Collapse

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
$24.95
What can I say about this book that has not been written already? It seams the author has a view then went out to write a book that proves this view. Interesting ideas but there is not one chapter that would prove his theory wrong. I find that odd that everything points to him being right.

Super Collapse 3
$19.99
This game is so much fun!!! If you like Tetris, you'll "love" this game! I am in my 50's and I have a hard time putting this one down! My daughters and my grandkids love playing it too!! I've had to buy more copies of it so everyone can have a chance to play! There are so many different levels and challanges, so much more interesting than Tetris. You can play the long version of going around to different lands and passing all the challenges to move on to the next land, or if your not in the mood for a long game, you can choose to play quick picks, and there are so many different games in that with different levels. The great thing about this game from Tetris is how you can earn or buy bombs to use. At first, I thought that was going to be confusing from being an avid Tetris player, but I have found out that it is quite easy to understand and is so much more helpful when you can't seem to match up the blocks and they are climbing to the top, you can use a bomb and get rid of them all (as long as you have a bomb to use). This game is great fun! Don't miss out on it!!

The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream
$23.99
Though there are scattered moments throughout this work - particularly towards the end, where some of the talking heads who give the bulk of the documentary's information do offer some doable solutions and ideas to break out of our current problems - most of this shortish, well-made but narrowly focused film paints a gloomy forcast for the future of industrialized societies, particularly in North America.

Look carefully at the title, and be advised that the second part of it - "Oil Deplation and the Collapse of the American Dream" is the more relevant focus here. The beginning of the film does go into some detail about the rise of the suburbs, but, like many populist documentaries coming from a liberal point of view, the film generally wants to lay the blame for the increase of sprawl almost entirely at the feet of oil and car companies, politicians, and advertisers - not on the consumers who made the choices, however influenced they may have been. Much of the film seems to be an exhortation along the lines of "you were duped into thinking you wanted this soulless life - break out of it now, it'll be too late soon"! Even though I'm sure that's not completely untrue - and I'm simplifying a bit - it's frustrating that neither the filmmakers nor any of their interviewees - experts on the petroleum industry, urbanism, sociology - want to delve very far into the psychology of what actually does make suburbs attractive to many people. James Howard Kunstler, the social critic who is the most present, and most entertaining voice here, seems particularly vitriolic in his scorn for the whole suburban concept - the worst of both the worlds of the city and country, to him. What, are people just that stupid then? Perhaps so - but this isn't a very useful selling point if one wants to get this film seen by more than the already-receptive.

This is not to say that the film doesn't offer some valuable information; I consider myself only slightly knowledgeable about the subject, and was fascinated to learn just how hard the US government in particular pushed the postwar housing boom, for example, and Kunstler's little aside about how the suburbs are often named after the natural environments they've wiped out ("Heron Springs", "Oak Bluffs", etc) is one of many pithy but right-on bits that go a long way to showing how artificial and blinkered the whole suburban myth can be. But most of the film is devoted to the bleakness of the peak oil concept, and the seeming dark ages that will fall afterwards, and here again the filmmakers don't go far enough. Nothing can replace gasoline, the internal combustion engine, we're told more than once - but we're give no evidence and no real discussion - just "oh, when gas is $10 a gallon we'll have to come up with a different - and more difficult - way of life". These people seem to be rationalists - but they aren't looking deeply enough, or showing a rationalist like me why the alternatives aren't there or won't work. Saying we're doomed because solar, wind and nuclear don't cut it (and without really telling us why they don't in any detail) isn't really proving their point.

Still all in all, a worthwhile film which at the very least does offer up some avenues for further exploration for those of us interested in the issues of urban and landscape planning and our energy future. And the disc is enlivened a great deal by the filmmakers' commentary track, and the addition of two vintage promotional/industrial shorts from 1956-7:

Redbook Magazine's IN THE SUBURBS, a rather hilarious push for both the glories of suburban life (which seems essentially to stress the value of conformity) and the magazine, "the only magazine for young adults"

DESTINATION EARTH, a really poorly animated short in which a Martian explorer lands on Earth to determine the kind of fuel we use in our vehicles and comes back with gushing praise about the glories of oil.

The Collapse of Complex Societies (New Studies in Archaeology)
$43.00
My own purchase relied on some extremely favorable reviews, and now I'm expensively stuck.

I was slogging along through Tainter's clunky writing style when I got to page 50 of the 18th (2008) edition. There he made this remarkable remark:

"As it becomes apparent to the members or administrators of a complex society that a resource base is deteriorating, it seems most reasonable to assume that some rational steps are taken towards a resolution. With their administrative structure and their capacity to allocate labor and resources, dealing with adverse environmental conditions may be one of the things that complex societies do best. It is curious that they would collapse when faced with precisely those conditions that they are equipped to circumvent."

Tainter lost me with that observation. (setting aside PC phrasing for a moment, I actually went into a stalking rage!) On page 89 it got even worse when he effectively dismissed 11 alternatives to his own notions.

Like the Anasazi leaders could have done something when the decades-long drought started! Or any of the recent American 'administrators" - GWB or BHO - have made the slightest effort to do something "rational" about a looming change of climate which will make the Anasazi situation look like a pleasant Spring outing by comparison.

[...]

http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Societies-Choose-Fail-Succeed/dp/0670033375

I'd suggest reading Jared Diamond's "Collapse" book first. Then borrow a copy of Tainter's tome from a friend or from the library. If you find it useful, by all means purchase it. If you're of the 'libertarian' persuasion, ignore this review and Buy It Now. IMO this one is well on the way to becoming a Libertarian Holy Book.