Best yet Corbin. As the movie says, 'What's on your mind? Milk and cookies kept you awake?' My only addition is this: before a large group of humans can actually grok the reality that they are a large 'group,' and must work together to survive, as a group, you need to show the need for cooperation rather than competition. Competition drives more than getting to some finish line, it drives cutting corners, taking inadvertant risks, narrowing the vision to only some distant goal, not the actual path(s) to said goal, and what does that goal actually have to do with survival or demise. I am not interested, in the least, in speed to get somewhere, especially in the final era of human existence on a planet that IS us, our home, our benefactor. Right now, we need to get our shit together and stop killing what sustains us. This is the core fault in competition. That end, to win something, merely shows we are addicted to the illusion that the means always justify the end(s). This world is in constant flux, and our 4000 years of constant chaos have only added to that flux, and we have, now, virtually NO TIME LEFT to stop the environmental plunge into the heart of the maelstrom. No more bulldozing our way out of chaos, it is going to take cooperative finesse to get ALL of us, especially our Earth support systems, out of this cesspool of suicidal behaviors we have become addicted to.
Mick, the speed I'm pushing for is about collective action. The wartime footing is on the build itself, on getting things done together. We can move fast and still cooperate. That's how the New Deal and the Apollo program worked. Big shared projects with everyone pulling together.
The urgency comes from a couple things. One is just running out of time. The other is feeling like we're in one of those big shakeups in human history. A transformative moment. A moment of unsettling and decision when one power structure gives way to another and we get to decide which direction we head. AI, robotics, the energy transition, climate change, wealth and income inequality, the collapse of faith in democracy and neoliberalism, all converging at once. And these crises represent massive opportunities for change. We need to be ready with a plan of action. A political plan, an economic plan, a social plan. Something that lets us capture these changes like lightning in a bottle. Appreciate you pushing on this.
I am with you bro. No issues. I just see the entire old paradigm and its abject failure. For me, to push competition is to just push society off the cliff. Yes, like any 'team,' cooperation can lead to successful competition. But here we are not competing 'against' Earth. We have won that loss, our loss. Now is that illogical and stupid, or what? We have No Other Choice but to embrace our failings so we can actually see that we are not competing against anything but self-styled chaos we have ginned up out of natural entropy. Fear, as FDR said, is the enemy. We cannot kill Earth any more without pushing Fear in front of our dozers. If we compete, let us compete against all our past f-ups by not repeating them with some confirmation bias that says now, yeah now, we are doing the right thing. The top-down pyramid is finished, or we are finished. Love your work and energy Corbin.
I resonate with a lot of this, especially the idea that the deeper crisis is not just political or economic, but civilizational.
There’s something important in recognizing that we cannot endlessly organize society around domination, extraction, and competition without eventually turning those forces against ourselves and the systems that sustain life.
And I think you’re right that simply repeating the same patterns with new language or new players will not get us where we need to go. There has to be a deeper shift in consciousness and values underneath it.
What stays with me most is the recognition that cooperation is not weakness. At this point, it may be the only realistic path forward.
I appreciate, deeply, your observations. For decades, I was a voice in the wilderness, in my younger and more vigorous days, and yet, I was constantly throtteled, struck down, fired, incriminated, extorted, framed even, when I would point out what I thought was Obvious. Now I am old, but I am not DEAD. So if you can grok, as I feel you have, what I have been screaming about for decades, then perhaps, all is not lost, just yet. As a scientist, I am becoming more keenly aware, daily if not hourly, how immense and complex and organized and resilient our EARTH IS. What a fucking marvel we were created by, what a Beauty. We should drop to the ground in awe and reverence, and wait and watch for the real wisdom that stands all around us. I appreciate you.
These wars are never for ‘nothing’, they are always to line the pockets of wealthy interests. Look at who benefits, which industries and which individuals, have significantly more wealth and resources and power after a war and that will tell you why our country spends taxpayer dollars on these wars.
