The Glass Half Empty?

Submitted by Michel C. Zala (Switzerland), Jan 30, 2011 at 11:25

My current period of individual culture pessimism leads me as well to see the odds more in a double whammy in the foreseeable future.

The recent uproar in so far as moderate considered nagtions like Jordan, Egypt or Tunesia, from whence and the subsequent chaos very likely islamists may emerge as "victorious", even though initially the roots seem to originate from secular circles, gives me great pause. Pakistan indeed seems to be well on its way to islamism and thus to the next conflict with India. Iran is a desaster waiting to happen. In Australia all military exercises are already geared to stemm the tide of 350M Indonesians running out of space and resources. It seems to be only a matter of time, until one of those fanatics gets his hands on a nuke.

Combine the above with passivity, lethargy and appeasement, currently the common approach of most western nations and the next real war, possibly nuclear, seems almost unavoidable.

I agree with you also on the topic of fossil fuels. I wrote a full piece to the energy resources in America proper a couple of years ago, which would enable the US to become fully independent quickly. The untapped oil reserves alone would sustain the country for 80 years at current consumption rates. Well enough to at the same time aggressively pursue alternative angles or the so called al of the above approach McCain promoted during his candidacy without losing a beat, which by now with again sharply rising prices for gas in the US is taken up even by our socialist, Obama.

Hence. those complacent middle eastern regimes, emirates, dictatorships or theocracies may indeed much more quickly become insignificant, if not outright irrelevant. The resulting frustration, jealousy and inferiority complex however may well be exploited by fanatic islamists for a scorched earth approach, likely with the focal points of Pakistan or Iran.

In a way it will be a lose-lose proposition, where the economical demise of the muslim nations will lead to desaster, as with the current status quo the region seems to be heading in the same direction as well.

As mentioned earlier, the various doomsday prophecies for around 2012 seem to reflect more and more a macabre reality.

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