Collapse Now and Avoid the Rush: The Best of The Archdruid Report

by John Michael Greer

Since 2006, author John Michael Greer has been sharing his perspectives on the fate of industrial civilization and more on his weekly blog, The Archdruid Report. His writing, both highly engaging and rooted in a depth of broad scholarship, has earned him thousands of readers who want to understand the trajectory our world has taken.

Topics like energy, resource depletion, and the ideas behind some of our culture’s cherished beliefs have been explored.

Collapse Now and Avoid the Rush offers a selection of Greer’s best essays.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Ecology

245 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 27, 2015

About the author

John Michael Greer is an author of over thirty books and the blogger behind The Archdruid Report. He served as Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. His work addresses a range of subjects, including climate change, peak oil, the future of industrial society, and the occult. He also writes science fiction and fantasy. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife.

Reviews

[Strong Extraordinary Dreams · Rating 2 out of 5]

In general it's waffle

In a bit more detail
- authoritism is confused with facism, while talking about Facism
- dishonestly claims that there is no evidence for fear of tyrany, while talking about tyranny
- claims incorrectly that oil production is falling, with no awareness of production price changes
- "the last I heard it was illegal for journalists to take money for ... " - he doesn't know and doesn't check.
- Banksters, economic idiots, worthless derivatives...... et.c Ok, but I'm interested in systems and relationships

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review#2. Always return to John Michael Greer when I'm feeling a bit anxious about my life choices vis-a-vis collapse. Greer has a way of laying out the case for collapse (and what we should do about it) that replaces any anxiety with, if not exactly excitement, a certainty that I need to be living life differently. This is a collection of his old blog posts from the Archdruid report in the 2011 to 2014 time period, with bangers like a retelling of Lord of the Rings if Frodo had refused the Call to Adventure, an explanation of political polarization, and of the course the title essay, which deals with the scaling down our lifestyles now to prepare for the incoming changes.

How I'll be changing my life as a result of this book: I need to get back on the collapse prepping wagon. I don't think this looks like anything drastic: just living below my means, expanding things like my vegetable garden, reducing reliance on technologies like the internet, and maintaining my physical and mental health. I'll give periodic updates on all that over at my blog.


I've been reading Ecosophia (JMGs blog) for a while now, and this was a great way to see some of his old stuff. Really amazing analysis of the unsustainability of our current society.

[Brendan]

read half of, but, altogether dead-on

[Siddiq Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another life-changing book by one of my new favourite writers. Whereas Ophuls is scathing and Catton is unanswerable, Greer is enchanting -- naturally, since he is literally a Druid. The perspective he opens up in imaginative chapters like "The Next 10 Billion Years" and "Man, Conqueror of Nature, Dead at 408" are mind-bending in the best sense.