tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post9207922043397924226..comments2023-11-28T09:02:03.742+01:00Comments on The Seneca Effect: Afghanistan: The Twilight of the Global EmpireUgo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-71895026642944219462021-07-29T19:48:11.140+02:002021-07-29T19:48:11.140+02:00That's a good point. The Seneca Collapse is ty...That's a good point. The Seneca Collapse is typical of strongly connected networks. It is similar to fracture in solids. The more rigid a solid is, the faster it will break apart when the force acting on it exceeds a certain critical level. Not for nothing, Master Lao used the bamboo as an example <br /><br />A man is born gentle and weak.<br />At his death he is hard and stiff.<br />Green plants are tender and filled with sap.<br />At their death they are withered and dry.<br /><br />Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.<br />The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.<br /><br />Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.<br />A tree that is unbending is easily broken.<br /><br />The hard and strong will fall.<br />The soft and weak will overcome.Ugo Bardihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-51462234856099000562021-07-28T07:09:58.028+02:002021-07-28T07:09:58.028+02:00Not unbelievable, simply something to be expected,...Not unbelievable, simply something to be expected, it's an avalanche starting, the question is how far will it run until it stops. Three years after its forces left Afghanistan the USSR had ceased to exist, the clock is running on the Empire, the question is simply how deep and complete the collapse of its power will be.<br /><br />It is the product of this chimerical organism, the Modern State, a mighty Colossus with feet of clay, mighty and powerful like the Titans, yet brittle and unstable, both being the faces of the same coin. Increase its power and its weakness increase, very often even faster than its strength. The very structures that give it power make it fragile.<br /><br />Now to make my case, two events, 345 years apart, similar but completely different results.<br /><br />1525 -- King Francis I of France faces Emperor Charles Quint at the battle of Pavia, his army is defeated and the King captured.<br /><br />1870 -- Emperor Napoleon III of France faces the Prussians at the battle of Sedan, his army is defeated and the Emperor captured.<br /><br />Consequences:<br /><br />1870 -- Napoleon’s government promptly collapses, the Third Republic is proclaimed, the Emperor ends his life as a discredited exile, there is an attempted social revolution in the form of the Paris Commune.<br /><br />1525 -- Francis’ relatives continue to rally allies and resist the Emperor, the provinces of France proclaim their loyalty to his dynasty, ultimately the King is ransomed and returns to France. There is no questioning of Francis’ legitimacy, of the principle of Catholic Monarchy or of the feudal social order.<br /><br />Now Ugo, I present you with the question:<br /><br />How could a modern State like Napoleon’s France, defended with the apparatus of a National Security State and administered with a bureaucracy that was an exemplar of excellence across the world, crumble with such speed? <br /><br />How could a medieval regime like Renaissance France that today would be regarded as disorganized and hopelessly inefficient, that lacked modern day repressive institutions and was devoid of clear structures of authority turn out to be so incredibly resilient, the capture of a modern head of state and his army would be a total disaster for any modern state but it did not even shake the structures of early 16th France. This was actually the third time that a French King was captured in battle!!! Medieval France went through famines and plagues and largely maintained its social and institutional stability.<br /><br />We pride ourselves on our advances but why are we completely unable to create the sort of social inner strength and stability that the Medievals enjoyed as a basic fact of their lives?<br />Mon Seul Desirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00959666024048186745noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-67763290239779848582021-07-28T04:55:44.245+02:002021-07-28T04:55:44.245+02:00Perhaps the Military Industrial Complex just hit a...Perhaps the Military Industrial Complex just hit a Seneca Cliff of their own Art Decohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12955243137081184262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-30195600162606817442021-07-27T15:54:25.531+02:002021-07-27T15:54:25.531+02:00And the US is leaving Iraq, too! Unbelievable. htt...And the US is leaving Iraq, too! Unbelievable. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/22/us-iraq-military-shift-500564Ugo Bardihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-75523482753225938752021-07-27T14:54:49.104+02:002021-07-27T14:54:49.104+02:00Absolutely yes! I commented on that on the Seneca ...Absolutely yes! I commented on that on the Seneca group on FacebookUgo Bardihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-57174702377207547512021-07-27T10:33:43.698+02:002021-07-27T10:33:43.698+02:00Ugo, do you see any relationship between the annou...Ugo, do you see any relationship between the announcement that the US is leaving Afghanistan and, only a few days later, the deal between Washington and Berlin about Nord Stream 2? