On the Shoulders of Giants. KEW Episode 112

I recently came upon a podcast by a fella named Nate Hagens. The podcast, and Nate’s piece de resistance is called The Great Simplification and his ideas center around the future of humans on Earth. The idea behind The Great Simplification is that humans will soon run out of energy to power or current levels of consumption and have to drastically simplify our lives to compensate for that loss.

Nate also talks about the concept of Energy Blindness, which is the idea that most humans don’t account for the energetic requirements of our lifestyle. This ranges from all the fuel costs of moving goods around to the pathways of fossil fuel consumption that lead to us living in temperature-controlled buildings. Most economic methods ignore the energetic costs, which is an immense error in our thinking.

Nates podcast is worth more than the time you will invest listening. It has simply blown my mind. He and his guests have filled in so many gaps in my thinking that my ecological training missed. There is so much knowledge and so many unique perspectives that you will surely enjoy it.

Most relevant to KEW and the Acid Tests, however, are Nate’s guests. In particular, his recent guest Patrick Ophuls who has written books for 50 years under the pseudonym William Ophuls. Dr. Ophuls pretty much beat me to every punch I’ve pulled on KEW and summarizes incredibly eloquently a lot of what has been rolling around in my head regarding the Acid Tests.

It amazes me that Pat Ophuls is not a household name, and at the same time it makes perfect sense. Ophuls has summarized why humans are poor stewards of the Earth, explained 50 years ago where we would be today, and provides extensive guidance about how we could live better.

I suppose we don’t care to listen. But folks like Nate and I are trying to share the knowledge that, for whatever reason, remains hidden.

In this episode, I share many of my key influences that convinced me that a more indigenous, more natural, and more ecological approach to human cooperation is necessary to improve individual human lives and the existence of the human species. The answers are in our past, inherent to our distant ancestry, and likely contained within our DNA.

I cite Carlos Castaneda and his books about the Toltec warrior, Don Juan Matus. The first book is hard to read but the second, A Separate Reality, and the third, A Journey to Ixtlan will open you up.

I also mention Carl Jung, whose pioneering psychology and philosophy seems to rise to the top for most of my influences and his work makes the most sense to me.

I mention Buddhism and meditation, which should be no surprise to return listeners.

Finally, I conclude that future episodes will likely build on what I am learning from Ophuls and Hagens as I read through their own influences and stand on the shoulders of giants.

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