Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

[Higgenbotham]

Dark Age Definition - Marc Widdowson's and Mine

Marc's: A dark age is an extended period of significantly reduced integration, organisation and cohesion. There must be an absolute reduction of
integration, organisation and cohesion, and not merely a decline relative to neighbouring societies. The retrenchment must also be large enough to last at least several decades. Finally, integration, organisation, and cohesion must all be affected simultaneously, which is not necessarily true of depressions (primarily loss of organisation) or civil wars (primarily loss of integration).

Mine: A dark age is defined as the social and political breakdown of a regional or world hegemonic power which creates a power vacuum for which there is no clear and immediate successor.


Entry Into a Dark Age - Marc Widdowson's and Mine

Marc's: At any rate, the entry into a dark age tends to be precipitate and unexpected. Its arrival might be clear to those who have gained some insight into the reality. However, most actors, who rely upon perceptions, remain unaware of growing danger and the need for a correction. When the discrepancy is finally revealed, there is panic and a catastrophic loss of confidence. The political authority loses legitimacy, its bluff is called, and it falls apart. Economic organisation unravels in a swift downward spiral. People discover that their interests have diverged and they retreat from each other in an act of discohesion.

Mine: There will be a major global financial panic and crisis. Supply chains will break, resulting in unavailability of critical raw materials and components. Global trade will begin to shut down. As it begins to become apparent that the supply chain linkages are permanently broken, the global interlinked financial markets will shut down and cease to exist. This will all happen very quickly. It will not take years from the initial panic. The focus of governments will turn to controlling their panicked and hungry populations. Due to lack of availability of imported goods and adequate storage "sufficient to reconstitute" a system consistent with nation state government, this will prove to be too little too late and most government will devolve to the local level as populations lose faith in their national governments and the national governments lose the resources and ability to control their populations.

[Cool Breeze]

You're hilarious

What would make you wrong about BTC, John?

What would get you to believe that pigs fly?

So you admit that you supposedly can't be wrong about BTC.

What happens when you are? You just grumble and find some other way to dismiss that someone else did his homework and sees things that you can't?

Why is this such an ego thing for you? I'm curious.

[Guest]

I don't trust Bitcoin. Nobody knows who created it except the secret creator. I don't trust people who create invisible things in secret. That's for God to do only.

I Trust in God.

For the money of man, I Trust in Gold.

Gold is honest. It comes from the earth through the hard work of men. Honest men deal in gold. If a man has something to sell and wants gold as payment, I will trust him.

[aeden]

Sold 80 percent of all equity.
Book4 stuffed with cash. Bonds will decide not equity for this window is our view for now.
We did not short. Trend sectors for bear flags for entry l8ter. Not picking raisons out of bull shit.
You missed the energy cannon bursts tailing the jet. Fascinating tech.
Think what they do not what they say. No pillows in Hell.

From 1929 top to the 1932 bottom there were six bear markets and five bull markets.
Just the duration of each one, we have 10 that were five months or less, and one that lasted eight months.
Then after the final bear market bottom, the Dow doubled in two months (not annotated). vvix
After the sweeps past October we will decide into March sweeps.

Powell will not be able to negate the Hill spending thieves of lunatics for much longer.
The tank is full of illegals. Burn loot murder lie cheat steal zones will assure and have the locusts have taken wing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBkzqNSDvnY

[Higgenbotham]

When surpluses disappear, all money and assets will go to zero and gold will go into hibernation. Some assets will still have value for producing food, clothing, or shelter but no value in terms of money because money will not exist. Get a good spade or shovel and a good putty knife. Those are assets that will still have value.

Perception versus reality.

Widdowson's predictions from the H notes should be mandatory reading.

The main strength of Widdowson's work, in my opinion, is the theory he provides regarding how the political, economic, and social interrelate. Here's an example:

One of the reasons why change is rapid is that
perceptions and reality follow separate dynamics.
They influence each other only loosely and in
general they tend to become separated. When the
illusion becomes apparent, perceptions may
collapse towards the reality almost instantaneously.
They may even overshoot the real value. The
society will transform in short order to far lower
levels of integration, organisation and
cohesion. Changes in perceptions can also initiate
or exacerbate movement in the real situation, via
the principle of reflexivity (TC11). Hence,
people’s perceptions tend to exaggerate even
relatively smooth changes in the reality into abrupt
movements.
However, most actors, who rely upon
perceptions, remain unaware of growing danger
and the need for a correction. When the
discrepancy is finally revealed, there is panic and a
catastrophic loss of confidence.

The Phoenix Principle and the Coming Dark Age by Marc Widdowson, 2001
pp.140-141

I have a good post hole digger in case anyone needs to borrow one. I've never used a power digger, just a hand one.

