TOTAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

Sir Nicholas Stern's recent warning prompted me to write the following:

The global economy will collapse in a most catastrophic manner very soon if we continue to live the way we do... not that this should come as news to any of you.

In order to properly sustain a system, you cannot expect to continue to get out more than what you put in. If you examine flow rates of work entering and leaving the system, post-industrialized humankind has extracted from Earth at a far more alarming rate than it has returned to it, rendering the system ill in the process.

In an economic system, natural resources, physical labour and ingenuity have been used as fuel, with profit the primary output. The byproducts, of course, have been rapid depletion of finite natural resources and an unwell workforce (here, "workforce" represents the entire proletariat, both on the floor and in the office), a species among many weakened and destroyed by what we have been "giving back"; we've poisoned the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land on which we live.

Take rural Alberta in the twenty-first century. Since we've discovered the means to extract all this crude oil from the western Canadian heartland, given the vast natural gas resource currently lying beneath the Arctic, things have been just fine; with such a vast, untapped resource comes a gaping demand for workers to design and build the machinery, many of whom have or will have families who require a community in which to live, and, since we all dream of having that suburban home all to ourselves one day, ubran planning will look like a network of cottages centred by Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Nike and every other brand one suburban family sees in a lifetime, on screen and in print, trying to sell it stuff. But what happens when the land finally dries up? Will the jobs still be there? Where will everyone go? Will there be other oil patches?

For those of you reading as residents of Ontario and much of the eastern United States, recall the blackout of August 2003; how did it happen? August in this part of the world can be incredibly hot and humid; millions of uncomfortable human beings simultaneously requiring relief via electric appliances, thus demanding an immense amount of electrcity to be delivered at a given instant. First of all, the infrastructure we have in place can only handle so much transfer of current through its nodes and paths at one time. Second, the vast majority - over 50% from nuclear, about 25% from coal, 7% from natural gas - together, they remind me of our "House of Commons" - of Ontario's electrical needs depends on the availability of finite natural resources whose byproducts intoxicate the planet. Life practically came to a halt when the power stopped flowing, and the power stopped flowing because we took from the system far too much more, far too much faster than what we were returning to it. The system will overload, and all will shut down.

But does it have to end there? If you were here, as I was, how did you remember our behaviour on the roads, and, conversely how did you remember it away from them? Vehicles were in total chaos. The system dictating the actions of the operators ceased to be, leaving the rapid traffic grid in chaos. Many had no idea what to do. Some, taking matters into their own hands, endangered the safety of others at our city's major intersections. The rest, using calm and sense (or, what the locals call "common sense"), made it to their homes safely, where they spent time with those dearest to them, lending help when needed, be it something to eat or a place to stay or simply an ear or a voice. Never before from Toronto had I seen the stars appear as they did that night.

History teaches us how crippling economic disasters are. How quickly we forget the crash of the Allied stock market in October of 1929. Herbert Hoover was run out of office on a rail because of what I suspect would be him telling the public everything was okay as they were looking to their bank accounts and finding nothing. If we paid attention to what was happening throughout the years leading up to this event, we would know that the twenties were, at the time, by far the most prosperous the Anglo-empire had seen; clearly, an example of how overloading the system results in system failure.

Pay attention to the most sought-after natural resources - crude oil, natural gas, uranium - losing control of these means certain economic failure. America, through sheer hubris, is losing its grip on the oil and gas. Canada, its right-hand man, is charged with the increasingly greater task of fuelling the red, white and blue engine. The engine, already overworked, getting as much as it can out of as little as it can, is now forced to work harder with much less. Alberta can't last forever, and they're already selling off what they can to the Chinese - you'll see in a minute how the China, the state, figures only in the calamity - leaving the masses at the mercy of their new owners.

This power struggle can only last for so long, though, before the global economy collapses outright, as we in the West are not the only ones living the dream these days. China and India, whose inhabitants total 1.3 and one billion, respectively, are consuming, like us, at an increasing rate, wasting, like us, at an alarming rate. For fuck's sake, Coca-Cola and PepsiCola were banned entirely from the state of Kerala in India because their products contained pesticides, their factories poisoning the surrounding ground and wellwater, only to have the ban overturned by the foot soldiers of capital, the Bureaucracy. These two states are on the same path as our downward spiral, and they're enjoying the scenery along the way. I think we should take a break from despair.

I believe it was Nietszche - I'm too lazy to do any fact-checking now - said, and I paraphrase, that when you stare deep into the abyss, the abyss stares back, which is why I do so only as a sign of hope when I refer your attention to the city of New Orleans before, during and after its acquaintance with the hurricane called "Katrina". Before, the system could not cope with such a mass exodus - sure, they only had a few days to get out of town, but how far can you get if you have to rely on city transit to get anywhere? These lucky folk were forced to fend for themselves in a total state of chaos. The system failed, and there they were. I'll spare you more of the details because I wish to get to my point, which is thus: those who continue to stare into the abyss that is New Orleans are still here. They are here because they live among those capitalism forgets, yet they are still here because they are using physical labour, ingenuity and whatever resources they have to see that their friends, relatives and neighbours are given the proper sustenance. They are not relying on the system that failed them, but on themselves, and on each other. It is ironic - the i-word proving yet again to be thematic - that, in times of chaos, love maintains life.

While things appear for us to remain stable, let us learn of our history of demise that we need no longer rely on the economic system that is doomed to fail. In the wake of total disaster, we have prevailed. We have the power to not let it happen this time, but if, in fact, we are past the point of no return, I am confident that those who manage to stick around will let love be their guide so that those who could not will have not have been lost in vain, so that they may remain alive in memory. I say this as a mortal human being who may not live to see two hours from now for whatever reason. We, as individuals, are temporal, as is life on Earth, but, while we're still here, let us be kind to one another, and to our home. Let us not succumb to grabbing as much as one can for oneself because that is proving to be our doom.

The final moment of judgement is allegory for what one would do when faced with total chaos. We are bringing forth this judgement by our desire to feed the global economy for the reward of Heaven on Earth. Like the Tower of Babel, its mechanisms will crumble, and the system will collapse, leaving us to fend for ourselves. There will be those who have heeded the warning who will try to grab as much as they can while they still can, to whom I say your money will be of no use to you when you have nowhere to spend it. There will be no icons, for they will have failed these people so terribly that no one will speak of them the same again.

Please use these words not as an alarm of approaching disaster, but as a sign of hope that the people who value life most have the power to make things for the better. There's still time because we're still here and we still care.