The Book You Need, Right Now

James Howard Kunstler's Living in the Long Emergency

From my review at a popular site (though you really should get your copy, if at all feasible, from here or from your very own cat-bedecked local book shop):

Over the past fifteen years, Jim Kunstler has written a series of books dealing with cultural, political, economic, and ecological declines.  Here is the latest non-fiction installment, which addresses (1) how some of the previous predictions are turning out and why some of them haven't quite yet, (2) how some people are coping with this changing world where a normal job is increasingly the exception, and (3) what's happening now and what is likely in the near future.  Not surprisingly, these correspond to the three major sections of this book, followed by a personal update that would have fit well into the second section if it were not autobiographical.

It's good, very good.  Take it as food for thought, not prophecy.  Make up your own mind, but even where you may disagree with Kunstler's views on things, they are at least informative and thought provoking.  As with any current affairs type work, it may not be a great tome for the ages, but it does have relevance for the here and now.

Finally, I have to say that it's a strangely uplifting read, if only to see that I'm not the only one having difficulties these past few years.  Ever since right around getting run rump over kettle by Katrina in 2005, something has felt not quite right in the world.  Call it the Era of the Continuing Resolution, call it a Fourth Turning, call it Mid-East war fatigue, call it skepticism over QE #N; it all amounts to the same thing.  The wheels have not yet come off, but what's that shimmy, and what's that weird noise?  Like a blues record on a bad day, it is good to hear that other people are feeling these things too.

Well hurry up and get reading.  Between covid-19 stalking the land and the current political situation, this roadmap has hit the bookstores just in time.