Mrs. Cog and I live on the edge of the Blue Ridge Plateau here in Southwestern Virginia. And by on the edge I mean literally on the edge. Our back property line ends where a very steep wooded drop off begins. Five more steps over the property line and it's a one way trip down for well over a quarter of mile.
We are so inured to the present day socioeconomic system of exploitation and control that it has become seamless and mostly invisible to 'We the Walking Wounded'. Passed off as just the way things work, nothing to see here so move on, we sooth our crushed soul with the ego saving lament you just can't fight city hall.
It rarely occurs to us there is no need to actually fight at all, that what we dimly perceive as the enemy, the thorn in our paw, is doomed by its own dominance of an industrial age soon to be left behind.
Two Ice Floes welcomes back Joe Withrow, a long time TIF guest author, with another insightful and timely article outlining what is happening and how to navigate the fall of the industrial age and the Rise of the Individual.
While we may use both 'money' and 'energy' on a daily basis, rarely do we give much thought to what money actually is and its connection to energy. Reverse Engineer (RE), one of our newest members and a co-founder of Doomstead Diner, offered TIF the opportunity to re-post part one of his 2012 series on money and energy. I found it extremely helpful to travel back in time with RE to examine the origins of money and how it relates to today's 'economy'.