Eventually the Bubble Bursts

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Eventually the Bubble Bursts

• Unbridled consumption against a finite resource
  base is a path we have been, for some time.

2
Engineering the Planet

• What Compels us to do so?

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Progress
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Historical Warnings About

• The Consumption Machine have been vigorously made
  but no one actually seems to care or believed
  that the earth was finite.
• As a result, we are on a trajectory of exhausting
  most all of earths resources (including fresh
  water) over a 250 year period (1850-2100)
• This is how culture behaves collectively.
• But why do we do this collectively?

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One Early Warning - 1926

• The outstanding fact in mass civilization as it
  exists in America and Western Europe to-day is
  that it moves with confidence in only one
  direction. The workers, after their escape from
  the industrial slavery of the last century, have
  only one plan for the future upon which they can
  unite, a greater share in material benefits. The
  possessors of capital have only one program upon
  which they agree, a further exploitation of
  material resources, for the greater comfort of
  the community and themselves. The professional
  classes have only one professional instinct in
  common, to discover new methods by which man's
  comfort may be made secure.

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Prophet_ 1942

• The question that I will ask you to consider
  today is this When the war is over, are we
  likely, and do we want to keep this attitude to
  work and the results of work? Or are we preparing
  and do we want to back to our old habits of
  thought? Because I believe that on our answer to
  this question the whole economic future of
  society will depend. Sooner or later the moment
  will come when we have to make a decision about
  this. At the moment, we are not making it - it is
  being made for us (by the machine)

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An Early Sign
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The Production Machine
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How Global Conditions drive the goals of culture

• Pre WW II Depression Competition has been shown
  to be useful up to a certain point and no
  further, but cooperation, which is the thing we
  must strive for today, begins where competition
  leaves off
• This competition vs cooperation idea will be one
  of the sub-texts throughout the term

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Post WW II Marching Orders

• Only if we have large demands can we expect large
  production. Therefore, it is important that in
  planning for the postwar period, we give adequate
  consideration to the need for ever-increasing
  consumption on the part of our people as one of
  the prime requisites for prosperity.
• We will also see throughout the course this
  repeated notion that consumption is tied directly
  to prosperity and in fact, is often articulated
  as an inalienable right.