I think we’re just dealing with greedy psychopaths justifying their unjustifiable bad behavior.

Assuming that billionaires are practicing accelerationism because they want a better world on the other side of the collapse is giving them way, way too much credit.

I think that we just have some absurdly wealthy people closing in on death suddenly aware they can’t take all of it with them and they are envious of the younger people so they want to break all the toys before they go. My true disappointment comes from all those willing to assist them.

Greed, pride, fear of not being in control, hate of people in general.

I went through a doomer phase coming out of high school in 2008 and as a result earned a bachelors degree in emergency management because I feared for what the future would be like. Now I'm actually a lot more comfortable with where the world is going, despite the intensity of the last decade and change. The most important thing I recommend to people with anxieties over the future is to look locally at what you have at your disposal. Find ways you can feed yourself and things you can do to help others within the smallest radius possible and use that as your weighted blanket. The world's massive and the internet makes it feel like it's all at your doorstep and here's every tragedy everywhere happening all at once for you to watch. What is going to matter if anything actually does go critically wrong is what is literally at your doorstep so getting familiar with that is the best way to prepare and ground yourself.

Joe’s line describing the tech billionaire Accelerationism “it’s like a belief of a secular rapture” is many levels of brilliance

One thing I noticed about people who write manifestos is that they always start from an emotional focal point. Their biggest grievance is hating the thing that emotionally hurt them when they were young and then they built their political, social ideas of what the world is supposed to be like around that personal hurt. It all could have been prevented if they had better well balanced upbringing from loving parents. So the answer to a lot of world ills is love and lots of hugs from an early age. Got it

I think we as people in general have this idea in our head that other people do things as intentionally as we don't. Most people get in the gear of just doing things out of habit without the best reasons, or any reason at all.

Yeah perhaps the worst thing about accelerationism is that no matter how right you think your are, it's going to hurt a lot of people and you don't know if your "side" will come out on top in the end.

I completely agree with you. We get to a better world through kindness. Not just to family, but to people we don't know.

I agree with you Joe, us all caring for each other and helping each other is the way forward!

I consider this primarily a scientific channel and was curious how you would tackle this topic. It was nuanced and relatively biased free, well done. 👍

Most destructive acts are performed by scared people who justify it as a lesser evil than one imagined or projected. They are using ends-justifies-the-means rationale, and they actually think it's a character strength to be able to take the "hard" actions that hurt and even kill people for some greater perceived good.

I agree with your final statement. Taking care of each other will carry us through to the best possible life a lot more effectively than destruction, jealousy and greed.

I personally think we need to spend more time away from electronic devices, more time talking to each other and much less time watching the news. On the positive side we should try to stop labs from creating diseases, people passing laws in the background that give the powerful all the power, and work on the mental health issues.

The thing that’s causing me the most anxiety right now is the fact accelerationists exist and some of them are extremely powerful billionaires who can use their power to destroy the world and not suffer from it.

“Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.” -Lucy Parsons

I'm past middle aged and it feels to me like we've been in a crisis ever since I could understand the news. It's got worse as news media has become more ubiquitous.

my socialstudies teacher in high school, taught me for 3 years, and besides the obvious clues such as appearance, my teacher never gave off ANY indication of her political stance. She properly taught us discussing the subjects, without revealing her own opinions. Wow do we need such teachers today :D

The better world is always the one in which the one describing the world gets what they want. What others want is irrelevant in their " better world"

Yeah, the "last crisis" was WW2, definitely not: - The entirety of the Cold War was not "peaceful" - Vietnam/Korean wars, let alone proxy wars - Gulf War and Middle East generally for the last 30 years The entire idea of "four turnings" just seems extremely US-centric and ignores the rest of the world, even ignores Europe except when convenient.

Yeah, "accelerating" the downfall in the hopes to get to a good era sooner is the same as cutting your own body open a few days before surgery, in the hope it's already completely healed right as you get out of surgery.

