D IS FOR DOMINANCE, DEBT & DEPRESSION

Sell Dreams on credit, you'll make a fortune on the interest

Often, at the end of a movie, clues once hidden become obvious and the reasons for the fall of the hero or heroine are evident. So, too, it is with history. It is at the end of eras that the causes behind the rise and fall of epochs can be seen.

We are at the end of an epoch and the signs are as disturbing as they are increasing in occurrence and severity. We now understand the industrial revolution has overheated the Earth to the point of disassembling its life support systems; and that oil, which fueled its rise and perhaps its demise, may be running out as well.

There is a persistent feeling that for many reasons our present world is unsustainable, that its end is perhaps near; that the apocalypse feared by religious fundamentalists may somehow prove to be true, though not necessarily in the form expected. Systems that previously promised to lead us to a better world have been found to be wanting.

Democracy, freedom’s vaunted vehicle, has now shown itself as inept and as fallible as the Catholic Church during the Inquisition. Recently used as an excuse to invade Iraq, democracy’s greatest moment now appears to have already occurred; when under the tyranny of kings democracy was hoped to be the solution to the world’s ills. The answer is now known. It is not.