Long descent : A user's guide to the end of the industrial age / by John Michael Greer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Greer, John Michael.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Regression (Civilization).

Social change--Forecasting.

Social change.

Twenty-first century--Forecasts.

Twenty-first century.

Civilization, Modern--21st century.

Civilization, Modern.

Social evolution.

Physical Description:

xii, 259 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pa. : New Society ; Lancaster : Gazelle [distributor], 2008.

Summary:

Across the globe, the histories of empires won and lost, built and destroyed, show themselves like footprints in the sands of time. Mayan temples in the jungle, Roman forts in rolling British hills, crumbling Victorian architecture in the Caribbean - all these tell the story of civilizations risen to power and passed away again.

The Long Descent follows our present industrial society down the same well-worn path that has led other civilizations into decline. John Michael Greer explains that this path involves a much slower and more complex transformation than the sudden catastrophes imagined by so many social critics today. The cultural stories we use to understand the world have, in turn, created our present environmental crisis and influence our future. Global challenges such as climate change and peak oil are not problems to be solved but predicaments that must be lived with.

The Long Descent offers concrete suggestions for just how to do this. A simple muscle-powered toolkit and professions that involve doing useful things with one's hands are high on the list, as are adopting an obsolete technology and cultivating a garden. Focusing eloquently on constructive adaptation to massive change, this book will be formative in the evolution of a post-industrial society.

Contents:

1 The End of the Industrial Age 1

2 The Stories We Tell Ourselves 35

3 Briefing for the Descent 73

4 Facing the Deindustrial Age 113

5 Tools for the Transition 157

6 The Spiritual Dimension 191

Appendix How Civilizations Fall: A Theory of Catabolic Collapse 225.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780865716094

0865716099

OCLC:

248973373