You’re right man. There’s nothing we can do to stop the way things are going without an apocalyptic conflict, so big, tiring and lasting that even the ones who started the conflict loose control of it

Joe is proudly holding on to the most 90s sounding entertainment show intro jingle

You don't need everyone to come together to fix the world. You just need to get 1/3 of the population actively engaged

The Four Turnings theory and it's timeline seems to be from a very very American point of view. I noticed quite a few major events involving the British, French and Russian Empires that were missed.

I think it is so important that you are bringing all this information to light. Thank you.

Great video, you could’ve went a little deeper with some of the talking points but you got the basics down pretty good.

I'm glad you addressed the fact that WW1 was "glossed over" because I spent a good 3-4 minutes hollering, "But what about World War 1?!?" at you. 🤣

"They looked for evidence that fit their theory. But they kinda left out any evidence that didn't fit the model." Nailed it - not just for accelerationism, but across the social sciences. I switched majors from history to international relations, and was absolutely gobsmacked by the incredibly selective use of historical fact that social sciences ranging from sociology to economics routinely engage in, while ignoring obvious, better alternative explanations that are readily available, mostly because it would ruin their tidy theoretical structure.

Awesome video! Very insightful.

Absolutely amazing video and truly original content. Good job.

Either huge amounts of money turn you into a monster, or only monsters are only able to do the things necessary to become a billionaire. There is no way to amass that kind of wealth without betraying and exploiting people.

Joe is right about the limits of this historical pattern, take it far enough into the past and it falls apart, because all social and cultural and technological facts of life are far too different from ours. But there is a problem with extending this into the future, too, and we are experiencing it right here on YT and other social media - *social media itself has fractured the human experience so much that we are no longer experiencing the world as other members of our generation do, even if they live next door!*

Well that answers the question I've been obsessing over for several years now. Thank you so very much. The worst part of watching everything going to hell in a handbasket is not being able to figure out why. At least I have a working theory now.

Informative video thank you for this.

Joe said, "It's hard to deny that were at some kind of crises point here." It's taken me getting really old to figure this out: It always looks like that. I know it's hard to believe, and I had to see it for myself. In 1963, for 3 days, the world thought we were on the brink of nuclear annihilation and held its breath (people were building underground bunkers in ordinary suburbs); the news was showing brave young men in live combat and actually getting killed every night at dinnertime (horrifying Vietnam); campus and convention riots; homegrown terrorist groups putting bombs in university buildings, government buildings, and under police cars, which killed people; young people shot on campus by National Guard troops; in the 70s, numerous airplane hijackings, murder on the tarmac; a president resigns because of corruption (1st time ever); disclosures of the military routinely falsifying reports of progress in Vietnam, which prolonged the war; more disclosures of secret military bombing that killed millions; this was followed by the collapse of trust in institutions; then another economic crises and everyone was in line to get gas; American hostages taken in Iran, more superpower threats of war; another stock market/real estate collapse in the 80s; AIDS epidemic; 9/11, two wars in the Middle East; the war against terrorism; the resurgence of Russia and then the rise of China; COVID ... I've skipped A LOT. The feeling that we are in crises was felt then, by almost everyone, in a never ending cycle of terrible problems, punctuated with a few short years of (very relative) tranquility. Then it would always start all over again. The takeway - DON'T DESPAIR! Don't fall into gloom! This is life. Stay informed and concerned, but don't lose your chances for happiness anytime you can grab some. Read some history and it will put you more at ease. It goes all the way back to ancient times, the earliest recorded history, and IT'S NEVER STOPPED. Courage is the determined effort to affirm life, despite everything. There will always be the beauty and the horror.