In the link to Charles Hugh Smith there was a photo of him holding a Skil Saw. I rebuilt dilapidated houses full time for 8 years and can therefore imagine what it might be like to keep deteriorating houses livable in a future with lack of supplies and materials. The tools I thought I needed or happened to have going into it were mostly not the tools I ended up using or taking out of it. When doing rebuilds, probably 90 percent of the time it was faster to cut by hand due to it being piecemeal work (a rotted joist here or there, for example). I broke 2 or 3 spade handles digging old bushes and trees out until I bought a spade at True Value that could handle the work, which I still have (likewise, I about gave up on sanding the gray wood off old siding because 3M sandpaper wasn't up to the job, but True Value brand sandpaper was - the sanding was done with a power drill). All the putty knives I had were hard to use until I found one that did everything well. Can't remember where I got it but it has slightly rounded corners and the right thickness and sharpness. What I'm saying is don't just buy anything as in hand saw, check, got one, now I'm good. Reading these posts made me think I don't want to be without lots of hacksaw blades. Will probably check what I have and buy at least a hundred. If things really go haywire there may be a need to cut sections of PVC pipe out of abandoned buildings and the blades might be good for barter. The 2 photos below show houses I bought with sinking front or back porches for around 12K in both cases. Since the structure was good, the rebuild on the front porch was done with hand tools except for the bolt on post. The stair stringers were cut by hand. The back porch was a tear off and therefore more like new construction with the joists and 4X4s being cut with a Skil Saw due to quantity, plus trimming the decking with a Skil Saw. A power drill was used to drill the bolt holes. All the post holes were dug to 4.5 feet by hand. The front porch was done for about 1/10th the cost of the back deck and half the time while requiring very little in the way of power tools.

The house in the second photo had an old cistern out back that had collapsed, so the back porch was unsalvageable partly for that reason. But that brings something up. Most or at least many houses built 100 years ago had cedar shakes on the roof and a cistern in back. Nowadays, with asphalt shingles, any rainwater collected will be contaminated with hydrocarbons from the asphalt. Whether or how rainwater should be collected off asphalt is covered on other sites, so no need to get into that here.

That brings something else up though. In a collapsing world lacking supplies, deteriorating asphalt roofs are probably going to be the main problem with housing. Once one starts to leak, I know of no good way to get more than another few years out of one. If I find myself in that bind and no way to get new shingles, I guess I'll have a few years to figure it out.

A high quality pair of nippers comes in handy. When doing tear outs or salvage, if nail heads break off or for finishing nails the nippers can be used to quickly pull nails out from the other side. A good quality crowbar is essential. Several pipe wrenches of various sizes, including a big heavy one will be useful. Propane torches are useful. These are used frequently. Here are some things that may happen once in a blue moon but for which the right tools are necessary. A bolt head twisted off on a boiler once leaving the rest of the bolt inside. An easy out will help remove the rest of the bolt. If a piece of metal pipe breaks off leaving the rest stuck inside, cut crossways with a hacksaw blade and twist it out once it's been cut through completely. Cutting crossways across the threads will not ruin them.

Another thing that comes to mind is an old Craftsman belt sander will have metal gears in it whereas about late 80s the metal gears were replaced with plastic and those will strip under heavy use. Buyer beware.

I have about 5K worth of hand tools in old dollars and will go through them and add anything I forgot.

Speaking of fire or building collapse, I rent a secure garage within walking distance (not in a storage unit facility).

[Guest]

In Sub-Saharan Africa, virtually all of the public utilities (if they exist at all) are now run by foreign contractors (mostly Chinese). African governments sometimes have over a hundred cabinet ministers and agency heads in their national government, and most, if not all, are incompetent. Most African ministry heads used their office to steal public funds (mostly donated foreign aid) and buy houses in Paris and London.

What happens when the locals in Africa riot and kill the techs and loot the stores of Chinese and Indian merchants? The electricity goes off and they can't buy bread or alcohol. However, the average African doesn't understand that. They are really that ignorant and stupid. That is what I had to deal with in several black countries that I lived in. I am white, and I speak from experience.

I can see this happening now or in the near future in America and the UK, where, like in South Africa, blacks have the position and pay grade while white engineers, doctors, and technicians do all of the hard work and are subjected to humiliation and abuse the entire time. How has this worked out in SA? How do you think it will work out in America and Europe?

I know, I am "racist" for pointing this out, but this is the reality of what Americans and Western Europeans are facing. Nothing will be done to stem the tide. Nothing. What could be done, will not be done, and Americans will end up like me and my surviving family members: white refugees.

It's hard to predict what will happen specifically, but rest assured that the people that always wanted to elevate the incompetent will throw them under the bus summarily. Do you think Larry Fink and the board actually care about blacks/diversity/esg? lol if you do

I’m starting to see similar things happen in my country, it’s a really sad sight honestly.

I visited London a few years ago, and it was evidently clear it was no longer the great British city I was promised.

[Higgenbotham]

I visited London a few years ago, and it was evidently clear it was no longer the great British city I was promised.

