MD-21

We have begun settling in here in CDMX for the week. We are staying in an apartment in Colonia Guerrero. With 2 bedrooms and a spacious living area, it felt like a good place to get whole again. Colonia Guerrero, it turns out, is a tough part of the city, a far cry from Instagrammable Condesa and Roma Norte, and accommodating Escandon. As the apartment host noted when we arrived, "Assume it's dangerous, and you'll probably stay safe - they prefer not to bother foreigners, only because they don't want any trouble either, best not to wander around at night" - or something to that effect...

Okay. Good to know.

Our brief excursion to get some supplies the evening before confirmed where we had landed - the grocery store was thin on supplies, and the bouncer at the door was huge. As I woke up the next morning, hacking and coughing, tired and flattened, those words of caution still echoed in my head, and I wondered whether jumping on a flight to Guadalajara and then on to Vancouver might be an option! Luckily, Arif was more rested and stalwart in the morning, and we navigated our day with one phone and one set of keys, and we stocked up on some good food.

Mercado Martinez

The Mercado Martínez de la Torre is a big, sprawling food and goods market with amazing fruits and vegetables, and almost everything else. It was a blessing and hard to choose which stand to buy from, which felt like such a luxury.

Inequality.

Inequality feels more than evident here in Mexico; it feels entrenched, stratified and foundational. It is the same everywhere now, more or less visible, more or less cloaked; inequality in Vancouver, inequality in the Hamptons, too - same, same - but different.

While Arif was exploring and getting some cash for our market excursion, I read an article and a book review in the Guardian on The History and Future of Societal Collapse, by Dr. Luke Kemp at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge.

“I’m pessimistic about the future,” he says. “But I’m optimistic about people.” Kemp’s new book covers the rise and collapse of more than 400 societies over 5,000 years and took seven years to write. The lessons he has drawn are often striking: people are fundamentally egalitarian but are led to collapses by enriched, status-obsessed elites, while past collapses often improved the lives of ordinary citizens.

It was a good read, and I look forward to reading the book when it is released. Inequality is like a recursive divide that permeates the social fabric and makes it inherently weak. The historically evidenced consideration that he presents, of a future global societal collapse, due to an ever-rising inequality - and our tolerance of it - is a sobering concept. I relate to his pessimism and also to his optimism about people, though the best I can muster there is a cautious one.

I had read Kohei Saito's - Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto, and I keep reflecting on it. A Japanese philosopher who re-visited some of Marx's later writings and recontextualized our approach to capitalism and growth. It's an excellent read, and in many ways, Japan is ahead of the curve in terms of confronting the failures of capitalism's growth-at-all-costs paradigm. A canary in the coal mine, perhaps.

While reflecting on such weighty things as societal collapse, I try to keep in mind the projections of statistical population decline. There's an inevitable and major decline ahead, based on birth rate numbers. Regardless of other factors – it's just the math. It's quite the cocktail that seems to be coming together, add some climate change (have you noticed how much we've been rained on here?) and...

Shake it all up – or do you prefer it stirred?

Forces at work.

Stocking up.

For now, and all the better for considering existential risk, we are well stocked with lots of fruit and vegetables as we prepare some more good eating.

All good for recovering from colds, and for contemplating the rising tide.

My friend River (hi River!) sent me this much-needed reminder yesterday, after a consoling conversation. I thought I'd share it as well:

As always, thanks for reading and indulging!
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