only really positive thing that i can think of since obama's presidency is that the federal government can no longer interfere with individual state's medical marijuana laws.
in Vancouver they are doing clinical research trials to see if MDMA is effective in treating PTSD.
in mexico small amounts of coke, heroin, and meth are no longer a criminal offence.
Drug laws and the general perception of drugs are OBVIOUSLY changing (if you pay attention to that sort of thing). of course we aren't gonna see cocaine being sold in pharmacy's anytime soon but people are waking up to the fact that prohibition doesn't work.
"Too much money at risk for the cartels that run half of the world's governments..."
Ok I know about the CIA cooperating with right wing Nicaraguan rebels and knowingly shipping tons of coke into the USA. I highly suspect their involvement in the middle eastern heroin trade, but as far as half of the world's governments being run by drug cartels could you give some example? sounds interesting..