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Dark Age America: Climate Change, Cultural Collapse, and the Hard Future Ahead, by John Michael Greer
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Review
Greer's Dark Age America is the essential education and impetus for boomers who choose legacy focus over longevity fixation. We've lived through peak oil, peak debt, peak comfort, peak me-ness, peak pettiness. Now, let us become ancestors our grandchildren will be proud of. - Connie Barlow, science writer, creator of Torreya Guardians and TheGreatStoryJohn Michael Greer is a modern-day prophet speaking on behalf of Reality. Dark Age America draws upon Greer's vast knowledge of the patterns and rhythms of history to yield insights grounded in our best evidential understandings of ecology, economics, systems science, and human nature. The result is a work of remarkable clarity and searing wisdom vital for these confusing times." - Rev. Michael Dowd, author, Thank God for Evolution and host, "The Future Is Calling Us to Greatness"If the future trajectory of our civilization follows the same general patterns laid down by previous ones, then John Michael Greer's new book gives us perhaps the best view of the future currently available. His thoughts on the great unraveling ahead are rooted in a broad and deep knowledge of history: even if you disagree with him about the future, you will learn a great deal from his survey of the relevant human past. -Richard Heinberg, author, The End of GrowthDark Age America argues cogently and compellingly the inevitable decline of industrial civilization and its ramifications within the next five centuries. Whereas the human psyche may hold out for a faux Great Turning or the fantasy that "this time it will be different," Greer demonstrates that ecologically, politically, economically, and technologically, the decline is not only inevitable but well underway. How the demise unfolds and whether any members of our species prevail may well be determined by the choices we make now. Business as usual is not an option. -Carolyn Baker, Ph.D., author, Love In The Age Of Ecological Apocalypse and Collapsing ConsciouslyWhether you only just figured it out or have known for a long time that globalized consumer culture is a sinking ship, it really helps when a polite steward comes to your cabin and offers to guide you to the lifeboat and then chats breezily, easing your fears, as he guides you down the metallic corridors with blinking fluorescent lights, describing all you may need to know to get your life back on track once the lifeboats reach safe harbor. Dark Age America is John Michael Greer's finest work. He does not cut any slack, even for his own predictions. Read it slowly, in a comfortable chair, with a cup of your favorite warm beverage. -Albert Bates, author, The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook, The Biochar Solution, and The Paris Agreement Civilization isn't selling too well. The would-be masters of the universe want billions of consumers, productivity gains, growth and profits. In return they offer open borders, fancy widgets, gender equality for a rainbow of genders and space exploration pipe dreams. But there are no takers; what the people want is nine hours of sleep, summers in the country, family and friends around and somebody to buy their rutabagas. A dark age cometh, but don't worry. As Greer explains, this is perfectly normal-just takes some getting used to. A dark age is a great time to catch up on sleep. -Dmitry Orlov, author, Reinventing Collapse and The Five Stages of CollapseDark Age America is a courageous, thoughtful, timely and well-researched prognosis for the next five centuries of life on Earth. John brings to bear a thorough knowledge of how past civilizations have unraveled, an appreciation of how complex systems work (and when they don't), and an understanding of how humans behave in crises that are not sudden and transitory, but gradual, uneven, profound and enduring. No matter where on the political spectrum your sensibilities lie, this intelligently reasoned, thought-provoking and important work will challenge your ways of thinking and prod you to take useful preparatory actions. -Dave Pollard, author, How to Save the World
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Review
"Greer's Dark Age America is the essential education and impetus for boomers who choose legacy focus over longevity fixation. We've lived through peak oil, peak debt, peak comfort, peak me-ness, peak pettiness. Now, let us become ancestors our grandchildren will be proud of. " ― Connie Barlow, science writer, creator of Torreya Guardians and TheGreatStory "John Michael Greer is a modern-day prophet speaking on behalf of Reality. Dark Age America draws upon Greer's vast knowledge of the patterns and rhythms of history to yield insights grounded in our best evidential understandings of ecology, economics, systems science, and human nature. The result is a work of remarkable clarity and searing wisdom vital for these confusing times." ― Rev. Michael Dowd, author, Thank God for Evolution and host, 'The Future Is Calling Us to Greatness' "If the future trajectory of our civilization follows the same general patterns laid down by previous ones, then John Michael Greer's new book gives us perhaps the best view of the future currently available. His thoughts on the great unraveling ahead are rooted in a broad and deep knowledge of history: even if you disagree with him about the future, you will learn a great deal from his survey of the relevant human past." ― Richard Heinberg, author, The End of Growth " Dark Age America argues cogently and compellingly the inevitable decline of industrial civilization and its ramifications within the next five centuries. Whereas the human psyche may hold out for a faux Great Turning or the fantasy that "this time it will be different," Greer demonstrates that ecologically, politically, economically, and technologically, the decline is not only inevitable but well underway. How the demise unfolds and whether any members of our species prevail may well be determined by the choices we make now. Business as usual is not an option." ― Carolyn Baker, Ph.D., author, Love In The Age Of Ecological Apocalypse and Collapsing Consciously "Whether you only just