14 Comments
Jul 8, 2022Liked by epimetheus

We here in Germany and the rest of central Europe got a downgrade to 2nd world. Now we can mock your 1st world problems in Norway... :)

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Jul 8, 2022Liked by epimetheus

Ah, but everything, EVERYTHING must be done to stop that evilly-evil Putin! If it means shivering in the dark, then shiver in the dark we will, damn it! And then the evilly-evil Putin will have to sell his hydrocarbons to China and India, while we shiver in the dark, which will TOTALLY stop him!

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Jul 8, 2022Liked by epimetheus

Of course we should all shiver in the dark. High temperatures and bright light can cause heart attacks, you know.

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author

So does freezing in the cold, dark of winter.

Either way, Sauron wins, I suppose.

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Well, he did have a private volcano, possibly more in the mountains surrounding Mordor, so he's set anyway. So is Isengard, lots of hydro available with the run-off from the Misty Mountains.

Heh, what an idea for a sequel. Gondor, aided by a coaltion of Rohan, Rivendell, Mirkwood, and the Shire against the Axis of Evil consisting of Mordor, Khand, Harad and Umbar, invades Mordor ostensibly to brings peace and liberal democracy to the unenlightened orcs and goblins, but in reality to gain control of the huge deposits of coal and to control the geothermic power plants.

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author

Please mock them, we're all deserving of them.

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Jul 8, 2022Liked by epimetheus

When energy production was a national interest and a strategic asset used to create a beneficial climate for business and entrepreneurs (as well as freeing household income for consumption in their locality rather than creating money for a few thosuands profiteers), it worked a lot better.

The system was built with the people's money (taxes) for the benefit of the people of the nation. The price set to cover the initial investment, cost of keeping it running, investments in r&d, and banking a sum for future expanson and repairs.

For Sweden, this meant that the electrical bill was rarely even 1% of the monthly income per household (using a very rough average). Of course, that was when we had 12 reactors up and running. Not 2½.

The neoliberal market economy that has been the model since the late eighties can only and will always create disaster for a very simple reason: it assumes the purchase of chewing gum and the electrical bill are equivalent economical exchanges of payment for goods/service. Add NPM and the rest of the idiocy based in rational choice theory and here we are: anarcho-tyranny where the corporate state acts as enforcer for capital.

Leaving the people with the choice of knuckling under, becoming vehemently nationalist, or embracing marxism. Again. Why must we repeat the set-up for the two world wars last century?

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author

Good points, all in all.

As to your last paragraph: I doubt that 'Marxism' counts as an option that's actually 'marketed' (pun in intended) at face-value. It's already so diffuse, albeit under different names and in disguise.

As to the question you ask: yes, why do we do that (again)?--I suspect: because it's the same, or at least like-minded, forces that are making politicians move in this direction.

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Jul 8, 2022Liked by epimetheus

It's too bad the government hasn't been worried about the rule of law when it came to its own people.

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author

Rules for thee, but not for me, seems to be the age-old wisdom that has made a comeback as of late.

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Jul 8, 2022Liked by epimetheus

Rain dances?!? Now you are getting somewhere! I am now fully compelled to read this article. Ha!

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Jul 8, 2022Liked by epimetheus

I do contest the use of neo with liberal moniker which in the old days meant a free market economy, and as opposed to free market capitalism and is what we are enduring it trending towards outright fascism now, but I have already commented on this idea on your stack and suppose this is redundant for you and your readers to consider yet again. Or maybe I ought to just give in and think because the word does focus on the fascist himself.

Here in Manitowoc WI USA we have a non profit power generating station with rates declining. This area is also served with plenty of natgas, no problems there. Although I doubt it, there could be enough oil for awhile from other states.

But one thing that could happen at anytime is a policy change. I have been building up my personal resources and lowering the amount of energy this household is using. Its true my wife hasn't a clue her demands are without thought, along with all of her friends, our neighbors, the whole dam city doesn't have a care in the world. Maybe a few of them are reading about the situation in Europe, but how many think the same policy change will happen here that will lead to *gasp* rationing!

While I have forgone the airplane flights to nowhere, no vacations, no eat outs, oh, there is a long list of forgones here, there fore I could afford three solar units on this house, a camp in a swamp guarded by ticks and mosquitoes that needs no power whatsoever, and am learning to grow food without power sources.

It could be I will be seen as a model citizen by the elite here very soon as long as they don't see me kill a deer and eat it!

Anyway, we do have a choice.

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author

I'm with you on these choices.

As to the blasé citizenry, well, I suppose that is the same over here: most people are blissfully ignorant.

I also agree that whatever we had before 2020 wasn't free-market capitalism. There wasn't anything like this since, well, at least some 100 years, so, we need a different name for that, too.

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Indeed except that I was thinking the free market economy is as opposed to free market capitalism. Parsing the details.

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