"The key point is that neoliberalism has been accompanied by a major offensive against democracy. The objective, to a not inconsiderable degree successfully achieved, has been to shift accountability of government away from people and toward markets. This process lies at the core of the European debt crisis. When power is taken away from people and increasingly shifted toward corporations and markets it is possible for moral progress to coexist with moral decay".

Mmmm, another piece that simplistically explains recent decadee through that rubbish academic concept called 'Neoliberalism'.

How about filling in the other half of the story, or is all too hard from your biased perspective that espouses truth and justice in a simplistic left-wing academic way.

To suggest that govts and leaders alone supported corporations over people is an extreme figment of your imagination and does not offer much scholarly insight, although it may well prove popular in the humanities depts of Aust.

...Mans dilemma is always the decision made at the “Y” node! Looking back in history is objective, whereas, looking forward into the future is subjective. A backward view exposes fact, reality and learned understanding: A forward view can ever only apply the learned understanding to the subjective nature of future events.

...What is urgently required from science, is an ability to reconstruct human nature: A mechanism that can propel man into an enlightened age of scientific advancement which is forged by his intellect alone, but, with total ability to control himself against crude reactionary instincts, deeply embedded in his primordial brain.

...I cannot see this happening in the near future. Nature will have her way with us, and as the Lemmings are destined to leap over a cliff to their “mythical” doom, so too will humans leap over the “cliff of stupidity” to their doom; it is instinctive alas, but to the broader question, is the extinction of the human race to remain mythical, or will it be an event based on a future reality? Looking forward, not “goody, goody, good, good”

I like an article that raises interesting questions. This article went everywhere at once and nowhere in particular. But I had to laugh at the detachment in this: "Most humans who have ever lived, there are now 7 billion of us, have lived very recently, indeed could well now be alive."

What is important here is that WE the the mandated and elected politicians and our CEO brothers and sisters have the RIGHT:

To lower YOUR standards to increase OUR chances.
To externalise business(immigration) costs to MAXIMISE OUR profits
To ignore basic PHYSICS laws to make climate change and
oil based renewable & nuclear energy seem plausible.
To ignore GEOTHERMAL energy because we want that OURSELVES after YOU are all dead.

Brother Nick is stitching up NSW as I write.

Its called tourism ARISTOCRACY.

But for now, while youse still have some negligible voting powers we can ALL agree to call this DEMOCRACY.

At the end of OIL's reign circa 2030, we expect most of YOU will be killed in global warfare and epidemics anyway. Although we will pretend to do our best to SAVE youse, you don't really matter as you and your progeny are all doomed, see; easily replaced by your betters - immigrants from countries who have the most excellent and expensive EDUCASHIUN facilities. Huh, HMMM - that WE don't have to pay for.

We call this NATION BUILDING. And its predicated on Externalising the immigration associated costs to YOU and your communities of the infrastructure, social unrest and gridlocked services, while our CEO's trickle-up, er VACUUM UP, every dollar and cent you earn.

And as our friend Heather says: If you don't like immigration, you have something to hide or protect - evil PROTECTIONISM. Of course we live in gated & protected communities with our riches and are most definitely NOT PROTECTIONIST because we are free-marketeers.

Ah Democracy in action!

Barry O'Farrell,

Prime Minister,

NSW - 'Lowering YOUR STANDARDS to increase OUR CHANCES'.

Interesting take on things.
As always there will be pockets of ongoing sanity amongst the general chaos to come. To stretch an analogy: the composting remains of this civilisation will be the fertile ground for the next...which is now just a tiny seed.
The common theme of a tiny minority (some say already a separate species!) exploiting the masses is again being repeated, and again they remain at arms length whilst using patsies to do the dirty work for them. This is nothing new: the most important species that humans domesticated was other humans!
The danger comes from highly militarised groups run by psychopathic leaders who will spoil anyone's attempt to retain vital resources such as water, food, and energy for themselves. The old trade-off of productivity vs conquest will favour conquest once "crisis mode" is again called upon.
Whilst the US is pretty scary in "mad dog" mode (made up intelligence, global kidnapping and torture, perpetual non-declared warfare) this is nothing compared to full-on insanity mode that will emerge once their currency collapses and the "others" are seen to have what was once theirs (wealth and freedom). Yes the barbarians will ride out and take the resources of the poor diligent farmers using some arbitrary point of difference or an "operation Northwood" type justification (again).
Debt is the currency of slaves, and the NeoLibs have shown willingness to embrace both debt and slavery. By making private debts public they have effectively profited from massive credit, then palmed off the repayment onto the masses, after which they can go back to the line "private good, Public bad"! The degree of cynical theft which was totally OK with the media and "mainstream economists" is breathtaking!
Neolibs certainly have no problems with structural inequality, unjustified violence and wealth without merit!
The author may be right...perhaps the NeoLib decade of theft and lies will force the lazy folks to shore up defences against the parasitical economy, or maybe, just maybe start the next seed growing.

I think the author just took us through a tortuous barrage to arrive back at a hope - that if we can think rosy, and rebel against insignificance, we may yet achieve an equitable and peaceful world. As to how, he leaves that up to us. As for the 'Masters of mankind', they appear to be alive and well and strenuously disinclined to relinquish their power, their status, or their stranglehold on global capitalism.

As for any moral advance, the Third World appears to have plugged along in relative stability, with exception of some 'pariahs', while the First World has continued plundering and pillaging. 'We the people' may not have been directly responsible, but our governments have through cooperation and complicity.

We are a long way from being able to realise the author's hope: ", if we can apply our moral sense and reconstruct our societies, up to and including systems of global order, to accord with moral principles it would be reasonable to be optimistic about our future prospects."

A grand vision, maybe, but a tortuous and troubled path to fulfillment, including, potentially, a democratic China, a stable, democratic and nuclear-free Middle East, nuclear disarmament, universal downscaling of military forces and dismantling of the armaments industry, and decoupling of big business from politics and governance.

We may live in hope, but that alone will not produce the goods.