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-21167437244812602092021-07-26T16:36:35.483+02:002021-07-26T16:36:35.483+02:00Anonymous, you are opening a can of memes, here. D...Anonymous, you are opening a can of memes, here. During the past few months, I completely lost the remnants of trust I had in "Science," after having been a professional scientist for 44 years (and I still am one). So, what can we trust? The best we can do is to search for consistency: it is a test that lies cannot stand for a long time. But one needs an active stance. For instance, the story of the Valladolid controversy that I described in my previous post. Before I read the description given by Paul Jorion, if you had asked me I would have said that it was something that had determined that Native Americans didn't have a soul. I was surprised myself to discover that I was affected by a propaganda meme that was 500 years old. Like walking in the street, and suddenly finding oneself attacked by a sabertooth tiger. But in this case, as in many others, when you compare the truth and the lie, the lie looks ugly and unfocussed. Ugo Bardihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-67809688119627230112021-07-26T13:58:25.484+02:002021-07-26T13:58:25.484+02:00Ugo, it is perhaps me should apologise for not bei...Ugo, it is perhaps me should apologise for not being clear.<br /><br />If the “memesphere” is taking us along in a group think perception of what is happening but the memesphere is wrong, how should we approach the news or events so that we perceive the reality rather than the meme of the reality?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-56597529598809897472021-07-26T13:10:45.076+02:002021-07-26T13:10:45.076+02:00Sorry, anonymous, I am not sure of what is your po...Sorry, anonymous, I am not sure of what is your point. What is that you would you like to know, exactly?Ugo Bardihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-38111605727048893732021-07-26T13:03:27.671+02:002021-07-26T13:03:27.671+02:00I wonder Ugo, if you would care to share some brie...I wonder Ugo, if you would care to share some brief observations on how you approach a news story or other report of an event or events, so that you can understand the facts and what is actually happening in away that does not carry you along with the “memesphere”.<br /><br />As a mere plebeian in the twilight of the global empire understanding what is really going on rather than what others may want me to believed or general group think may be particularly useful, so any tips from your years of research, study and observing the world would be appreciated.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1585995614037680457.post-24199469107129180522021-07-26T03:13:05.856+02:002021-07-26T03:13:05.856+02:00Choreographing crises-actor street protests agains...<b>Choreographing crises-actor street protests against Lockdowns worldwide will not solve any problem, yet alone the primary one - the Social Contract is fossil fuels-written and executed - and it is this that cannot be sustained for longer...</b><br /><br />The Social Engineer is obliged to stop playing Energy-Nany Civilisation, pretending the problem facing the world today is simply there is no enough of Huxley's test-tubes, drug dozes or Orwell's radios and telescreens...<br /><br />Wars since coal peaked in Britain in 1913 have increasingly become against women, children, unarmed men, literature, Knowledge and infrastructure - in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and others...<br /><br />When that didn't solve the Energy problem, our Western Civilisation has entered now the war of Lockdowns.<br /><br />It is not whether the Caucasus oil proved abundant or not but rather the legacy system, building up since James Watt, and the outdated Social Contract organising it - have become vast and need now repairs against wear and tear...<br /><br />No oil reserve is enough to do that even if we have never extracted a drop of oil from Texas, Saudi, Iraq or Russia yet...<br /><br />And, this is even if the pandemic reduces the world population to 10% of current size - as the 10% will rush, boom and increase the population back to today's level - having man-power needed to extract fossil fuels <a href="https://the-fifth-law.com/pages/press-release?ugo=/2021/07/the-twilight-of-global-empire.html" rel="nofollow">by Physics - back to square one</a>.<br /><br />Set fossil fuels-rich nations free to sell their resources on the basis the resources are finite - Russia, Saudi, Iraq, Nigeria and all others - no OPEC gimmicks, no fake 'Supply-and-Demand', no fake oil-production reports and charts, and no B-52s.<br /><br />And that actually is all what humans have got of little remaining fossil fuels - and people need to live with it - without silly wars and a likely destruction of what our beautiful Western Civilisation has built burning almost all fossil fuel reserves.<br /><br />Otherwise, our Western Civilisation seems so desperate to keep the outdated Social Contract alive, we may soon see tanks and artillery on our streets everywhere fighting a virus.<br /><br />If that happens, god forbid, it would be in fact no less than an escalated <a href="https://the-fifth-law.com/pages/the-peak-oil-musical-chairs%E2%84%A2-calculator?ugo=/2021/07/the-twilight-of-global-empire.html" rel="nofollow">Energy Musical Chairs Game</a>.<br /><br />Iraqis know from bloody experience that this might actually really happen - they have seen it in 1914, 1980s and still - happening almost non-stop - deadly, vicious, no-mercy, savage and inhumane.<br /><br />Wailing.<br /><br />(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAH245RCJyY" rel="nofollow">Lieutenant General John Frewen attends Australia's COVID-19 war game meeting</a>)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com