figured it out or have known for a long time that globalized consumer culture is a sinking ship, it really helps when a polite steward comes to your cabin and offers to guide you to the lifeboat and then chats breezily, easing your fears, as he guides you down the metallic corridors with blinking fluorescent lights, describing all you may need to know to get your life back on track once the lifeboats reach safe harbor. Dark Age America is John Michael Greer's finest work. He does not cut any slack, even for his own predictions. Read it slowly, in a comfortable chair, with a cup of your favorite warm beverage. ― Albert Bates, author, The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook, The Biochar Solution, and The Paris Agreement "Civilization isn't selling too well. The would-be masters of the universe want billions of consumers, productivity gains, growth and profits. In return they offer open borders, fancy widgets, gender equality for a rainbow of genders and space exploration pipe dreams. But there are no takers; what the people want is nine hours of sleep, summers in the country, family and friends around and somebody to buy their rutabagas. A dark age cometh, but don't worry. As Greer explains, this is perfectly normal-just takes some getting used to. A dark age is a great time to catch up on sleep." ― Dmitry Orlov, author, Reinventing Collapse and The Five Stages of Collapse " Dark Age America is a courageous, thoughtful, timely and well-researched prognosis for the next five centuries of life on Earth. John brings to bear a thorough knowledge of how past civilizations have unraveled, an appreciation of how complex systems work (and when they don't), and an understanding of how humans behave in crises that are not sudden and transitory, but gradual, uneven, profound and enduring. No matter where on the political spectrum your sensibilities lie, this intelligently reasoned, thought-provoking and important work will challenge your ways of thinking and prod you to take useful preparatory actions. ― Dave Pollard, author, How to Save the World
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Product details
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: New Society Publishers (August 12, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0865718334
ISBN-13: 978-0865718333
Product Dimensions:
6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.2 out of 5 stars
46 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#40,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Typical Greer - this book delights with no-nonsense pronouncements on the grim consequences of ecological overshoot, but sometimes his mastery of history surpasses that of current affairs. In fact, Greer is at his best when he relies on good historians, like Arnold Toynbee, to burst the bubbles of hype and “progress†that pervade our media. Yet why no mention of one our best current historians of precisely this subject? - Peter Turchin, whose marvelous book “War and Peace and War – the Rise and Fall of Empires†has now been updated to apply to current US history (“Ages of Discordâ€). Greer misses the greed factor that Turchin has so effectively modeled, though, in turn, Turchin misses the overshoot factor.I tend to agree more with Greer - that we could be headed toward a Roman-type civilizational collapse (“deindustrial North American will support many fewer people than in 1880â€, p.40, after “those environmental protections that haven’t been gutted already get flung aside in a frantic quest to keep the system goingâ€, p. 37, citing ruinous top soil losses during the last years of the Roman Empire). He also points out that “externalized costs don’t just go away; one way or another they’re going to be paid.†(p. 93). However Greer views the economics and politics as basically hopeless – that as resources dwindle and uncertainties increase, distrust and political gridlock ensue, so that we can do nothing better than “muddle through, trying to deal with each stage of the descent as it comes into sight, and being prepared to make plenty of mid-course corrections†(p. 224).Yet the real story of survival is that we survive as communities, not as individuals, so we always have economic and political options. In this case, at least half the US GDP is being wasted on the fancy life styles and pet projects of the affluent, if you track the increasing inequality since 1980. Thus there is an enormous potential for a more equitable society, giving us the ability to hunker down, to simplify and sacrifice. That’s simply what cohesive communities do as they face hardship -if they feel that “we’re all in this togetherâ€. To Greer this is probably just wishful thinking. Time will tell.And Greer does hold out hope that the coming population decline (up to 95% of the population) could be accomplished by minimal, but continued, increases in the death rate, rather than by cataclysmic events: “of the traditional four horsemen, War, Famine, Pestilence can sit around drinking beer and playing poker. The fourth horseman, in the shape of a modest change in the crude death rate, can do the job all by himself†(p. 45). But he quickly pulls back from this optimistic note, citing “a steady demographic contraction [of the Roman world] overlaid by civil wars, barbarian invasions, economic crises, famines, and epidemics†(p. 46).Greer also makes the interesting point that “new ethnicities emerge†(p. 50) as civilizations transition into dark ages, even after prior ethnic divisions have been ruthlessly exploited by competing factions during the collapse phase. That is, ethnic conflict doesn’t survive “political dissolution, economic implosion, social chaos, demographic collapse, and mass migration†(p. 50).Greer blames the “political class†for driving us over the edge. Yet this is a poor choice of terminology, as it tends to blame politicians and not the economic system that they represent. In fact, even though Greer anticipates that the “free marketâ€, even money, will disappear during the final stages of collapse, he shows us no vision of a better economic system other than of medieval feudalism.Then comes another unfortunate choice of words: he blames “intermediaries†for taking all the wealth between producers and consumers, as fees or taxes, etc. Actually the “intermediaries†are supposed to