civilization infrastructure

CIVILIZATION INFRASTRUCTURE

A minion was recounting his experience with hunting and gathering. It was EXTREMELY illuminating ( November 26 article, Demented Guy, 9:59 PM posting in comments ), at least to me, as I was holding the gentle minion up as my example of someone who could make a go of it with few stored foods, if anyone could. That in no way faults DG, as he is quite knowledgeable and industrious, going far beyond all of our abilities. His point was it was nearly impossible to get enough of your own food, even in an area abundant with nut trees and wildlife.

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He had to return to civilization to restore the fat he lost while living as Danial Boone. Now, I could use this as an example to once again remind you of the basics of storage food, but we all know that. More wheat than you can imagine needing, some for sprouting for fresh veggies, long lasting fat ( shortening ), as many beans as you can afford for protein and vitamin pills. What I'd like to cover is the hidden need of civilization's infrastructure that we know exists but don't give enough importance to post collapse.

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You read, “feather Indians had abundant fish and nut trees”, and you think, hey, my area has abundant wildlife and food trees, so I'm in like Flynn. But that ignores the infrastructure that the Indians had in place to be assured of that food supply. They either had thinned competitors of that food, such as deer for the vegetation or bears for the fish, or eliminated them altogether in that area. In other words, you can't share and still have enough. Which includes sharing with other tribes. There were how many generations of warfare behind that abundance?

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Which might include offensive warfare to continue keeping encroachment minimized. I had to laugh my very junk off the other day. I'm reading a new to me book, “History Of The World In Seven Cheap Things” by Patel and Moore, the very cream of modern universities, pull some really stupid crap out of their backsides trying to refute Malthus. And I quote, “but carrying capacities swell or shrink depending on who rules”. This is the best minds Rhodes and Binghamton can field. Just think about that quote. In essence, it's all about politics, not resources. This sounds EXACTLY like a low information voter pulling the lever for Bernie.

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And that was just a few pages into the introduction, so I know what I have in store for me the next few hundred pages. Luckily for me, these idiots are still capable of making some good points on capitalism, and is written in a pleasant manner, so I didn't waste money on the thing. I just need to refrain from hurling the object far from me in anger, potentially necessitating a drywall repair, as I continue reading. Which brings me to their other moronic statement, which ties in here. They thought that if the kings didn't “steal” all the crops from the serfs, there never would have been famine ( despite the shift to colder weather ) if only the serfs had more food to eat, minimizing the Black Plague.

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Yes, plague shows up with a vengeance during times of hunger. And yes, a king COULD extract too many crops from the serfs on land failing due to overpopulation. But you cannot ignore two important aspects. The King was not JUST there to be a parasitic bandit. These jerk-off's must be Libertardians. Kings also protect against the other kings. They are a necessity to safeguard the food, even if their price for doing so is a percentage.

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And ALL of Europe was affected similarly from the plague. Either every king was greedy and short sided, or crap like weather does matter. Friggin DUH! This brings us around to infrastructure. There was not enough surplus to protect against future failed crops. This probably had little to do with any administrative issues. As population increased in neighboring kingdoms, the tendency to gain resources through war would need to be counteracted by increasing your own population to protect against that.

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This was not a failing of feudalism. That system was the way forward after the Roman civilization collapsed, the only way to maintain governance after the end of trade. Remember, trade requires surplus, because you are feeding men and animals that do nothing but transportation. Which is more costly in energy because THOSE calorie consuming units must in turn be protected by a military with a monopoly on force. The US with its eighty year old obsolete technology still rules the waves, because its job is not to defeat other navies but to protect the shipping lanes.

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The shrinking food and overpopulation was a failing of infrastructure, which is a feature of agriculture. No matter what type of government rules farmland, the civilization always fails. Even rice empires still denude surrounding areas and crash, regardless if the paddies still stand. If population grows, eventually you exhaust the soil. You don't have to run OUT of food, you just have to run out of ENOUGH food. Which is EXACTLY the same if you grow with oxen and oxen crap or tractors and petroleum products.

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Today, any discussion of resources is drowned out with that of politics, as in the above book. Even the Club Of Rome dude over at Cassandra's seems to be focused on politics rather than resources, embarrassingly. Yes, Tiny Tim, politics does effect food distribution and protection, but it does NOT produce food past a certain point. In the US, we face two very dangerous trends, corn to corporate profit fuel and immigration eating the remaining corn. But this is about politics controlling surplus. Thankfully. For now, anyway. But I'll bet you a jelly filled donut ( and not just ANY donut, but raspberry, with real fruit ) that Deplorables are starving before those policies are changed.

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When the fracking oil stops pumping from bankers failing or the wells production plummeting ( we are already at Fracking Peak, and the right side plunge will not match the left side growth ), and at that moment foreigners all dump the PetroDollar, while at the same time the Chinese Road & Belt takes over Old World transportation, we don't have enough resources to feed ourselves. The infrastructure WILL fail from Not Enough Oil, not from NO oil.

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Hell, our infrastructure is already failing from lack of surplus. Why do you think we'll still be able to feed ourselves when right now we can't even protect the existing structure we built up. We have semi-sovereign entities already occupying large areas ( Black hoods, southern border, California ). If THAT infrastructure is failing, how do we feed those areas? Continued tomorrow.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click HERE )

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note: free for today books.  Hard to tell if it's just sci-fi, or there is a bit of Racing To Save The World From Ending element.  I wouldn't normally recommend but it sounds strange enough to check out HERE 
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