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Martin Schwoerer's avatar

Works for me! And reminds me of Taleb's concept of an "anti-fragile" state that bends and adapts, but doesn't break. You need localism and egalitarianism, according to this. And geographic luck, I would add. The Swiss and the Basque need deal neither with major floods, draught, earthquake or Mongolian hordes.

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Joachim Klement's avatar

the Swiss may not have dealt with Mongolian hordes, but they had to deal with the 'brown army in the north' as it is called in Swiss military exercises. And we both know how they did that.

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Pip McIntyre's avatar

I alway knew that JK is a secret "prepper". I think he's been influenced by dealing with the Americans, many of whom seem to think that collapse is just around the corner. Perhaps he's also got 1400 tins of baked beans, a water prurifier and a selection of hunting bows in his garden shed.....just in case.

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Joachim Klement's avatar

You are completely wrong. I am a big foodie, so I would never store something gruesome like baked beans. I can neither deny nor confirm the the existence of a water purifier or a hunting bow in my shed, though.

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Scott Lichtenstein's avatar

Whilst the the stretching of resources due to ecological strain will get worse, although it ain't over 'til it's over - there may be good news re: economic stratification of society. From a US perspective we had levels of economic stratification as high if not higher than today in the late 19th century, the 'gilded age' of the robber barons. Several scandals ensued involving politicians and the corporate & financial elite that so outraged public opinion that the tables turned. Teddy 'the trust buster' broke up the monopolies and then another Roosevelt came in years later and passed legislation & policies that recalibrated the stratification. That was before we had microplastics in our brains and years of propaganda but stratification is not a given and has been reversed before in a US context. I know it's hopium, but it is Friday after all...

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FrankFrank's avatar

I like your last paragraph JK, but I would like to add that lack of trust and cooperation in a society arising from extreme inequality of wealth, can always be nullified, or even reversed, by imagining an enemy however remote, combined with intense propaganda from those with extreme wealth.

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Joachim Klement's avatar

You mean like Canada? Or Greenland?

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