It is likely more a function of what I have been reading lately, or the watching of the hysterical series, ‘Doomsday Preppers’ (what a bunch of loons!)….or, maybe, it is just the continued aggravation with Trump/Trudeau and their points of view…maybe it is just me getting old…I dunno…but……
More and more I am beginning to think we are in the midst of the first stages of a very quiet revolution of sorts….it’s more a feeling than much else….
Clearly, Capitalism isn’t working anymore. People ARE NOT happy with more ‘stuff’ from Walmart, bigger houses, more expense….the rat race isn’t paying off – not at the personal level. NOT for the majority. NOT for most people. Even the .01%’ers are not worth envying anymore. Who wants to live and be like Trump?
Modern consumerism just isn’t working either…..and that doesn’t bode well for the future, that’s for sure. It not only does not make us happy, it is polluting and killing off the planet. Consumerism is unsustainable. Consumerism creates too much waste.
Survival of the fittest does not mean that the most aggressive and mean-spirited thrive. Ferocious predators need something gentler to eat. The strong and the weak are co-dependent. Survival of the fittest is a term that applies to those who endure – whether they killed others and the planet trying to get there or whether they just found a better way. I suspect that the ‘fittest’ will be those who just found a better way than the dog-eat-dog way so promoted in this, the first and ‘modern’ world.
This, the modern world isn’t working either. The ‘phone’ addiction, the ‘internet of things’, self-driving cars, planes that fly themselves into the ground, GMO foods, oceans of plastic. Drug addicted citizens. Cops shooting citizens. This modernity-thing isn’t making us happy. Or safe. It may be better in many ways but fun and happiness are not much present. In fact, most of what passes for happiness is purposeful unconsciousness. Escapism. It’s a form of madness to continue to pursue it as we are, actually.
I know I have said all this before in different ways but it is starting to gel for me. I am seeing what I want to see, maybe, but I am seeing more and more resistance to the way of things. And I am seeing the way of things come under more and more assault.
Jody Wilson-Raybould deviated a little bit…..
Sal and I never went OTG to be ‘preppers’. We had a vague sense of the ‘system collapsing’, I guess. A sense of pending doom but ‘way, way off in the future.’ Probably after we had passed on….something our kids and their kids might have to face. We SHOULD do and DID do something about it for them (vote Green, build here, recycle..blah, blah, blah) but I honestly did NOT think ‘the end of the world as we know it’ (TEOTWAWKI) would come to pass in my lifetime.
Now? I am not so sure…..
The pace of ‘doom-on-a-cracker’ is accelerating. Canada (of all countries!) is heating up climate-wise at twice the rate of the rest of the world and our far North is heating up even faster. I don’t care what Trump and his ilk are saying, the climate is changing.
And (prime indicator) the economy is confused. There is not a lot of confidence being expressed in the system or the systems.
People are also increasingly agitated. Some are revolting. Some are fleeing. Governments are losing their ‘control’ because the people voluntarily gave control to them but only in exchange for ‘the general good and security’ and that is currently perceived by everyone (Trumpists and anti-Trumpists) as sadly wanting.
I think we are engaged in a transition…a major contextual shift…a subtle revolution of some kind. Something is happening here and we don’t know what it is….
….anyway…..that is partly why I haven’t been writing. I have been pretty busy doing chores and I will write more ‘happy’ stuff soon…but…in the meantime, I am inferentially scanning (unconsciously being aware of trends, indicators, tastes, fashions, news, movements and then, after a while, consciously trying to see a pattern) and then drawing inferences, observations, weak conclusions…..
NOT to be taken too seriously.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Things are changing and I agree with you entirely. I seen a conceptual shift although not everyone embraces it. I recently heard of a home remedy for dealing with molehills in one’s lawn. The remedy proposed was to pour one half cup of diesel fuel down each molehill. Setting aside contamination of ground water concerns as well as the persistent of diesel fuel in the soil, why do moles elicit such a strong response? Moles, our fellow travelers in this world share about 80% of human DNA. We might be needing their DNA in future. Mole rats are a different species but they are immune to cancer. Perhaps some gene harvesting is in order. The philosophy of man has dominion over the Earth, gives one pause?
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How’s that song go?
“We’re all just rats in a cage….”
Yep.
More and more people crammed into cities.
Our world wide population is reaching new “heights” every day.
More than half the worlds population now live in cities.
1st time ever.
There are more 65 year olds than 5 year olds.
1st time ever.
Interesting times.
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Nice,, a gentle stroke from someone surprised by the humor of his book and he perks right up.
Nice to see you back, is anybody left here sceptical of this Canada warming twice as fast story?
intuitively this sounds doubtful, what would Hanna wagstaff say?.
Like Chinois with 20 years of 8% industrial growth.
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Now, now, Aldo….BE nice. I have been on the verge of writing for over a week and a nice woman waxing soft on me was NOT the catalyst (altho, it COULD be….:). Re the Canada rate of heating up…..I am not skeptical. I believe it. MAYBE NOT as much as they say but we have a lot of gas up north (frozen in the ground) and the rising temps release it. Mind you…why NOT Russia, too….?