How did we do it? Oil. We had the energy source to make stuff. You are right that we blew it with neoliberalism, but you are missing the fact that it was entirely based on fossil fuel energy. That energy source is either gone (we cannot make oil) or unavailable at a cost that can rebuild what we casually threw away. Solar and wind cannot replace everything as it was. We have to build a new energy system before we can restructure our economic system, hopefully without destroying our global ecosystem. It is the global and local ecosystem that is the real foundation. China is way ahead of us in changing energy, but no one is really succeeding in the ecosystem part. It is time to put away the guns, downsize the military, solarize the economy in a simpler form, and above all work to heal and regenerate our environment.
Wayne, I couldn't agree more that energy is foundational. But there's a new transition happening right now as important as the discovery of petroleum, and not going all in on it makes as much sense as expanding a whaling fleet when petroleum was discovered.
The numbers tell the story. In 2025 alone, China added 315 GW of solar and 119 GW of wind. Their combined renewable capacity now generates more electricity than the entire EU consumes. Meanwhile Hormuz has been effectively closed since March and gas in the US is up over a dollar a gallon. Oil isn't a strategic strength anymore. It's a strategic vulnerability.
China has been at this for 20 years and it's looking prescient. We don't need to treat this as a competition to win. We need to treat it as a frontier to join. A space race without the Cold War. The constraint isn't physics or economics. It's political will.
I read the piece. Not sure I agree with it at all, but even if true, the pace of oil replacement is way to slow to make it a sustainable resource, and burning it still causes climate change, which is the real problem.
Climate is always changing. Been doing that my whole life. Ever been through a hurricane? I’ve been through several including Katrina. You get to see real quick how oil makes the world go round. Gas up them generators people.
The inconvenient truth is that climate change is a scam. Sure, the climate changes. Humans did not kill the fake dinosaurs. Humans did not cause the ice age.
This war on humans needs to stop.
While the technocrats sell us solar power, they want nuclear power. Go figure… they also want our water.
One thing is certain.. the climate will always change. It changes daily. It always has, and it always will.
I agree with your analysis, however, America’s entire existence was based on an extractive paradigm since the first colonists arrived. The only time it seems to build is for consumerism and war. To re-think this will take another couple of centuries of serious reprogramming.
"This is a war we chose." WHAT? Your whole piece is "we" and "our,” and I object. "We" never authorized or approved what a deeply disturbed individual is doing to us. And I don’t understand why illegal orders are being carried out by our military. Why don’t they say no?
I appreciate your premise about how we don’t make things anymore, but I see what I consider to be a huge hole in all that awesome work that's been done on Mission for America. All that surface stuff about what to do without any consideration of the depressed state people are in. Dealing with what to do without dealing with the consciousness that prevails, and how to raise it so we get excited about being human beings (see Brian Swimme’s work for my favorite on that subject: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/s/brian-thomas-swimme), doesn’t figure to go anywhere.
I always look forward to your posts. They are, by far, the most true description of our current mess I have read in a long time. I can only hope that there are many more people like you who are going tobput in the work that it will take to change this country around. It is going to be hard. The super wealthy class are not going to go quietly. However, if we continue down the path they have laid for us much longer; the majority of us will cease to exist; sadly that is their plan. No housing, no healthcare, can't afford food and no safety net; we will die and die quickly. More for them! We've been here before, maybe not quite this extreme; and we have succeeded in turning around not only the country, but much of the world also. We can do it again, but it will take work and sacrifice; maybe even our lives. Count me in!!
The bigger picture emerging: China, with it's Communistic history of oppression of its people, and once the largest driver of carbon pollution driving climate change, (thus our excuse for not reducing our own carbon footprint) is now the leading technological source and supply of clean energy products and technology.
The United States, the land of freedom where its people select its leadership, has allowed capitalism to become unregulated, thus resulted in the rise of privatization, oligarchy, and inequality. Education standards of the masses have been reduced and higher education restricted for the few who can still afford it, has thus chosen leadership that is gobbling the remaining collective wealth of our nation while we self-destruct.
Really, really sad. Benjamin Franklin's inference regarding "a Republic if you can keep it" was right on point. 250 years and freedom dies. Kind of a microcosmic lesson and example of human sociopathy (of the corruption of the strong and power corrupting) for the annals of history.
