Terroir, Mnemosyne

The Short View

“If the jerry-rigged global economic system is in jeopardy, it is because of the spectacular failure of the American political establishment.”

“China under the control of the CCP is, indeed, involved in a gigantic and novel social and political experiment enrolling one-sixth of humanity, a historic project that dwarfs that of democratic capitalism in the North Atlantic.”

“Can [the US] fashion a domestic political bargain to enable the US to become what it currently is not: a competent and co-operative partner in the management of the collective risks of the Anthropocene.”

Whose Century? by Adam Tooze (LRB)

The Long View

Fundamentally, we will not know deep time. It’s quite sad to realize that the stars are too far away. (There is a short essay I remember reading, from Asimov or Clarke, in a 1970s SF compendium titled “Science:Fiction/Fact” but cannot find anywhere that had the title «The Stars Are Not For Man» and was about how the sheer size of space would defeat us, that humanity was of the Earth, that the arc of our history would curve inward to rest on the planet that birthed us. Sobering and inevitable, with our current understanding of physics.) That we will be terroir-bound for the future, no matter how hard the rapacious billionaire-class tries to push for Mars Colonies. Being an indentured servant on Mars might be a tad more adventurous than being an indentured servant on Earth—maybe the first thousand on the red planet will be remembered with cities named after their sacrifice.