Immoderate Greatness

Author: William Ophuls
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781479243143
Category : Civilization
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
*Immoderate Greatness* explains how a civilization's very magnitude conspires against it to cause downfall. Civilizations are hard-wired for self-destruction. They travel an arc from initial success to terminal decay and ultimate collapse due to intrinsic, inescapable biophysical limits combined with an inexorable trend toward moral decay and practical failure. Because our own civilization is global, its collapse will also be global, as well as uniquely devastating owing to the immensity of its population, complexity, and consumption. To avoid the common fate of all past civilizations will require a radical change in our ethos-to wit, the deliberate renunciation of greatness-lest we precipitate a dark age in which the arts and adornments of civilization are partially or completely lost.

The Fate of Empires

Author: Arthur John Hubbard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
The Fate of Empires: Being an Inquiry into the Stability of Civilisation by Arthur John Hubbard, first published in 1913, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.

Dirt

Author: David R. Montgomery
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520933168
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.

Great Satan's Rage

Author: Scott Wilson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
Great Satan's Rage looks at how rap and metal--the two most pervasive popular music forms of the 1990s--have been highly engaged with America's role in the world, super-capitalism, and their own role within it. This has especially been the case when genres have crossed over as an effect of cross-racial forms of identification and desire, marketing strategy, political engagement, opportunism, and experimentation. It is how examples of these forms have negotiated, contested, raged against, survived, exploited, simulated and performed "Satan's Rage" that is the subject of this book. The book offers a highly original approach in relating rap/metal to critical theories of economy and culture, introducing a new method of cultural analysis based on theories of negativity and expenditure.

Plato's Revenge

Author: William Ophuls
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262297639
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Book Description
A provocative essay that imagines a truly ecological future based on political transformation rather than the superficialities of “sustainability.” In this provocative call for a new ecological politics, William Ophuls starts from a radical premise: “sustainability” is impossible. We are on an industrial Titanic, fueled by rapidly depleting stocks of fossil hydrocarbons. Making the deck chairs from recyclable materials and feeding the boilers with biofuels is futile. In the end, the ship is doomed by the laws of thermodynamics and by the implacable biological and geological limits that are already beginning to pinch. Ophuls warns us that we are headed for a postindustrial future that, however technologically sophisticated, will resemble the preindustrial past in many important respects. With Plato's Revenge, Ophuls, author of Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity, envisions political and social transformations that will lead to a new natural-law politics based on the realities of ecology, physics, and psychology. In a discussion that ranges widely—from ecology to quantum physics to Jungian psychology to Eastern religion to Western political philosophy—Ophuls argues for an essentially Platonic politics of consciousness dedicated to inner cultivation rather than outward expansion and the pursuit of perpetual growth. We would then achieve a way of life that is materially and institutionally simple but culturally and spiritually rich, one in which humanity flourishes in harmony with nature.

Deadly Secrets of Iranian Princes

Author: Pascal Mahvi
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1770672206
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 468

Book Description
Every once in a while, someone with unprecedented access to the truth, lifts the veil in a memoir so stark and revealing that it has the power to reframe history and our perceptions of those who defined it. Pascal Mahvi's book is one such to me. The Deadly Secrets of Iranian Princes, which spans three decades, is Mahvi's candid account of his struggle growing up straddling two cultures and in the process reconciling his own identity both as an American and a descendant of Iranian royalty. When the newly appointed Shah of Iran reaches out to Mahvi's father to become his chief advisor and confidante, young Pascal is thrust into the controversial leader's elite inner-sanctum during one of the most pivotal periods in history. The author's story of survival is at once both riveting and poignant, offering rare, intimate glimpses of the Shah at his most human away from the glare of the spotlight. It is also a window into the surprising strengths and frailties of some of the world's most famous celebrities from the deeply personal perspective of someone who unexpectedly finds himself an intimate part of their world. Told through the eyes of a son forced to become a man against a backdrop of unimaginable danger and sacrifice, Deadly Secrets of Iranian Princes is the front page story that hasn't been broken...until now. The revelations in this book, from corporate treason and corrupt government to the surreal demands of being an insider in the shadow of a nuclear arms race are sure to ignite a firestorm of controversy, especially for those whose betrayals will finally become public. More than a news story, at its heart, Deadly Secrets of Iranian Princes is also a haunting testimonial to the complexities of extreme privilege and the unforgettable chronicle of one man's quest to honor his father....

Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity Revisited

Author: William Ophuls
Publisher: W H Freeman & Company
ISBN: 9780716723134
Category : Environmental policy.
Languages : en
Pages : 379

Book Description

Overshoot

Author: William R. Catton
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252098005
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
Our day-to-day experiences over the past decade have taught us that there must be limits to our tremendous appetite for energy, natural resources, and consumer goods. Even utility and oil companies now promote conservation in the face of demands for dwindling energy reserves. And for years some biologists have warned us of the direct correlation between scarcity and population growth. These scientists see an appalling future riding the tidal wave of a worldwide growth of population and technology. A calm but unflinching realist, Catton suggests that we cannot stop this wave - for we have already overshot the Earth's capacity to support so huge a load. He contradicts those scientists, engineers, and technocrats who continue to write optimistically about energy alternatives. Catton asserts that the technological panaceas proposed by those who would harvest from the seas, harness the winds, and farm the deserts are ignoring the fundamental premise that "the principals of ecology apply to all living things." These principles tell us that, within a finite system, economic expansion is not irreversible and population growth cannot continue indefinitely. If we disregard these facts, our sagging American Dream will soon shatter completely.

The Collapse of Complex Societies

Author: Joseph Tainter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521386739
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Book Description
Dr Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory.

Chosen for Greatness

Author: Kelley Varner
Publisher: Destiny Image Incorporated
ISBN: 9780768421835
Category : Christian life
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. --Ephesians 1:4 KJV You are a unique "word" from God, much more than you ever dreamed possible! Who you are in Jesus Christ is an awesome mystery-a mystery revealed in part in Chosen for Greatness. In this truly fresh and genuinely unique revelation from the Holy Spirit, Dr. Kelley Varner gives you keys to unlock the deep, sacred secret of the spiritual being you were destined to become in Christ. Drawing from careful biblical study and original ancient languages, this seasoned scribe uncovers the real you, the hidden person you were chosen to be before you were born. As the volume of God's Book is opened, you will receive insight into your foreordained destiny and understand His assigned purpose for your life. In this now-word proceeding from the Father's throne, you will discover that indeed you have been Chosen for Greatness!