Excellent. We have needed this kind of roadmap for decades. This outlines a plan that would meet material needs as well as the dangerous lack of purpose in this country that is a dangerous emotional undercurrent fueling violence. Trouble is that we have no opposition party, but for a few lone voices. But it feels like we are at a turning point, watching the current surge of support for actual public servants (not careerist politicos) and watching the push back on datacenters. Hoping Corbin is in touch with AOC and Bernie still. It feels like the window to act is closing fast. Would like to share this plan far and wide. So far sent to three people. Will try to send to the Cori Bush team in STL. We need this plan to get in front of people. A More Perfect Union has been amazing at getting the word out on data centers and algorithmic price gouging-could you be in touch with them? Anyway, this is so heartening. Thank you.
Thank you for this important piece that captures our current reality extraordinarily well. I might rename it to better represent the optimistic call to action it ends with "Relearning How to Be Useful." Thank you for offering part of the solution. I say "part" because there is another very important part: the community voices, the grassroots groups that are already building meaningful alternatives that we can all learn from. Collective Now's mission is to amplify these voices and connect with global and translocal groups to enhance this work, and restore America's potential to live our our values and build relationships and all types of things we can be proud of.
Corbin, I want to suggest a change in pronouns (I know! But bear with me, please.) that will help build the movement to advance the Fight Worth Having and the Mission for America.
When you say, "The war isn’t over. And we’re losing it," you are undermining the solidarity We the People need to transform ourselves into a society that frees itself from billionaires and builds what we need to meet the big challenges. When discussing neoliberal and imperialist strategies and campaigns, I suggest you use third person. "Trump's war isn't over, but HE is still losing it."
America has been duped collectively since inception. From the Whitehouse to the pulpit, we were told mana would wash down from heaven upon (some of) us due to some divine decree. And at the beginning it was true and a few received a deluge of wealth and power, so the less blessed amongst us thought they too would receive a bigger slice of the limitless pie. And for a time that seemed to be true as those living at subsistence level swelled into the middle class. So many of us thought the "less-civilized world" would never catch up to our intellectual and industrial level and that taking what was theirs was just peachy fine. We even constructed social and legal barriers to keep them in their place, just in case. But over time the deluge became a sprinkle, now barely a misting and lots of scorching sun, since too many “others” are demanding and breaking off pieces for themselves. It's may be a harsh reality to some, but the truth is this country built its so-called strength on exploiting the weaknesses of others. After WWII, those women and minorities who worked in the arms factories and essential jobs to keep the country rolling were largely either fired or shuffled back to subservient jobs; to this day we continue to pay women and minorities less for the same work as white men. I don’t see Hamilton or any other of our empire buildering heroes since as great visionaries, rather more or less opportunist dropped into a historical moment of great military and technological advantage. In reality that is America’s social and cultural DNA. Now we're running out of helpless or weak “others” and the closest, easiest targets to exploit are ourselves.
Yes Corbin, we better wake up and learn quickly or soon we, along with the Great American Myth, will shrivel up and die.
The leadership ran towards money and allowed corporations, wealthy, and foreign countries to grab the reigns of USA power. In the meantime we sat by enjoying a comfortable life with our heads in the sand while many were pushed down. Not the buzzards have come home to roost.
Best yet Corbin. As the movie says, 'What's on your mind? Milk and cookies kept you awake?' My only addition is this: before a large group of humans can actually grok the reality that they are a large 'group,' and must work together to survive, as a group, you need to show the need for cooperation rather than competition. Competition drives more than getting to some finish line, it drives cutting corners, taking inadvertant risks, narrowing the vision to only some distant goal, not the actual path(s) to said goal, and what does that goal actually have to do with survival or demise. I am not interested, in the least, in speed to get somewhere, especially in the final era of human existence on a planet that IS us, our home, our benefactor. Right now, we need to get our shit together and stop killing what sustains us. This is the core fault in competition. That end, to win something, merely shows we are addicted to the illusion that the means always justify the end(s). This world is in constant flux, and our 4000 years of constant chaos have only added to that flux, and we have, now, virtually NO TIME LEFT to stop the environmental plunge into the heart of the maelstrom. No more bulldozing our way out of chaos, it is going to take cooperative finesse to get ALL of us, especially our Earth support systems, out of this cesspool of suicidal behaviors we have become addicted to.
