John Michael Greer at http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.ca/
Discusses the collapse of complex societies.
My interpretation is that complex societies scale up well, but do not scale down very well

Here’s one for the “Muh Roads” file. I just turned 50 and the interchange of I-95 and I-10 has been under constant construction since I was in 4th grade. Some years ago I finally figured it out with an admission from a state DOT employee that got little attention in the press. The way the department works is their next year’s budget is determined by what they spend this year. So, this person explained that if they don’t submit an ever growing cost to the higher ups. they get less money and if they have no pending or continuing projects they get downsized (right, like that ever happens with bureaucrats). Apparently there are those in the vast rat maze of local DOT bureaucracy who have made entire comfy careers off of dragging out the “improvement” of the I-10/I-95 area for decades. Not to mention the select few contractors who’ve built personal empires off of it. That is the part that the “Muh Roads” people don’t understand. The govt. doesn’t build roads. They inefficiently/corruptly hire private companies to do it all. I also learned something about this from one of the family members of one such private empire that originally did the paving of the FL part of I-10 as well as the launch pads for NASA at Cape Canaveral and various military runways all over the world.

Thank you for explaining the Vaxxed movie and controversy in such a direct, simple manner.

Is this the same Pournelle that wrote for Byte magazine in the 80’s?
Was he not a Sci-Fi writer as well?

Mark Shepard the author of Restoration Agriculture, guest of TSP and friend of Jacks, laid out in an excellent presentation about the time of the release of his book that, “All civilizations based on annual crops have collapsed.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb_t-sVVzF0

While Mark’s presentation is very long, it is packed full with practical “real” permaculture practices tied into restoration agriculture along with numerous examples of various civilizations brought down by degenerative agricultural practices, AND more than a slight bit of emotion as to how he feels about how things are and need to be changed.

This has been supported by research by the likes of Jarrod Diamond, author of the Pulitzer prize winning book Guns, Germs and Steel, in his short piece, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race.”

http://www.ditext.com/diamond/mistake.html .

Of course societal collapse can ultimately be triggered by a number of events, as was mentioned by CJ, Diamond notes that it does not take an ever-increasing complex society to collapse. Numerous paleopathologist have noted collapse of individual human beings in the transition from hunter gatherers to farmers.

Regarding larger complex societies, it has been noted that they mostly follow a specific pattern, discovery and exploitation of natural resources, (arable land, timber, mined material, human labor,etc.); establishment of a fungible, real value-backed currency; rise in public works; rise in a standing army to protect or expand that countries’ interests; debasement of it its currency; greater class divisions between the rich and poor; loss of trust in government; and collapse by insurrection from within or being overtaken from outside or just dissolving back into Nature as the Incas, Mayans, and the vast numbers of Amazon Indians at the time of the Conquistidores. SOUND FAMILIAR?

If not, just look back to the ‘60s and ‘70s in the US in your (or your parent’s lives) and ask how things were then regarding individual standards of living, wages, job opportunities, home ownership, single-earner household income providers, health (wastelines?), individual debt, quality time spent with family – on and on.

The concluding solutions given in this podcast are good in developing individual resiliency and growing sets of skills, but require individuals to tare themselves away from the duality of the intentionally planned distractions of the “either or” distractions, as Jack would say, Republican/Democrat, etc.; mainstream media; iPhone (my 6Plus is mostly used for really important or emergency things).

In other words “Go Back to the Future,” Mark Shephard’s farm in Viola, WI is virtually self-sustaining, including being virtually off-grid (including liquid vehicular fuel); restorative in virtually all aspects; and highly profitable (even Warren Buffett has said he “would take owning farms over gold”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lX7CCjvmtE ).

And technology is NOT going to save us, while, at the moment, with through the internet, we have an unprecedented access to virtually all the knowledge in the world, many, including previous previous multiple-appearance TSP guest Chris Martenson, and those mentioned in the other comments, John Michael Greer and James Howard Kunstler are NOT “Doomers,” but are REALISTS who can do the real world math (not Common Core BS), see that we simply do not have enough basic resources (oil, minerals, etc.) to create these “high tech” solutions.

The best bet to avoid collapse in your world, regardless of what happens outside your “Sphere of Influence,” people like Geoff Lawton as well as Mark Shepard and Joel Salatin say is to get involved in Restoration Agriculture, focusing on perenials which can be done WITHOUT buying land, but only leasing it long term and teaming up with other like-minded people who, together will not only weather any collapse, but be healthier, wealthier (in the true sense) and happier.