Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation

I must confess up front that I am a Kunstler junkie. I have read his books. I look forward every Monday to his weekly web-posting. I give this book a four star because the writing is some times klunkie and a little difficult to get through. On the other hand the book high-lights what I believe to be a serious and growing flaw in our collective thought process. In truth, we have seen so many technological miracles that it is hard to believe there is not a simple answer to every question or delema. We just have to wait for science to find it. This belief that we can solve all problems has become an almost unseen/unremarked thread holding together the fabric of our culture and society. Every new gizmo, every new treatment for disease adds to the unconscious thought that everything will be o.k.If Katrina and Sandy can teach us anything it should be that things may not always be o.k. Systems can collapse. Societies can decay. The path to the future will have potholes. The infrastructure is crumbling. The educational system is failing. More people are on food stamps than at any time in history. The percentage of the population empolyed in productive work is the smallest it's been in decades. Our health care system, while producing results far below those of many other countries, has become the most expensive in the world. Our young people have to load up a life time of debt to get a college education.Kunstler has been attempting to make us look up (away) from our lighted screens for decades. His aim is to make us see what is really going on around us while we live in our electronic worlds and move through our gated communities.For those of you who complained that this book was just a rehashing of his earlier themes (which I don't believe is the case), maybe he feels a need to rehash, becuase he sees that we still don't get it.

This is a book everyone should read. Some say that it appeals to "doomers and gloomers" Pessimists. I prefer the call them realists.Kunstler has an insight into the American character that is remarkable.

I read his Monday blog about the peak oil and the need of all this energy to run our current life style. He has valid points, and interesting suggestions, and insights on where we are headed, and preaches reduced material living while giving suggestions,but like other left wing folks considers all science and tech bad or evil, and everything from mother earth that is natural is good or pure, like smallpox that is natural too. Still a worthwhile read to see what is happening to our way of energy consumption.

Mr. Kunstler is the (bad) conscience of us all. He puts his finger on things that many of us know are true, but brush aside in our daily toil for yet another flatscreen or "device".Too Much Magic and his other nonfiction books are highly recommended, they all give us useful perspective on our lives today, but most of all - tomorrow!

I'll not go into detail beside saying that I'm a couple of years older than Mr. Kunzler and I agree with him about 100%. I remember the Oil Embargo and other oil shocks. I lost a good business during soaring interest rates. If this book scares you, it should! My best friend is an oil exploration geophysicist and he says oil is on the way out and just as this book suggests. Oh, yes, there always will be oil, for a price, and you and I won't be able to afford it. After you read this go to Dimitry Orlov's blog and read some of his observations. Decide on a craft you'd enjoy and start to get good at it. The grey cubicle and the commute is about a thing of the past. Learn to garden. Buy paper books. Study how the various Amish and Mennonites make do, it will be very handy.

Just finished the book, and I am at a loss as to why this book was written. While I enjoyed the updates on big oil and especially the section on natural gas, I found many sections of the book to be little more than pedantic rants. This is Kunstler's style on his blog, and it works there because most of the time the rants are narrowly focused, or in a few cases, wonderful pointed summaries of where things stood at that time. When these rants are repeated in book form, the reader looses focus rapidly at the bewildering barrage of banalities. I liked "The Long Emergency" and I enjoy most of Kunstler's blogs, however I could not in good conscience recommend this book to other readers.

There isn't an James Kunstler book I haven't enjoyed whether fiction or non-fiction. This is a compelling book for our times.

Must read

This is my second of Kunstler's books and I thoroughly recommend them to anyone who isn't completely bought in to the idea that economic growth and prosperity will last for ever. By the same token, it's not some prediction of impending catastrophe by a dope-addled, raving greenie who thinks we should all hug a tree and everything will be perfect.The thread running through this book is that when the oil runs out (as has already started), no amount of optimism by the Elon Musks and techno-computer nerds will keep us living in sprawling suburbs with giant shopping malls and endless power on tap. He carefully dismantles all of the blue sky arguments about renewables, coal, electric vehicles and suchlike and presents a nicely balanced view of what the options are for us all to keep going.

James Howard Kunstler is very realistic and do not listen to the economists who believe that oïl is a product like the other. He show that oïl is the basis of the prosperity of mankind and that when we shall get less, it will be a mess. And that will happen very soon. When you must invest 1 barrel to get 1 barrel, you stop the production.Immediately, the agriculture will suffer and people suffer from hunger. All the activities in the world will suffer, because we need oïl for everything.This book is easy to read, you don't need special knowledges. This book is realistic and help you to prepare you for futures dificulties if you are ready to to confront yourself with the Truth.

Un altro ottimo libro di Kunstler, con una ottima analisi dei problemi finanziari dell'America, e, di riflessi, del resto del mondo. Da leggere senz'altro.

Interesting read.

exceptional well inestigated book that everyone in UK should read - the truth is being kept from us! just read it!