Mick, the speed I'm pushing for is about collective action. The wartime footing is on the build itself, on getting things done together. We can move fast and still cooperate. That's how the New Deal and the Apollo program worked. Big shared projects with everyone pulling together.
The urgency comes from a couple things. One is just running out of time. The other is feeling like we're in one of those big shakeups in human history. A transformative moment. A moment of unsettling and decision when one power structure gives way to another and we get to decide which direction we head. AI, robotics, the energy transition, climate change, wealth and income inequality, the collapse of faith in democracy and neoliberalism, all converging at once. And these crises represent massive opportunities for change. We need to be ready with a plan of action. A political plan, an economic plan, a social plan. Something that lets us capture these changes like lightning in a bottle. Appreciate you pushing on this.
I am with you bro. No issues. I just see the entire old paradigm and its abject failure. For me, to push competition is to just push society off the cliff. Yes, like any 'team,' cooperation can lead to successful competition. But here we are not competing 'against' Earth. We have won that loss, our loss. Now is that illogical and stupid, or what? We have No Other Choice but to embrace our failings so we can actually see that we are not competing against anything but self-styled chaos we have ginned up out of natural entropy. Fear, as FDR said, is the enemy. We cannot kill Earth any more without pushing Fear in front of our dozers. If we compete, let us compete against all our past f-ups by not repeating them with some confirmation bias that says now, yeah now, we are doing the right thing. The top-down pyramid is finished, or we are finished. Love your work and energy Corbin.
I love a mind-meld
I resonate with a lot of this, especially the idea that the deeper crisis is not just political or economic, but civilizational.
There’s something important in recognizing that we cannot endlessly organize society around domination, extraction, and competition without eventually turning those forces against ourselves and the systems that sustain life.
And I think you’re right that simply repeating the same patterns with new language or new players will not get us where we need to go. There has to be a deeper shift in consciousness and values underneath it.
What stays with me most is the recognition that cooperation is not weakness. At this point, it may be the only realistic path forward.
I appreciate, deeply, your observations. For decades, I was a voice in the wilderness, in my younger and more vigorous days, and yet, I was constantly throtteled, struck down, fired, incriminated, extorted, framed even, when I would point out what I thought was Obvious. Now I am old, but I am not DEAD. So if you can grok, as I feel you have, what I have been screaming about for decades, then perhaps, all is not lost, just yet. As a scientist, I am becoming more keenly aware, daily if not hourly, how immense and complex and organized and resilient our EARTH IS. What a fucking marvel we were created by, what a Beauty. We should drop to the ground in awe and reverence, and wait and watch for the real wisdom that stands all around us. I appreciate you.
All right for you and for Christy. We are of like mind -- see my comment to Corbin.
Subscribe to both of us and we can be a threesome getting people to deal with causal realities. See my Substack this week that's all about that:
"Deep springboards to higher ground"
https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/deep-springboards-to-higher-ground
These wars are never for ‘nothing’, they are always to line the pockets of wealthy interests. Look at who benefits, which industries and which individuals, have significantly more wealth and resources and power after a war and that will tell you why our country spends taxpayer dollars on these wars.
What happens when we let bullies gready for virtual dollars lead
How did we do it? Oil. We had the energy source to make stuff. You are right that we blew it with neoliberalism, but you are missing the fact that it was entirely based on fossil fuel energy. That energy source is either gone (we cannot make oil) or unavailable at a cost that can rebuild what we casually threw away. Solar and wind cannot replace everything as it was. We have to build a new energy system before we can restructure our economic system, hopefully without destroying our global ecosystem. It is the global and local ecosystem that is the real foundation. China is way ahead of us in changing energy, but no one is really succeeding in the ecosystem part. It is time to put away the guns, downsize the military, solarize the economy in a simpler form, and above all work to heal and regenerate our environment.
Wayne, I couldn't agree more that energy is foundational. But there's a new transition happening right now as important as the discovery of petroleum, and not going all in on it makes as much sense as expanding a whaling fleet when petroleum was discovered.
