Signs of Collapse: Things That Can No Longer Be Fixed

Now that the collapse of our political, economic, social and ecological systems is accelerating, the signs of this collapse, including scapegoating, corruption, and social disorder are becoming more obvious. This is the seventeenth of a series of articles on some of these signposts. In the “old days” when I was growing up (the 1960s) we started to hear the term “disposable society”. In part this was due to an inevitable failing of capitalism: the preference to produce cheap, shoddy products that more people could buy (and more often) rather than high-quality, durable goods. And in part it was a reflection of a growing “short-termism” in our way of thinking — why invest in something that could last decades when the world could end before then? This mentality, dangerously, also applied (and still applies) to our provision of services and government spending. When you’re elected for just four or five years, why dare ask today’s taxpayers to pay for infrastructure (roads, sewers etc) that…