We will run out of oil - sooner or later. But how will be continue then? Will me make a transition back to a new steam age, horses and fuel cells? I am sure we gonna see a huge diversity of old and new energy sources. Even sails for ships could make a comeback. Maybe we will even (finally) see atomic cars.
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Old European Opera houses are the pinnacle of old nationalist countries. Exquisite design for the upper class and later the emerging rich bourgeoisie. But also the different levels, boxes and seating’s reflect the societies at that time: the king / ruler gets the center of attention and most space - while the prols have to stand somewhere in the back. Design as a reflection of society …
One of the great benefits of the industrial revolution was that parts were made after certain standards, so they became interchangeable and you could easily mass produce them everywhere by just transferring the blueprints.
It hardly will get any cheaper and our reserves will become less and less … so let’s use oil for heating and driving sports cars, fight more wars for it … makes perfect sense …
Great empires always had and needed big war industries. The Spartans, the Romans, the British Empire, Soviet Union and Nazi Germany - they all had huge war industries and built their societies around it. I am wondering how much military a society can digest before war itself becomes the main purpose of the nation, politics, it citizens and the economy.
Military-Industrial-Complex anyone?
More? Eisenhower’s Speech (text), Speech (audio only) and video excerpt.
From Wikipedia:
The Great Stink or The Big Stink was a time in the summer of 1858 during which the smell of untreated sewage almost overwhelmed people in central London, England.
Part of the problem was due to the introduction of more modern flush toilets. While these were a step forward on the chamber-pots that most Londoners used, they dramatically increased the volume of water and waste that was now poured into existing cesspits. These often overflowed into street drains originally designed to cope with rainwater, but now also used to carry outfalls from factories, slaughterhouses and other activities, contaminating the city before emptying into the River Thames.
Cholera became widespread during the 1840s (not least because many people believed the disease was due to air-borne “miasma”; no one then realised that the disease was water-borne — that discovery was not made until 1854 by London physician Dr John Snow after an epidemic centred in Soho), and sanitation reform soon became a high priority. Bringing together several separate local bodies concerned with sewers, the consolidated Metropolitan Commission of Sewers was established in 1848; it surveyed London’s antiquated sewerage system and set about ridding the capital of an estimated 200,000 cesspits — an objective later accelerated by the “Great Stink”.
In 1858, the summer was unusually warm. The Thames and many of its urban tributaries were extremely polluted; the warm weather encouraged bacteria to thrive and the resulting smell was so overwhelming that it affected the work of the House of Commons (countermeasures included draping curtains soaked in chloride of lime, while members considered relocating upstream to Hampton Court) and the law courts (plans were made to evacuate to Oxford and St Albans). Heavy rain finally broke the hot and humid summer and the immediate crisis ended. However, a House of Commons select committee was appointed to report on the Stink and recommend how to put an end to the problem.
Most people in rich countries seem to have forgotten the terrible days of early capitalism and industrialization? Worker stuffed into small houses or special workers areas in overcrowded cities. Terrible pollution damages humans and nature alike. Many must work hard and in backbreaking conditions, so others can get cheap goods and services. There are not insurances against work accidents or any healthcare packages. Industrial giants do what they want, since the government depends of their money.
That’s just like what is happening in China and India again. But workers rights and our modern social achievements are under attack in rich countries as well.