The numbers tell the story. In 2025 alone, China added 315 GW of solar and 119 GW of wind. Their combined renewable capacity now generates more electricity than the entire EU consumes. Meanwhile Hormuz has been effectively closed since March and gas in the US is up over a dollar a gallon. Oil isn't a strategic strength anymore. It's a strategic vulnerability.
China has been at this for 20 years and it's looking prescient. We don't need to treat this as a competition to win. We need to treat it as a frontier to join. A space race without the Cold War. The constraint isn't physics or economics. It's political will.
Oil is a renewable resource..
http://origeminorganicadopetroleo.blogspot.com/2011/10/russian-ukrainian-theory-of-deep.html
I read the piece. Not sure I agree with it at all, but even if true, the pace of oil replacement is way to slow to make it a sustainable resource, and burning it still causes climate change, which is the real problem.
Climate is always changing. Been doing that my whole life. Ever been through a hurricane? I’ve been through several including Katrina. You get to see real quick how oil makes the world go round. Gas up them generators people.
The inconvenient truth is that climate change is a scam. Sure, the climate changes. Humans did not kill the fake dinosaurs. Humans did not cause the ice age.
This war on humans needs to stop.
While the technocrats sell us solar power, they want nuclear power. Go figure… they also want our water.
One thing is certain.. the climate will always change. It changes daily. It always has, and it always will.
Harvard expert estimates U.S. has already wracked up over $1 trillion in Iran war costs that will come due in years to come. https://fortune.com/2026/04/15/how-much-will-iran-war-cost-taxpayers-us-1-trillion-dollars/
I agree with your analysis, however, America’s entire existence was based on an extractive paradigm since the first colonists arrived. The only time it seems to build is for consumerism and war. To re-think this will take another couple of centuries of serious reprogramming.
"This is a war we chose." WHAT? Your whole piece is "we" and "our,” and I object. "We" never authorized or approved what a deeply disturbed individual is doing to us. And I don’t understand why illegal orders are being carried out by our military. Why don’t they say no?
I appreciate your premise about how we don’t make things anymore, but I see what I consider to be a huge hole in all that awesome work that's been done on Mission for America. All that surface stuff about what to do without any consideration of the depressed state people are in. Dealing with what to do without dealing with the consciousness that prevails, and how to raise it so we get excited about being human beings (see Brian Swimme’s work for my favorite on that subject: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/s/brian-thomas-swimme), doesn’t figure to go anywhere.
Amen, amen, amen!! Please keep pushing your message and I will keep telling people about your message!! Thanks Corbin.
I always look forward to your posts. They are, by far, the most true description of our current mess I have read in a long time. I can only hope that there are many more people like you who are going tobput in the work that it will take to change this country around. It is going to be hard. The super wealthy class are not going to go quietly. However, if we continue down the path they have laid for us much longer; the majority of us will cease to exist; sadly that is their plan. No housing, no healthcare, can't afford food and no safety net; we will die and die quickly. More for them! We've been here before, maybe not quite this extreme; and we have succeeded in turning around not only the country, but much of the world also. We can do it again, but it will take work and sacrifice; maybe even our lives. Count me in!!
There is a major article in the NYTimes today about how the war is boosting China's influence globally: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/business/war-energy-china-iran.html.
My comment in response:
The bigger picture emerging: China, with it's Communistic history of oppression of its people, and once the largest driver of carbon pollution driving climate change, (thus our excuse for not reducing our own carbon footprint) is now the leading technological source and supply of clean energy products and technology.
The United States, the land of freedom where its people select its leadership, has allowed capitalism to become unregulated, thus resulted in the rise of privatization, oligarchy, and inequality. Education standards of the masses have been reduced and higher education restricted for the few who can still afford it, has thus chosen leadership that is gobbling the remaining collective wealth of our nation while we self-destruct.
Really, really sad. Benjamin Franklin's inference regarding "a Republic if you can keep it" was right on point. 250 years and freedom dies. Kind of a microcosmic lesson and example of human sociopathy (of the corruption of the strong and power corrupting) for the annals of history.
