Calamity, à la Carte_©
Contemplating Global Economic Collapse

Prince Philip's Virus Comment

I'm willing to bet that he did not say it at all, considering that Prison Planet seems to have done a very thorough job of searching throughout his publications and transcripts of his various speeches. If they had found such a quote, surely they would have included it.

Instead, what we have is a possibly inaccurate interpretation of his position presented as a quote. Not only is it presented as a quote but it is preceeded by the phrase "in his own words."

This is a dishonest tactic. It is alright to present one's own interpretation of what someone else has said. But it is not right to present a derivative product as the original person's "own words."

I have a different understanding of Prince Philip's position, even though it is based only upon the selected quotes that appear in the Prison Planet article. By my reading, Prince Philip wishes to avoid the widespread human suffering of war and hunger and disease by bringing runaway population growth under control. Whose control he does not say. He does not specify that he means under 'his' control, under state control, under UN control, under women's control, under control by space aliens, or whatever. I get the impression that he probably would prefer a solution along the lines of developing world culture that recognizes the limitations of our resources and works out how to make sustainable use of them.

It's hard to know how to take the 'virus' comments, since they are presented out of context and broken up by elipses. They may be exagerations, or he may be speaking from the point of view of another species that is being displaced from its habitat. -- '04-Sep-23rd

Man and Society in Calamity

It may be comforting to think that modern man has moved beyond the primative conditions which have routinely produced widespread catastrophe, but there's no evidence to speak of that would point to such a conclusion. On the contrary, many trends point into the exact opposite direction. In fact, a combustible mix of religion and technology may get us into even worse trouble than we've seen already. Consider antibiotic overuse, global warming, fosil fuel depletion, nuclear events, electromagnetic pulse, biological and Unrestricted Warfare   (--- maybe it's HERE? Is the same as what I had linked to earlier or have there been modifications?), freedom & privacy erosions, computer viruses, bio-engineered crops, killer seeds, pollution, white plague, terrorism, and overpopulation. One particularly eloquent discussion of these problems is by Bill Joy, in his Wired Magazine article: "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us."

The expenditure of phenomenal amounts of public and private funds to correct the Y2K problem may have allowed us to dodge that bullet, but next time we may not be so lucky, and events could easily play out ever so much worse than the worst scenarios envisioned in 1999. This website is dedicated to encouraging individual and community efforts toward sustainable long-term calamity resistance, through self reliance, self sufficiency and cooperation, including non-military space exploration. --- '00-Mar-15th

Quote About Calamity

e've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.   We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology.  This is a prescription for disaster.   We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.  ---  Carl Sagan

Articles on Calamity

Online Resources About Calamity

A Completely Different POV on Calamity [pov?]

Reports from the first known scientific studies of earthquake survival strategies suggest that the "duck and cover" advice to get under a heavy object is actually the worst possible advice. Survivors are found in the triangles of space next to massive items.

A collection of extremist views, apocalyptic visions and failed predictions.

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