Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Accounting.

Have you ever stood on a precipice, quietly, and just contemplated the profundity of the moment? The place itself, with highly resolved definition, its obvious hazards and possibilities, forces a conception of a finely discrete moment in time. . .one MUST be aware.

I am halfway through the last year of my thirties, to the day. I've been in Hawaii for six months, to the week. The world heaves around me, with the first suggestion of a convulsion. It is food for thought for sure. Having walked Kilauea enough now I can surely see the signs.

Someone asked me the other day, taking note of the projects around the place: "Dude, you REALLY think the shit is going to hit the fan, don't you?"

I was a bit taken aback, actually. The shit HAS hit the fan. It's simply a matter now of the spray pattern, where one was lucky or unfortunate enough to be standing, and whether one ducked quick enough.

Are we not paying attention?

Oil is at 120, expert mainstream opinion suggests stability later in the year at 150-180.
In the last 12 months.
Wheat has quadrupled in price.
Corn tripled.
Rice quadrupled and even so, spot shortages occur now.
Copper tripled.
Aluminum doubled.
Molybdenum doubled.

Countrywide went bust.
Bear Sterns went bust.
Citigroup is near bust.
Ambac is near bust.
Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual--are all in dire situations as well.
Aloha Airlines dead in the water.
ATA dead in the water.
Others flounder.

The dollar has slid 30 percent in its buying power around the world.

The Fed has loaned out at giveaway rates 80 percent of all the capital it has available, more or less for the collateral equal in value to a sack of dirty socks.

Real estate values across the country(and Europe) have slid 25 or so percent, experts call for another 20. There's 1.1 trillion dollars of home equity loans out on that crap.

Consumer Confidence Index at record lows. No damn doubt!

Bush has taken up singing and dancing, and seems strangely Nero-esque.

I have:

Made a choice to move to bum-fuck no-where Hawaii to avoid Zombiegeddon.

Planted 100+ koa trees
1 dozen coffee
1 dozen tea
1 dozen papaya
3 cashew
1 allspice
1 nutmeg
a 2000 square foot garden
all the taro I can get a hold of.

Built a producer gas generator(which works) to power in event of gas shortages and rationing.

Invested in a ton of tools.

And basically am training myself to get to hunkerdown living in the most comfortable way possible, which is no small deal.

I would REALLY encourage those people I care about to pull the head out and take a good look around, and be very very careful: make every attempt possible to prepare for what may lay ahead. There is a real possibility, not yet a certainty, of a very dire and disruptive future not far ahead. There IS a certainty of a merely difficult one.

Only while ignorance and denial still holds the popular mind will there remain an ability to act.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, but somewhere the sky is always falling, perhaps Nero's is the only sane behavior...Skakespeare's fools were always the wisest of his characters...

Anonymous said...

Of course, none of my previous comment should be construed to mean you might not be absolutely correct. I predict $8 a gallon gas summer 2009 - but still a bargain if you have ever tried to cultivate a half acre with a shovel!

Anonymous said...

Jay-

This is Dennis Skaugrud, a fellow at the Salvadore Dali Llama Institute of Fine Music....hmmmm...for some of us the collapse can't come quick enough!

In the book titled "Collapse" the author talks about how swift some of the past civilization have collapsed. The Anastazi collapse left grain in storage bins and complete cities perfectly intact...

Yes, I am on the same page as you and in total agreement...yet still totally engaged in the system. I dream about dropping out. In my day, when I was young....in 1970 to be exact, I moved to Haines Alaska fearing the United States was going to slip into civil war...then after 6 months and 6 inches of snow, I thought I better find a warmer place to hang my hat...so for the next six months I lived in the jungles of Mexico and Central America...and at 18...fully engaged in getting the fuck out of Dodge!

But the collapse will come quickly in some areas of the planet and slowly in others...last week I witnessed hundreds of homeless people sleeping under the freeway in downtown Seattle...HUNDREDS!!!! It is here Jay...now! Keep Writing!

In Spirit-

d-

Anonymous said...

I didn't know ALOHA Airlines was fucked?!
How the how do I get from Honululu to the Big Island, if I do come over, mate?
You might have your cat built by then, so you can pick me up at Ali Wai marina!

Anonymous said...

Dennis Skaugrud has no idea what he is talking about. He is some know-it-all hippy with nothing to do.

dskaugrud said...

My comments are not about Dennis Skaugrud or your ignorant response either for that matter. My comments are directed towards people who have experienced something other than advanced Kindergarden lessons on world history. Maybe you should try reading a book instead of depending on the Bible for your fact based research. War is Peace, Ignorance is bliss...you go George...who ever that is...