The Age of Stupid - 90 minute movie

I have to post this in MD, because it doesn't exactly offer a path to building a better world (which is what the forums are for), but kinda paints a clear picture of the problems we face. Primarily, cutting back 10% isn't gonna really make a difference.

That is well-done - and painful to watch.

I'm surprised this movie only has 20 likes after being out for a couple months already. Pretty interesting and scary.

Covered a bit in this podcast

I really do try to listen to the whole podcasts, but 1 or 2 full hours every day or two is too much for me. I try to move around and get as much info I can in about 20 minutes or so, which is what I can afford time-wise. Of course, this is also because of other garden/life research and podcasts like the Survival Podcast and such, which I also can't listen to the whole thing. But thank you for doing them, maybe someday I can go back through the archives and soak up some more good info. To help get our family OUT of the age of stupid, we are giving up soda, alcohol, and eating out until at minimum all our credit card debt is paid off, and maybe even our home debt. By then gas will be $15/gallon so we'll need the money for that if we want to go anywhere! ha!

Gary really appreciate where you are coming from.

You are young and trying to succeed at caring for your family and it's needs.

You are caught up in a culture that makes it difficult.

You have limited time to learn new things that will help you cope / change that culture of "The Age Of Stupid".

When I was your age, I was caught up in succeeding in the same type of "The Age Of Stupid" that has been existing for a long while.

Now, retired, I have time to listen to long podcasts for "gems" that Paul provides us.

You need Paul's "gems" and other's "gems" on specific "permaculture bricks" that you are interested in, in 10-20 minute bits. They will help you in your local situation.

Maybe a goal for our permies community should be to better breakup our "gems" on specific "permaculture bricks" and / or to better specify what time segment they are in.

Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/ does that in his 10-20 minute teaching videos. I think that is why he is so successful. People can take small bits at a subject as they have time, eventually learning a whole subject.

I really enjoy your posts, rocket heater, etc.

Regards to all,
Monte Hines

Yep, Monte, that is exactly where I am at. And lately finding out how heavily our society is set AGAINST people who want to live more permanently or even eco-friendly, despite the "idea of being green" being widely accepted. Just this week we were deemed "uninsurable" for changing homeowners insurance to try to save money, due to things like "having chickens", even though there were absolutely no reasons given why it was a problem. Just a quick rant there...but definitely in line with the age of STUPID I'm slowly realizing I have lived in for my 10-15 adult years.

Gary,

You are smart and figuring it out before I did...
Keep your integrity...
Try to deal with people of integrity...
Try to point out and boycott those that lack integrity... systems and people...
Not easy... but you will have a proud journey with your family and your community...
You will help to build momentum for a cultural shift to more integrity and positive change...

Regards,
Monte Hines

Cheap Fossil Fuel World - Dubai - The Poop Trucks - YouTube
http://hines.blogspot.com/2012/01/cheap-fossil-fuel-world-dubai-poop.html
This Pisses Me Off!
Wake Up World - The Age of Stupid
We all need to do something about this stupidity...
If you aren't doing your part, you should feel guiltily...
You are a citizen of the world...

"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." W. Edwards Deming

Regards to all...
Monte Hines
Hines Farm Blog

------
Please comment at Reddit to help change the world
------
HRT87 from http://reddit.com/ has shared a link with you.
Cheap Fossil Fuel World - Dubai - The Poop Trucks - This Pisses Me Off !"
http://reddit.com/tb/oqckk
You can view them here:
http://reddit.com/r/Permaculture/comments/oqckk/cheap_fossil_fuel_world_dubai_the_poop_trucks/

paul wheaton wrote:Covered a bit in this podcast

Great podcast! I like to listen to you while I do the dishes, the boys are doing their homework and my husband is either at work or out in the garage.

very well put together for the average person. good use of news footage and typical middle class persons. I personally have a problem with wind but not for any reason they brought up or one most folks would think of in the first place. other than the wind angle the was so prevalent the whole was a good primer with lots of facts that could be checked by someone who got the interest. it also showed how Empire builds its own enemies into the system.

A couple rungs up the permi ladder and some of the arguments fall apart but largely due to the general level in the world at this time.

bravo
Thanks Paul

Updated the link.

I think about this movie about a dozen times per month.  I would say that about 8% of my book is motivated by this movie.

I'm all for a more efficient and ecologically sustainable society. However, I'm of the opinion that if we really wanted to solve the problem immediately we would build 10,000 molten salt reactors within the year. It would allow humanity to become completely, totally, and utterly carbon neutral to carbon negative in less than a year. Not everyone likes the idea of nuclear power, however its at worse a stop-gap technology that solves the problem immediately and gives us a few thousands years to figure out even better methods of power generation.

