"F. George McDuffee" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 6 Aug 2006 18:26:33 -0500, "Jeff McCann"
wrote:

It's my job. One thing I have learned is that our
society's coping mechanisms are quite robust.
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In academic terms this is called an error of composition.
Society is not a monolith, and is becoming less so all the time.

Do follow along. My point is that primitive societies tend to be more
monolithic than more technologically advanced ones. This makes them more
vulnerable to sudden collapse from a single or cluster of just a few
factors, internal or external.

Some segments of society and areas of the country may well be
able to "cope," but these will *NOT* be the same for all
problems. It is well to remember in this context "cope" does not
mean a continuation of the current soccer-mom "high conspicuous
consumption / air conditioned" life-style to which they are
accustomed, but rather survival as in "staying alive."

Very good. Now, see if you can figure out what types of societies are best
equipped to make major adjustments to drastically changed circumstances.

Historically, there were two successive and compounding errors
that produced national disasters on this scale.

#1 the failure to accurately and timely identify the problem(s);
and
#2 was the incorrect identification of the causes (there may well
be several).

And #3, resistance to, or inability to, make the necessary adaptations,
often led by those who are profiteering off the collapse or the conditions
leading to it. Sound familiar?

Minority groups have always been popular scape goats, but
ignoring the moral factors, punitive actions / pogroms have
never cured anything, and have generally made the problems worse
by diverting time/effort/attention away from the real
problems/causes.

Yep.

Jeff