[whitecrow]

Originally Posted by Swanny

I've been reading a lot of the stuff on this forum and it seems to me the general view is that civilisation as we know it is just about to end.
Do you think so??
People are putting in to action all sorts of survival plans, both long term and short term.
I know things are bad but I'm starting to think they are really bad.

I was just harping on another thread about how we need to root out old paradigms...take a look at how the question was phrased: Civilization is over, yes it's really really bad, or no it's gonna be ok.

I voted for it being ok, but neither would have been my answer. Mine would have been: Yes, civilization as we know it is on the way out, and that's about the best thing that could happen. Hell yeah it's gonna be ok!

What is "civilization as we know it?" Technology? Trust me, we're not headed back to the stone age. Modern medicine? You've got to be kidding. Governance? Give me a break. Agriculture? I'd say we've been pretty much blowing that one lately. So, what then? No more TV? You'll be so glad, in a few years. No cars? It won't be that bad. I say, let it crash. It is going to anyway. What I want to know is, what comes next?

It's really hard for me to figure out how we're going to be worse off. Everything that is strangling us now will be gone. We will live far closer to our sources, and that's a good thing. We will have to rely on one another - and that too is a good thing. People really are becoming more conscious of their connections, all around the world.

Something I read said that the "Christ-virtues" were becoming mainstream again...I wouldn't have put it that way, but he has a point. We will be forearmed against many of the abuses that have led us to where we are today. Resources will be more equitably distributed. The land will be used by those who live on it. Money and banking will be completely altered and nowhere near as pervasive.

There will always be those who seek power, but they will find themselves regarded as perverts. And as long as time exists, we will always be trading one set of problems for another. This is growth.

My point is that the paradigms in the question are pointing in the wrong direction. It will be "bad" insofar as many will suffer misfortune, and one should never rejoice over that. But in the bigger view, it will get better. I am one who foresees a sort of golden age in which our present civilization will seem like a really bad dream.