Conversations That Matter in a Disconnected World

We've Got To Start Talking With Each Other
Rather Than AT Each other

This edition of my blog is focused on some of the postings I've made on Facebook over the last week or so and the conversations that have shown up as a result of those postings. I'm going to set up my intentions around this in a few paragraphs and then we'll get to the conversations.

I've been trying to engage people in conversations as opposed to fighting it out in arguments. Arguments - and facts - don't work because of the radical divisions and polarization in the US. Many are not fact-based claims that are being bandied about, nor are they about logic. They're about emotions that arise out of fear, and facts - or logic - simply will not change minds. 

It's almost as if there's a second virus going around and now it's also spreading into Canada with the "Freedom Convoy"  that includes some Canadians calling for a US-like insurrection and the overthrow of the Canadian Government, and getting rid of all covid-related health rules and mandates. They must be really happy with us.

Some of the Panamanian and Bocas Del Toro FB group pages I belong to down here that don't have clear posting rules about behavior are getting downright nasty with name-calling and arguments, so much so that I rarely visit them anymore. 

I've become so frustrated at the tenor of conversations on FB that I'm attempting to set up the conditions - at least on my pages - where we can talk about these divisive subjects and still maintain respectful dialogue with each other even as we hold each other accountable. But when conversations become disrespectful, I have absolutely no qualms about blocking someone, and have, many times. Life's too short.

This - today's - blog is also about the opportunity to announce my intentions to expand on and perhaps go a little deeper into the posts I curate because they interest me and I want to connect more with people who are also interested in what I post.

Also, I'm only letting you know there are interesting articles and conversations you might like but it wouldn't make sense for me to repost the conversations here. You'll actually have to go to my FB page to do that at https://www.facebook.com/garystamper/

The first FB posting I want to touch upon is the most serious and has the biggest ramifications for humanity. January 26th, 10:06pm, a podcast called "The great Simplification," with two liminal thinkers, Nate Hagen and Daniel Schmachtenberger, and a conversation between them called "Bend Not Break Part 1: Energy Blindness." If you want to have a discussion of what a lack of energy surplus means to modern civilization in the remaining limited time we have, please listen to the podcast. I think it's still possible that we'll be able to save a much smaller population if we are able to pull off the changes needed if we can get governments to do that... Buena Suerte.

Hint: The first "energy surplus' came about during prehistoric times when humans" learned how to make fire and better tools, the second game with the development of agriculture around 10-12,000 years ago depending on where you were at and cities followed soon after that. The most recent energy surplus came about as we discovered and learned to use Ancient Sunlight - fossil fuels - about 150 years ago and we pretty much burned through the easily accessible oil in that short time. What happens to our modern civilization when we run out of "surplus energy?" 

It would take one person over 11 years of labor to replace a single barrel of oil (equivalent to 1700 kwh), while a top athlete would make it in about 6 years. How does that work with earth's population due to hit 8 billion people sometime next year? What does that mean for your children and your grandchildren?

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...and fittingly, that means that the era of free money is coming to an end as well as another depleting source of "energy surplus," which relies on the abundance that was ancient sunlight. My FB post on the 27th, "Markets have fallen because the era of free money is coming to an end," talks about just one of many tipping points converging on us at the same time and the impact thereof.

In other interesting topics this past week, there was a pretty good discussion about a "Crypto Collapse Erasing More Than $1 Trillion in Wealth" and the problems it's creating (see how everything is connected?), and also on the 26th, and a wonderful post and discussion on the 25th called "My Gentle, Intelligent Brother Is Now A Conspiracy Theorist And His Beliefs Are Shocking," offering a path forward with friends and family with whom we don't share worldviews in these difficult times. Also on the 26th (a great news day!) is "This Silicon Valley city just voted to institute first-in-the-nation gun ownership requirements."  Among other things, the measure would require gun owners to obtain liability insurance that would cover damage caused by their weapon. Not surprisingly, a guns rights group has threatened to sue.

In the last post from the 26th, "The Most Generous Billionaire" proves that money isn't inherently evil, it's what you do - or don't do - with it that makes a difference and reminds us that hoarding isn't healthy on so many levels. 

Now more than ever, it's time to get small - bend - now while you're not forced into the breaking part of "bend or break," or as I've said for a decade, Collapse Now Before the Rush.

With Love,

Gary