Waiting for the end of the world 7, summary

So why did I title this series "Waiting for the end of the world"? When I stumble up out of my chair after doomscrolling through Twitter for days at a time, what is it that I think I see coming?

Well, if I list them grouped according to which entry in the series I used to discuss each one, I find myself fretting over the following:

1. The dollar is at risk of collapse, under the weight of decades of deficit spending. If it collapses, it will pull the American economy down with it.
2. Political conversation in this country has become toxic, so I can't discuss this stuff except here where I am anonymous.
3. Society encourages lunatic opinions and penalizes people for saying things that are obviously simple facts. (Example: "A man cannot become a woman.")
4. We have forgotten how to conduct normal politics. We have started weaponizing the justice system against political opponents. This is how we slide from a Republic into a Principate.
5. Our Presidential politics are dominated by a senile and obstructionist gerontocracy. This means we have no real chance to change course. Again, this is how we slide from a Republic into a Principate.
6. Our irresponsible support of Ukraine means that we are actively provoking World War Three, which we will lose badly. Even without Ukraine, it's pretty likely anyway because of troubles in other parts of the world

Is that enough to deserve the title "Waiting for the end of the world"? 

Maybe I should add that I don't expect a sudden, apocalyptic end. World War III will be bad, but the odds are that someone will survive. Or we might come to our senses and avoid it somehow. Avoiding a Principate will be harder. (In fact there are good reasons to think we may already be there.) But it any event, my point is not that we should expect the country to look like Lear's blasted heath a week from next Tuesday. 

What I really expect is a long slow decline, what John Michael Greer calls The Long Descent. Life will get harder and things will get more expensive. Tools will break down and we won't be able to fix them. Government agencies will get more troublesome and less useful, until one by one they are shuttered "temporarily" out of "budgetary concerns." We will still have some kinds of technology, but we will gradually stop using others. (No, I don't know which will be which.)

Greer talks about this in a lot of places. You might check out this essay here (from back in 2004), or his archived blog The Archdruid Report, or his current blog Ecosophia. He has widened his topics over the years, but The Long Descent is never far from his thoughts.

In any event, I need to get off Twitter and stick my head outdoors once in a while.

P.S.: This same month, I've been writing a couple of posts over on the Patio, also about the end of the world. You can find the first one here. I expect to write the next installment soon.