just been reading 'Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism' by Stephen Graham and 'The Mad Max Phase of Globalization' by Lieven de Cauter for a course on the global city and its problems at Uni.
Dunno if anyone here has read them but Graham's text is basically about how the urban environment has become the battleground of our time and while it is mainly perceived to be in faraway lands at the moment, it is becoming much more present in cities in Europe and America. The use of drones, gated communities, greater gap in income between the rich and poor, everyone becoming a suspect in the increasingly large and encompassing urban landscape.
The Cauter text is mainly about the impact of climate change on society and the rise of disaster capitalism in which events such as 9/11 and Hurricane katrina are used in order to privatise, deregulate and wage wars. Instead of market forces having to innovate to stop climate change they actually profit from the fallout of such disasters.
The prospect of a Mad Max style cyberpunk future seems pretty likely and possible to happen in my life time, considering our consumption of resources is still accelerating and the developing world is still yet to flourish industrially and economically.
Im sure most of this isn't news to many of you but I hadn't really had all of the facts presented to me in this way before and its pretty scary to be honest, but at the same time pretty easy to forget about in day to day life.
How do you feel about this? How do we react to this impending collapse? start growing opium and get stoned into oblivion or get tooled up and prepare for a mad max style free-for all? (other options very welcome)
Dunno if anyone here has read them but Graham's text is basically about how the urban environment has become the battleground of our time and while it is mainly perceived to be in faraway lands at the moment, it is becoming much more present in cities in Europe and America. The use of drones, gated communities, greater gap in income between the rich and poor, everyone becoming a suspect in the increasingly large and encompassing urban landscape.
The Cauter text is mainly about the impact of climate change on society and the rise of disaster capitalism in which events such as 9/11 and Hurricane katrina are used in order to privatise, deregulate and wage wars. Instead of market forces having to innovate to stop climate change they actually profit from the fallout of such disasters.
The prospect of a Mad Max style cyberpunk future seems pretty likely and possible to happen in my life time, considering our consumption of resources is still accelerating and the developing world is still yet to flourish industrially and economically.
Im sure most of this isn't news to many of you but I hadn't really had all of the facts presented to me in this way before and its pretty scary to be honest, but at the same time pretty easy to forget about in day to day life.
How do you feel about this? How do we react to this impending collapse? start growing opium and get stoned into oblivion or get tooled up and prepare for a mad max style free-for all? (other options very welcome)