Another Archdruid's Report: The Blood of the Earth, or Pulp Nonfiction

The Archdruid Report: The Blood of the Earth, or Pulp Nonfiction.

"It’s not often remembered these days that the literal meaning of the word "apocalypse" is the revelation of something hidden. The term got its modern meaning because most of the prophecies that have been so labeled claim to reveal one hidden thing in particular, that is, the imminent end of history; but there’s another sense in which the word is even more appropriate, and that sense seems worth exploring just at the moment. The presence and popularity of apocalyptic beliefs, I’ve come to think, reveal something important about any society in which such beliefs occur.

"Apocalyptic thinking, after all, doesn’t come out of nowhere. It has an extensive history behind it, a point I tried to make in my recent book Apocalypse Not, but it also has roots in the collective psychology of any society in which it becomes popular. Epochs awash in apocalyptic beliefs are also full of intense social stress, but there are stressful periods in which very few people spend their time feverishly getting ready for the end of the world. What seems to do the trick is a particular kind of stress—specifically, the kind that happens when the narratives a society uses to make sense of the world no longer work."

John Michael Greer is the Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America

Bonus info: disinfo's link to the chart of US Congressional income by percentage

'It just costs too much to run for Congress today for anyone who’s not fairly well off to do it. And that’s no coincidence. As income inequality goes up, campaign funding from rich donors also goes up. This creates an arms race that effectively precludes anyone who doesn’t have either money of their own or access to wealthy donors from running. And that means that Congress has fewer and fewer members with any real connection to the working world.'

John Greer's point is that science fiction is becoming ever less speculative and ever more close to our actual life experiences-- as fellow Druid ahm puts it, 'we are living inside a fantasy rpg!'

Greer:

"By this point, though, I suspect that you, dear reader, are wondering about one detail. If we’re actually stuck inside the pages of a trashy fantasy novel, as I’ve suggested, and all the details of the setting and the plot are in place, where is the protagonist? Who is the hero or the heroine who will turn the pages of the long-lost Gaianomicon, use its forgotten lore to forge a wand of power out of the rays of the Sun, shatter the deceptive spells of the lords of High Finance, and rise up amidst the wreckage of a dying empire to become one of the seedbearers of an age that is not yet born? Why, you are, of course."

Helgaleena says,

in that case let us all sit cross-legged and hum the sacred names of the deities of our choosing and keep out of trouble. In the southern hemisphere they are harvesting and in the northern hemisphere they are hibernating until Imbolc. Let us wrap ourselves in to ox-hide like the king-maker-seers of Tara and try for insight.