In peacetime, once we have satisfied the basic energy needs to support a family, an economy of “wants” evolves. At a minimum, a civilization needs to maintain a surplus of energy and water to sustain itself. Of those two, it is energy surpluses allowed society to grow in scale and complexity. The more society grew, the more it required increased amounts of energy, technology, and coordination between different parts; “in essence, the units of energy are working together to make a large scale behavior”.
In times of crises like war, an economy of “needs” replaces the economy of “wants”. As the crisis lengthens and the peacetime economy contracts, energy demand expands. Unless the country is able to produce, store, and transmit energy, it soon runs into an energy deficit, as it struggles to reallocate resources from “less essential” sectors to meet more pressing needs.
The more we progress, the greater the risk of a devolution into a #DimAge Already, our own #technology is growing too complex for us to understand or manage, and scales up faster than our own understanding can keep up.
In todays’ world, transport choke points are unavoidable, a feature of an unsustainable, #globalized world.
The #RedSea passage #BabElMandab is one of those, critical because of the #MiddleEast's central importance to the world's #EnergyEconomy
Agree to the rich world's desired outcome, before building the systems that made it rich? You get one form #CarbonColonialism
Then again, too much of a system focus, you get the excesses of the gilded age.
Better a #FailedState than a crazy kingdom.
A failed state is like a broken clock; it is broken, but may still be right twice day. On the other hand, a crazy kingdom is like an off clock; if it is off by 5%, it is only right once every 10 days.
...In addition, in a failed state, you and your community stand a chance to grow and succeed; the crazy king can't easily reach you, unlike in our modern anarcho-tyranny
