Thanks, man.

I’m loading up on kitties as we type in anticipation of the day they are needed.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6036658873440327262

The Kitty FlameBuster 2000™!

I am going to use this technique on my boards from now on. (Unless of course there’s some IP issue?)

Say your on death row, and you notice that the walls seem to be cracking. Are you wrong to hope they fall down, when that would mean that many of the prisoners, very likely even you will be killed? Hoping for the lesser of two evils doesn’t mean you desire evil, it means you are capable of rational thought.

I use the term “cheering on the iceberg” to indicate a total lack of concern for, in your analogy, the prisoners who get crushed in the process. Obviously, my view of collapse is not one of total catastrophe, but of catastrophe that opens up hope. But it’s catastrophe nontheless, and what’s disturbing here is the attitude that loses sight of that catastrophic element, and how costly our hope is.

I think it is possible for people to “cheer on the iceberg” without necessarily rejoicing unfortunate consequences, especially if you happen to be chained in the hold of a ship on the middle passage. Yes it will be a horrible and painful experience in many ways, but I’m one who would rather get unpleasant but necessary tasks done and out of the way as soon as possible. Say your on death row, and you notice that the walls seem to be cracking. Are you wrong to hope they fall down, when that would mean that many of the prisoners, very likely even you will be killed? Hoping for the lesser of two evils doesn’t mean you desire evil, it means you are capable of rational thought.
Note: I’m in no way cheering the collapse of civilization. For one thing, I would like at least a few more years to prepare. For another thing, I really like guitars and pasta and the internet and many other perks of this horrible system, and while a simpler life would obviously be preferable, I’m still going to miss a lot about civilization. If anything, I would choose to slow the collapse down as much as possible, to give myself and as many other people as possible a “soft landing.”

I stayed out of this topic because it seemed to generate so much furor (not so much recently), but it really feels like your trying to play some kind of PR game. Do you really expect people to believe that at least on some level you can’t wait for collapse? There is way to much naked hatred of civilization here for me to buy that. There is nothing wrong with that either.