This reminds me of the Futurism art movement in the years before World War I. They praised action, speed, violence, progress. They believed that war was the way technology and society advances. See: Gino Severini “Armored Train In Action”, “Visual Synthesis of the Idea: War”, “Red Cross Train Passing a Village”. After seeing the horrors of war, the Futurists no longer believed that war was beneficial and the movement died. My hope is these misguided individuals can learn from history and touch grass before it is too late. 😢

I don't know if Asimov got inspired by any of this, but as your video progressed, I recall more and more the Fundation series, where a scientists (psyco-historian was the title I think) kind of predicted the fall of the Galactic Empire and took some steps to "reduce" the dark ages from 10k year to a milenia. Maybe is nothing related, but my mind go there anyway... I didn't knew any of this topic, nice video btw 😄

A great video,I've heard about this a few times over the years.

Thankyou Joe. I have been trying very hard to understand "WHY". At 70 I don't have the real possible life span to see this come about. I hope the next generations survive mine. Utopia always seems to be some goal for one group or another. It never seems truly attainable. I have always seen some people salivate on the idea of social collapse. What a way to live your life. Cheers

After nearly six decades on this rock, I tend to trust my ability to spot horseshit these days. But…what seems to be a source of relentless disappointment for me though, is the increasing desperation to grab hold of what surely can be seen as suspiciously simple answers to the obviously difficult and complex problems that we face as a society. This seems to happen with monotonous regularity and without any regard to how poorly thought out they are or how little intellectual or academic rigour has been applied to them. And that seems to fit the “Four Corners” narrative all too well.

So Howe's theory only applies to the United States? WW2 was actually not so traumatic stateside, some even credit the war effort for getting the economy out of the depression.

Joe's quote of "history is going to do what history is going to do, and all we can do is take care of each other. Call me naive if you want to, but I think that's how we get to a better world" is exactly what I've learned as well. I wrote it down on a dry erase board I keep by my door to remind myself. 🤗👍

It perfectly proves: "Just because one's rich, doesn't mean he is also very intelligent. It means he accumulated a lot of money."

I not only subscribed I rate this video of you teaching this all the subjects and the theme of the video one of the best spoking teaching vids I have saw on political matters! Great work my guy! Would love some tips on speaking in video on specified subjects! 🥇

First time viewer . I like the way you present an idea and look us in the eye and let us think about it .

You should do a video on billionaire apocalypse bunkers. Maybe explain the science behind their belief that the city’s worth of staff they would have to hire to secure them, would just let them keep being the boss after society collapses.

Man, I live in Russia and all I want is for USA people, Israel people, Iran, Rússia Paquistán, etc. and everyone on this planet to live in peace and prosperity. So God bless us all!

Accelerationism is an incredibly stupid idea. When systems break down, it's not like there's a "Game over" screen and the slate is wiped clean and everything somehow returns to a basic start over state. We just end up having to still deal with the same problems. The problems are not going away magically. The problems are intrinsic to humans and living on Earth.

Joe! That was a great job I really appreciated this video.

So... we recognize destructive societal patterns, and so we must repeat them? That's where they landed? If im someone who discovers a pattern in my behavior, let's say, binge drinking for a week, 3 days of recovery, 2 weeks of productive activities, then boredom, and back to binge drinking. Should I resign myself to the cycle? Or should I address the core problem and reset my cycle? I know this is harder to answer on a majorative and generational scale. But there are common synchronicities between generations that are almost always the same that arise in different problems. Mark Twain said, "history doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme." With that in mind, maybe not acceleration, but early diagnoses to these rhyming problems should be enacted. I know that it's much more enticing to give into familiar patterns than to forge new footholds towards progression. So I guess we're doomed to keep climbing and backsliding our way to destruction, always staying in the same goddamn place.

Joe, taking care of each other is indeed the answer. It's too bad that way too many people don't understand this.

As Carl Gustav Jung said: If you cannot understand the reason for what people do (I.e. governments and corporations) first, examine the results and potential consequences of their actions, and then you will be able to infer the motive. In other words; look at the results and consequences of what they are doing, and you will understand the why.

Great video! First time watcher. Has anyone ever told you that you kinda sound like Matt Frewer?

I think you are right when you said it's terrible people using this stuff as excuses to do terrible things. I've always felt that there are people who just want to fight. I don't think they really care who they fight. They just use whatever excuse is closest.