Excellent. We have needed this kind of roadmap for decades. This outlines a plan that would meet material needs as well as the dangerous lack of purpose in this country that is a dangerous emotional undercurrent fueling violence. Trouble is that we have no opposition party, but for a few lone voices. But it feels like we are at a turning point, watching the current surge of support for actual public servants (not careerist politicos) and watching the push back on datacenters. Hoping Corbin is in touch with AOC and Bernie still. It feels like the window to act is closing fast. Would like to share this plan far and wide. So far sent to three people. Will try to send to the Cori Bush team in STL. We need this plan to get in front of people. A More Perfect Union has been amazing at getting the word out on data centers and algorithmic price gouging-could you be in touch with them? Anyway, this is so heartening. Thank you.
Thank you for this important piece that captures our current reality extraordinarily well. I might rename it to better represent the optimistic call to action it ends with "Relearning How to Be Useful." Thank you for offering part of the solution. I say "part" because there is another very important part: the community voices, the grassroots groups that are already building meaningful alternatives that we can all learn from. Collective Now's mission is to amplify these voices and connect with global and translocal groups to enhance this work, and restore America's potential to live our our values and build relationships and all types of things we can be proud of.
Corbin, I want to suggest a change in pronouns (I know! But bear with me, please.) that will help build the movement to advance the Fight Worth Having and the Mission for America.
When you say, "The war isn’t over. And we’re losing it," you are undermining the solidarity We the People need to transform ourselves into a society that frees itself from billionaires and builds what we need to meet the big challenges. When discussing neoliberal and imperialist strategies and campaigns, I suggest you use third person. "Trump's war isn't over, but HE is still losing it."
America has been duped collectively since inception. From the Whitehouse to the pulpit, we were told mana would wash down from heaven upon (some of) us due to some divine decree. And at the beginning it was true and a few received a deluge of wealth and power, so the less blessed amongst us thought they too would receive a bigger slice of the limitless pie. And for a time that seemed to be true as those living at subsistence level swelled into the middle class. So many of us thought the "less-civilized world" would never catch up to our intellectual and industrial level and that taking what was theirs was just peachy fine. We even constructed social and legal barriers to keep them in their place, just in case. But over time the deluge became a sprinkle, now barely a misting and lots of scorching sun, since too many “others” are demanding and breaking off pieces for themselves. It's may be a harsh reality to some, but the truth is this country built its so-called strength on exploiting the weaknesses of others. After WWII, those women and minorities who worked in the arms factories and essential jobs to keep the country rolling were largely either fired or shuffled back to subservient jobs; to this day we continue to pay women and minorities less for the same work as white men. I don’t see Hamilton or any other of our empire buildering heroes since as great visionaries, rather more or less opportunist dropped into a historical moment of great military and technological advantage. In reality that is America’s social and cultural DNA. Now we're running out of helpless or weak “others” and the closest, easiest targets to exploit are ourselves.
Yes Corbin, we better wake up and learn quickly or soon we, along with the Great American Myth, will shrivel up and die.
GTFO! GTFO is the ANSWER to EVERY MILITARY CONFLICT On The PLANET!
🟰 GTFO 🟰
- GO HOME
- TAKE CARE Of YOUR OWN National Infrastructure
- DEFEND YOUR OWN Peoples DEMOCRATIC & CONSTITUIONAL Freedoms, Protections and SOCIAL CONTRACT INTEGRITY & SECURITY
- ERADICATE YOUR OWN GOVERNMENTs ILLEGAL CORRUPTION
- GROW The hell UP and LEARN To PEACEFULLY PROSPER in Mutually Beneficial CoOperative COLLABORATIONS, with ALL HUMANITY❗️
GTFO ~ NO Body NEEDS Or WANTS Your CRIMINALLY Depraved, Corporate TotalitarianFASCIST DYSTOPIA RULING EARTH
The leadership ran towards money and allowed corporations, wealthy, and foreign countries to grab the reigns of USA power. In the meantime we sat by enjoying a comfortable life with our heads in the sand while many were pushed down. Not the buzzards have come home to roost.
Let's see how we fix this mess, if we fix it.