## Metadata - Author: [[William Ophuls]] - Full Title: Electrifying the Titanic - Category: #books ## Highlights - In Ian Morris’s Why the West Rules—for Now, an extended survey of world history from ancient times, he contends that history is driven by people who are lazy, greedy, and fearful. They therefore desire ease, profit, and safety. It follows that when confronted by anything hard, costly, and dangerous, their every instinct is to deny, evade, and postpone. So people wait until catastrophe is on their doorstep before acting and change their ways as a last resort, only after having exhausted every other possibility. ([Location 104](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=104)) - That so much of our effort to mitigate climate disruption is focused on replacing fossil-fueled automobiles with ones that run on batteries indicates the depth of our delusion. What the ecological crisis so clearly illustrates is that allowing individuals to consume according to their personal wants is a prescription for the tragedy of the commons. Billions of electric cars may be quieter and better in many ways, but they will still be a pollution nightmare, a vast sink of resources, and a menace to public health and tranquility. But having constructed our built environment in the service of the automobile and erected an economy heavily dependent on the manufacturing and servicing of the automobile, there is no easy way to quit our addiction even if we wanted to. And, of course, we don’t want to. Thus instead of remaking our civilization in accordance with ecological principles, we are retooling the single most socially and ecologically destructive device human ingenuity has ever created, thereby missing a grand opportunity to end the cycle of perpetual extraction, exploitation, consumption, and pollution that has brought us to our present pass. ([Location 176](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=176)) - If an excess of complexity is the problem, then a rational being might well conclude that the solution, on both ecological and cultural grounds, would be to “decomplexify”—that is, deliberately to simplify our existence. Unfortunately, we humans are not rational beings, and we are extremely attached psychologically and economically to our present way of life. To revert to the simpler ways of our grandparents—no air-conditioning, no fruit out of season, no jet travel—is simply unthinkable. Worse, it may now be all but impossible to beat an orderly retreat to some simpler stage of development. As Ronald Wright points out in his A Short History of Progress, as societies climb up the ladder of development they kick out the lower rungs behind them, so they have no easy or graceful way to climb down from their pinnacle of attained complexity. In fact, such is the delicate balance atop the ladder that any attempt to descend risks setting off a death spiral into full-blown collapse. So the society soldiers on until it is overtaken by force majeure, an ineluctable challenge that precipitates downfall. ([Location 204](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=204)) - On a personal level, if society is going to fail us, as seems likely, individuals would do well to prepare their own lifeboat against the eventuality of shipwreck. And there is much that they can do to ready themselves for an era of enforced simplicity. For example, by becoming old-fashioned jacks-of-all-trades capable of surviving without the ministrations of professionals or the output of overseas factories. Or by mastering a traditional trade, such as boatbuilding or blacksmithing. Almost anything along these lines might make more sense than aspiring to become a member of the soon-to-be obsolete “cognitive elite.” Most important, however, the indispensable preparation for the future is to adopt a mindset appropriate to the new era. The ecological joy ride is over; from now on we will respect natural laws and live simpler lives within natural limits, or we will go down with the ship. ([Location 234](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=234)) - Industrial agriculture is a process by which a handful of farmers convert large quantities of petroleum into much smaller amounts of edible substances that we use to feed a bloated animal and human population. ([Location 279](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=279)) - A peaceful transition to a transformed, neo-agrarian successor civilization that would be ecologically sustainable and socially viable over the long term is certainly possible, but it will come about only if we aim for it—as we should. For there is no other refuge. ([Location 286](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=286)) - To make a long story short, without some authoritative standard of virtue, the combination of individual rights and mass democracy causes society to unravel. Individuals and groups increasingly go their own way, rejecting any form of central authority. Lacking a shared history or even an agreed language, they have less and less in common and thus tend to see their viewpoints and interests as separate from, if not entirely opposed to, those of others. Compromise becomes difficult or even unthinkable. The upshot is that Americans are now deeply divided along religious, cultural, intellectual, and political lines, so much so that taking care of current business is almost impossible and preparing for the future is out of the question. ([Location 330](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=330)) - in August 2021 precipitation fell as rain instead of snow on the summit of the Greenland ice sheet for the first time ever, ([Location 412](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=412)) - The age of ecological abundance, like any age, has brought both benefits and costs. While these have never been equitably distributed, and some have experienced extreme suffering, it seems fair to say that compared to previous ages industrial civilization has conferred enormous advantages on the majority of humankind, especially since World War II. Over time, however, the ratio of benefits to costs has shifted; the latter have begun to prevail and now threaten to overwhelm us. The shadow price of industrial civilization has also grown in proportion. For example, noise and light pollution, traffic congestion, the rat race, over tourism, lost privacy, and other unpleasant and stressful “externalities” to which it is difficult or impossible to attach a price tag. One particular aspect of that shadow price is the impact decades of ease, pleasure, comfort, convenience, and luxury have had on people’s fitness, character, and morale. A long run of good times has engendered a pervasive sense of entitlement and a notable lack of grit. The current pandemic has revealed just how ill-prepared many are for even modest sacrifice or hardship. ([Location 467](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=467)) - The coming time of troubles will not be so kind. Those lacking in mental fortitude and physical prowess will suffer accordingly. We cannot choose the history we get, but by exercising wisdom and foresight we can prepare ourselves for the history we are likely to get. Ahead is an existential test. Try not to fail. ([Location 476](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=476)) - To state the trajectory from pre-modern to modern in a different way, before the Industrial Revolution the vast majority labored on farms alongside their beasts of burden. With further development, farmers gave way to factory workers and then in turn factory workers gave way to service workers. Thus modern economies have inverted the pre-modern pyramid. Instead of an army of peasants toiling in the soil to support the cream at the top, a handful of factory farmers support enormous populations in giant urban agglomerations. ([Location 503](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=503)) - For individuals, compassion is an option in all circumstances; for societies, it is a luxury to be indulged only in certain circumstances. ([Location 606](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09KLP73TW&location=606))