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Ok and this measurement pertains to north of the 49th, I think the timing of the report is to act as a balm for all the dumbasses and their F150 and F 250 trucks,
Yes sir ,, something is up all right, we need some sort of existential crisis just to wake up the majority on our continent.
I do not travel much but I would say Australia is as bad or worse then what we are
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Don’t forget that the report did NOT point a finger at us. Not even Albertans. It just said Canada was warming faster and I, for one, did not infer it was driver’s of trucks that did it. Spend one week in Hong Kong, Thailand or even Phoenix, Arizona and you know 37M Canucks are not the issue. The issue is Canada is a heat sink. Our north absorbs great gobs of solar energy. But now that heat is melting what has been frozen and methane is escaping making matters worse – faster. This greenhouse gassing is now made worse by more NATURAL greenhouse gasses.
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it is a nice thought. We’ll see. If we last that long.
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I coulda shoulda written about some of the more positive indicators but my inclination is to the dreadfull being half full rather than the happy being half empty. But, you are right….we will see.
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I’m waiting for the feds to implement a new tax on beef for the cow fart methane pollution….. a la the Netherlands and their $300 per cow tax….
I’m not sure how that stops cows from farting but …what the hell, revenue is revenue.
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Now that’s confusing. Heehee.
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You know I am Green. You know I am not ONSIDE with anything that supports or subsidizes big Oil. And you know I think we MUST transition but, but, but……after creating a world dependent on petroleum, we now tax/penalize the average guy with a carbon tax! So, do they think a truck driving tradesman will carry all his tools and 2×4’s on Skytrain? The carbon tax is insane. Incentives for getting off petroleum and into electric makes more sense but, of course, they cancel those subsidies and, nstead, bleed the poor. Sheer bloody madness!
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Nah, just the govt taxing the easy way out.
And they STILL cant balance a fricken budget…
Fire them all and let accountants run it.
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It is a price on pollution and so far only the biggest emitters will pay because most Canadians will get back more than they spend on this surcharge. On the East Coast some power plants will be given time to switch from oil fired fuels to less carbon intensive fuels such as propane. Yes, I agree that at this time these measures are mostly “virtue signalling.” Recently we had a guy pour a litre of gasoline down a storm sewer that runs into a major salmon river. He could not see the issue! When he changes his oil he dumps it on the ground, saying “No big deal.” Who complains about a litter deposit these days but when they were imposed, OMG, provinces were going to leave Confederation rather than pay a further tax on beverages. To change behaviour first it must become front of mind. A proven method to change behaviour is to put a price on it but use the money collected to lower some other tax such as income tax.
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Of course. That’s the logic. That’s the reasoning….very sensible. But it applies like the law that forbids the rich and the poor from sleeping under bridges….equally….to people already made unequal by the same system. The poor dirt farmer running a calving operation 100 Mile’s away from 100 Mile house will be treated just like the guy in Mt. Pleasant taking the B-line to UBC and driving his Miata to play golf on the weekends. The fact is the further you live from transit infrastructure, the more you spend on fuel. The rural guys will pay more – tax credits notwithstanding. Net effect: more people pushed into cities.
And get this: marine fuel purchases didn’t use to pay taxes cause boats don’t use roads. Now marine fuel is very much or more! Some guy living on a remote island up the B.C. coast pays almost twice what an Arizonian commuter pays and about 10% more than their Canadian urban neighbours.
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Not to be a contrarian but people in the GVRD are seeing prices ranging as high as $1.61 per litre but outside the GVRD it is as low as $1.42 per litre. A GVRD transit levy adds about about twenty-one cents per litre. Do you run marked gas in your outboard?
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Interesting question…..marked used to be cheaper but now there is only about three cents difference…….but, if you normally pay say, $1.35/L gas in Campbell River, that means its about $1.50 on the island next us and about $1.60 to get it by barge. So marked gas for the outboard in town is (in this example) $1.32, it’s $1.50 or $1.60 out here. Campbell River is usually about 10 cents a liter more than Victoria and about ten cents less than Vancouver. Which means that we are always at least 15 cents more out here. All of that varies a few cents day to day.
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BC Ministry of Finance Tax Notice, “Notice to Coloured Fuel Sellers and farmers Carbon Tax Exemptions. Farmers according to this document are entitled to carbon tax exemptions. There are conditions but exemptions exist in BC for them.
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Sounds good. Worth having the barge guys apply……but once the gas is on the barge its theirs . They can set any price they want – take it or leave it. Still, they are honest and fair to us so ill ask them but they despise bureaucracy. …..they may not.
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Is it politically correct to call fuel “colored”?
Some people might take offence.
I believe in some areas it’s called “marked” fuel.
We now live in sensitive times and I wouldnt want the pc police to knock down your door…….
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I recall in the 1950s, that all marked fuel was ‘purple gas’ regardless of type.
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Yep, still is in some provinces.
I’ve also seen bright orange fuel. I cant remember if it was diesel or gas.
Farmers and fishermen get it at a reduced tax rate.
But dont get caught with it in your vehicle on the road….big fines.
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Too true. Farmers pay no carbon surcharge on it In some provinces.such as B.C.
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