The poor, who have neither the resources nor
perhaps the initiative to flee the city, will face a
desperate time. Eventually they will have to get
out, but only when conditions have become wholly
intolerable. Unable to anticipate the appalling
consequences of political collapse, they will be
forced to experience them at first hand. In the first
few decades of the dark age, some dreadful scenes
will be enacted in the richest countries and
especially in their rich urban centres. In many past
instances of collapse, there is evidence of burning
and of bodies left unburied in the streets where
they have fallen. One cannot be optimistic about
the level of violence with which today’s cities will
be evacuated. Apart from anything else, their gas
and electricity mains and the contents of petrol
stations will make possible a huge conflagration.
When the dark age reaches its nadir, it will not
be good even for those who have earlier ensconced
themselves in their rural estates. Out of the cities
there will come a monstrous tide of brutalised
humanity with no apparent means of feeding itself
or clothing its children. Places like London and
Birmingham are likely to be abandoned first, but in
time every remaining pocket of order and
civilisation will be threatened. Only the most
remote safe havens have any chance of escaping
unscathed (though their very remoteness will
ensure a rude existence). As they flee from each
other, people will spread across the globe to form
an almost uniform layer.

The Phoenix Principle and the Coming Dark Age by Marc Widdowson, 2001
pp. 311-312

[Higgenbotham]

Britain’s second-largest city effectively declares itself bankrupt amid $950 million equal pay claims

By Rob Picheta and Catherine Nicholls, CNN

Published 1:36 PM EDT, Tue September 5, 2023


Britain’s second-biggest city effectively declared itself bankrupt on Tuesday, shutting down all nonessential spending after being issued with equal pay claims totaling up to £760 million ($956 million).

Birmingham City Council, which provides services for more than one million people, filed a Section 114 notice on Tuesday, halting all spending except on essential services.

The deficit arose due to difficulties paying between £650 million (around $816 million) and £760 million (around $954 million) in equal pay claims, the notice report says.

The city now expects to have a deficit of £87 million ($109 million) for the 2023-24 financial year.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/05/economy/ ... index.html

[aeden]

When they find him they will beat this feet with a hammer to a pulp for the key like the other XGen we noted.
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=56553
This boy in different, he's unique.

No that is incorrect. Meat puppet is lucky given the value to intent. Forth level sweep unlike the third level contractor money sweep
that took the other one out closing the loop. The scene was a Beach abducted and put back with no head or hands. Tortured relentlessly
as the feet indicated with a hammer. He gave up the key. Minus one Cariboo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O_OVTrHQqM

[Higgenbotham]

Do companies pass over students who seem “too good/smart”?

My good friend (21M) is a junior in chemical engineering right now and has been applying to a ridiculous amount of internships and co-ops because he hasn’t been getting any interviews. He is literally the smartest student in our program, this guy is a human calculator/dictionary/etc.. of course he has a 4.0 gpa. He’s also an officer for AIChE and is a chem-e car co-captain, which is a lot of work. He is an undergrad researcher at the college too. He actually does a great job with everything he’s involved in. He’s good with people, which I find interesting because usually people as smart as him are awkward. Like this nerd literally taught himself numerical methods over the summer for FUN.

It makes no sense why he hasn’t gotten at least a few interviews. He’s ridiculously intelligent, personable, organized, very hard working, has leadership skills and research experience. I just don’t understand why he isn’t being considered for jobs and it’s paining me to watch him lose hope in getting a job.

I already have an internship offer and he deserves one more than me. I also helped him work on his resume in the hopes that rewording it would make it scan better. He’s tried writing cover letters too.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe he’s one of those students who seems “too good” or “too smart” so companies assume he’ll just be going to grad school and isn’t a good choice for a program that prepares interns for a full time job.

I really want to help him but I don’t know what else to tell him at this point. Not trying to job hunt for him or get resume tips, I’m just at a loss. Any input at all is welcome and appreciated.

EDIT: Thank you guys so much for your help!! This has really helped clear up a lot of things for my friend and now he has a good idea of what to go moving forward. We both appreciate everything!

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/c ... _seem_too/

This post is 5 years old, but anything along these lines written in the past 40 to 50 years would be applicable to the topic. It's a good post for illustration purposes because it got 157 responses, many from HR people and engineers who recruit. They mostly gave responses along the lines of what people would perceive as to "what's wrong with this guy" or "what this guy is doing wrong". Some examples I can recall are: he may be arrogant, he may not be well rounded, he may not have "soft skills", he may not be writing enough cover letters, etc.

The real reason this young person had not found a job yet is that we are in the maintenance phase of a declining civilization.

It's because we've been in the maintenance phase of a declining civilization since the 1970s.

Also, I think that once the numbers of births start to decline, that is the point at which the rate of physical expansion of the civilization also starts to slow down and, therefore, traditional male activities like building infrastructure begin to decline and the civilization enters into a maintenance phase before the inevitable decline. The mix of jobs begins to change and women are able to better do many of the jobs that become prominent during the maintenance and decline phase (like health care and education, which really just serve to milk out the surplus of the civilization before it collapses). This shift in the job mix has the effect of accelerating the decline (further reducing births and the effects that result from the further reduction in births).

My nephew is a little bit like the guy described in the Reddit post. He is 23. About the time this Reddit post was made, my sister asked me what my nephew should do. I told her, odd as it may seem, my opinion was that he should go to school to become a nurse. He did, and he makes over 100K per year already (with overtime). He was never assumed to be arrogant because of his high grades, he was never accused of not being well rounded, it was not thought that he might not have "soft skills", and he never wrote a cover letter. He was hired on the spot. He was hired basically to do maintenance in a declining civilization.