[Robert Urbanek]

The phrase “jump the shark” comes from a Happy Days episode where the Fonz jumped a shark on waterskies and describes a moment when something that was once great has reached a point where it will now decline in quality.

When did humanity reach its peak? How about the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989? Or would you give a nod to 2009, when President Obama took office and smart phones became an everyday item, promising to link the entire world in a collective spirit of peace and prosperity? How did that work out?

When did it all start to go downhill, and autocrats reversed the march toward democracy? The war in Ukraine is sooo 20th century. Really, this again? Has history become derivative? All the songs have been sung. All the pictures have been drawn. All the stories have been told. For years, it’s mostly sampling and sequels.

If you think my perspective is West-centric, please show me a place on earth where humanity is taking a great leap forward.

Should we expect this “show,” the story of human history, to be cancelled?

[Potemkin]

Humanity, as a species, is still in its “terrible twos” stage. We’re a toddler who should still be wearing reins in case we suddenly dart into the road. Lol.

Nah, we’ve still got a few million years left in us yet. The real question is whether our industrial civilisation can survive in the long term. That’s looking increasingly doubtful.

[ckaihatsu]

and autocrats reversed the march toward democracy?

I'll suggest that the civilization / humanity practice of 'democracy' / collective politics, is quite time- and attention-intensive -- note that people who have to punch the clock usually have no energy left for doing politics, as online here.

All that aside, though, the dynamic you're noticing -- the gradual 'fall of civilization' -- is empirically *accurate*, *and* it parallels the centuries-long trend of the declining rate of profit -- Marx.

Basically the *organic composition* of capital has been steadily declining, due to rising automation, meaning that more and more of the value of *each* finished item (commodity) is a *pass-through* value, a mere straight-proportional fractional part of whatever the amount was that was *invested* in the production of all of those items / commodities.

As with all (math) 'limits', just imagine the 'end of the asymptote' -- what happens at the hypothetical *limit*, here meaning when *zero* human labor is required, which is a real possibility soon now, arguably.

When *no* labor is required then all input values *will*, *necessarily* be pass-through values, to the final product, from initial costs, just like *any other* stage in the global supply-chain, currently -- ignoring any subsequent market-pricing fluctuations, of course. In other words why would any consumer pay *more* for any company's products that happen to have an inexplicable *markup* in pricing, compared to a competitor's *pass-through* pricing -- ? Disregarding endemic cartel organizing, the situation would be an overall race-to-the-bottom and inevitable system-crash, as almost happened in 2008-2009.

The political *superstructure* that emerges from all of this is necessarily one of societal dysfunction since the 'shit work' of politics builds up as the systemic *contradictions* build up, and social issues fester while the more-glamorous *economics* / business aspect *stagnates* and isn't so exciting anymore. Strongman-types, like Trump, step in to fill the void as an *emergent* process of historical factors unfolds -- today it's multipolar international currency arrangements, more politically possible these days due to the faltering of the U.S. empire and its global reserve currency, the dollar.


material-economic exploitation DRAFT

Spoiler: show