Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Term of the day: techno-cornucopian triumphalism

Definition: The quasi-religious belief that someday someone somewhere will come along and solve one or more nasty problems facing society, and make nice profits for the oligarchs too.

For accepted usage, see The Season of the Witch, by James Howard Kunstler.
It is exceedingly odd that [Peak Oil] does not factor into [financial newsletter writer and author] Harry Dent's thinking, because what Peak Oil inescapably does is introduce the very sobering idea of discontinuity -- that is, that the game has changed radically, especially where all our assumptions about continued "growth" are concerned.

In that brief exchange on Peak Oil, Dent seemed to take the position that the "winter" part of any historical financial cycle always produced "new technology" that invariably saves the day, putting this seemingly very smart man in the camp of so many techno-cornucopian triumphalists all wishing for the same outcome: that some mythical "they" will "come up with" a set of rescue remedies to keep all the cars circulating on the freeways, and all the WalMarts groaning with swag.

Note: Dent is a Peak Oil denier.

1 comment:

Mo MoDo said...

Also known as the Scarlett O'Hara School Of Long Term Planning. Fiddle dee dee, indeed.