Reading the letters to the editor and the editorials in the Boulder mouthpiece, The Daily Camera, one would think the world is coming to an end. Most of the time it’s the Republican’s faults, or at least no fault of the Democrats.
For example, according to this letter writer (at bottom of page) the very basis for Democracy is in crisis…
We are now at the tipping point. We are about to lose our democracy. A democracy requires advocacy of multiple points of view. One-party rule is about the elimination of opposition. No compromise. No quarter.
Our current ruling party has the power. It owns the executive branch, both houses of Congress, and most of the judicial branch. It is working hard to eliminate checks and balances to its power.
Of course, Boulderites need to put on their reading glasses when they talk about one party rule. No Republican worth the name has held an elected office in the City or County in years. A few years ago a small businessman, Jim Murphy, ran for County Commissioner as a Republican. Suddenly his small business was audited for potential sales tax violations. After the election the Democrats filed suit against him for improper reporting of campaign contributions. There was some merit to the suit, but it was all in very bad taste and a pox on there house.
In this Sunday’s edition, Clay Evans reviews James Howard Kuntsler’s new book, “The Long Emergency: Surviving the Convering Catastrophe’s of the Twenty-First Century”. He relays Kuntslers message that the end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching due to the depletion of petroleum worldwide.
But Kunstler says his tome is no mere story: He believes we are barreling toward the end of civilization as we know it, and it’s probably too late to do much about it. (For a full review, check today’s Books section, Page 6E.)
and more dire talk…
The problem with optimism in the face of the coming oil crisis — which will catalyze wars, disease, starvation, and a collapse of governments, Kunstler argues — is that every aspect of our comfy American lives is umbilically tied to petroleum. And oil, eons’ worth of solar energy neatly stored in the pressure-baked detritus of past ages, is a finite resource.
No doubt, longer term higher oil prices are on the way and there will certainly be crisis and dislocations but I’m far from convinced that Kunstler’s message rings true.
I briefly considered sending Clay a copy of The Coming Generational Storm so he could become educated on the converging crisis of Social Security and Medicare. My concern he might fall into terminal depression has prevented me from doing so.