Interesting film.  No hard specifics.  This year relative to GDP, China dumps 6 times more carbon into the air than the USA and India only dumps double ours.  The USA contributes very little plastics to our oceans while about 90% comes from the orient.  If, in fact we have had 6 or 7 ice ages and that the last one was about 10000 years ago, then why would not the planet continue to warm until the cycle reverses and again we descend into another ice age?  yes, we should strive for sustainable living, but controlling other countries carbon emissions that will be difficult, especially if they manipulate any data.   Using  rocket stove for home heat, if one is actually using renewables for fuel and after the free power of the sun is maximized.  However, as the sun produces about 1000 btu for every square yard per hour, too often we miss the opportunity to build a south facing greenhouse for day time isolation, with night time insulation.  Alas, we have not asked our designers to lay out subdivisions with solar maximization (for northern USA) and minimal insulation for those in warmer climes.  Accounting for the sun in building has been around since the Anasazi, but, we seem to have a problem incorporating their design elements into our homes.    Jim Johnson 10 2020

It may be old ... but this movie gives a lot of 'food for thought'

paul wheaton wrote:Updated the link.

I think about this movie about a dozen times per month.  I would say that about 8% of my book is motivated by this movie.

Thank you Paul, for showing us this movie

Thank you for this video. quite hard, heartbreaking, painful. I've been watching it in 10-15 minute segments [My back hurts, so I can sit only so long. plus, it is a real downer, even if we must be told how dire things are]. It should be shown in schools. They need to see how we failed them, our generation.
Every 20-30 years, it seems there is a war, and just like lemmings jumping in the sea the human race reduces its numbers, and we think we've learned something. For a while, things are better: There are less people. Or there is a plague, maybe like COVID 19. So far, the Earth has consistently found a way to re-balance what we messed up, usually at the cost of much suffering, many deaths. We are condemned to choose. Let's hope we choose wisely.
Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

That was a great documentary. Which shows slot of our problems. But doesn't show anything about cows being part of the problem. Check out Cowspiracy which shows what I'm talking about. But Permaculture is a big solution to our problems we are having. Thanks for sharing the video I promoted it on my Instagram.

I am for living sustainably with growing things, being independent of civilization, with simple living, for having the solution to the problem. Certainly many will resist changing in that way. But those who will do need to do this all the way, for the rest who will not change in that direction, for less effect of humanity on the world, and to have a more stable way of living with critical times coming with changes in this world.

Tim,

Cowspiracy and so much more down that path is discussed in my book https://permies.com/bwb

In an effort to respond, I started this thread about solutions:

https://permies.com/t/150190/change-world-triple-emphasis-person

paul wheaton wrote:In an effort to respond, I started this thread about solutions:
https://permies.com/t/150190/change-world-triple-emphasis-person

As usual, a very rich and rewarding thread. Lots of ideas and solutions. Hmmm... Among many other ideas: Dry brushing my bod! That really appeals to me. Showering once in a while instead of daily makes more sense. In the winter, when we are less active, we don't get so dirty and getting from the warmth of your bed into a shower feels quite a lot colder in the morning. There are a lot of good things about our skin that we wash away. [plus it really costs more time and money!]
Related to this, I have a book by Ed Young titled "I contain multitudes: The microbes within us and a grander view of life". [ISBN: 978-0-06-236860-7]. Talk about changing your outlook on the human body!
Instead of thinking of the human body as an entity onto itself that we must be careful not to get dirty or infected by 'bad' things, foreign entities, something we must keep separate from all these dangerous things Ed Young looks at the human body as a colony of microbes, or organisms, some good, some not so good that need to live in harmony. Our 'cleaners', in getting rid of all other things around us deprive us of the good ones too. There is a good argument to be made that without the "bad things" challenging our bodies to create antibodies, we would be naked like a babe in the woods, at the mercy of all sorts of bad pathogens.  It really expands the way one thinks about the human body and encourages us to strike the right balance in our colony instead of being terrified at every speck of dirt and constantly try to eradicate 'dirt'.
There is also a cultural aspect to this way of thinking: I have found Americans generally to be preoccupied, consumed even with obsessive cleanliness. A look at our grocery stores and the packaging will show that not only is the lettuce washed, which is OK, but it must be placed in a plastic film. On top of that, this package must also go in either a paper sac or another layer of plastic before the consumer can take it outside of the store. It is insane, and a lot of money is wasted like this without giving the consumer more value for the price charged.

I went looking for a working video of this movie--and failed--but, I ran across this update made in 2019: