Monday, December 31, 2012

Rationalizing Extinction

Sometimes, oppression I see
Punctures superficiality:
Overwhelming rage
No one can assuage
Helps make it O.K. with me. 

Friday, December 28, 2012

One-Shot Affair

“With coal gone, oil gone, high-grade metallic ores gone, no species however competent can make the long climb from primitive conditions to high-level technology. This is a one-shot affair. If we fail, this planetary system fails so far as intelligence is concerned. The same will be true of other planetary systems. On each of them there will be one chance, and one chance only." 
          -- Sir Fred Hoyle, "Of Men and Galaxies," 1964

Look on our works, and despair!
The resources are no longer there;
To support such advance,
There was only one chance:
This was a one-shot affair.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Monopoly Game

Stay free at the choicest doomsteads:
The oranges, yellows and reds,
Where likely the strongest
Will hold out the longest
Once the collapse really spreads.

Community Chest and Chance pick,
Distractions, the next media trick;
Railroads: a bore,
Unless someone owns four—
Then you get fucked pretty quick.

Utilities, parking, taxes—I’ve scored:
They don’t kill, can be safely ignored;
Pass go on your way
And earn weekly pay,
Working your ass round the board.

In jail you can miss turns in style
And get some relief for awhile;
Next throw of the dice,
Hope fate will be nice
To struggles that lifetimes compile.

The token you choose when you play:
Really, who are you anyway?
Go broke and death knocks,
Pieces back in the box,
Game over—extinction—m’kay?

Saturday, December 22, 2012

NTE

Near Term means “about to descend,”
Extinction means “this is the end”;
I don’t mean to offend,
But please, my dear friend,
Do the math, and check out the trend. 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Classical psychoanalysis

“...When the threat to our personal well-being becomes sufficiently strong, however, the id (being primal and unconscious) tends to win out.....Can the rational processes of the ego and the inhibitory influence of the superego combine to defeat the self-centered desires of the id...?”
   -- The Neuropsychology of Climate Change
           http://www.paulchefurka.ca/COP15.html

Superego, ego, and id
Are places where secrets are hid;
But, to cut to the chase,
I think in this case,
We’ve really fucked up—yup, we did.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Game Theory for Doomers

What’s doom, in this math that’s so eerie?
A short cut for those getting weary:
We need not rehash
Johnny von Neumann and Nash,
It’s game over—and there’s your game theory. 

Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Joy of Doomer Determinism

The causes to which we’re in thrall
Have effects on the cosmos—but small;
Through karma and fate
We became what we ate,
So we didn’t fuck up after all.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Denial and the Consensus Trance

“Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane.”
...
"Two and two are four."
"Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five." 
— George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four
==

Part of warming denial’s drive
Is consensus trance where you contrive
To rewire your brain
From the kind of insane
Which sees four fingers instead of five. 

Friday, December 7, 2012

Near Term Extinction

I just learned about NTE—
It’s the end for both you and for me;
I’d discuss what I know,
But I really must go,
‘Cause my pants are now all soaked with pee.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Nothing Matters Anymore

It’s easier now to ignore
Deniers than ever before:
Even our futile chatter
In the end, doesn’t matter;
In the end, nothing matters anymore. 

Saturday, December 1, 2012

The Word’s Getting Out

The word’s getting out on doom’s plan,
And soon there’s no more kick the can,
Ending history’s span
Soon after it began:
TS is now hitting TF.

E.g.,: