When the Lights Go Out

03-18-2011 • TheAutomaticEarth.blogspot.com

Corporate media pundits are simultaneously talking about how tragic the disaster in Japan has been, and how it could also provide an opportunity for renewed economic growth through the rebuilding of its infrastructure. This latter claim is obviously nonsense to anyone who thinks about it for more than two seconds, but it reflects the fact that power elites are not at all shaken by the consequences of this event so far. They are actually benefitting from the "ratings" it generates in corporate media, and stand to benefit much more from financing the rebuilding of homes, schools, roads, factories, etc. So what will it take to shake this arrogant sense of invincibility out from the consciousness of elites? It could be systemic financial deterioration, water scarcity, other environmental disasters or a combination of such events, but as mentioned throughout this series, it is quite possible that global structures of power will adapt to all of these things. However, peak oil represents an energetic release generated in the very heart of global human civilization, the industrial economy, which will spread through all of its extremities, up its spine and into its brain. When tens of millions of people in the developed world are forced to live without access to basic electricity or fuel for transportation, along with any other expected luxuries, no amount of whitewashing or clever propaganda will dull the systemic shock. Television ratings won't soar, because consumers of entertainment will have neither the ability nor desire to watch themselves suffer in real-time. All bets are off when the energy finally stops flowing and the lights go out, and, right now, the financial elites are running the biggest, most complex bets on the table.