be providing useful services (law, security, infrastructure, health care, education, religion, etc.) and there is no problem if they provide these services at reasonable prices. The problem comes when the services aren’t provided, or the costs are exorbitant due to the power and greed of the intermediaries. For example, if serfs slave away in grinding poverty while their kings and barons live in the lap of luxury, the costs would be regarded as exorbitant by most people.Greer harbors a lot of animosity toward scientists due to a handful of militant atheists and skeptics, yet never mentions the legions of well funded religious fundamentalists who attack science, especially evolution. Most scientists have a less confrontational attitude toward religion, but are still glad that others are willing to publicly stand up to assaults by religious extremists. Yet it is noteworthy that even a militant atheist like Sam Harris is willing to have a respectful dialogue with a scholar of Islam when that scholar challenges the fundamentalism of his own faith (“Islam and the Future of Tolerance – A Dialogue†by Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz). Greer might get more respect, perhaps even from Richard Dawkins, if he made a public show of rejection of religious dogma.And it is not just science that is harmed by dogma, but also education in general. Once when I ran for school board (and was elected), one issue was fundamentalist opposition to “critical thinking skillsâ€, since they perceived, correctly, that their children might grow up to reject their dogma if taught these skills. Now nonbelievers outnumber fundamentalists 2 to 1, and Christianity in the US has, all too much, become a decaying religion of empire, rejecting its anti-imperialist roots in the life of Jesus. While Greer thinks that science will be among the first parts of the establishment to put on the chopping block, the public (especially youth) is already voting with their feet, but more against dogmatic religion than science.And finally Greer predicts a new Renaissance rising from the ashes of the Dark Ages ahead. We can even help by preserving great books: “Of our positive achievements, the ones most likely to reach our descendants 5000 years from now are the ones written in books†(p. 222), citing the eternal “Epic of Gilgamesh†from 4000 years ago in Sumeria.
This is a dark vision of the near future. It is one we would all sooner avoid, convincing ourselves that this is science fiction, a doomsday prophet on the fringes of the consumer culture we call reality. But the author is thorough, expansive in his analysis and he provides enough examples that the vision he sees can be observed right around us, here and now. The irony is that most of us who need to consider this vision of deindustrialization and cultural collapse will no doubt engage in whatever form of denial that they hope dill allow them to "have their planet and eat it, too." It won't.This vision is particularly salient with the rise of Trumpland and the death of the old America it replaced. The cannibalization of the infrastructure and material goods by the oligarchs and the political elites who serve their bidding is not even hidden these days as is the internal proletariat fighting among themselves over the dregs and the external proletariat and their warlords poring over our southern border bearing the drugs to anaesthetize a fearful, dying culture who deep down knows the score but is unwilling to deal with it.May this be one of the books the author says we must preserve so that generations to come will have some sense of how this collapse came down even as they curse our generations for inflicting it upon them.
For some years I have been concerned about the possibility of collapse. I have spent a lot of time and effort to learn how it could be prevented. I believe that, given the commitment, we could avoid collapse and make a smooth transition to a low-consumption future that could be more pleasant and humane than the present. If we had continued the first steps taken in the 1970's, and committed to a WWII-scale effort, we could be there now. But since then we have turned resolutely toward the abyss. If I talk about it at all, people shun me, but I can find no alternative to collapse that stands up to scrutiny.John Michael Greer has tackled this head-on, with amazing clarity, humor, and freedom from ideology. Rather than grasping at straws like almost all the rest of the literature, he assumes that it is too late and we are in for it. He delves into history to examine how collapse has played out in previous civilizations. Some of my speculations differ from his, but there is a lot of uncertainty in the attempt to describe a chaotic future.If I were diagnosed with terminal cancer, it would be a kindness if someone could discuss the prognosis openly and honestly with me. It would help me live the rest of my life as positively as possibly, and pass some value on to my heirs. Greer has provided that kindness.
An unsustainable system, cannot be sustained forever: the basic idea behind this book is unquestionably correct. Greer looks at the current state of Western Civilization, particularly North America and applies what history has shown us to expect from a falling civilization. From climate uncertainty to technological collapse to new economies and the inevitable social unrest, Greer puts it all down and gives the reader something to mull over and hopefully prepare for.
Greer is a seer whose vision of our future everyone should read, but with which many will be very uncomfortable. He makes his case in a relentlessly logical manner. His knowledge of history is profound, but not academic. The book has "America" in its title, but he really is talking about civilization in the whole. Many would label Greer a pessimist. In truth, he is a realist.
I never write reviews but this work of Greers is truly spot on. He's an incredibly keen and acute observer and in addition, draws upon vast historical knowledge of past rise and falls of various civilizations. Yet best of all, his unusual ability to include political, economic, social, religious, and environmental knowledge and how all these aspects intertwine and effect a civilizations fall, is truly amazing. A great work!
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