The Five Stages of Collapse

[Attero Dominatus]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2930709

villager  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Wed Feb-27-08 02:13 PM
Original message
The Five Stages of Collapse
   
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Rather than tying each phase to a particular emotion, as in the Kübler-Ross model, the proposed taxonomy ties each of the five collapse stages to the breaching of a specific level of trust, or faith, in the status quo. Although each stage causes physical, observable changes in the environment, these can be gradual, while the mental flip is generally quite swift. It is something of a cultural universal that nobody (but a real fool) wants to be the last fool to believe in a lie.

Stages of Collapse

Stage 1: Financial collapse. Faith in "business as usual" is lost. The future is no longer assumed resemble the past in any way that allows risk to be assessed and financial assets to be guaranteed. Financial institutions become insolvent; savings are wiped out, and access to capital is lost.

Stage 2: Commercial collapse. Faith that "the market shall provide" is lost. Money is devalued and/or becomes scarce, commodities are hoarded, import and retail chains break down, and widespread shortages of survival necessities become the norm.

Stage 3: Political collapse. Faith that "the government will take care of you" is lost. As official attempts to mitigate widespread loss of access to commercial sources of survival necessities fail to make a difference, the political establishment loses legitimacy and relevance.

Stage 4: Social collapse. Faith that "your people will take care of you" is lost. As local social institutions, be they charities, community leaders, or other groups that rush in to fill the power vacuum, run out of resources or fail through internal conflict.

Stage 5: Cultural collapse. Faith in the goodness of humanity is lost. People lose their capacity for "kindness, generosity, consideration, affection, honesty, hospitality, compassion, charity" (Turnbull, The Mountain People). Families disband and compete as individuals for scarce resources. The new motto becomes "May you die today so that I die tomorrow" (Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago). There may even be some cannibalism.

<snip>

While attempting to arrest collapse at Stage 1 and Stage 2 would probably be a dangerous waste of energy, it is probably worth everyone's while to dig in their heels at Stage 3, definitely at Stage 4, and it is quite simply a matter of physical survival to avoid Stage 5. In certain localities - those with high population densities, as well as those that contain dangerous nuclear and industrial installations - avoiding Stage 3 collapse is rather important, to the point of inviting foreign troops and governments in to maintain order and avoid disasters. Other localities may be able to prosper indefinitely at Stage 3, and even the most impoverished environments may be able to support a sparse population subsisting indefinitely at Stage 4.

<snip>

http://www.energybulletin.net/40919.html

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BrklynLiberal  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Wed Feb-27-08 02:15 PM
Response to Original message
1. If we don't hit the streets with torches and pitchforks, we are screwed.
   
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REVOLUTION!!! Ohh..wait 

Hydra  (1000+ posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Wed Feb-27-08 02:16 PM
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3. Stages 3 though 5 already in play
   
and stage 1 is well underway. We only need the flow of goods to stop...and then the bloodbath will begin.
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hyphenate  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Wed Feb-27-08 02:18 PM
Response to Original message
4. In my own life, I'm at Stage 4
   
and I think that our country is at Stage 3, but I don't think that too many are willing to look at things that badly. People want to remain ignorant so they can stave off the discomfort they feel when they know "too much." I say there can never be such a thing as knowing "too much."

This is an interesting way of looking at things. Thanks.
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Junkdrawer  (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Wed Feb-27-08 02:20 PM
Response to Original message
6. All completely unnecessary but probably inevitable....
   
Energy alternatives to oil are being actively sabotaged by the Oil Masters to ensure our continued reliance on oil and their continued and rapidly growing profits and subsequent power.

But, under our current system, the more money they extort, the more politically powerful they become.
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flyarm  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Wed Feb-27-08 02:37 PM
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10. and yet we are as a country about to nominate someone with so little experience?
   
god help us..and i don't think he can help us at this point...

we are letting the youth of this country pick a candidate and most of them have never paid a damn bill in their lives..oh aren't we so smart???...not

fly
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[franksolich]

Oh my.

Apparently the Leona Helmsley of DUmmieland, the flyarm primitive, doesn't like Barry.

But for the record, franksolich agrees Leona has a point.

[Chris_]

Stage 1: Financial collapse: "I spent all my money on dope and Cheetos."

Stage 2: Commercial collapse: "I cashed in my 401k for dope and Cheetos."

Stage 3: Political collapse: "The Democrats didn't win!  Boo hoo!"

Stage 4: Social collapse: "They took away my welfare checks!  Boo hoo!"

Stage 5: Cultural collapse: "After 40 years of hard-core liberal influence on society, it has finally gone to shit.  Who, me?"

 

[BlueStateSaint]

Stage 1: Financial collapse: "I spent all my money on dope and Cheetos."

Stage 2: Commercial collapse: "I cashed in my 401k for dope and Cheetos."

Stage 3: Political collapse: "The Democrats didn't win!  Boo hoo!"  Where's my dope and Cheetos?

Stage 4: Social collapse: "They took away my welfare checks!  Boo hoo!"  Now I can't afford dope and Cheetos!

Stage 5: Cultural collapse: "After 40 years of hard-core liberal influence on society, it has finally gone to shit.  Who, me?"  I need more dope and Cheetos!

 

Probable actual statements in red above . . . 

[Duke Nukum]

flyarm  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Wed Feb-27-08 02:37 PM
Response to Original message
10. and yet we are as a country about to nominate someone with so little experience?

We as a country?  No, you as a party.  The country, as a whole, is way saner than you guys.

[Carl]

Do they ever do anything except whine?

Good Lord they are losers.

[Attero Dominatus]

Do they ever do anything except whine?

Good Lord they are losers.

Hate is pretty much all they have.

[Chris_]

Do they ever do anything except whine?

Good Lord they are losers.

Hate is pretty much all they have.

and dope and Cheetos.

[Chris_]

Pathetic...all screaming for a revolution none of them have the balls to start.

Cindie

[Attero Dominatus]

Pathetic...all screaming for a revolution none of them have the balls to start.

Cindie

They have been doing that for years. 

[DumbAss Tanker]

Hydra  (1000+ posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Wed Feb-27-08 02:16 PM
Response to Original message
3. Stages 3 though 5 already in play
   
and stage 1 is well underway. We only need the flow of goods to stop...and then the bloodbath will begin.
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So if the analysis is supposed to be so right (in your tiny DUmmie brain), why are the stages occurring out of order?  Order is implicit in the way the OP states the thesis, your post really means the entire analysis is deeply flawed, yet you applaud it.  No wonder we call you DUmmies and Primitives.