Believing you can do better by building something anew atop the ruins of the old world instead of trying to fix it, which is already hard, is nothing short of hubris. And while I suspect we might disagree on a lot in terms of politics (I'm extremely sceptical of government and politicians), you're doing really well keeping videos featuring political aspects respectful for the viewers regardless of their leaning. I wanted to comnend you on that.

Thank you for putting the text on screen in the right place for zoomed to fill

The important thing to realize is that the goals of the party at Davos is very different than the average person

My great-grandmother Sidlo said, "Everyone wants to save the world. A wise person keeps to the world within their reach. Their home, their garden, their neighbors, accepting all are family and a reflection of themselves. This has always outlasted any strife we face." (some editing)

I didn't know about the four turnings theory, but right away as you were describing it - it completely ignores WW1 which was in many ways worse than WW2 as you mentioned, then the growth period is commonly known as the Cold War and when it comes to the USA and the distrust to government there is the whole vietnam war issue where government knew for years it is unwinable and lied to people which certainly contributed to the distrust. It also feels that this theory tries to somehow tie to the USA history and ignores Europe, Africa and Asia...

Agreed @19:20. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better and I'm just as saddened as you are by it. Take care

Good job explaining

Zelazny wasn't the only Sci fi writer who touched on this. The original Foundation series by Isaac Azimov also touches upon this. However instead of just accelerationism, it was about how to mitigate the issues.

I think it's also important to understand how they're trying to "destroy" the world. It seems more like shake the world up violently so that the people of their choosing are destroyed. They probably haven't heard about game theory though. The mutual good always ends better than being selfish and evil.

Very well said, at the end.

Well it was good knowing you guys

19:22 "All we can do is just take care of each." That is the best quote in the video. It's funny how much smoke dissipates if you get into the habit of viewing everyone you meet or hear about as someone as interesting, valuable, and unique as yourself.

WW1 was definitely more important to world events than WW2. All of the major ongoing problems and instabilities across the globe stem from the events that lead up to WW1 and as you said, WW2 was just a reverberation from the conclusion of hostilities at the end of WW1. There is a lot more to it than those exciting, cinematic years between 1939 and 1945

Subscribed! make more content like this

Joe, I've thought about this way more than I should have probably. I've been a cop, a social worker, most all my life. What it will take is an event that strips away all the things that allow us to look at others, and differentiate. Only when we are on equal ground facing a common threat will we possibly come together. Even then I have my doubts.

"History is going to do what history is going to do and the best we can do is take care of each other" thanks man, that means a ton, love it

The problem with the colon cancer analogy is that accelerationists don't want to detect and treat it early, they want to speed up the cancer to put the patient on the brink of death as quick as possible.

This is the best time in the history of humanity to be alive. People who think it's violent and horrible are just ignorant.

This might be your best topic discussion yet. Well done; what is the opposite of a Luddite?

Thanks for this video. I hadn’t heard the term Accelerationism before. I’ve seen similar philosophies supported on some right of center forums. There is naive but unshakable believe that after society collapses that everything will magically be better. Somehow they are unable to realize that another alternative after everything collapses is a failed state, like Somalia, and that would be terrible for everyone. Somehow they are all convinced that after the collapse they (or people who share their views) will be in charge and this time they will make everything “right.” These philosophies are terribly dangerous and the people who support them are infuriating. They are unable to take to heart the aphorism of “be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.”

"History is going to do what history is going to do, all we can do is take care of each other" Well said mate

It's not a political philosophy. It's an actual philosophy of modernism that rejects post-modernism that had a very strong underground influence in the 90's and the turn of the century. It believes that we are in late capitalism and must accelerate through it in order to reach the other side with automation and socialism.

Marxists (apart from Posadists) generally reject accelerationism. We also reject reformism, but trying to push for a revolution before having the dual-power structures in place to support the working class is a terrible idea

There's something to be said about defeatists that would rather the world end than come to any sort of understanding regarding the reasons for its suffering. If you're the kind of person that would rather hit a hard reset button than learn anything-- and you only want to hit that button because you think you'll be a survivor of this cataclysm-- then you're part of the problem.

