Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Re: Google map of "Occupy" protests

I wouldn't posit "nothingness" either.
Robert — (archived)

Nothingness could only come about if all humans are wiped out, and we're not talking about anything quite that radical (I hope). If you define "society" generously as a primate association, there will be societies of a sort. All sorts, as you catalogue.

I feel a bit like Hari Seldon contemplating the shape of the oncoming night, realizing I can't stop it, and working therefore to make the best possible lemonade out of the lemons.

Which of the futures that you catalog will we pick?

Novelist Richard Morgan amusingly nicknames the red-state successor "Jesusland" in his future post-breakup world, and funnily enough, in one of his recent novels (can't recall the title at the moment), some of it takes place in a labor camp in Florida exactly like the Cool Hand Luke world you recount. You're not the only who sees that shape in the future.

One of the reasons I want to see a split along these lines is that I fully expect the blue-state successors to maintain a higher level of what liberals define as civilization. It'll help a lot that the coastal blue zones account for something like 2/3 of current US GDP and engage heaviliy in global trade. That global perspective and related ongoing relationships will motivate the future blues to avoid backsliding into the 19th century. Plus, those of us who live here just wouldn't stand for it. Unlike our red-state brethren, we have no inclination to vote ourselves back into those antebellum feudal chains.

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