Charles Hugh Smith discusses civilization’s crumbling status quo and the hydrocarbon industrial age or current world system which some view as superabundant due to technology while others question whether we’ve used up the easy energy and are facing resource constraints. He comments on cycles, empire, financialization, consumption, true wealth, how the future will go to those who can get the most out of the resources they extract, and why a new mythology and revolution in social and cultural values is needed. We’re faced with a Kafkaesque digital neofeudalism or digital gulag, one solution is reducing our dependency on their systems as much as possible.