If we are arguing that we have an endless cycle of war, depression, and oppression, then shouldn’t we be trying to BREAK that cycle?! Shouldn’t we be trying to find solutions OTHER than war and oppression to solve our problems and improve our society?!

I read the Techno-Optimist Manifesto (I'll admit I didn't know it existed, or even such a thing as a "techno-optimist") and it said their enemies were not bad people but rather bad ideas, and to be honest I agreed with most of them, not all, but most

Accelerationism just doesn't roll off the tongue like Vulture Capitalism.

Things don't have to be bad for people to come together. In fact, the better we have it, the more likely we are to be accepting, tolerant, cohesive.

So the four turnings is basically the whole "Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times", but more detailed.

Thankyou, worth considering, it certainly helps with the bigger picture, it describes a few piece of the the jug-saw puzzle.

Thanks for your work

My boyfriend is building the sprinkler systems for the memorial at the tops on Jefferson. Very close to home.

Ever since I found out about Exxon's in house "long term effects of fossil fuel on the planet" report in the 60's I have wondered how the people at the very top could justify their decisions and still claim to love their children/grandchildren. I get the idea of using wealth to create a bastion to protect their family from the dirty poors, but they still need air to breathe, right?

Isn't this the reason we have James Bond? To stop evil billionaires from destroying the world with their satellite laser weapon.

The tobacco commercial was awesome. it reminded me of the early 70s with ads like “Winston’s taste good.”

Joe, I'm astonished. Even though I try to stay calm and optimistic, being 71 now, I used to believe I had a basic understanding of many historical and political facts. Lately, there's been a lot going on that feels strange and confusing. While I dismiss anything that sounds like a conspiracy theory, this idea of "acceleration" you mentioned is actually the first explanation that kind of makes sense of what's been happening. I think it's worth exploring this further.

“To the Brilliant guys - I’m sorry”. Absolutely appropriate, and thank you for calling out how awkward it was to jump to ad break after this somber episode. Thank you!!

Fyi, I worked with Bill Strauss for decades. He was a nice guy. He was a comedian. An actual performing comedian. He was a self-styled expert in several areas who literally made up everything out of whole cloth, then cherry-picked history for examples that supported it. He was a nice man, but any random person's theories are as rooted in fact, reality, or history as anything by Strauss & Howe. Along with the annoying fact that "generations" are continuous, not neatly sandwiched apart. He was a nice guy but desperately wanted to be taken seriously as an "expert." That drove his generational theory. I think that drives a lot of what ego-oriented people do.

You're okay, Joey. Thanks for the video

"Some men just want to watch the world burn'' - Alfred speaking to Batman

To me, the most ironic thing of that four turnings theory is this: if I accept this theory is true, then it means I believe this cycle is continuous and inevitable. If I try to accelerate collapse to come out on top, and actually succeed in this, then my success is ultimately futile; any future I create will eventually be rebelled against and destroyed in a crisis. If I think I can create a future that breaks this cycle, then it means I don't think this cycle is continuous or inevitable; thus, we might not actually be in a crisis point at all and my attempts to create one are futile. It's the "self-fulfilling prophecy" Joe mentioned, except my actions are (in the long run) guaranteed to fail. Or I could, simply, look at different theories or live my life differently than this...

Billionaires don't become billionaires by accident. They are very well aware of the state of world affairs and how to play the system to keep themselves on top. It doesnt really matter if generational or cyclical theories are true, only that powerful people believe they are and are acting accordingly.

“If I die, you all die” ego logic they abide by.

While ripping the proverbial band aid off and just just getting it done is frequently not a bad plan of action, usually I have a decent idea of what the outcome will be. Expediting the collapse of civilization however opens us up to a big likelihood of all of humanity experiencing massive amounts of suffering and grief. Probably not where we want to eff around and find out.