A Midyear Note

“Verba volant, scripta manent.”

(Words are fleeting, but writing remains.) -Latin proverb

Nothing would please me more than for you to think that I’m an extremely smart individual with a penchant for tossing around Latin phrases, a result of my years of classical education in Latin. Not true. The fact is, my wife got me a T-shirt for Father’s Day with this legend inscribed on it, and I thought it was the perfect launchpad for this midyear check-in.

This newsletter is essentially a labor of love. I don’t charge for it; I don’t use AI to create it. In assembling it, I demonstrate a preference for the written word. Good writing wins. Writing does remain, and words are fleeting. For that reason, I’m one of the few people in the Western Hemisphere who do not have a podcast. I know that Substack prioritizes audio and video products, but after 40 years of working in the media production business, my appetite for video production is fully sated.

I lack the marketing gene, or, more precisely, I despise the commodification of the self and the output necessary to succeed in the contemporary attention economy. Some have a gift for it; I do not, in large measure because I find self-promotion repellent. For the same reason that, during my professional life, I could never embrace LinkedIn with its endless self-commodification, built-in “ick” factor, and endless humblebrag posts.

Which is why I find the fact that The Collapse Chronicle now has more than 4,000 subscribers akin to noticing your odometer has rolled over 100,000 miles without realizing it.

The growth of this is attributable to you, dear readers, coupled with a probable growth in the number of people for whom the scales have fallen from their eyes and who realize that life under late-stage capitalism can not possibly go on. Plus a relentless stubbornness to keep this thing going even when I really haven’t felt like it. The purpose of this newsletter is to survey the media landscape and assemble stories that provide a snapshot of what informed people will read, along with an implied narrative throughline as one reads the headlines.

The Collapse Chronicle is informally divided into five sections. The software I use does not permit me to use section headers, so if you’re reading headlines, the subject matter moves from stories about climate change and collapse, health, business, creeping fascism, and foreign relations and international news. I tend to give the latter subject a light touch because this is really not the venue for deep insight into foreign relations. Others are far more competent.

The Chronicle is free because I have no desire to charge for it, and because it relies on the efforts of other writers whose work I collect and republish. If you find an article particularly noteworthy, direct your subscription or contribution to them. This started as a labor of love and will remain one until I can no longer raise my wizened hands to the keyboard.

Thank your your subscriptions, your “likes,” and your occasional words of encouragement. I remain grateful.