New Research Suggests 1972 MIT Study On Future Societal Collapse Is On Schedule

tstorm823

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I believe that's what called overthinking something.
It really isn't though. The idea behind the quote is that you can get yourself all worked up about every problem you see down the line and have it be totally wasted effort. An example of people who didn't see the problem coming in the first place isn't really a counterpoint.
 

Seanchaidh

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It really isn't though. The idea behind the quote is that you can get yourself all worked up about every problem you see down the line and have it be totally wasted effort. An example of people who didn't see the problem coming in the first place isn't really a counterpoint.
Guess we should just ignore every problem, because we don't know which we'll actually have to face. Oh well.
 

Dalisclock

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I mean, the issue with the Titanic was that they didn't see the iceberg, and they famously caused more damage by trying to miss at the last second... not the best analogy for your point.
And trying to reverse while steering, and going too fast through an ice field at night, preventing the lower deck people from reaching the lifeboat deck by placing barricades in their path(because the richer passengers didn't want the plebs in their sections)and launching lifeboats long before they were filled to capacity once the evacuation had begun. You also had the problem with a lot of passengers standing around and not boarding the lifeboats early on because they thought the whole thing was a fucking joke(at least until the ship was notably sinking at the bow and it became harder to deny there was a problem).

That's before getting into the myriad of other issues, like not having enough lifeboats to begin with, the design flaws, not having telegraph operators on call at night, etc.

It's a laundry list of failures, any of one of which could have lessened the damaged or loss of life if they'd been dealt with properly.

Or just pretend it's not a problem until a bunch of people die before we actually attempt to start fixing things.
 
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Agema

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It really isn't though. The idea behind the quote is that you can get yourself all worked up about every problem you see down the line and have it be totally wasted effort. An example of people who didn't see the problem coming in the first place isn't really a counterpoint.
A wider reading of the sinking of the Titanic would tell you that the Titanic entered an area full of icebergs - which it was warned about multiple times - but took inadequate precautions. Thus from that perspective it was in fact a case of knowing danger is out there, but assuming the worst will not happen.

One might contrast Coolidge's motto with Benjamin Franklin's "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail": Coolidge's approximating "Fail to prepare, because most failures don't happen". Although I would grant that Coolidge does not strictly advocate failing to prepare, his maxim will be inclined to induce that sort of complacency.
 

Gordon_4

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And trying to reverse while steering, and going too fast through an ice field at night, preventing the lower deck people from reaching the lifeboat deck by placing barricades in their path(because the richer passengers didn't want the plebs in their sections)and launching lifeboats long before they were filled to capacity once the evacuation had begun. You also had the problem with a lot of passengers standing around and not boarding the lifeboats early on because they thought the whole thing was a fucking joke(at least until the ship was notably sinking at the bow and it became harder to deny there was a problem).

That's before getting into the myriad of other issues, like not having enough lifeboats to begin with, the design flaws, not having telegraph operators on call at night, etc.

It's a laundry list of failures, any of one of which could have lessened the damaged or loss of life if they'd been dealt with properly.

Or just pretend it's not a problem until a bunch of people die before we actually attempt to start fixing things.
Just out of nowhere, my favourite line in the Titanic film is when Thomas Andrews is explaining to Bruce Ismay that the ship is sinking and Ismay says the ship can’t sink and Andrew’s replies:

“She’s made of iron, Mister Ismay. I assure you, she can” in a tone of voice that just drips an unspoken “You fucking idiot”.
 
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Dalisclock

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Just out of nowhere, my favourite line in the Titanic film is when Thomas Andrews is explaining to Bruce Ismay that the ship is sinking and Ismay says the ship can’t sink and Andrew’s replies:

“She’s made of iron, Mister Ismay. I assure you, she can” in a tone of voice that just drips an unspoken “You fucking idiot”.
BuT mY PeRpEtUaL GrOwTh!
 

Gergar12

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So in the 2040s, we will start to see reduced living standards. So basically millennials, Gen X, and Gen Z are screwed. Got it.
 

Specter Von Baren

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At base, Coolidge's performance is that of placeholder: someone who basically let everything tick over mostly on its own.

Per se, that's fine and can be what a good president does. But when things happen like the wheels come off the economy almost the minute they're out office or that lingering problems are not dealt with, it demands we start asking some hard questions about whether they weren't a little bit too hands off.
Isn't this entire thread about how continuous growth and change are unsustainable? It just seems odd to agree with that and then, when presented with an example of a country leader who avoided doing just that thing, dismiss said person. Keep in mind that I'm only just now starting my reading on Coolidge, so I don't know much about him yet but from my current readings, he seemed to not want to have the government get needlessly involved in stuff with the kinds of endless speculative projects that FDR would later do.
 

Seanchaidh

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Isn't this entire thread about how continuous growth and change are unsustainable? It just seems odd to agree with that and then, when presented with an example of a country leader who avoided doing just that thing, dismiss said person. Keep in mind that I'm only just now starting my reading on Coolidge, so I don't know much about him yet but from my current readings, he seemed to not want to have the government get needlessly involved in stuff with the kinds of endless speculative projects that FDR would later do.
Er, Coolidge presided over a quite a lot of growth. And then it crashed most spectacularly.
 

Agema

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Isn't this entire thread about how continuous growth and change are unsustainable? It just seems odd to agree with that and then, when presented with an example of a country leader who avoided doing just that thing, dismiss said person. Keep in mind that I'm only just now starting my reading on Coolidge, so I don't know much about him yet but from my current readings, he seemed to not want to have the government get needlessly involved in stuff with the kinds of endless speculative projects that FDR would later do.
If there's one thing that does not change, it is that things change. Stuff even needs to change just so things stay the same.

Coolidge represents a great belief of conservatives about government: that government should do very little. That does not mean change does not happen, because society has a great deal of actors other than the government creating change. Maybe not all this change is good, or the government otherwise needs to manage change, or adapt to it - in which case a "hands off" government can be a problem.

Although I think it is possibly hard to blame Coolidge for the subsequent crash. Economic theory was just not that well developed back in those days.