I am with you Curmudgeon, Wednesday, 9 February 2011 10:40:29 AM .

Another example of the Goons in action was their Education Talkfest in the MIA where they told Farmers that the Darling System was Finished Kaput! no longer will water flow down the Murray Darling System , that was about eight weeks ago and of course we all know about the flood events since ! Embarrassing for the Goons ? Not likely , their truth is like Religious Dogma miraculous happenings do happen !
Given that the Darling catchment begins just above Brisbane only a Goon would believe that the Darling is now a vacant river bed .
Where were these people educated or were they educated ? They don't seem to have any understanding of our agricultural History .

My favorite Spiritual Philosopher has always pointed out that Western "civilization" altogether is based on the absurd quest to conquer nature and even matter.

He has also pointed out that before that happens nature, or the world process altogether WILL bite back, and with a terrible vengeance.

" ... the thousand forms of your own machine will turn upon you, and all the war and natural horrors you have feared will ruin the surface of your world .. "

In more recent times he pointed that Western "civilization" is effectively in a state of self and world destructive terminal psychosis.

We are all trapped, implicated and contribute to this collective insanity.
But I would argue that the world-view promoted by those on the right side of the culture wars champions this quest to conquer nature, and is effectively the leading edge manifestation of this collective psychosis.

An assessment of the mood of Western "civilization" altogether.

"The quest for power or control over the unknown is the collective egoic pursuit, or aggressive search of mankind, in the midst of, and on the basis of, the universal reactions of egoic fear, sorrow, and anger .... To affirm, as the world-culture of scientific materialism does, that this All of space-time is merely materiality - limited, dying, and effectively, dead - is, itself, a kind of aggressive affirmation of power, a collective cultural manifestation of a dissociative disposition that is merely afraid, self-absorbed, and deeply depressed by sorrow and anger."

" This overcoming of falsity and negativity MUST occur, because all of mankind is insane in this late-time. The craziness that may be observed in the world is the manifestation of a universal, and therefore dangerous, collective human insanity that is becoming more and more profoundly destructive day by day. There is a profound conflict in the heart and mind of humanity in the present epoch. A conflict resulting from its own false and ego-made doctrines, its own aggressive and ignorant dissociation from Reality Itself."

Oddly enough much of the above described collective insanity is championed by those that presume to be religious.

More lines from the same essay:

" There have always been insane human beings, but in earlier times, they were not as powerful as they have become in this late-time. It is only in this late-time that human beings have become capable of producing effects than can change even global weather patterns, and global ecological patterns of all kinds. But human beings have always been insane in the realm of politics, for example. For countless centuries, whenever human beings, in their egoity, have been capable of influencing conditional events, there has always been insanity and conflict. But now, in its motion into the twenty-first century, the insanity of mankind is influencing even the larger picture of the human natural circumstance. Ans THIS MUST BE CHANGED - or there is going to be a terrible, horrific calamity on Earth!. Such a calamity is not yet inevitable, but it WILL occur if there is not a fundamental transformation of mankind - in its heart and mind, and in its endeavors. A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTENING of the world-process must occur, because mankind is now having a PROFOUNDLY NEGATIVE effect on the human world-process, and even on the larger natural domain of the world."

These words were spontaneously spoken in 1998. Meanwhile 13 years later the situation has gotten much much worse.

It is interesting than Christians for instance can point to the fiery prophets of the "Old" Testament. But when a fiery prophet appears in now-time His warnings are ignored and dismissed!

By the way the author was profoundly aware of and sensitive to the state of the world altogether, and of and to the patterns, past present and future, that were generating the current situation on this Earth-world.
He could also see and feel with horrific clarity how these deep patterns were inevitably going to play them-selves out on to the world-stage if the current motions continued.
Hence the urgency of His warnings.

But ours is an unconscious "civilization" in which hardly anyone wants to wake up.

Garum Masala - true. Another example of a forecast disaster that did not happen, and in fact the forecast was immediately contradicted by events..

Ho Hum - the problem with forecasts for disaster for western civilisation because of our self distructive nature is that the disaster never seems to happen.

I might also suggest you make your comments shorter..

HoHUM ! gosh what or how can I help you ?
Perhaps you should go Gandi for a while , think in a horizontal line ,peruse the Karma Sutra then participate in the Elixir of Life for a fortnight or more , I don't normally hand out advice for free but I am committed to help you climb your hill and shed your Muse of Tragedy .

hohum "But when a fiery prophet appears in now-time His warnings are ignored and dismissed!"

That's probably because there are so many prophets, who are so insistent that the world is ending, which it regularly does not, that we suffer prophet tedium, or even prophet fatigue.

Think about it, how many doom prophets in history have been correct .. and let's not count the rewriting of history in holy books, after the event, including some person from the past to back up current claims .. mere political, or religious convenience. Zero?

In the past, when things were a little more rugged than today, false prophets were stoned or otherwise put to death .. nowadays we give them tenure, Nobel prizes and Oscars. (this will change I'm sure, people can only be BS'd for so long)

Environmental Activism is the new age religion, you have people to evangelize, you can quote your favorite guru .. blissfully ignorant that others may not be in need of spiritual guidance as you are and do not have a gap or guilt in their lives that needs to be healed or condoned.

In other words, don't preach your religion to me ..