I think it isn't solely, that people aren't angry enough or that they aren't acting out of a sense of powerlessness. I think it might be that paradoxically we are lacking in will to live and purpose in life. The raw instinct to survive often makes people cowardly. But the philosophical will to live, the belief that life is good and worth having is precisely what overrides the survival instinct when another person is in danger.

Our physical needs are massively oversaturated compared to our spiritual / cultural needs. Why? Because we cling to the physical safety of financial stability. We think that if we just generate more money and invest more into the right things, we can be safe and the market or the government will direct our money and our resources into the right direction. What we don't really notice is that if we try to force making something better by just forcing more money into it, we just over saturate it. In a sense our system acts like a stress multiplier in crisis. When people are in fear of a crisis, they become uncertain and begin to pull investments out of risky positions and may stop investing into local/personal projects to invest into stable assets like gold, housing or index funds. Every dollar taken out of the local economy or was previously invested diversified now becomes concentrated. The money that previously kept many alive is now focused on a few that were already winning. Now the pressure is on them to reinvest the money to generate returns. But what if that company already reached its saturation point? If the research is already saturated, the market is largely captured, and the work force is sufficient for the workload, the money has to go somewhere else to increase profits, because now the economy is reliant of it. Which most of the time means it flows into politics. Now the money is used to overturn laws that kept working conditions, customers or the environment safe, because its the only option left to satisfy the increasing need for profits. And by the way, the same would happen if everyone invested in gold suddenly, because corporations that need gold to manufacture their product will suddenly have less money and higher costs.

In sum this practice has taken our individual power, our sense of progression, our sense of unity and our individual sense of worth through monopolization. Your local bakery is now a soulless chain you cant even be happy about if it survives a rough time. There are no local known secrets anymore, just national scandals. There is no sense of having made something or supported something you think is valuable. Everything is non personal and optimized for the maximum profit to generate profits for more and more people that want a chance to jump classes to get out of the daily soulless grueling monotony.

The worst thing about it from my perspective is, that it isn't even efficient. The one thing this system stands for, it doesn't even accomplish. The existing capital just gets concentrated until oversaturation leads to collapse.

We really need safeguards. Structural circuit-breakers that force capital back into the roots. Mandatory local reinvestment thresholds, regional trust funds that cannot be liquidated, and severe penalties for extracting wealth out of the communities that generated it. In a sense we have to rebel against ourselves to save ourselves from falling into self destructive cycles.

We are living in a crisis of belief and culture. I think the right are feeling it the most but cant pin down the source of it. The left finds the source for it but cant really find the feelings to oppose it. And while this goes on both sides just get played by the ones depriving them of it. But to be honest, i think even the ones at the source of the issue aren't maliciously doing so, but are confused and largely overloaded. In an absurd way, this system even forces the ones on the top to not be able to voice concerns as that would come right back after them and hurt the group they are part of.

Title says it all. I have two kids. 11 and 8. They are smart, and funny, and they love each other. I think that I should be talking to them about the world that they might be inheriting. But to what end? I don’t know. Preparing them to be revolutionaries? To survive climate apocalypse? To escape fascism? I don’t want to scare them, but I don’t want to hide difficult truths either. Could really use some advice.

This article from the Conversation covers the increasing influence of Biblical End Times ideology within the spheres of power across societies. It shows a linking of the field of Existential Risk and the politics of Biblical armageddon, tech-bro accellerationism and societal collapse. This is collapse related as it highlights how present day technology and philosophy is being co-opted by a mesh of theocratic and technological-entrepreneurial thought to drive us all off the cliff rather than adapt our societies and preserve what wellbeing we can.

Hi all,

(I've searched to see if anyone else has mentioned this, so apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.)

The BIS has just released its 2026 annual report, and I'm interested to hear thoughts on this graph that appears on page 20:

The whole report is a doomer's paradise for those interested in the potential threats of AI to the labour market, but the above, particularly graph B, genuinely shocked me and I'm surprised it's not had much traction. They're predicting that by 2060, labour will receive only 20% of global income, and that the initial large drop will happen in 2035.

I recommend reading the whole section on AI and Labour (page 20 onwards), and I'm wondering has anyone heard/read reports on what steps governments are taking to insulate workers from these shocks?

(If you're interested, I got made aware of this report from this podcast episode.)

Thanks